Note: This story contains spoilers from “Pluribus” Episode 9.
“Pluribus” put its two unlikely heroes on the path to saving the world in the Season 1 finale, but not without some messy bickering first.
Episode 9 of the Apple TV drama series, titled “La Chica o El Mundo,” saw as Carol’s (Rhea Seehorn) blissful new relationship bubble with Zosia (Karolina Wydra) popped with the arrival of Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) — the only other individual on Earth left with the desire to rid humans of the alien hive mind that took charge over 70 days before. The meeting would have been a dream come true for Carol earlier in the series, before being isolated by Zosia and her fellow infected humans left her begging for their attention.
Now though, having the Paraguayan man arrive at her cul de sac in an ambulance, wielding a machete, was met as more of an inconvenience. And just as viewers think Carol might be ready to ride into the sunset with her beautiful chaperone, a shocking revelation puts her right back on her mission to restore individuality from mankind — but the clock is no longer ticking in her favor.
Kusimayu
Episode 9 kicked off in the mountains of Peru, as a young woman in a native village swept the floor while watching a plane fly overhead. The whole village was preparing for the arrival of the plane, which was holding an expected package for Kusimayo (Darinka Arones) — one of the individuals revealed to Carol to have avoided the hive mind the first time around.
Viewers watched as the village came together to support Kusimayu as she prepared for a ritual. She was by assuaged two other women, likely her family but now envoys to the hive mind like Zosia, when she expressed nerves over the ceremony ahead. She also took time to hold a cute baby goat she seemed fond of, before another villager arrived holding the package. It contained a silver container, which held an unidentified gas Kusimayo was meant to inhale. She asked if the ceremony would hurt, before the others assured they’d never put her through any pain.
After she inhaled the gas, the others helped her down to the ground before she started seizing — much like people around Carol first did in the series premiere, when the hive mind took hold of humanity. When Kusimayo settled, she awoke as the newest member of the extraterrestrial collective, and all the humans around the village quickly retreated — leaving every animal and object behind.
Carol and Manousos
Back in Albuquerque, Carol was hesitant to receive her Paraguayan visitor now that she’d secured the return of Zosia and they had settled into a new physical and emotional relationship. Still, Carol agreed to meet Manousos, which went about as well as viewers could imagine given their respective stubbornness.
After some back and forth surrounding the possibility of Carol’s home being bugged, the duo spoke at her house. Carol seemed resistant to turning her back on the infected humans to side with Manousos — knowing that would mean giving up Zosia. But that loyalty was tested when Manousos found a device in Carol’s liquor cabinet. Carol confronted Zosia about the device, leading to the revelation that it was actually Carol’s late wife Helen who installed the tracker, at a particularly dark time in their marriage when she was monitoring Carol’s drinking after she had done a retrieval of her eggs. The revelation put Carol in a bad mood, leading her to place Manousos in one of the other houses in the cul de sac so they could get some rest and keep talking the next morning.
But Manousos wasn’t going to let the mission wait. He called the hive and requested Zosia to ask her questions about Carol in person. Carol learned what he was doing and took Zosia back to her house for a frank conversation. Zosia admitted that, since he’s an individual, she and the rest of the hive “love” Manousos just as much as her — meaning they have to comply with his requests and answer truthfully to all his questions.
That conversation was interrupted when Zosia lies down and starts to seize, a sign the hive is in distress. Manousos had called for a new person to come so he could experiment with their brain frequency emissions, an experiment into how to unlink the person from the hive mind. But Carol stopped him and all the people were pulled away from Manousos as a result, much like Carol had to endure earlier in the series.
But this time Carol went with them, after choosing her fantasy life with Zosia over saving the world with her new neighbor.
Ticking clock
Of course, that didn’t last long.
The episode followed Carol and Zosia first to an idyllic spa and other beautiful places around the world. Then they went skiing before settling inside a lavish lodge to rest. There, Carol and Zosia spoke about the former’s inability to be “good at just feeling good.”
Zosia tried to comfort Carol by explaining the chemistry behind happiness, citing research about the first evidence of animals beginning to feel empathy. She then hinted that Carol wouldn’t have to wonder about these problems for much longer. When Carol asked if that meant that the procedure to get her to join the hive was closer to completion, and if it still required her verbal and blatant consent, Zosia hesitated to answer.
Turns out, the hive found the eggs Carol had retrieved and was using them to develop the stem cells needed to make the procedure to turn her — her version of the gas-like concoction they had used to turn Kusimayu at the start of the episode. Carol asked how long she had before they were ready to do it, and Zosia responded it’d be one month, two to three months at the latest.
The new countdown sent Carol back to Albuquerque where she had left Manousos, himself still researching his theory on how to bring humanity back. After a silent goodbye for Zosia, Carol signed up to help Manousos with his plan.
She also arrived with a big package, which she said contained an atom bomb — a reference to earlier in the series when the hive had said they’d give her one despite it not being advisable or safe, if it was her command.
So ends Season 1 of Vince Gilligan’s ambitious Apple TV drama, giving its two heroes fresh incentive to save the world before they too become prisoners of — or saved by — this alien collective consciousness with lots more mysteries to reveal. Season 2 has already been ordered but has not started filming, meaning it’ll be a while before new episodes.
Hold on tight though “Pluribus” fans, more of this fascinating series is on the horizon.
“Pluribus” Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV.
