Created byJeff Rake,Manifestreturned for its fourth season — after being untimely canceled at NBC and revived, quite like the passengers themselves, at Netflix for one final 20-episode season — two years after the death of matriarch Grace Stone (Athena Karkanis) with brother-and-sister duo Ben (Josh Dallas) and Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh) split in their priorities. As Michaela carried the weight of the passengers’ lifeboat, Ben desperately searched for his daughter Eden, who was kidnapped by Grace’s murderer Angelina (Holly Taylor). Throughout the first half of Season 4,Angelina proves herself a true villainesscapable of terrible things, blinded by what she believes to be God communicating directly with her regarding the forthcoming apocalypse. However, while Angelina may be the undeniably awful and irredeemable antagonist, there’s one character whose actions over the last three and a half seasons have proven them to be theworst, despite the series continually trying to tell us otherwise: Jared Vasquez (J.R. Ramirez).
Jared Vasquez Is Lacking Good Character in ‘Manifest’
Since the passengers of Flight 828 touched down five and a half years after their departure, it’s been very difficult to get on Jared’s side. He’s made almost nothing but bad, selfish, and off-putting decisions, especially when that involves Michaela. In the name of protecting her, he crosses lines and often makes everything about himself, as Jared has some kind of victim complex in the first two seasons of the show. But, even before everything occurred with the flight, the way Jared proposed to Michaela felt very gross and selfish. She was struggling immensely with her role in the death of her best friend Evie (Simoné Elizabeth Bart), the burden of guilt weighing her down.
Jared selfishly proposed, giving Michaela yet another life-changing event to deal with — as if trying to cope with Evie’s death and being the driver behind the wheel wasn’t enough on her shoulders. Back to the present, as Michaela is thrust back into a world that had long forgotten her with Jared pressuring her at nearly every step, she eventually begins a romance withZeke (Matt Long). Jared doesn’t handle this well, leading to numerous moments throughout the first, second, and third seasons where he tries to push Michaela to be with him again and guilt-trips her when she chooses Zeke again, and again.
RELATED:‘Manifest’ Season 4 Part 2 Finally Gets a Release Date
Jared’s Unsettling Love Life
Likewise, Jared’s romantic history isn’t exactly a sign of good character. After Michaela supposedly died aboard the flight, Jared bonded with Michaela’s other best friend Lourdes (Victoria Cartagena). Eventually, during the five years, the two were married and planned to spend their lives together. But, as we quickly learn when Michaela returns, the relationship was never real for him. As soon as Michaela shows up again, Jared is chasing her, forgetting entirely about Lourdes. They cheat on Lourdes together, which Michaela feels terrible about as she’s betraying her best friend whoisin love with Jared, but again, Jared doesn’t really care. When Michaela calls things off between them and begins her whirlwind romance with Zeke, Jared makes himself the victim again and continually tries to insert himself into their relationship. This even gets Michaela shot and Zeke thrown in jail, showcasing just how utterly selfish Jared is. His next two girlfriends are relatively unimportant, though the relationships span the entire second and third seasons.
Unsurprisingly, they are both connected to Michaela in some way, as he dates an Xer’s sister and the daughter of the Major. Lastly, inSeason 4 Part 1, Jared begins a “no strings attached” relationship with Drea (Ellen Tamaki), who is Michaela’s former NYPD partner andcurrent best friend. It’s truly weird and unsettling how he only dates people connected to Michaela, but it’s also tactless that Jared continues to date other women that he’ll never be completely involved with as he’s still hopelessly in love with Michaela.
Jared Has No Real Place in ‘Manifest’
Finally, as if his bad behavior isn’t enough to justify why he is the worst character, his role onManifesthas been rather negligible since the first season. The story of Michaela returning home to find her would-be fiancé married to her best friend was deliciously dramatic, but Jared didn’t need to stick around after Michaela called things off with him and chose Zeke. Especially after the second season, where she marries Zeke, and he survives hisdeath date. The writers haven’t known what to do with him since Lourdes left New York, but he should have definitely left — at least for a while — after Michaela got married. Instead, he’s been pushed into new romances each season as the only tactic to keep the character busy until the long-tired love triangle came back into play and proved that, once again, Jared was a terrible person dragging someone into his life while emotionally unavailable. His stories have lacked intrigue, excitement, and often relevance to everything else going on.
Now that Zeke has died, to saveCal (Ty Doran)and the world, it seems inevitable that the series will finally push Michaela and Jared back together. But, what message does it send after everything Jared has done? He has treated her terribly in the name of his undying love on far too many occasions, undermining Michaela’s choices and inserting himself into her marriage. He has pursued relationships (of some kind) with her best friends, which is frankly just weird. Jared doesn’t deserve to be “rewarded” with Michaela’s love after everything he has done, nor should his unhealthy attachment to her be validated by the writers. There’s no excuse for what Jared has done, whether he was in love or not, and that behavior should not be normalized. Plus, she chose Zeke many times, and would undoubtedly have continued to have chosen him if Zeke had lived on. They are, quite literally, not the star-crossed lovers the series tries to sell them on, which is a direct result of Jared’s terrible personality.
Every episode ofManifestis now streaming on Netflix. Season 4 Part 2 premieres on August 08, 2025.
