The role of the government’s secret Eureka project grows more important each week on Manifest and could result in resurrecting The Major (Elizabeth Marvel), one of the greatest nemeses of Flight 828’s passengers. For the first two seasons of the show, The Major served as a master manipulator, tormenting, and experimenting on 828 passengers. Chief among her victims was a confused and vulnerable Saanvi (Parveen Kaur). Not only did The Major prey on her insecurities, but she ultimately stole Saanvi’s research on the DNA marker shared by the 828 passengers to weaponize the genetic mutations.
In a desperate attempt to escape the constant threats, Saanvi accidentally killed The Major in the Manifest season 2 finale. She turned to Vance for help, who helped the young scientist cover up her crime. Unfortunately, details of The Major’s nefarious plans and anything else her unorthodox experiments on the passengers of 828 uncovered died with her. With The Major gone, the government appears to have changed its position on Flight 828, choosing now to work with the passengers to discover what happened to them, rather than terrorizing and threatening them. The information she gathered could contain the key to solving the 828 mystery.
Making the decision to step in as the head of Eureka put Vance in the best position he’s ever been in to help the passengers of Flight 828. His team most recently discovered scientific evidence that seems to support Ben Stone’s (Josh Dallas) resurrection theory. While being part of something that incredible may be important to him, Vance is also a realist who knows he’s going to have to make tough decisions that could put the passengers in even more danger.
Vance’s biggest mission may be convincing Saanvi to go along with the plan to use the new research to experiment on resurrecting The Major to learn all her 828 secrets. Her role in The Major’s death continues to haunt Saanvi so it would be almost cruel to ask her to participate in an experiment to try to bring the woman back to life. Attempting to resurrect The Major in Manifest season 3 would place Saanvi in the position of inflicting on The Major the same type of experiments that her tormentor wielded against her and her fellow passengers. Vance could also fall back on his NSA training and blackmail her into cooperating by threatening to expose their shared coverup.
Whatever Vance was considering, his timetable will be accelerated by Jared’s (J.R. Ramirez) missing persons investigation. Now Vance must decide if resurrecting The Major is worth more lies to the police, or does he bring Jared into the circle of those that would know? Bringing Jared into the circle and forcing him to lie to not only his superiors but also to the concerned daughter of The Major would just be a repeat of the same storyline the show has had for the detective. Vance needs to weigh what serves the greater good, getting information that could possibly aid in helping the passengers of Flight 828 regardless of the clandestine methods The Major used to obtain it or continuing to cover up Saanvi’s role in The Major’s death. Ultimately, although he may threaten to expose her, Vance will protect Saanvi because he needs her expertise, even if it means derailing a police investigation.
There are definite pros and cons to bringing The Major back to life. By using unorthodox methods through his role at Eureka, Vance may uncover vital information about Flight 828 passengers by unlocking the secrets The Major carried the day she died. There is also the danger of bringing this dangerous and powerful woman back into the world and into the lives of the very people she tormented and took advantage of for her own unsavory purposes. Going against her before almost cost the NSA’s Robert Vance his life. If they bring her back to life, Vance and Saanvi will likely face the ethical dilemma of ending The Major’s life all over again in Manifest season 3.
