This article contains major spoilers for Pluribus season 1’s finale.
Pluribus season 1 ends its run not only with some intriguing reveals about the “Others” but also highlighting how Carol is finally on the right path.
Before Manousos shows up at her door in the Apple TV sci-fi show‘s finale, Carol seems to become more and more complacent. Her loneliness gets the best of her and she starts missing Zosia. Owing to this, in the finale, she surprisingly takes the Others’ side instead of sticking to her previous hostile beliefs about them and agreeing with Manousos’ worldview.
She even abandons Manousos, believing that she understands the Others more than him. However, after finally spending some alone time with Zosia, she realizes that she was wrong about the Others.
Why Carol Returns To Manousos In Pluribus’ Ending
Manousos traveled all the way from Paraguay to meet Carol because he believed she was the only one on his side. To his disappointment, Carol seems to have had a change of heart about the Others before he reaches her. He even learns everything about her relationship with Zosia and realizes she is in love with her.
Carol initially tries to stay in denial. However, when it eventually comes to choosing between Zosia and Manousos, she goes for the former. With what follows, Zosia and Carol spend a lot of time together, and, for once, Carol feels happy again.
To her dismay, her happiness is short-lived as Zosia reveals that they have found a way to “infect” her by using her frozen eggs.
Carol previously felt safe around the Others because she was told that they would have to extract her DNA from her bone marrow to find a way to infect her. Since bone marrow extraction is an invasive procedure, they could not do it without her consent.
After talking to Zosia, Carol realizes that they have found a workaround and will soon be able to enforce the infection on her. This helps her understand that the Others are driven by a solid “spreading imperative.” Their sole purpose is to spread the infection.
After receiving the alien signal from a distant planet called Kepler 22b, the Others also hope to spread it to other parts of the universe and share their “gift” by transmitting it into outer space.
Since this realization proves to her that Zosia does not really love her and was hanging out with her to convince her to join them, Carol snaps out of her trance and returns to joining forces with Manousos.
Why Carol Returns With An Atom Bomb
In an early sequence from Pluribus episode 3, Carol jokingly discusses with one of the Others whether they would be willing to give her an atom bomb. To her surprise, they agree that they would. This establishes that individual survival comes further down the Others’ priority list. If one had to nail down their priorities, they would likely be as follows:
- Spreading the infection.
- Pleasing the immune individuals.
- Ensuring their own individual survival.
Pluribus‘ finale pays off Carol’s atom bomb discussion from the early episode when she returns home with an atom bomb. This establishes that she finally sees how the Others are not human at all. They lack the ability to love and also do not have the basic human urge to ensure their individual survival. Since they are only programmed to spread their “gift,” they are not human at all.
Their niceness, too, is a mere weapon that allows them to convince the immune “survivors” that they mean well. When Carol realizes this, she sees how Manousos was right on the money when he said it would be better to kill them all than let them spread their infection to them.
The 8613.0 kHz Radio Frequency Explained: How Manousos Uses It Against The “Others”
Manousos was ahead of the curve even in the earlier episodes of the Vince Gilligan Apple TV sci-fi show when he skimmed through all radio frequencies. He learned that one specific frequency, 8613.0 kHz, was active and transmitting a signal of some sort. He does not seem to realize what the signal means, but figures out that it connects to the “invasion.”
Although Pluribus does not reveal much about the radio signal, it is hard not to believe that it somehow keeps the infected people in their hive state of mind.
The RNA virus that spread primarily through human saliva in Pluribus‘ episode 1 is not the only thing that makes the Others a part of the combined consciousness. It seems to merely serve as the hardware for it. Once “installed” in the body, the radio signal serves as the software that synchronizes individual minds into a shared cognitive network, aka the hivemind.
The radio signal that Manousos discovers on the 8613.0 kHz channel is what keeps the Others hypnotized and glued together. Owing to this, any sudden disruptive sounds, like Manousos’ scream, temporarily “disconnect” the Others from the “software.”
How Carol & Manousos Can Reverse The Happiness Apocalypse
Manousos cleverly finds what seems to be driving the hivemind. However, towards the end of the season, he struggles to find a way to learn more about radio signals and how they work. Pluribus has previously established that Carol has an active imagination as a fiction author. When she dialed in and tried to find a way to cure the “Others,” she almost ended up getting the truth about reversing the pandemic out of Zosia.
Now that she has agreed to team up with Manousos and also has a deadline before the Others find a way to infect her, she will put her thinking abilities to good use.
It will not be long before the two characters will likely realize the radio signal’s connection to the hivemind. Once they do, they will have to find a way to stop the signal, which is likely being transmitted from somewhere on Earth, given how a radio was able to catch it. If they find a way to disrupt the signal, they might be able to get rid of the software that drives the hivemind.
Put simply, in Severance‘s terms, they have to find a way to reintegrate the Others by snapping them out of the signal that is keeping hypnotized.
How Pluribus Season 1 Sets Up Season 2
Pluribus season 1 barely scratches the surface of its storytelling scale. Season 1, for the most part, serves as a transformational journey for Carol where she goes back and forth between accepting the new normal before realizing that the Others are not human anymore. With its slow pace and careful character development, Pluribus season 1 also makes viewers wonder who they should root for before cementing Carol and Manousos as the heroes.
Vince Gilligan has confirmed (via Esquire) he has a 4-season plan for Pluribus.
Now that Carol knows the Others are working on a way to infect her, she will race against time to find a cure. It seems likely that Diabaté, too, will eventually realize everything that is wrong with the Others and join Carol and Manousos. Since the Others in Pluribus are thinking with one combined brain, they might find a new workaround to stop the heroes without actually physically harming them in season 2.
Hopefully, after season 1’s gripping ending, Pluribus season 2 will not take long to arrive.
