The Major on “Manifest” is actually a woman named Kathryn Fitz, played by Elizabeth Marvel. She has a PhD in psychology from Harvard, is a psychological warfare specialist, and has spent 30 years in Black Ops. By the time we meet her, not too far into the timeline of “Manifest,” she is a Major-General in the U.S. Army who takes a calculated interest in the passengers on Montego Air Flight 828 when it returns after disappearing for five and a half years.
Fitz starts researching the passengers and even abducts 11 of them, conducting psychologically torturous experiments on them in order to better understand the telepathic Calling phenomenon that the passengers are experiencing. The passengers she kidnaps are either from other countries or have no families — in other words, the ones no one will realize are missing. Fitz wants to figure out a way to weaponize the passengers’ Callings.
Cal Stone (Jack Messina), who has stronger Callings than the other 828ers and who Fitz calls the “Holy Grail” of her research, realizes what Fitz is doing, and as a result, the abducted passengers are eventually freed by Cal’s father, Ben (Josh Dallas), his aunt, Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), and others. After her experiments collapse, Fitz stays in New York in part to pose as passenger Saanvi Bahl’s (Parveen Kaur) therapist, a psychiatrist called Ellen Ragier, and gather intelligence on Saanvi’s research by getting Saanvi to tell her all about what she’s doing.
How does the Major die?
When Saanvi learns that she’s been duped by her therapist, she attempts to trick Fitz right back, but Fitz sees through her ruse and closes up shop. So when Saanvi next sees her, the Major doesn’t have to lie. Plus she’s already stolen Saanvi’s research, so Fitz tells her that Saanvi has nothing to offer her.
However, the ever-determined Saanvi finds Fitz again, and though Fitz calls her “an insect on the bottom of my shoe,” Saanvi manages to dose her with a poison that induces anaphylaxis. As Saanvi explains, now Fitz has an expiration date just like the passengers, though Fitz’s is a lot sooner. Fitz doesn’t believe that Saanvi will let her die. They struggle for the cure that Saanvi brought with her, and the syringe shatters on the ground. Before she dies, Fitz tells Saanvi that there is no cure for the Callings.
While Fitz is cold and uncaring to the passengers of Flight 828, she shows her softer side to her adult daughter, Sarah, and even to Saanvi. Although she manipulates Saanvi while posing as Ellen Ragier, she also helps her with her anxiety, plus Sarah seems to love her. When the timeline resets at the end of “Manifest,” Fitz is restored to life and seems to no longer have any interest in the passengers.