Warning: Spoilers follow for Season 1 of Pluribus, Carol.
Have you been watching Pluribus, the new sci-fi show from Vince Gilligan of X-Files, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul fame? Apple TV has confirmed that it’s the most watched show in the platform’s history, and that’s an impressive feat since between series like Severance, Foundation, For All Mankind, and Silo, Apple TV has been the place to be for science-fiction programming for a while now. Even among such esteemed company, Pluribus is an excellent addition to the sci-fi canon (see IGN’s own stellar reviews for more).
With the first season now wrapping up with the Season 1 finale “La Chica o El Mundo” (which translates to “The Girl or the World” in Spanish), and a Season 2 confirmed to be on the way, IGN interviewed Gilligan and his writing/directing/producing partners Gordon Smith and Alison Tatlock. Smith and Tatlock co-wrote the finale, with Smith directing, so we dove with them into some of the biggest events of Season 1’s ending – and what they could mean for Season 2.
Carol, the Joined, and the Road to Albuquerque
Just so we’re all on the same page, Pluribus is about Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), a writer of fantasy romance novels from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who is one of only 13 people on Earth who is immune to an alien virus that turns all of humanity into a hive mind known as the Joining. The blueprints for the RNA sequence that creates the “psychic glue” which joins all of mankind were transmitted from another planet, and DNA scientists seeking to recreate it accidentally unleashed the infection into the human population.
Despite this seemingly apocalyptic scenario, which included over 800 million people dying worldwide when the virus was released into the atmosphere, the “Others” are kind and affectionate towards Carol. But a combination of her grief at the loss of her manager/life partner Helen (Miriam Shor), her complicated feelings towards her Joined chaperone Zosia (Karolina Wydra), and her own prickly personality have led Carol to going through the emotional wringer as she tries to figure out what to do in a world that’s been horrifically changed but also doesn’t want to be saved.
Pluribus Season 1 Ending Explained
Kusimayu’s Joining
“La Chica o El Mundo” opens with Kusimayu (Darinka Arones), a Peruvian woman and one of the 13 “survivors,” who has requested to be added to the hive mind. The Others can develop a specific pathogen for those with immunity by harvesting their stem cells. We see Kusimayu and her village preparing for what feels like a ceremony, singing songs and helping settle her after she inhales the pathogen.
But once she’s converted, all of that cultural specificity disappears, and Kusimayu joins the Others as they abandon the village, including the domesticated animals, with one particular baby goat seeming very confused and anxious when the previously warm Kusimayu coldly leaves them behind. It’s a chilling scene that strikes at the heart of what the Joined have been taking away from the world despite their friendly exteriors, and sets up the tension at the heart of the finale perfectly.
“It just seemed like this incredible opportunity,” Tatlock told us, “to go to a very specific cultural place and have the Others in her world recreating what is familiar to her, and then see what happens when it is dropped.”
Added Smith, “This is the first person, really, that we’ve seen, possibly in the world, do this on their own – that they chose this. She absolutely chose this, but she’s still real nervous. And hopefully we could see that there was a loss of culture, that there was something that goes away when Kusimayu as Kusimayu goes away.”
The reference to Kusimayu “going away” highlights that the Joining, while technically preserving the thoughts and memories of every person they subsume, do not truly remain themselves under most circumstances.
The Real Zosia
And then there’s Zosia, who Carol has tried to help become a coherent individual as they settle into a romantic relationship, including encouraging Zosia to use the personal pronoun “I.” This of course raises the question of whether or not it’s possible for Zosia to “love” Carol as an individual and not as an avatar of the Joining.
When asked about Zosia’s development in the last few episodes, Gilligan said, as he often does when discussing Pluribus, that he wants the audience to come up with their own answers. But he also added that if someone like Carol sets out to put the world back to the way it was, then that would mean every single person would become their former self again.
“So if you believe that’s possible, and Carol does at this point in the story, then I think you’ve got to think there’s a Zosia, a real Zosia, in there somewhere,” he said. “But also, Carol in Episode 8 is coming off of a really bad time, a really bad 40-day stretch where she was essentially in solitary confinement. … After 40 days of not interacting with any other human being, she’s kind of broken.”
Smith also points to something Zosia says to Carol, which is a key to the true nature of the Joined: “We love you exactly the same as we love Manousos.”
