13 Divine Manifest Questions as Things Get Biblical and Ben Goes Off the Deep End

For the second week in a row, "Manifest" doubled up on new installments, giving us twice as much to mull over. Thankfully, it shifts back to one hour next week, because we're not even sure a week is enough time to process this information overload.

Thankfully, we did get a significant answer this week, as a new discovery surfaced from the bottom of the ocean shed light on why we've been seeing peacocks in visions since the beginning. Of course, the artifact itself raised plenty more questions on its own.

With two episodes, we got what might be considered an all-meat episode in the first hour, with photographic-memory Passenger Eagan making a surprisingly sinister return after a particularly powerful Calling.

It's interesting that we've all but abandoned such pivotal figures as Adrian (the Church of the Returned), but suddenly these new Passengers are emerging to take on central roles in the ongoing saga. At least Adrian got a shout-out, but we kind of wonder what he's been up to.

Of course, if Ben the obsessed holds to his new theory that every Passenger is now linked on the same Lifeboat and all must follow every Calling or none will survive their Death Date, we imagine we'll find out sooner rather than later.

Whether it's before Ben's inevitable mental break if he obsesses to this level remains to be seen. Seriously, the dude has always been controlling and headstrong and reckless and kind of stupid at times, but he's achieving new levels of dangerously compulsive behavior.

Well, a super-sized night of "Manifest" means super-sized questions, so we'd better see get to it and see what all we don't know ... boy is that a lot!

If this new Lifeboat theory is correct, then aren't all the Passengers already doomed if Saanvi altered herself so she no longer experiences Callings? She'd already theorized she may be doomed to death, which is why she's so obsessed with finding a scientific way around her Death Date, but if they're all tied together on this singular Lifeboat like the "Meth Heads" were, then it doesn't matter. She might have already blown it for everyone.

This, of course, will be a looming question for quite awhile. Eureka was once under the Major's control, and it looks like Vance is emerging as more and more of a Major-like figure, hoarding the information even from Passengers. But why did this particular Calling reach so many of them? And why did their hands glow when they decided to join forces with Eagan and kidnap Ben? That doesn't seem like very Godlike behavior. Did Michaela's hands glow because she was supposed to stop the kidnappers or help them?

Eagan made it very clear to Ben that he's been doing his part, following every Calling that's come his way, but he also said he's been skimming off the top, so to speak. Does that little bit of self-serving behavior -- Zeke gave Cal a nice message about abusing their powers in this way -- negate the good he's doing by following them? Is he dooming all the Passengers already? For that matter, we know some Passengers have already not followed Callings, so is it too late, or is this a case of what have you done for me lately?

Why would disparate pieces of passengers and returned objects come back with the building blocks of sapphire? What's the significance of this precious gem? And why only come back with one element or the other, instead of the whole thing? Is it indicative that they are all separate pieces of one whole? Just as the elements must combine to form sapphire, must the returned people and objects combine to form ... what? Are returned objects as important as people?

Look, not all of our questions are deep thinkers. She made it perfectly clear that she doesn't use the email and hasn't in years and no one has sent an email to it in years, either. So why would she even be logged into it for a new message to pop up like that on her computer? Does she stay logged into every account she's ever created for anything?

What ever happened to this Lifeboat and everyone being in this together. And it's not just Ben shutting out Michaela as he goes deeper and deeper into his own obsessive madness, it's Saanvi shutting out Ben and further divides happening within just the 828 Passengers we know. Why would they start fracturing just as they realize how intricately tied their fates are? Dramatic effect, or is it some sort of challenge they're supposed to overcome?

