Cal Stone has been a significant character in Manifest since the first episode of the first season, and he remains absolutely integral to the plot. But he’s not the same character he once was, in more ways than one.
Manifest Season 4 properly introduces viewers to a new version of the character, with a new actor, if still the same highly significant purpose (you don’t get referred to as the Holy Grail for nothing).
Cal Stone is the son of Ben and Grace Stone. He was introduced in the show’s very first episode, played by Jack Messina, and was one of the passengers of Flight 828.
After disappearing for five years, Cal experienced several developments. His leukemia goes into remission thanks to new treatments developed during his time away, and he begins to experience Callings and psychic connections.
Cal’s connections to the Callings seem to be much stronger than anyone else’s, and he frequently draws what he sees. However, he often keeps things he sees to himself and tries to act on them alone, which has been a point of major consternation for his father.
At the end of the third season, Cal’s misguidedly sheltering Angelina led to her murdering his mother, Grace, and kidnapping his younger sister, Eden.
This only further exacerbates the problems between Cal and his father, Ben, who blames him for the incident. We have an entire article about why Ben blames Cal for Eden’s kidnapping. Here’s a quote from it:
A magically older Cal, who had disappeared after touching the plane’s tailfin, returned in time to watch his mother die. Flashbacks from Manifest Season 4 reveal Cal hid immediately after his mother’s murder and returned to the house hours later. After getting over the initial shock of seeing him looking five years older, Olive realizes that there was only one way Angelina could have gotten access to the house and makes it very clear that she blames her brother for their mother’s death and sister’s disappearance. Ben never blamed Cal directly, but he spent two years distancing himself from his son.
Towards the end of Season 3, Cal disappeared after touching the plane’s tailfin and returned five years older. Previous actor Jack Messina had been replaced by newcomer Ty Doran, and it’s Doran who embodies Cal throughout the fourth season.
There was speculation that Messina would still appear in the new season, but outside of throwbacks, all of Cal’s present-day scenes star the 25-year-old Dora, who has had some minor roles in shows such as The Blacklist and Chicago Fire but finds his biggest break here. After his debut in Season 3 and his time in Season 4, Doran is likely to considerably up his profile, especially with Netflix saving the show from cancellation.
In the first three seasons of Manifest, Cal is 14, having been born on April 9, 2002. After he disappears, he is five years older, which means Cal is 19 in Manifest Season 4.
