Major spoilers below for the penultimate episode of Pluribus’ first season, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched via Apple TV subscription.
I’ll never hear a train horn the same way again after watching Pluribus’ eighth episode, “Charm Offensive,” in which Carol opines that it’s the loneliest sound in the world. The character herself is no longer on a similarly solitary path following her driveway-painted plea for the Others to return; to the contrary, Carol grew closer than ever with her pod-person of choice, Karolina Wydra’s Zosia. To the point where the hivemind-driven being agreed to revert back to singular personal pronouns, while also revealing new details about their overall goals.
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On the one hand, the pair’s evolving relationship is lovely, and when Zosia makes the first move to kiss Carol, it’s surprising but not so wildly unbelievable. On the flip side, though, Carol seemingly followed every interaction up by adding to her whiteboard list of damning facts about the Others, and had to keep centering her emotions by reminding herself that the group essentially sustains itself solely through consuming dead people.
Rhea Seehorn talked to CinemaBlend ahead of the episode in part to celebrate her work on Pluribus sparking immediate award nominations from the Critics Choice Association (and then later the Golden Globes). When I asked how much Carol’s actions with Zosia were duplicitous, I was ready for the actress to confirm that Carol only has her eye on the endgame where the hivemind is destroyed. Instead, she said:
Or you could say the reverse question, right? Like, how much are they being manipulative just trying to get towards their agenda and objective? Vince and everybody on the show loves that it is purposely left open to interpretation many of these things that you're asking — I've heard wildly different theories, and they're all correct — but I personally think that Carol is not playing three-dimensional chess at this time. Because I believe that she was sincerely broken by the isolation that they put her through.
Well, that's one way to make me feel guilty over weighted suspicions about a fictional character. For all that I thought Carol's angst and anger were the main motivators driving her to reconnect with the Others, it turns out I was underestimating her vulnerability. I'll blame that on the time jumps, though, since we didn't actually see her during all those weeks of solitude.
While Seehorn's own views may not completely align with how Vince Gilligan and other writers see it, I don't think the creator would be cool with her playing Carol contradictory to his ideals. She's clearly tracking all the reasons she shouldn’t necessarily trust the alien species, but it appears as if companionship and affection may outweigh all counterpoints. Add the fact that the Others love Carol’s fantasy novels, and it’s easy to see why she might find ways to stay content with this status quo. (At least until Manousos shows up.)
Rhea Seehorn continued, revealing just how much that long stretch of isolation rattled the character.
Not just the 40-plus days of isolation, but also the existential crisis of thinking, 'This won't end. I'm going to die alone and never speak to another human being, and just watch Golden Girls by myself and die on a couch.' I think she's very broken, and I think she's facing how much she does need some kind of community, some kind of companionship, and it's everything from primal to willingly delusional, because the alternative is just too horrific to think about.
Just when you thought endless Golden Girls reruns might be a true slice of heaven, it turns out having a core group of friends like Rose, Blanche, Sophia and Dorothy in real life is the better option. That might seem like an easy assumption to arrive at, but for someone like Carol, lowering her defenses and opening up aren't automatic responses to stimuli. But things like "alien hiveminds subsuming nearly the entire human race" do tend to shake up normal behavior.
Also, to Seehorn's point, Zosia may very well be using Carol as a puppet here, knowing just how much mental stress came from being alone for so long. It's not clear yet if the point would be to convince Carol to join them, or if it would be for her to help with their giant radio antenna to send signals out to other planets. Just because they can't lie or kill doesn't mean they aren't still capable of malicious acts.
Only one episode left to go in the 2025 TV schedule, my fellow human beings! Here’s hoping Carol makes it through the final chapter without having another population-decimating emotional breakdown. Find out for yourself when the Season 1 finale hits Apple TV on Friday, December 26. We hope you have a good Christmas, Carol.
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