Saanvi Bahl

**Saanvi Bahl** is a character on *Manifest*. She debuts in the first episode of the first season and is portrayed by starring cast member Parveen Kaur.

## Biography

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### Before Flight 828

Saanvi Bahl is a medical researcher living with her two parents after being unable to take care of her own home while she was developing a treatment for leukemia. ("Pilot", "Off Radar")

She is in a relationship with a woman named Dr. Alex Bates, and is supposed to go to Jamaica with her but Alex doesn't arrive for the flight. Saanvi calls and texts Alex frantically and as the plane is boarding its final passengers, Alex finally replies to Saanvi's numerous messages saying "I'm sorry. I can't.". Saanvi is devastated by this, but it's too late for her to disembark the plane so she goes to Jamaica, alone. ("False Horizon")

### During Flight 828

On Flight 828 Saanvi's laptop containing her research is knocked over by the turbulence, breaking it. ("Pilot")

### After Flight 828

Saanvi comes back five and a half-years later to see that her research has saved many cancer patients, and also approves Cal to be treated. Soon after she returns to work, she begins to experience the Callings that all of the other passengers have been facing since their return. She also begins suffering from the reality of the people who are "Anti-828", or those who think they are aliens or terrorists who have come back from the dead to invade them. ("Pilot", "Cleared for Approach")

Shortly after, Saanvi, like all the other passengers, feels attracted to the plane and when the Stone siblings arrive, the vehicle explodes. Passengers are obviously detained for questioning. Soon after, Saanvi recognizing the surname meets Ben and Michaela Stone, Cal's father and aunt. Soon after, Ben and his wife Grace, took Cal to the hospital for Saanvi to visit. The next day while he was with Cal at the hospital, Ben confided to her what he was hearing about the music in his head. Saanvi replied that it hadn't happened to her, but that he had heard things anyway.

In her research, she discovers a blood marker in Cal's blood and later discovers that she has it too. She theorizes that this is the reason for their callings and begins to further research it. Amidst her research, Grace becomes pregnant with Ben's baby and begins receiving callings, which also sparks interest in transferring the DNA mutation. She attempts to remove the mutation from herself, under the assumption it would also void the death date. However, her research on transference is sought out by The Major who wants to use it as a weapon. When she discovers the Major has been spying on her she plants decoys to throw her off, and continues her research at home, but the Major discovers that she has been lying and steals all of the research.

Despite this, Saanvi keeps experimenting with 'cures' on herself, resulting in her being able to remove the gene mutation/blood marker that she has had since returning from the flight. After a fire at a nightclub, Zeke is receiving treatment for his burned hands, when Saanvi notices that his burns are actually frost bite. They realize that what happened to Griffin is happening to Zeke (he is starting to die from his wounds from the cave, as his death date is approaching in 6 months time). Saanvi tells him about her successful gene mutation removal and that the callings have stopped for her. She resolves to help him, and hopefully avoid his death date. Before she is able to administer the cure to Zeke, he notices that it has caused her to lose her memory, and act irrationally and out of character. He goes to Alex and asks her to help Saanvi.

Alex reluctantly comes to see Saanvi, and administers a dopamine counter drug as Saanvi's dopamine levels are through the roof. The drug causes her to fall asleep, and when she wakes up she is seemingly back to normal. Alex tells her to be careful, after Saanvi apologizes to her for involving her in the experimental research.

In a last effort to save Zeke from his death date, she interrogates the Major, who says that the research did not reveal anything important. However, to get the information she put the Major into anaphylaxis and the antidote she was planning to use when she got her information was destroyed, and so the Major died at her hands, leaving her in distress, and she reaches out to Vance for guidance.

On the Death Date, Saanvi joins the other passengers in boarding a restored Flight 828. While she is unintentionally shot by Angelina, she survives. As the passengers undergo the Last Trial, Saanvi starts to burn up due to her murder of the Major and she accepts the consequences. However, Saanvi is spared at the last moment due to her saving Cal balancing out the Major's murder and she survives the Death Date. ("Final Boarding")

### A New Timeline

When the passengers finally beat the Death Date, Saanvi is one of those who is given a second chance. Sent back in time to April 7, 2013, which was when 828 was originally supposed to arrive, Saanvi's forgotten laptop is returned to her by Cal, who doesn't remember the past five years. She acknowledges that she still has and feels her wound from the gunshot. By traveling back in time, a new timeline has been created where the passengers arrived on time and get a chance to live the 5 1/2 years they originally lost. Saanvi reconciles with Alex and Ben promises to introduce her to Grace, knowing that Saanvi can cure Cal's leukemia once again. ("Final Boarding")

## Trivia

* Her casting description describes her as a "brilliant graduate student and medical researcher, Saanvi returns home after being missing for years, to learn that her work has led to startling medical breakthroughs."
* Despite actress Parveen Kaur not appearing in new footage in "Contrails", she can be seen in archive footage of the "Pilot".

## References

1. ↑ "Manifest: Athena Karkanis & Parveen Kaur Cast In NBC Drama Pilot". *Deadline Hollywood* (March 2, 2018).