'Pluribus' Season 1's bombshell ending, explained
Pluribus dropped some big bombshells in its Season 1 finale — some figurative, but one that's very literal.
The episode, fittingly titled "La Chica o El Mundo," gives Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) a choice. Does she ally herself with the staunchly anti-Others Manousos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) and save the world? Or does she embrace romance with Zosia (Karolina Wydra), and therefore, all other 7 billion Others whom Zosia shares a hive mind with?
By the end of the episode, Carol chooses Manousos — but not before she's gone on a globe-trotting adventure with Zosia. So what changes her mind? Let's break it down.
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The Others have found a way to Join with Carol.
In episode 6, Carol learned from Mr. Diabaté (Samba Schutte) that the Others had figured out how to bring immune humans into the hive mind. To turn someone like Carol or Diabaté, the Others would have to tailor the virus to their specific stem cells. To get the stem cells, they'd have to jam a very large needle into the immune humans' hip bones. Since that's a painful procedure, it goes against the Others' inability to harm any living thing. They'd need their target's consent, and guess what? Carol is all too happy not to give it. Easy fix, right? She can keep jet-setting with Zosia and enjoy the happiness that brings her, all without being part of a forced hive mind.
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However, Carol underestimated the Others' tenacity. One of their key drivers is the biological need to propagate, so it's natural they wouldn't stop trying to find a way to bring Carol into the fold. By the Season 1 finale, they've found it. They don't need to gather Carol's stem cells from her hip bone. They've already got access to them in the eggs she froze years ago. Now, Carol's got one month left before the Others will be able to add her to the hive mind.
"If you loved me, you wouldn't do this," Carol says.
"We have to do this because we love you," Zosia counters. "Because I love you."
The switch to the singular pronoun — something Carol asked for back in episode 8 — is particularly telling. Could this be Zosia's individuality shining through? Or is it just another manipulation tactic on the part of the hive mind? My money's on the latter, but then again, Pluribus thrives on the ambiguity of the self versus the collective.
Carol asks for — and receives — an atomic bomb.
Remember when Carol learned the Others would give her anything she asked for, even an atomic bomb? Well, in the finale, she decides to put their gift-giving skills to the test.
Following Zosia's revelation about the stem cells, Carol returns home to Albuquerque with the once-promised atomic bomb in tow. The request is Carol's biggest power play in a situation where's she otherwise powerless. But now that she's got a nuke chilling in her driveway, what comes next? She tells Manousos that's she's ready to "save the world" with him, but how does the bomb fit into that equation? Is Carol going to go on the offensive? Or is the bomb more of an insurance policy, one that she'll trigger once the Others come calling with their modified virus?
According to Rhea Seehorn, even Carol's unsure of her next move. "I actually think it's more important for me, the way I wanted to play it, that Carol is impulsive in asking for the biggest, most violent, threatening thing she can think of before she even knows what she would do with it," Seehorn told Mashable.
Has Manousos found a way to reverse the Joining using radio frequency?
While Carol is dealing with her conflicted feelings towards Zosia and the Others, Manousos is locking in on how to disrupt the Joining. The key seems to be a radio frequency: 8.613.0.
While hunting for other survivors of the Joining, Manousos scrolled through endless frequencies of static. At 8.613.0 kHz, he heard a new sound: a strange, pulsing chattering.
It's likely that this is the frequency the Others communicate at. 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 charge, so to speak."
"So, like radio?" Carol asks.
"Sort of. But radio transmission is like talking. It's conscious," Zosia says. "Our communication is unconscious. Homeostatic. Like breathing."
Manousos decides to test the Others' connection to the 8.613.0 frequency by screaming at them. His negative emotions send the hive mind into convulsions worldwide. When that happens, the output on the frequency changes. It's no longer broadcasting a series of chatters, but more of a high-pitched whine — exactly the kind of sound you'd expect a panicking hive mind to emit.
As the whine plays on, Manousos tries to cut through the noise and call a member of the hive mind named Rick back to his own body. The attempt is unsuccessful thanks to Carol and her gun, but Manousos shows no signs of giving up.
Pluribus shows that while Carol was away with Zosia, Manousos went into full research mode. He's covered her table in books about electricity, electromagnetic fields, crystallography, and circuits. The book he's currently parsing through includes passages about radio transmitters, antennae, and current nodes and antinodes. These are the points at which wavelengths have no displacement or are at their greatest displacement, respectively.
Basically, Manousos is going all in on electromagnetism being connected to the Others' weakness. Will he be able to crack the code in Season 2? Or will Carol's bomb get there first?
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
