‘Pluribus’ Ending Explained – Breaking Down Every Major Twist and Reveal

Timing is everything. This has been true of Pluribus all the way through, but it’s especially true of the finale, and not just because it was released early. Episode 9, “La Chica o El Mundo,” finally unites Carol with the one other person on Earth who can help her save the world, right after she finally decided she could live with the Others after all. It leads to disagreements, naturally. But also leads to new questions, new answers, and, at least for Carol, a noisily ticking clock. See? Timing.

This isn’t an ending. Pluribus has already been renewed for a second season, so think of this more as a stopgap, a welcome deep breath as Vince Gilligan’s show – which might, even in the hallowed company of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, become his magnum opus – recalibrates and moves into the next, presumably more explosive phase.

There’s a lot to go over, folks, so let’s get on with it.

Last One Left

In another classic Gilligan cold open, we briefly visit Peru to meet Kusimayo, one of the fellow non-English-speaking survivors who was inexplicably immune to the initial Joining. Her circumstances are very different from Carol’s, at least at first glance. She’s in a humble village in the mountains, surrounded by smiley villagers who have become her equivalents of Zosia. But, very much like Carol, she has reached the limits of her resistance. She’s tired of being alone.

Logistically, I’m not sure I understand this scene, though I’m not sure I’m necessarily supposed to. The Others drop off a package containing a silver container full of an unidentified gas that Kusimayo is to inhale as part of a ceremony. The ceremony is to be painless, of course. The Others would never hurt her, just as they’d never hurt an ant, or pluck an underripe apple from a tree.

Kusimayo huffs the gas, seizes on the ground, and awakes as the newest member of the hive. She gave herself over and seems pretty happy about the arrangement. Then again, I suppose she would. As is typical of a Gilligan cold open, it isn’t immediately apparent what relevance this has to the main arc, but it’s obviously foreshadowing. Is this the point that Carol herself has reached?

An Unexpected Guest

There was a time when Carol would have eagerly received Manousos, but that time has passed. She’s now in a relationship of sorts with Zosia, still resistant to the Joining proper but satisfied to live in domestic bliss with her new beau, who has in many ways taken the place of Helen. Now, Manousos doesn’t represent salvation. He represents an upset to the new status quo.

Carol and Manousos clash, then. He can’t fathom any scenario in which the Others’ behaviour isn’t deeply sinister and disingenuous; he’s insistent that Carol’s house is bugged, that they’re up to something heinous at all times. But Carol has bought in. She’s adamant that the Others are generally lovely people, that they’d never hurt anyone. Manousos thinks he has proved a point when he finds a hidden recording device in Carol’s liquor cabinet, but this turns out to be another harsh blow for Carol. When she calls Zosia to inquire, she reveals that Helen put it there to monitor her drinking after Carol had frozen some of her eggs.

How can Carol not see the life the Others are offering as preferable to this? But, similarly, how can Manousos not see the situation the way he does? Carol feels betrayed by Zosia’s admission that she and the hive “love” Manousos in exactly the same way as her. She’s offended by Zosia’s honesty in answering his direct questions, and she’s appalled by Manousos luring another Other to the house so that he can experiment with the frequency their brains give off when they’re in distress. It wasn’t so long ago that she was drugging Zosia herself in pursuit of the same goal. But times have changed.

Carol Chooses Blissful Ignorance

Believing Manousos to be dangerous, the Others withdraw from him, much like how they needed a break from Carol. The difference here is that Carol goes with them. She heads out into a dream life with Zosia, full of spas, resorts, and mountain lodges. She allows herself to accept the fantasy, just like Kusimayo did at the beginning.

But it doesn’t last. It can’t, really, since Manousos is right. The Others are always up to something. When Zosia lets slip about how close Carol is to experiencing the purest form of empathy imaginable, she tips her hand. The Others are working on a way to assimilate Carol without requiring her consent to harvest her stem cells. When Carol asks about it, Zosia can’t lie. The Others are using the eggs Carol retrieved to create her stem cells, a more personalised version of the gas they provided Kusimayo with. But the outcome will be the same. Carol only has a month, maybe two or three at a push, before she is forcibly Joined.

The next and indeed last we see of Carol, she’s returning to Albuquerque via a helicopter piloted – one assumes reluctantly – by Zosia. She also comes bearing gifts for Manousos – a giant container she claims contains an atom bomb, a callback to the earlier episode where she asked if the Others would give her one. It turns out they would. But how she intends to use it will remain mysterious for now.