Manhattan Season One came to a twisted and dramatic end last night. EPs Tommy Schlamme and Sam Shaw took time to tie up some loose ends—Charlie’s job security, Glenn Babbit’s fate, and Reed Akley’s position between Frank Winter and true success. However, they left viewers with a slew of questions and possible further conspiracy theories. Now that we know WGN America has renewed the show for a second season, we have a whole list of questions we need answered upon its return.
1. What, exactly, happened to Frank?
The last we saw of Frank, he was in the back of a car with a flour sack over his head, being driven into the desert. Telling the truth to his wife (and the tape recorder in his closet) may have set him free mentally, but it resulted in him being physically bound and gagged. Can one of America’s most brilliant scientists really meet his unfortunate demise over the things he said on that tape? John Benjamin Hickey was brilliant in Manhattan’s premiere season, even garnering awards whispers. They can’t possibly replace him… can they?
2. Is Liza really crazy?
If Frank is “taken care of” for this season’s transgressions, it might be a moot point. However, so many questions involving Dr. Liza Winters were left unanswered. Viewers know Liza suffered from some sort of mental breakdown in the past, but had it actually reared its head, again, during her radiation scare? It seems almost impossible to believe that someone could have come in to the Winters’ home and switched radiation meters while Liza was out burning sheets, but an entirely “clean” reading from their beds also seems doubtful. The conspiracy is infuriating, but even more maddening is not knowing Frank’s part in the bait and switch. Did he pull out the bottle of antipsychotics while fully aware that Liza wasn’t actually having a breakdown?
3. Who exactly was Meeks meeting in that bar?
Ugh. Meeks’ trip to his mother’s funeral wasn’t the sham you wanted it to be, was it? Raise your hand if you thought Meeks was going to head to California to visit Sid Liao’s wife. Instead, Meeks turned up at a bar where he proceeded to sit near a stranger, and tell him that the scientists were now focusing entirely on the Implosion bomb.
4. What’s with Abby’s stomach issues?
Girlfriend spent a lot of time worshipping the porcelain god during the finale. At first, it made sense, given the amount of stress she was under. At the very end of the episode, though, she looked over at her son and then down at her stomach while rubbing it. Classic TV foreshadowing for a pregnancy!
5. What about the Isaacs’ marriage?
First, Abby asked for a divorce and, then Charlie demanded she go home in order to stay safe from the paranoia at Los Alamos. It seems the competition is over (for now) and everything is on more solid ground, so will their marriage heal itself? Or could a possible baby act as a shabby glue job for their broken relationship?
6. And what’s ahead for Helen?
Helen and Charlie are like the El Camino: cool in concept, terrible in reality. From celebratory kisses to escapist sleepovers, one way or another, Helen and Charlie continue to find themselves in each other’s arms. With Paul Crosley no longer in the picture, and Abby potentially staying put, where will the second season find these lovers?
7. Will Callie stay, even if her parents leave?
This might seem like a crazy question, given how hell-bent Callie was on fleeing from New Mexico at the beginning of the season. Now that she’s in a relationship with the soldier who killed Sid, will she still be gung-ho for PCSing from Los Alamos? If her father is murdered (seems likely), and her mother is sent packing, she could marry her boyfriend and stay put. But, will she?
8. Can Fritz lock in his lady friend?
Still not entirely clear on what kind of relationship Jeannie thinks she has with Fritz? You’re not the only one. In the finale, the dorkiest of the implosion team was sure he could afford a ring, and save his favorite girl from continuing to sell herself to the rest of the guys at Manhattan. Will she be as keen on that idea as he hopes? We’ve already seen one proposal go awry.
9. Will we ever find a likable side to Occam?
As hard as it is to see Richard Schiff as anyone other than The West Wing’s Toby Ziegler, he’s playing a very different character this time around. Occam is menacing and conniving, willing to do anything to weed out possible atomic spies. Is there a more despicable character on television right now? And yet, because it’s Schiff, we long for a reason to love him. Will we ever find one? (Probably not.)
10. What about Little Boy?
Manhattan Season One took us through the demise of the first iteration of the atomic bomb, Thin Man, but the nuclear race isn’t over. History tells us that Winter’s implosion bomb, Fat Man, is actually the second bomb we dropped during warfare. The first bomb was dropped three days earlier and was called Little Boy. It had some basic similarities to the bomb Akley was working on, but there were significant differences. What will happen to make the resident scientists in Los Alamos reopen the gun model of Akley’s bomb? We have about a year of waiting, before we find out.
If you didn’t catch the first season of Manhattan, the entire series is available on Hulu. Capable of creating wry laughter even with a stomach in knots, Shaw and Schlamme produced an absolute masterpiece for WGN America, and the sophomore season only promises to improve exponentially.