When Season 3 of Manifest ended, Jared (J.R. Ramirez) made a grand gesture to his ex, Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh): He would have objected to the nuptials if he knew Zeke (Matt Long) would survive his expected death date.
But a few years removed from his confession — and Michaela and Zeke are still happily together — Jared is, well, thriving.
“I really enjoyed where we picked up,” Ramirez tells Tudum. “This has been my favorite Jared so far, to be honest with you. He took some time to really reflect [on]everything that has happened in his life, and there's a sense of lightness to him this year. The audience hasn’t seen Jared in this light before.”
Part of that new state of mind has to do with Jared being at peace regarding his role in the love triangle. “The back and forth that they’ve had between this triangle could have been played very differently,” Ramirez says. “There’s a reason why you pull for both Jared and Zeke: At the end of the day, what they want is the same thing — they want this woman to be happy, feel loved and they’ll do anything for her… There’s an understanding between both of them that the writers put in this season I think the audience is going to really connect with.”
Professionally, Jared had a bit of a hiccup — he was demoted by the NYPD — but he’s even taking that in stride, continuing his side project of helping 828ers behind his new partner’s back.
“The writers gave me a lot of fun little nuances to play with that I haven’t done before, which was really cool,” Ramirez says. “Jared, at the end of the day, will continuously put his life on the line for this family. He’ll do anything for the Stones. [But] this is the year of reflection for Jared. I think that has a lot to do with why he’s going with the flow a little bit differently this year. There’s not that hard edge that he’s always had.”
One of the unexpected things? His situationship with Drea (Ellen Tamaki). “First off, I love Ellen to death,” Ramirez gushes. “She is such a sweetheart and she’s so fun to play with. We’ve become really close friends. I really enjoyed the complexities of what is happening with Drea.”
“They have this really fun banter back and forth, which, with everything that’s happening in the heaviness of the show, there’s a lightness to this witty banter that they’ve written with I really, really enjoyed,” he continues. “I didn’t really get too much with Mick [Michaela] and Jared… He’s always been trying to protect her and have her back, and she’s always kind of been pushing him away; there’s always been this push and pull with them. Whereas with Jared and Drea there’s this really fun dynamic.”
With Jared and Drea both working at the 828 registry by the end of Season 4’s first half, Ramirez hints they have a big role in what’s to come. “They are really a very important part of what is happening with this massive death date,” Ramirez teases.
If the characters manage to survive their apparent 2024 death date, Ramirez has a few ideas for what Jared might be up to in the future.
“Honestly, I feel like because he’s done so much different work — being undercover, working as a detective, now immersing himself in this registry — I could see him totally joining up with Vance and going off,” Ramirez says. “At the end of the day, Jared wants the best for these people. He loves helping people he loves. So I do think he would continue down some sort of law enforcement [path], probably having something to do with helping out these passengers. I can totally see him [having] a little spin-off with Vance, working in some sort of special task force.”
