The return of Manifest to NBC is finally here, and the third season of the series has a lot to pick up on after the game-changing Season 2 finale. Between the impossible discovery of the Flight 828 tailfin in the middle of the ocean, Zeke's impossible survival of his death date, and the meth heads' impossible disappearance from under the ice, there were a lot of questions that have needed answers over break. One of the biggest questions of all, however, surrounds Saanvi after the death of The Major in the Season 2 finale. How will the scientist handle the new reality that she killed somebody, and what does it mean for the third season and for Vance?
Parveen Kaur spoke with CinemaBlend about all things Manifest Season 3 ahead of the premiere, and it's already clear that Saanvi didn't have the same kind of experiences over the time jump that Ben and Michaela did. While she didn't intend to kill The Major, there's no denying that The Major would still be alive if not for Saanvi's last-ditch effort to get The Major's help at the end of Season 2. When asked how Saanvi has been processing The Major's death over the in-universe months since the end of Season 2, Kaur shared:
Well, she's not. So that's definitely contributing to her behavior and her paranoia and her stress and guilt. She kind of is moving in that space of, not really processing and it's starting to really eat away at her. She does eventually start to deal with that. So we are going to see the arc of her going through what it means for someone to have a secret like that and to have someone's blood on her hands and her carrying that, so we are going to see her work through it but the beginning she's not doing so great. She's filled with a lot of paranoia, because clearly she is just waiting for someone to show up and say, 'We know what you did.'
Saanvi didn't just kill a civilian or somebody with no ties to the big picture of what happened to the 828 survivors, but a woman with a lot of secrets and probably connections. It's no wonder that Saanvi is feeling some paranoia to go with the stress and guilt of killing The Major. That's not to say that there's no hope for Saanvi in Season 3, as Parveen Kaur noted that she'll start to deal with her mess of feelings, but it's easy to imagine that Season 3 Saanvi won't be the same Saanvi as the first two seasons, at least to start.
Of course, Saanvi killing The Major was really one of the good guys taking out somebody who had nefarious schemes in mind, so Saanvi arguably did a good thing in stopping The Major in big picture, but that's not how Saanvi is going to see the situation. She's no assassin and wouldn't be a killer if everything hadn't gone wrong on that fateful night when the vial of adrenaline smashed on the ground and sealed The Major's fate. Parveen Kaur weighed in on Saanvi's thought process on killing a "bad guy," so to speak, saying:
Saavi has no right to make a judgment call like that. If someone is doing something wrong, that should be judged by jury and trial, right? She has no right to take that into her hands, to make a decision like that even though it was an accident, so I think there's no way that someone like Saanvi would do something like that, even though it served a purpose, and she was trying to help. And stop someone from hurting other people. It wasn't her call. I think she really struggles with that.
Unfortunately, what's done is done, and Saanvi didn't exactly turn herself in for murder after killing The Major, even if she was immediately devastated and panicking at what had happened. All of the characters are facing struggles in Season 3, but Saanvi is set up to deal with hers with almost nobody in on the secret of what she did. The good news for her in Season 3 is that Saanvi will have at least one person in her corner who knows her secret: Vance. Parveen Kaur previewed what's in store for Vance and Saanvi:
Vance and Saanvi start working together and he's the only one that knows about what I've done. So she has one person in her corner that I imagine it would be so painful and so challenging keeping a secret like that from everybody in your life, and to have even just one person know the truth and know that they support you and know that they understand what has happened. And they don't judge you. It's a very meaningful relationship for Saanvi so we do get very very close and then we have a falling out and then we get close again so it's a turbulent time I think for Saanvi personally, with what she's dealing with and it also ends up being a turbulent time for Saanvi with her relationships.
Vance knowing Saanvi's secret and supporting her doesn't mean that there won't be any turbulence for their characters and their dynamic, but at least Saanvi won't be completely isolated and stewing over what she did in the Season 2 finale. Whether her guilt and the need to keep a huge secret will strain her relationships with the Stones and others on the show remains to be seen; fortunately, Manifest is officially back to deliver some answers, even if fans can be confident that there will also be new questions arising as Season 3 kicks off.
Manifest will air new episodes of Season 3 on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC beginning with the premiere on April 1, starting out a strong night of primetime followed by Law & Order: SVU at 9 p.m. and the brand new Law & Order: Organized Crime at 10 p.m. If you need to revisit the first couple seasons of Manifest for a refresher on what happened leading up to Season 3, you can find the first two seasons streaming on Hulu now. For some viewing options in addition to Manifest, be sure to check out our 2021 winter and spring premiere schedule.
