Season 1, Episode 11 of hit CBS drama introduced Manifest‘s Melissa Roxburgh as Colter’s younger sister, Dr. Dory Shaw, who has followed in their parents’ footsteps and become a college professor. But unlike Colter, who is determined to get to the bottom of what really went down with their father more than 20 years ago — what’s this about Ashton having been a government contractor? — Dory is determined to leave the past behind her and get on with her life. It’s what she’s been trying to do ever since Dad died and she went to live with her Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa, while Colter stayed back to take care of their mother, Mary.
During the hour, we discovered that Dory is still in touch with her other brother, Russell — who, as we know, Colter believes murdered their father in 2003. We also learned that Dory doesn’t trust Mary’s version of the truth.
Colter’s reunion with Dory will be followed by an even more tense reunion with Russell, who will be played by Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and first seen in Episode 12 (airing Sunday, May 12). Below, Roxburgh weighs in on Dory’s debut, her respective relationships with Colter, Russell and Mary, and her hopes for appearing alongside both Justin Hartley and Jensen Ackles in Season 2.
I’d seen part of the show already, so I knew that it was a complicated family dynamic, but I got a little bit more context in where things were at coming onto the show — not only where Dory was at, but where Colter and Russell and Mom were at, and where things kind of stood. I definitely came into a very complicated dynamic and I’m excited to see how it all unravels.
I think she has definitely done a better job. Despite how she talks in the episode, there’s definitely a part of her that needs to know the truth [about Mom and Dad] just as much, but she knows that if she pulls the thread that it will all unravel, and she doesn’t know what is going to be behind the curtain. I think her hope is to have everyone move on. She seems to be a very logical person, especially with her career and whatnot, but deep down she knows that it’s more complicated than that.
What she’s doing with her life now is maybe what she had hoped her parents had done. Because I think that there is a respect for the academia aspect of her family, and she is just trying to do right in her own life. She admires a lot of what she was taught growing up, but.…
She knows that he has always been like this. Their family is not normal, especially how they were raised. There’s an understanding about the trauma that he’s been through as well. I don’t think Dory is a judgmental person at all; she really just wants what is best for her two brothers. When Colter does show up, it’s like the prodigal son kind of thing. She’s just happy that he’s back, but then she realizes [later in the episode] that he’s not really back. That’s almost what upsets her more: that he isn’t even showing up with the right intentions. That’s what hurts her the most.
I would guess not. Dory is pretty smart, and I think that she clocks a lot of what her mother is doing. She knows that there is way more to the story [about Dad] than Mom has let on, for whatever reason. For Dory, trying to have a healthy life at this point means maybe not being close to Mom.
I gathered that Dory and Russell are definitely closer than Dory and Colter, but we’ll see how that changes as Dory is more involved in the show, especially with Russell coming back as well. I’m curious to see what happens there. I’m excited to see how the dynamics shift.
Yeah, Justin told me. I’m so excited because one of my first jobs was with Jensen [on Supernatural]. I think it was my second job ever, actually. I was so green and so new, and it would be nice to play with him again.
