The Pluribus finale showed there’s a lot more to the story
It’s a good thing that we already know about a second season of Pluribus is on the way. Because the season finale of the series – a sci-fi drama on Apple TV, directed by Break the bad creator Vince Gilligan has made it clear that things are just getting started. The episode brought together a number of plot threads but, more importantly, opened up some potentially explosive (literally) new lines of inquiry for the sequel.
Spoilers to follow for the first season of Pluribus.
First, a quick reminder of how we got here. The inciting incident Pluribus was the release of a virus of unknown, but extraterrestrial, origin that transformed nearly the entire human population of Earth into an interconnected hive mind. Hives are peaceful, to the point that they won’t even kill an insect or pick an apple from a tree, and they are physically harmed by negative emotions. There are a dozen people who have not been affected by the virus. This notably includes an American woman named Carol (Rhea Seehorn) and a Paraguayan man named Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga). For most of the season, the two men were physically separated, but united in their fierce opposition to the hive’s presence, while trying to find a way to “save” the world by returning it to the way it was.
The finale sees these two finally able to find each other – but things have changed for Carol. In the penultimate episode, her feelings towards the Hive began to soften, mainly as she grew closer to her chaperone Zosia (Karolina Wydra). In fact, by the time the finale begins, they’re a full-fledged couple. It’s a far cry from the early days of the series, when Carol was so hostile to the Hive that they abandoned her and the town of Albuquerque for safety.
But Carol’s new vision of the hive, and Zosia in particular, means things don’t turn out quite the way Manousos hoped. Instead of finding a like-minded comrade who would help him “save the world”, he finds a version of Carol who is reluctant to even talk to him. The dynamic looks a lot like Pluribus‘ second episode, in which Carol fails to convince the rest of the survivors that they should work to return the world to the way it was. Only this time, the roles are reversed. Combine this dynamic with the fact that Carol and Manousos are both extremely stubborn people who use Google Translate to communicate and, well, it’s not exactly a smooth meeting. After the first conversation between the two, Manousos whispers to himself, “well, it’s going great.”
By the end of the episode, however, the two seem largely on the same page. And that’s because Carol learns that, despite her budding romance with Zosia, the hive is still working diligently to bring her into the fold (the episode actually opens by showing one of the other survivors joining the hive via a new procedure). This all culminates with Carol receiving a large package that turns out to be an atomic bomb. I guess she wasn’t kidding earlier in the season.
The first season of Pluribus was a learning experience. While there are plenty of post-apocalyptic shows out there, there’s really nothing quite like this strange hive mind-infected version of Earth. So, over the course of nine episodes, we see Carol emotionally confront her new reality, but also use this time to learn as much as possible about how the hive works. This, in turn, helps us, the audience, understand exactly what is going on. All stories require some sort of staging, but Pluribus“The unique nature demands much more.
But the atomic bomb reveal at the end suggests things are going in a different direction in season 2. Pluribus suddenly become a fast-paced spectacle; its measured pace is part of its appeal and allows it to really delve into the smallest details of the world. But many of the remaining plotlines and questions require more action than just learning about the hive. Manousos may have found a way to get individuals out of the hive using radio signals; the hive is building a “giant antenna” to eventually communicate with whoever or whatever sent the virus in the first place; the rest of the survivors must decide whether or not they want to join the group; the hive must find a solution to its impending food crisis; and, oh, there’s that bombshell that Carol may or may not have a plan for.
