The Ship That Was Endgame Since the Beginning (confirmed)
Narratively, Michaela and Zeke were always meant to find each other and be together.
Narratively, Jared and Mick were not meant to be.
From the very beginning – S01E01.
(Edit: The show’s creator, Jeff Rake, said this was always the ending, “just tightened up along the way.” You got that? Zekaela were planned since long before Matt Long got the role as Zeke – Matt said that his first phone call with Jeff in 2018 after getting the role was himself being told that Zekaela were soulmates! LMAO 😂 I didn’t need this double confirmation in order to know that, because in hindsight, the clues were there from the way everything led to them and when looking at their first two episodes together.)
The offscreen event that led to Mick being in a bad place mentally/emotionally (her BFF Evie’s death) had also led to her hesitation of Jared’s proposal, which led to her getting on Flight 828 because she didn’t wanna have to deal with that and her family pressuring her to accept. (“It’s not just about you. This family needs something to celebrate” / “And I know you love Jared” / “Why are you fighting this when all it’s gonna do is make you happy?”)
It was a domino effect. The plane disappearing led to Jared marrying Mick’s other BFF, Lourdes, four years later, and the plane reappeared a year after that.
Mick became the other woman in that marriage, which she deeply regretted; and she not only destroyed her now-ex BFF’s marriage, but also lost another lifelong friendship on top of being too wrought with guilt over Evie (which she forgives herself for in the final season). Jared didn’t really show any remorse, but Mick now had all of that weighing her down and didn’t want to continue with him. And Jared certainly didn’t make it easy on her.
Really, these two were not right for each other. Not to mention, Jared unnecessarily stirred up trouble and a lot of stress for Mick due to his possessiveness over her, and his immediate jealousy and rather extreme hostility towards Zeke upon first meeting. Very toxic. Just gross. Not right.
I think it’s important to remember, too, the original series order was 13 episodes – the “find her” Calling was in the tenth episode, Zeke appears in the twelfth episode, and the thirteenth ended with him and Mick in front of the petroglyph of two stick figures holding hands, outside under the stars.
Those episodes would’ve been written in cohesion with the preceding storylines, especially considering the nature of the show and its mythology needing to be mapped out instead of written on the spot – meaning that Zekaela was not shoehorned into the show. Keyword, “cohesion.”
Those episodes and the character would’ve been written long before the actor was even cast into the role. It was always planned.
Their soulmatism was sprinkled all over their story, starting in their first two episodes together.
“It’s all connected,” didn’t you know? 😉
The show’s been consistent about that.
Look at the acting choices in Season 1 from before Zeke’s introduction. In multiple scenes, Jared told Mick they were supposed to be together and she’d shake her head ‘no.’ Like her heart knew, but she consciously didn’t yet. When Jared told her she’s his soulmate, Mick said, “No, I’m not.”
Narratively, her heart always belonged elsewhere. After she met Zeke, she always chose him over Jared from that point onward. Everything that happened led her to him, including her conscious choices post-Pilot and pre-Vanishing Point, which basically worked in tandem with the universe. The cheating/ruining BFF’s marriage/losing her BFF was a major deciding factor for her in not getting back with Jared anytime soon … and then she finally meets Zeke whom the universe had also brought forward in time.
So, I want to put my thoughts to some of the things I’ve read by antis…
- “The only thing Zeke and Mick had in common were the Callings”
That’s not true. You had to have watched the show with your eyes closed to come up with that.
A Calling brought them together, sure, but it didn’t make them connect and fall in love, or be happier around one another. A Calling isn’t a love potion or a magic spell.
Zekaela was a pretty peaceful relationship in a sea of turmoil (the government, the X-ers, the hatred and violence against 828ers), whereas Jachaela was an angsty teen drama amidst the external turmoil. 😶
I’m going to quote a character from a different story who chose his wife over someone else he had feelings with, because I think it applies very much with Mick choosing Zeke over and over again every single time. “Passion is … it’s fire. And fire is great, man. But we’re made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive. My family was my water. I picked water. I’ll pick water every time.” And I’ll add another quote from the same character talking about his wife and what it was like in meeting her, replacing the name with Mick’s because it is very much in alignment with Zekaela’s story. “But when I met [Mick], it was something different altogether. She just … made the world make sense to me. She even made me like myself more. And there was a calmness to her that … nobody else had. It felt like when I was with her, I knew everything would be fine. It was like I was following the North Star.”
Mick being Zeke’s North Star is literally canon, by the way.
- “The only reason why Zeke and Mick got together was due to the time travel and the Callings”
Yeah, that’s how storytelling works.
Crying about this is like complaining that the only reason the Doctor regenerates is because he’s an alien from Gallifrey and the Doctor Who writers in 1966 came up with a way to replace the leading actor without getting rid of the main character. Or rather, it’s like complaining that the only reason Mary Margaret and David fell in love despite the Dark Curse amnesia is because they were Snow White and Charming in the Enchanted Forest.
Trying to belittle Mick and Zeke’s love by attacking the narrative, that’s pathetic.
No, it’s not. The little things the writers added years later, like Afterlife!Zeke telling Mick about them having moments in their lives where they almost met, is not forced, because the audience (who don’t have blinders on during their story) already knew they were soulmates and it’s literally how storytelling works.
Heaven forbid TV writers foreshadow, expand, and give callbacks to scenes from previous seasons ever again! Heaven forbid we ever get flashbacks in later seasons! Heaven forbid you ever watch another TV show with more than 1 season because “they added this years later, so it’s forced”!
- “But Mick and Jared knew each other the longest”
So? That doesn’t matter. Do you actually believe length is an indicator of whether or not someone is the love of your life? Just…wow! Heaven forbid anybody not get back together with an ex simply because they knew them longer. Heaven forbid anybody leave behind a former or current longterm relationship without getting told, “But it’s been years, so you belong with him forever/were meant to be with him.”
