Maury Ginsberg's Simon White is a brand new villain in season 2 of NBC's mystery drama series, Manifest. Simon was introduced in Manifest season 2, episode 3 as a professor who becomes Ben's new boss. A surprising twist at the end of the episode reveals that Simon is one of two new villains with a secret agenda. Exactly what Simon is up to is currently one of the show's many mysteries, but it is known that he's connected with a villainous organization known as the X'ers, a hate group who believes that the passengers who returned after their plane went missing for five years are now a threat to the world.
Screen Rant's interview with Maury Ginsberg reveals that viewers will be seeing a lot of Simon in the weeks to come, and more information will soon be revealed about the new character, who at this point hasn't had much screen time. Ginsberg also discusses the villainous group known as the X'ers, how he connects to the story for season 2, and more.
Manifest is loaded with storylines that are intertwined in one way or another, and this is something that Ginsberg discusses with Screen Rant as well. The biggest threat facing the passengers is the "death date", the promise that they will all die on a set day in the future, but each character each has their own problem which is linked to a much larger story. Where Simon fits into all of this is a new mystery that will be explored in season 2.
When I first saw your character, I thought that he was just a professor who's going to work with Ben. And then there's this twist where he find out that he's not at all what he seems. Can you tell me a little bit about Simon?
Sure, you know there's only so much I can say, but what I can say is the thing that I love about this series and the writing is that certain things seem a certain way, like the relationship between "seeming" and "being". Certain things seem a certain way, and then they turn out to not be that way. And what I can tell you is that not everything seems as it is, and Simon certainly has an agenda of his own.
We don't know a whole lot about him yet, so how quickly is that going to change, and is this someone we can expect to see a lot of this season?
You're going to be seeing more of him, certainly, and in the upcoming episodes, really exciting things start to happen for Simon. What's exciting is that things are sort of thrown into his lap, if you will, and he can't disregard what's thrown in his lap.
Is Ben just a means to an end to Simon and what can you say about their relationship?
As far as the work relationship goes, there's certainly a lot of respect there, but does he trust Ben? That remains to be seen. Ultimately, there's certain things that he's obviously concerned about and tentative about. Would I say that it's a means to an end? I think if you remember from episode 3, he says "welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly," so obviously there's more up Simon's sleeve. And getting to know Ben and getting to know who he is, is a big part of that.
So we know the X'ers hate the passengers, and we already know that that applies to Simon's wife, and maybe Simon too. Do you think that their attitude toward the passengers stands a chance at changing the more Simon gets to know Ben and the others, or are their ideas pretty much fixed?
That's a great question. There are certain things, again, about the series that are really cool, that are very relevant. Such as the whole thing being based around Flight 828. I think it was a couple of years ago that there was that Malaysian flight that got lost in the air. So there are certain things about this series that are based in real things that have happened in our own lives, which makes it interesting because this season you have these different groups. The X'ers are in some respect wary of the passengers of 828, whether it's a phobia or something like that, who knows? But I know that they're wary of them. Will that change? All I can say is, we'll see. I don't want to give too much away, but what I can say, is that the X'ers do have very specific opinions about things, and as they do get to know Ben and more of the situation, things get a little more complicated. Not everything is as simple as it initially looks.
So far, we've seen the X'ers basically as a hate group. For most of them, it seems that they hate the passengers because they afraid of them. Do you think its deeper than that with Simon, and through Simon are we going to develop a better understanding of the X'ers?
I do, I think you'll get a certain understanding, certainly of Simon. Do I think it's deeper? There are certain things that I think Simon feels about the X'ers that hasn't been revealed and in coming episodes you're going to get a much clearer idea as to how he feels and how that changes and evolves, but he certainly has a certain point of view. Does that change? Things change around him, that he certainly has to adapt to and deal with. And, I think that's more the point, than necessarily him changing himself, if that makes any sense.
By working with Ben, he's already established a connection to one of the main characters, can you talk about other characters that Simon may have scenes with?
I think he has an opportunity to meet everybody. He certainly meets Ben, and his wife, and the family, and unfortunately I don't want to give too much away, but you have a series where you have like a cop drama, a family drama, supernatural elements, and so many elements in the series. To just say that there's a group of people or area that he gets to know certainly minimizes the scope of things and it's so much more ornate than that.
Final question. What can you say about the impact Simon has on the season, or can you even talk about that?
I really can't, all I can say is there's nothing arbitrary about this series and that's what's so good about it. Everything is connected to other things. Everything is connected and that's a testament to the writing and to [Manifest showrunner] Jeff Rake who is a genius because he's able to keep all of these plates spinning and there's so many different levels operating. There's like I said the family drama, asupernatural kind of element, and a cop drama, so there just really is so much going on in that regard.
And that's part of what makes it so fun.
Yeah. It's great because it's not so complicated that it alienates you. They keep it simple, and hopeful. There's a lot of hope in it. When you have a show that's dealing with all these different areas, it makes it full. The characters are full and have real backgrounds, real histories, real life. And that makes it exciting because then those things get to be revealed. Yeah, there's nothing arbitrary, everything is very specific.
Manifest airs Mondays on NBC.