There’s finally a little bit of sunshine in Pluribus

Things might finally be looking up. In the penultimate episode of Pluribus’ first season, Carol (Rhea Seehorn) actually seems to be happy. That’s a pretty big deal for someone the show describes as the “most miserable person on Earth,” who also happens to be living through an odd sort of apocalyptic scenario that she is desperately fighting to stop. But what does her change in demeanor mean for the show as it moves toward the finale?

Welcome to our weekly Verge-subscriber discussion of Pluribus, the new sci-fi series on Apple TV from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. The show follows Carol as one of a handful of “survivors” on Earth after a virus of unknown origin turns the rest of the world into an interconnected hive mind. The hive is cheerful, Carol is not, and all kinds of drama follows. Each week, I present a handful of questions from the latest episode to get a conversation started, so feel free to chime away in the comments with your own thoughts, theories, and questions. We’re getting very close to the end now, so naturally spoilers follow for the first eight episodes of Pluribus.

This week’s episode actually started with Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) who, after a dangerous accident in a rainforest at the end of episode seven, finds himself waking up in a hospital in Panama. He is not happy about it — even though the hive saved his life. That’s because Manousos absolutely despises the hive and has thus far refused any help from them, going so far as to torch his beloved car to keep them away from it. In this case, he tries to make up for the medical help by paying a nonexistent hospital bill. Then he’s off driving an ambulance to continue his trek to see Carol in New Mexico.

Carol, meanwhile, is living it up. After spending quite a bit of time on her own, she’s now hanging out with her hive mind chaperone Zosia (Karolina Wydra) as if they were close friends. They go for hikes and massages; they play cards together. Along the way, Carol learns a few more important things about the hive. For one, they communicate using some form of electric current, and it happens unconsciously, “like breathing.” They also have kept the trains running in order to transport food, they sleep huddled together in large spaces like hockey arenas to conserve resources, and they’re building some kind of giant telescope in order to send a signal back to Kepler-22b, where the virus originated.

Perhaps most importantly, she learns that one of the reasons Zosia is spending so much time with her is to keep Carol busy and make her forget about saving the world from the hive. So here we are, one episode away from the finale, and I have a few lingering questions I’m thinking about as we approach the end.

How real is Carol’s happiness?

At first, it seemed pretty genuine. After being so lonely, Carol was starving just to get a hug, and having a lot of personal time with Zosia seemed to do her good. But once she learned the hive are trying to distract her, Carol’s behavior changed — at least initially. So now I’m wondering if her current cheerful disposition is a front so that the hive don’t get suspicious that she is once again investigating them. Then again, things take a very unexpected turn at the end, so maybe I’m wrong, and her feelings toward the hive — or at least Zosia — have changed.

Do individuals still exist in the hive?

It sure seemed like the answer was no before, but now it’s a little less clear. After some struggles, Zosia was eventually able to speak using “I” instead of “we,” which points to the possibility that, somewhere deep inside, individual humans still exist within the hive.

Will Carol and Manousos clash?

At the end of the episode, Zosia tells Carol that “you’re going to have a visitor.” So it seems that the finale will finally include the two hive skeptics meeting up. But they also both have very strong personalities, so I wonder how well they’ll actually work together when it comes to saving the world (if Carol even wants to save it anymore).