Mick wanted Zeke. She chose Zeke. I think that’s a good indicator of whom the love of her life is.
In S01E13, Mick tells him that she wished she could redo her re-entry into 2018 but wasn’t sure what she would’ve done to change the way her situation at home turned out.
In S02E01, Zeke tells Mick he wished he’d met her some other way in some other time. (Edit: With Jeff implicitly saying he always knew how he wanted the story to end, and explicitly confirming that Zekaela was always the plan from the very beginning, along with Matt implicitly saying they were written as soulmates since before he got the role, Zeke’s line is now major foreshadowing).
In S04E19, Mick tells Ben she doesn’t regret taking a later flight because it led her to Zeke.
It’s very telling. Ben’s heart belongs with Grace, and Mick’s heart belongs with Zeke.
- “She would’ve married Jared if Flight 828 landed in its proper timeline in the Pilot episode”
There’d be no show to watch if the plane landed in 2013, for one thing.
Those 5 years gave Mick an experience where she learned what and whom she really wanted, without the enormous pressure of immediately accepting a proposal, and she also got the opportunity to meet her real soulmate. It’s okay to not want the same thing you wanted a few years ago. It’s called growth.
- “Mick only stayed married to Zeke, after he survived his Death Date, out of pity and duty (because he survived, and she expected him to die)”
I remember seeing a remark like this, and you must dislike or hate Mick if you think she’s like that. Even as a joke, that’s just cruel.
Mick was so happy and relieved when Zeke survived his Death Date. She loves Zeke, or did you just close your eyes to their whole love story?
She told him she’d continue to choose him even if he had one day left, or ten thousand left. And with or without empath powers, Zeke knew she loved him too.
- “But she still had feelings for Jared”
Okay, and? Even if the situation were reverse, she’d also still have feelings for Zeke. It works both ways.
And as Mick told him, she chose him instead of Jared. Sure, she loved Jared, but as Zeke told Mick in S04E02, her huge heart has room enough for anyone who’s lucky to be loved by her. Loving Zeke doesn’t mean she has to stop loving anyone else in her life. Love isn’t limited.
It’s canon that the only way she could choose Jared is if Zeke is dead. He didn’t look happy at all when he saw Zeke survived.
Just because you love someone doesn’t mean they’re the one for you. She chose Zeke.
- “The writers only made Drea pregnant to put her and Jared together”
Do I need to be petty and remind y’all that pregnancy happens when two people regularly have sex, and protection isn’t always a 100% guarantee? 😶
Jared and Drea match really well, that was quite clear when they first got together. Their relationship grew organically. Just take off your blinders. Even Mick could see that Drea is perfect for him.
It helped Mick to see that Jared was compromising his happiness by being with her. She didn’t want children, and she was confronted with the fact that they could never have a full life together, not without compromising her vision for her own life.
By the way, that breakup post-reset was made before she remembered Zeke telling her about one of their almost-meetups where he was a cab driver at the airport on the night Flight 828 was supposed to land. So, it was fully her choice to end things with Jared going forward and starting anew; Zeke didn’t even need to be alive for her to choose that for herself. But she was so happy when she remembered. If you truly like the character, her choice makes complete sense narratively and character-wise.
- “But Jared and Mick have more chemistry”
If arguing and fighting is chemistry, then yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I do think JR and Melissa have chemistry outside of angst and volatile tension, but if you think “more chemistry” is a reason why a fictional couple should be endgame, you have a juvenile view of an adult romance. This ain’t a teen drama. So, congrats, what a way to reveal you don’t care about the story or a cohesive narrative! 👀
Zekaela have a calmer romantic chemistry, and their sweet love story is so much better than Jachaela’s constant tension-filled drama where Jared put on tantrums when she wouldn’t give in to him. Their story up until Season 4 was volatile in a bad way, which only went away when Jared stopped chasing after her and let her live peacefully married to Zeke. I’m glad his character got better, thank goodness!
And don’t even get me started with “We won in real-life because JR (Jared) and Melissa (Mick) are together,” because we’re here for the TV show, not real-life. It’s entertainment, so chill out.
I think that 2013-Jared calling off his proposal to Mick, because it was for the wrong reason (“to help you get past [Evie’s death]”), isn’t forced/lazy writing.
Consider for a minute that, in 2013, he’s not the character you were introduced to in Season 1 (the now-former 2018 timeline). He’s not unhealthily obsessed with her like the Joker is with Batman, or Eobard Thawne is with The Flash. And he never got the trauma from losing someone in a perceived airplane accident. As for his breakup, he got time to think, and ultimately he didn’t want to take advantage of her in a vulnerable state.
And consider for a moment, at the time, 2013-Mick was grieving and didn’t believe she deserved happiness – and it’s been a year since Evie’s death. I don’t imagine there were many smiles and laughter for the past year in their relationship, meaning it was dying. So, Jared not being heartbroken over 2024-Mick’s breakup kinda makes sense.
To him, Mick broke up with him because she wasn’t gonna heal any time soon, and wanted him to move on with someone who can give him what she can’t.
But to her, Mick grew in those 5 years since getting on Flight 828 the first time, and the life she thought she wanted back then isn’t the same anymore (and that’s okay, we’re not the same person we were half a decade ago) and she got to meet the real love of her life whom she can be with now. Zeke.
I don’t believe love is a choice, because you can’t force yourself to love or not to love someone. But I believe happiness is a choice, you can choose to walk towards it or away from it. Mick walked towards happiness by choosing Zeke. It’s really beautiful.
Credit for most of the Manifest screenshots and tweets go to @gracestone
