Pluribus dropped some big bombs in its Season 1 finale – partly symbolic, but very real.
The episode, aptly titled “La Chica o El Mundo,” gives Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) a choice. Will he unite with the strong opponents and other Manousos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) and save the world? Or does he embrace romance with Zosia (Karolina Wydra), and as a result, all the other 7 billion Others Zosia shares a hive mind with?
‘Pluribus’ cast reveals Carol’s intense reunion with Manousous: ‘It says a lot about being human’
At the end of the episode, Carol chooses Manousos – but not before going on a trip around the world with Zosia. So what changed his mind? Let’s break it down.
Others found a way to join Carol.
In episode 6, Carol learned from Mr. Diabaté (Samba Schutte) that Others had discovered how to bring people who are immune to the mind. To transform someone like Carol or Diabaté, Others will have to fix this virus in their specific cells. To get the stem cells, they will have to insert a very large needle into the immune system’s hip bones. Since that is a painful process, it is contrary to the inability of Others to harm any living thing. They will need their target’s permission, and guess what? Carol is very happy not to give it. Easy fix, right? He can keep jet-setting with Zosia and enjoy the pleasure it brings him, all without being part of a forced mind.
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However, Carol took the Others’ insistence lightly. One of their key drivers is the biological need to propagate, so it’s only natural that they don’t stop trying to find a way to bring Carol into the herd. By the Season 1 finale, they’ve got it. They don’t need to collect Carol’s stem cells from her hip bone. They have already reached them from the eggs she froze years ago. Now, Carol has one month left before the Others can add her to her mind.
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“If you loved me, you wouldn’t do this,” said Carol.
“We have to do this because we love you,” Zosia replied. “Because I am I love you.”
The switch to the singular pronoun – something Carol requested back in episode 8 – is very telling. Could this be Zosia’s standout personality? Or is it another trick of deception on the part of the hive mind? My money is running out, but again, Pluribus it thrives on the ambiguity of the individual versus the collective.
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Carol asks for – and receives – the atomic bomb.
Remember when Carol learned that the Others would give her anything she asked for, even an atomic bomb? However, in the end, he decides to put their gift-giving skills to the test.
After Zosia’s revelation about stem cells, Carol returns home to Albuquerque with the promised atomic bomb. The request is Carol’s biggest power play in a situation where she is powerless. But now that he’s got a cool nuke in his driveway, what’s next? He tells Manousos he’s ready to “save the world” with him, but how does the bomb fit into that equation? Will Carol continue the attack? Or is the bomb more than an insurance policy, to be set off when the Others come calling with their modified virus?
Rhea Seehorn on Carol’s final choice ‘Pluribus’: ‘These people crossed the line’
According to Rhea Seehorn, even Carol is unsure of her next move. “I actually think it’s really important to me, the way I wanted to play it, that Carol goes through the motions of asking for something big, violent, and scary that she can think of before she even knows what she’s going to do with it,” Seehorn told Mashable.
Did Manousos find a way to reverse the Joining using radio frequency?
While Carol grapples with her conflicted feelings for Zosia and the others, Manousos shuts herself down on how she will disrupt Joining. The key looks like a radio frequency: 8.613.0.
While hunting the other survivors of the Joining, Manousos scrolled through the endless static frequencies. On 8.613.0 kHz, he heard a new sound: a strange, touching conversation.
This may be the frequency with which Others communicate. After all, in episode 8, Zosia explains to Carol that the hive mind is able to communicate because of “something to do with the body’s electromagnetic field. Our natural electric charger, in a sense.”
“So, like radio?” Carol asked.
“Kind of. But broadcasting is like talking. It’s conscious,” said Zosia. “Our communication is unconscious. Homeostatic. Like breathing.”
Manousos decides to test the others’ connection to the 8.613.0 frequency by yelling at them. His negative feelings send the nested mind into convulsions throughout the world. When that happens, the output frequency changes. It’s not broadcasting a series of conversations, but more of a high-pitched scream – exactly the kind of sound you’d expect a panicked mind to make.
As the whine plays, Manousos tries to interrupt the noise and summons a member of the hive mind named Rick to return to his body. The attempt fails thanks to Carol and her gun, but Manousos shows no signs of letting up.
Rhea Seehorn breaks down why ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ is so important to ‘Pluribus’
Pluribus it shows that while Carol was away with Zosia, Manousos went into full research mode. He covered his table in books on electricity, electric fields, crystallography, and circuits. The book he is currently reviewing includes chapters on radio transmitters, antennas, and current nodes and antinodes. These are the points where the wavelengths have no displacement or are at their maximum, respectively.
Basically, Manousos goes all in on electromagnetism connected to the weaknesses of others. Will you be able to crack the code in Season 2? Or will Carol’s bomb get there first?
Pluribus Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV.
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