“And Carol says, ‘No, it can’t be the same,’” explains Smith. “So… is it that she understands that there’s some [part of] Zosia that she’s looking for, or that she maybe even thinks, ‘Okay, even if this is the person, this Joined person, maybe that’s the person I like, this hive mind in some way. Because she’s on the horns of a dilemma. She kind of goes back and forth with her understanding of things, I think.”
And Finally, Manousos Arrives
Things get complicated when Manousos Oviedo (Carlos Manuel-Vesga), a Paraguayan survivor who has refused all contact with the Others and wants to find a way to reverse the infection, finally arrives at Carol’s house after making a multi-month trek from his home country. The language barrier, Manousos’ paranoia, and Carol needing to hide her relationship with Zosia make their early encounters more combative than either likely hoped.
Tatlock elaborated on Manousos’ headspace when he meets Carol, saying he’s probably a little nervous: “He wants to make a good impression, and then 10 minutes later, he’s probably wondering why. Why was I trying to make a good impression on her? She’s not my leader. What is happening?” He seems quite disappointed that Carol’s resolve to stop the Others isn’t as strong as when she sent him her first video.
Gilligan spoke about what the team was hoping to achieve by finally bringing Carol face to face with the only other human being to resist the Others. As he says, we’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.
“Nine episodes for Stanley to meet Livingston here, and it’s been hard fought,” he said. “He literally hacked his way through the Darién Gap just to meet this woman. And then he arrives in her neighborhood and maybe he’s expecting – what we’d say in the writer’s room – he’s kind of expecting Che Guevara or some really charismatic leader. And in Che’s driveway is a Rolls-Royce.”
But of course where would the fun be if Carol and Manousos just hit it off instantly? “I think you hope always for fireworks,” says Gilligan. “You’re hoping for drama.”
“They were so great together and their distaste for each other was really fun,” laughed Tatlock.
Things get worse when Manousos reluctantly takes up residence in the house of one of Carol’s neighbors, and he contacts Zosia and interrogates her without Carol’s knowledge. Because the Others can’t lie, he learns all about Carol’s affair with Zosia and how the Others function. He continues his experiments by shouting at another Other and exposing him to a radio signal Manousos believes is possibly linked to a way to reverse the Joining, causing the Others to go into convulsions, something Carol did earlier in the season by showing anger towards them. Worried for Zosia’s safety (Others can be killed by the convulsions), Carol interrupts Manousos by threatening him with a shotgun. The Others subsequently leave Albuquerque, abandoning Manousos the same way they abandoned Carol earlier in the season.
With the Others gone, Manousos claims he and Carol can now work on finding a cure for the Joining, but Carol leaves him as well, wanting to be with Zosia. Carol and Zosia go on multiple romantic trips, and it seems for a few days that Carol has found some happiness in a post-Joining world. However, while staying at a ski resort, Carol discovers that the Others have found a way to circumvent needing her consent to obtain her stem cells: They have her frozen eggs from her time with Helen, and are currently working on a pathogen to add Carol to the Joining whether she wants to or not. Heartbroken at the betrayal, and knowing she only has months before the Others have a working pathogen, Carol has Zosia return her to Albuquerque via helicopter.
Upon arrival, Carol tells Manousos she’s ready to “save the world.” Oh, and she also has an atom bomb with her. The end!
What Does This Mean for Pluribus Season 2?
Talk about a hell of a way to end the season. Carol and Zosia’s romance has crashed and burned, Carol is recommitted to curing the Joining, and now we have a ticking clock as to when the Others can forcibly convert Carol.
We don’t know exactly what will happen in Pluribus Season 2, but we can make some educated guesses. Now that Manousos is in Albuquerque, he and Carol will likely become a main cast duo looking to find a way to subvert the Others. Will we finally learn more about that mysterious radio frequency Manousos has been investigating? He seemed to believe he could bring an Other’s original personality back to the surface by playing the signal while they’re convulsing. Is this the method of curing the Joining that Carol nearly discovered when Zosia was in the hospital? And now that Carol has severed her bond with Zosia, will Zosia take on a more openly antagonistic role, or will the Others stay committed to their “smile and wave” attitude? Maybe Carol and Manousos will cure at least one or two people, if only so they’ll have more characters to talk to now that Carol and the Others are once again enemies. No matter what happens, we’ll definitely be watching when Pluribus Season 2 drops.
What did you think of the Season 1 finale of Pluribus? Let us know in the comments!
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
