In the middle of season 3, Manifest quietly resolved the peacock mystery from season 1. The purpose of the strange peacock vision has puzzled the Flight 828 passengers since Manifest season 1's midseason finale, but a big reveal in a recent episode provided some much-needed answers.
During season 1, Ben (Josh Dallas) was perplexed after seeing a peacock. Usually, he’s able to make sense of the things he sees in each of the Callings after taking some time to investigate them, but he didn’t have the same luck with the peacock. It’s popped up a few times since then, as characters like Cal (Jack Messina) have seen it as well. Cal even found a peacock feather in season 3, despite the fact that these animals don’t live in that particular area. What meaning the peacock might hold in regards to the passengers and the Callings was also discussed at one point by Ben and Olive (Luna Blaise), but nothing conclusive was reached in their talks.
A deeper understanding was provided in Manifest season 3, episode 8, “Destination Unknown”, though it easily could have been overlooked or missed altogether on account of the much bigger reveals that were dropped. What led to Saanvi’s realization that Noah Ark experienced the same phenomenon as Flight 828 was the discovery of 6,000-year-old genetic material of a peacock on a piece of ancient driftwood. According to Saanvi’s research, the peacock had the same genetic marker as everyone else who had disappeared and reappeared with no explanation. Figuring this out helped Saanvi develop her theory that the driftwood was a piece of Noah’s Ark.
Flight 828’s link to Noah’s Ark was a huge development, and that one Manifest was apparently hinting at as early as season 1. It wasn’t clear then, but Saanvi’s findings in season 3 give the impression that what Ben and Cal have been seeing is one of the animals who traveled aboard Noah’s Ark, presumably 6,000 years ago. It makes sense that the peacock can appear to the passengers because in a way, they’re all connected by the Callings. In the peacock’s lifetime, it too may have had visions of some sort. Since the peacock and the passengers are separated by literally thousands of years, it would seem that this connection is so strong that it can actually transcend time. If so, the passengers may be able to see people from other eras who had this experience.
The Noah’s Ark peacock showing up in one of Ben’s Callings in Manifest season 1 may also have been a clue to another major mystery. In the season 3 premiere, Ben theorized (perhaps correctly) that the passengers didn’t just vanish – they died and were resurrected five years later. In the Christian religion, the peacock is regarded as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This could have been the Callings’ way of telling the passengers what really happened to them. What this means that the peacock can be taken as a secret tease to two totally different season 3 discoveries.