What Episode Does Zeke Die?

When “Manifest” was canceled after Season 3, Matt Long booked a role on a pilot for another show but kept in touch with “Manifest” creator Jeff Rake in case the series could be kept alive. 

“I desperately wanted to finish telling the story,” Long told Tudum in November 2022. “I love my character so much, and to miss a moment of playing him would have broken my heart.” The other show was not picked up, and “Manfest” was rescued by Netflix, but Rake had to then break the news to Long that Zeke would be killed off in the midseason finale. “He sat me down and told me everything,” Long said. “That was hard to hear, but also I loved the way it was going to go down.”

But timelines are twisted on “Manifest,” and the rules of life and death are not simple or straightforward; the final frames of the series show Zeke alive and well, driving an airport taxi and talking with Michaela. Despite his character’s penchant for resurrection, Long made sure to perform his Season 4 death scene with a sense of finality. 

“I did not play it in a way that he had held out hope [for a revival],” he says. Because that takes away from the sacrifice of it. And, to me, it cheapens the moment if he thinks, ‘Oh, it’s not gonna be real.'”

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