'Manifest' Monday Night Preview Teases Secret Connections

Manifest returns with a new episode on NBC Monday, and it promises to dive deeper into the central mystery of the series as we learn more about the effects of the flight on young Cal Stone.

In the brief preview for "Connecting Flights," Ben Stone (Josh Dallas) learns more about the mysterious powers his son Cal (Jack Messina) now has since they arrived home. Cal sees things before they happened and leads his father and aunt Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh) to a secret underground room where the connections between the passengers are all mapped out.

Manifest centers on the passengers of Montego Air Flight 828 from Jamaica to New York City. The flight was supposed to take off and land in 2013, but when it arrived, it was already 2018. It made little sense to the passengers, since they only experienced a little turbulence during their flight.

However, we know something else happened to the plane. Soon, the passengers discovered they have unexplained connections. In the pilot, Michaela even learned she had a mysterious power she could use to solve crimes while on the job as a police officer.

The Jeff Rake-created show mostly focuses on Ben and Michaela's family, which also includes Athena Karkanis as Ben's wife Grace, and Luna Blaise as Cal's twin sister Olive. J.R. Ramirez also stars as Jared Vasquez, who Michaela was supposed to marry before the disappearance. When she gets home, she finds out that Jared has married her best friend.

The cast also includes Parveen Kaur, Frank Deal, Curtiss Cook, Rich Topol, Julienne Hanzelka, Daryl Edwards, Alfredo Narcisco and Mugga.

Ben and Michaela's relationship is central to the show, since the two have different interpretations for what happened. Ben thinks there is a scientific answer to the event, but Michaela is more open minded.

"I was raised in a Christian household, and I've had my Michaela moments of walking away from the church and questioning everything. Over the course of the series, so many things happen that you can't help but wonder where it's all coming from," Melissa Roxburgh said of her character in a Collider interview. "For Michaela, the thing that makes sense is the way that she was raised and it being God, and I can relate to that."

Manifest has been a big hit for NBC so far, holding down the Monday night timeslot after The Voice. It debuted to 10.4 million viewers late last month. The past two weeks have had about 7.4 million viewers. Last week, NBC gave the show a full-season order, bringing its episode count to 16 for its freshman season.

New episodes of Manifest air Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo credit: Craig Blankenhorn/NBC/Warner Brothers