From the first moments of Manifest, mysteries surrounded the passengers of Flight 828. Where did the plane disappear to? How did they not age over the five years they were missing? Did they die?

Throughout the show’s first 52 episodes, there have been some reveals — with some of the most pivotal coming up in the first half of Season 4.

“I don’t know that I’d say that [the mythology is] all laid out, but I think that this block of episodes — and stumbling upon this theory of divine consciousness — is probably the biggest card turn yet,” Manifest creator Jeff Rake tells Tudum.

Here’s what we know so far.

How do sapphires come into play?

Sapphire has been a key element since Season 3, when the recovered tail fin from Flight 828 was found to be studded with it. As Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) investigates the mystery, she also learns of a sapphire-covered fragment from Noah’s Ark. Season 4 reveals a sapphire compound on Cal’s (Ty Doran) skin.

But the real turning point may be the discovery of the Omega Sapphire, a more pure — and rare — version of the stone. A person in possession of the Omega Sapphire can create “callings” at will, which could be invaluable as the 828ers try to beat their expected 2024 death date. After a shard of the Omega Sapphire is found, it’s quickly stolen by the manipulative Angelina (Holly Taylor), who uses it to summon false callings to Cal and others. By the climax of Season 4’s midseason finale, a shard of the stone is forged to her hand.

 "She’s a sneaky one that Angelina, she’s tricky,” Doran says. “As we get into the second half of Season 4, [Cal and Angelina] really become like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader — the same, but different. They are the powerful ones, they have such an intricate connection to this magic, this mythology, and everything that’s going on; they are two sides of the same coin. They’re deeply connected but on opposite ends.”

As the series ramps up its end game, the importance of sapphire in the show’s lore will “remain and grow,” Rake reveals.

“Initially, I was reluctant to make such a meal out of a tangible, precious stone,” he says. “I thought it was going to take the audience out of reality. And then, the more the writers’ room and I talked about it, we learned about how so much of ancient mythology is tied into the tangible, in actual objects, whether it be sapphire, or other precious metals in many of the great myths… I realized that it was no more unreal than many of the myths in the great world religions that billions of people subscribe to.”

With that in his back pocket, “I got over [the hesitations] and I thought, ‘Why can’t our mythological story be based, somewhat, in an actual precious stone?’” he recalls. “Specifically here, sapphire myths that we read about [inspired us to say that] if there’s a billion people out there who believe in the myth of Noah, why can’t there be a billion people watching television who can believe in the myth of the sapphire? It’s going to remain quite important all the way to the end.”

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Why did Flight 828’s black box contain audio of the callings?

Another key piece of the plane returns in Season 4: the doomed Flight 828’s black box. But the passengers are thrown when they realize that the flight recorder holds audio of the callings they’ve been receiving since they landed, five years after taking off.

“We liked the idea that the black box was the keeper, the holder of all of our callings,” Rake shares. “Obviously not a sentient being, and yet [it] bore witness to the miracle of the Manifest journey and encapsulated every one of our callings.”

Some 828ers now theorize that callings are actually memories, not premonitions — “Given all that they understand right now, it’s a very viable [guess],” Rake previously told Tudum — and that the plane spent time in the divine consciousness.

If that is true, it could make sense the black box “was the keeper of it all,” Rake allows. “It effectively memorialized every single [calling] — whether you call it a miracle or memory or a divinely infused moment. And what I like about that –– and what’s so mesmerized me as a storyteller, but also just as someone who loves to listen to a good story –– was the concept that 191 lifetimes could be contained within this one box. And each one of those callings is its own story.”

The vagueness of the callings, and their openness to interpretation, means that the 828s may have misunderstood them at times. To Rake, that deepens the show’s themes of chance and fate.

“Was it our choice, was it the divine’s choice?” he asks. “And they’re all right here contained, infinite stories, infinite opportunities, to have chosen to go left instead of right. To have done the right thing versus the wrong thing, made the right choice versus the wrong thing.”

“Maybe the divine has nothing to do with it,” he continues. “Maybe the divine is just the keeper of those opportunities. But there are choices to make. It’s our agency and every episode of Manifest is just allowing our agency to play out, and being given a second chance to make different decisions. And they’re all right there in that black box. That’s powerful.”

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Can the 828ers beat the death date?

The questions of destiny, free will and morality contained within Flight 828’s black box also fuel what is perhaps the show’s most urgent burning question. For years, the passengers have been following their callings, hoping to do enough good to survive their anticipated June 2, 2024 death date.

While they have known for years that their fate is tethered to that of their fellow passengers — a group collectively dubbed the lifeboat — and a single bad person could doom all 191 people, there’s now added pressure: The death date applies to all of humanity.

🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

As they inch closer to the prophesied date, some passengers start to wonder why the fate of humanity has ended up in their hands. Others say, “Why not?” “Michaela is going to theorize, ‘I don’t think any special reason — I think we’re 191 regular people,’ ” Rake hints. “ ‘It could have been 191 other regular people. The divine chose us as prophets because we’re representative of humanity… and that’s what makes us special: There’s nothing special about us at all.’ ”

Peter Kramer/Netflix

Series star Josh Dallas and creator Jeff Rake share a laugh while filming Season 4.

How will science versus faith play into the end of Manifest?

As things get murkier, one of the few characters who doesn’t receive callings, Olive (Luna Blaise), has showcased her own essential gift: research.

“[The writers] always knew that Olive had a storyline where they really integrated me having a power — my knowledge,” Blaise says. “My drive to figure out this. And what really helps her is also the torture that we’ve been through. I’m like, ‘No one else is going to do it; I have to be able to. I have to have the resources and I have to have the knowledge in order to solve what’s going on here.’ ”

Olive’s decidedly un-supernatural approach has already proven crucial, as she was the one to recognize the importance of Cal’s survival, as well as the power of sapphire. Her character’s scientific attitude exists in balance with Manifest’s more religious and spiritual elements — a delicate balance as the show’s endgame approaches.

“We’ve said from the very beginning that faith versus science was absolutely inherent to the Manifest journey,” Rake affirms. “We tried to make that quite clear from the very beginning that Ben — the mathematician, the cynic, the skeptic — was going to be representative of science. And that Michaela — the lapsed Catholic and yet her mother’s daughter from the very beginning, Romans 8:28 — was going to be representative of faith,” he continues, referencing the New Testament verse that the show quotes in its very first episode.

“We’ve tried very hard from the beginning to bounce back and forth like ping-pong, to make it a fair fight,” he continues. “But in truth, we’ve never really wanted science or faith to win in the end. We’ve always felt that it’s about faith and science… I think there’s enough that’s happened throughout human history that supports that notion that God is a scientist. We’ve always felt that the stories that we tell are best dramatized if things can be explained scientifically or as miracles, and that’s because we like to believe that they’re both.”

With so much investment in the show’s mysteries and meaning, Rake is also aware that not every fan theory will be proven true when the show ends in 2023.

“We made a lot of choices over these 62 episodes — [that] some people will agree with, and some people will vehemently disagree with,” Rake says. “A lot of people get really heated on social media about choices that don’t go their way. And I just hope people will watch the show and accept it holistically.”

“Just like Flight 828 was 191 people making the best choices they could, the 10 writers in the writers’ room are regular people making the best choices that we could,” he continues. “I hope we have told a story that [as a] whole, people got a lot of good out of. Even if not everything goes your way, I hope you got enough out of it that it was worth your while.”