A perfect example of this is Ben threatening Eagan right after bailing him out. This was an opportunity to bring Eagan in and strengthen that connection. Plus, Eagan is someone you'd want to keep close, as he can't exactly be trusted. He did kidnap Ben, after all, because he didn't trust him. Rather than try to build that trust, Ben decides to threaten and intimidate him, because Ben thinks he can and should do all of it himself. But now, he's pissed off a Passenger who has 828ers in his pocket (what are they up to, anyway?) and sent him off, thinking Eagan is still going to be eager to behave and follow Ben's orders that he doesn't even necessarily agree with. Ben's people skills suck!

The big reveal of the night was that the piece of driftwood that was knocked loose via seismic activity at the ocean's floor was not only 6,000 years old, but is possibly a piece of Noah's Ark. There are trace peacock elements on it, as well as sapphire elements. That suggests the peacock might be a returnee? And if so, could the entirety of Noah's Ark be like Flight 828, something that disappeared for a period of time and then returned -- maybe the time it took to flood the earth and wipe out all life? If so, what does that mean about the purpose of an entire plane disappearing this time? Certainly no one was wiped out while they were gone.

Ben and Michaela's second episode adventure saving two sisters -- one of them a Passenger -- from the same abusive man was triggered by Ben seeing the Passenger sister's picture light up in flames in Eureka (Vance's government facility studying Flight 828). But he saw 14 or 15 pictures light up, so why was this one the only one that mattered? Are the others coming up soon to be addressed, or was saving Rachel enough to affect those other Passengers? How are they connected, other than the flight itself? Are any of them Eagan's recruits?

Ben is one of our inroads to the craziness of this story, but we're starting to wonder if he's becoming more of a problem. He's always been a problem, for the reasons we mentioned above, causing just about as many problems with his reckless stubbornness as he fixes with his ability to make connections. Now, though, he seems to be genuinely entering a territory of possible mental illness with his behaviors. He seems to have no self-control, and now that he's started threatening possible allies, shutting out existing allies and being shut out by allies (Saanvi), he's in a precarious position for everyone. Dude needs to figure out how to slow down for a minute and breathe.

Zeke just spoke to Cal about not abusing their powers, and then his new empathic Shimmer power triggers when Michaela talks about Jared dating Sarah. We still don't know if the fact she's the Major's daughter suggests there's more to that storyline, but it's apparently going to play a personal factor in Zeke and Michaela's marriage. But why would his power give him this insight? What determines when he Shimmers and when he doesn't? Also, does this make him some sort of prophet, ahead of everyone else? He's the first and only survivor of the Death Date that we know of, with a unique new ability. If it's all becoming very Biblical in what's behind all of this, what does that make Zeke, and how does he then relate to the Passengers?

We thought it a little weird how quickly Angelina and Pete were suddenly so deeply in love, but this week, things took an even weirder turn. Angelina showed great prowess in getting baby Eden to stop crying, but some sinister music and her reactions to the Stones telling her she's like family have us wondering if she's a little more unhinged than we thought. Certainly, that closing scene of her trying on Olive's dress and quoting Grace saying she's like family was presented like some horror movie scene. Is she going to try and replace Olive? Is she a threat to the family in some way? Were her parents right about her? She's a Passenger, so they need her, but what if she turns out to be truly crazy and a threat?

Is it just a reference to Mount Ararat, the dormant volcano near Turkey that's believed to be the final resting place of the Ark? Is it going to come back to life, as the Passengers did? Is that the seismic activity that released the driftwood? Or is it more symbolic of the growing danger of Eureka once Saanvi agreed to cut Ben out, effectively cutting out the rest of the Passengers to what they're discovering. The smoke/cloud Calling so many of them experienced could easily be the cloud of smoke that emerges from a volcano, with the Eureka base at the root of it. It could be a threat to all Passengers, or about to become one. With the plane there, it's certainly a centerpiece for their story ... especially if returned objects are just as important as people. Certainly the tailfin has disappeared and lights up with Ben's handprint, so there is a physical connection between the plane artifact itself and the Passengers.

We're sure next Thursday's episode of "Manifest," at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, will answer virtually none of these questions, while raising a dozen or so more of them.