Santa giveth and Santa taketh too with this season 1 finale, which marks the end of a chapter, but also gives us one of the most unique, special ends to a season we've seen in quite some time.
And with this close proximity comes a few disturbing twists that we spoke to stars Rhea Seehorn and Karolina Wydra in greater detail about.
Pluribus season 1 ending explained: What happened to Carol?
Interviews by Alex Hewitt.
Against gorgeous scenic backdrops, we watch as a special crate is delivered to Kusimayu. "Will it hurt?" she asks. "Not one bit," replies the group mind. And with that, Peruvian chanting begins as Kusimayu breathes in vapour that emanates from the delivery.
Everyone in the entire village suddenly leaves at once, letting the farm animals free as they go. Where they go next, we don't know, because then the action returns to Carol and Zosia watching Manousos on his way to Albuquerque.
Manousos arrives with a machete in hand, which doesn't exactly scream diplomacy. Carol is wary, even if he's only carrying it in fear of The Joined and what they might do to him. He's wary too, unwilling to talk inside her home.
"I'm finito," says Carol, as she storms back into her house and closes the front door on him. How will she keep up her Candy Crush streak now?
Realising that he's messed up, Manousos tries to retrieve the phone using his machete for leverage. A multi-purpose tool if I've ever seen one.
"These weirdos are evil," says Manousos. "They have stolen everyone’s soul. If we can't fix them, they are better off dead."
Manousos is surprised that this Carol is so different to the one he saw in the video she sent. What he doesn't know is that Zosia is attractive and therefore has won Carol over.
Carol immediately calls Zosia, who tries to tactfully reveal that it was Helen who put what turns out to be a motion sensor in there so she'd know if Carol was drinking when she shouldn't be. It's a devastating reveal, another twist of the knife that doesn't just reopen old scars but creates new ones too, just when Carol had been trying her best to suppress that grief.
Manousos reluctantly moves into one of the neighbour's houses while Carol drinks herself to sleep with The Golden Girls playing again in the background. Sounds like my idea of a good time, if it wasn't for the soul-tearing grief and post-apocalyptic vibes of it all.
As she pulls Zosia away to find out if she disclosed the physical nature of their relationship, Manousos calls the group mind and asks to speak with another representative.
Another betrayal, another stab in the gut for Carol. But it's not so much a betrayal of love as it is a reminder that this romantic fantasy Carol has begun to indulge in is all a lie.
Seehorn broke down this "very upsetting" exchange with us exclusively, saying: "Carol’s very careful to not poke holes in this water balloon that’s barely holding water. There's a willingness to hang onto what she would like to believe in this moment, because not only was she very, very broken from how long she was left in isolation, it was an existential threat of loneliness."
Manousos has become a threat to that, so Carol asks Zosia to stay away from him, mentioning all the bad things he's said about The Joined. In response, Zosia suddenly lies down, telling Carol not to be alarmed regarding what's about to happen.
"Rick, I know you are there," he says, checking the signals emanating from the radio he's placed in his hand. "Come back. I know you are there. I am there."
It looks like Manousos is trying to find a way to sever Rick's connection to the alien group mind, which explains all the scientific research he was doing alone back in Paraguay. And crucially, it looks like he might be onto something.
When Zosia wakes up, she reveals that all The Joined must leave again, like they did last time.
Manousos doesn't care though. He's just happy that his research was fruitful: "It was worth it completely. Now I know much more. You were right. I think there’s a way to put things back in their place. Come on, now the work begins…"
"Do you want to save the world or get the girl?" asks Manousos.
"You seem pretty quiet," says Zosia.
"I don’t think I’m good at just feeling good," says Carol. "What makes us happy in our bodies?"
Carol checks that they need her stem cells and her consent for the joining to occur, but something's off and Carol senses it: "My eggs. The ones I froze with Helen. You have them, don’t you. And you can make those into stem cells… You’re working on it."
"How long do I have?" asks Carol, broken by this news.
"If you loved me you wouldn’t do this," pleads Carol.
The Joined can access every memory, every skill of each person in their group mind all at once, so it looks like they've learned plenty about gaslighting and manipulation to get what they want out of Carol.
It's devastating to watch, not just for us but Seehorn too. "In episodes 8 and 9, Carol is living in a delusion somewhat voluntarily," the actor says. "She is choosing to not see obvious signs of certain things. I don’t think she saw the egg thing coming, I really don’t."
"It was great to read that and to see how to Them, their biological imperative is everything, at all costs. They really need [Carol] to experience this thing that they’re experiencing. Same with Manousos, same with all the rest of the ‘old-schoolers’."
It's with this information that Carol arms herself as the final scenes of season one pull into focus. Now 74 days into the countdown, we see Manousos doing research using science books from the library (sometimes translated using his English dictionary).
"You win," she tells Manousos. "We save the world."
"An atom bomb," replies Carol.
Yep, angry Carol is back, fresh off the horrors of that betrayal, and she's ready to stop The Joined using whatever means necessary. But how this will actually look remains to be seen. Could Pluribus really go there and actually set off an atomic bomb?
"I have gone through a lot of thoughts in my head," she adds. "I know that they are in the writer’s room right now writing season 2, and I have chosen not to specifically ask that."
"And then, the dynamic I have with the brilliant Carlos-Manuel Vesga playing Manousos, so fun. I’m looking forward to their combative energies, because they both so dramatically are hanging onto their own intentions and secrets that they are both immovable objects when they come up against each other, which is just often comedic, no matter how you go at it! That was a lot of fun, and he’s a tremendous actor."
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