It’s a good thing we already know the second season of it For many On the road. Because the season finale of the show – a sci-fi drama on Apple TV, directed by Very bad Creator Vince Gilligan explained that things are just getting started. This episode brought together a number of important themes, but more importantly, it opened up new lines of potential (literally) questioning for what comes next.
Spoilers to follow for the first season of Pluribus.
First, a little reminder of how we got here. Inciting incident For many It was the release of a virus of unknown origin, but extraterrestrial, that transformed almost all of Earth’s human population into an interconnected hive mind. The cell is peaceful, so much so that even killing an insect or picking an apple from a tree, it is not physically harmed by negative emotions. There are about ten people who have not been affected by the virus. Prominent among these are an American woman named Carol (Rhea Seehorn) and a Paraguayan man named Manosos (Carlos Manuel Vesga). For most of the season, the pair are physically separated, but united in their vehement opposition to the existence of the Hive, while trying to figure out a way to “save” the world by making it as it was before.
The ending sees these two finally get to meet each other – but things have changed for Carol. In the penultimate episode, her feelings for the cell begin to weaken, primarily as she grows closer to her companion Zosia (Karolina Wydra). In fact, by the time the finale begins, they are a complete couple. It’s a far cry from the show’s early days, when Carol was so hostile to the cell that they abandoned her and the city of Albuquerque for safety reasons.
But Carol’s new vision for the cell, and Zosia in particular, means things aren’t quite going the way Manousos expected. Instead of finding a like-minded companion who would help him “save the world,” he found a version of Carol who was reluctant to even talk to him. The dynamic is very similar For manyThe second episode, where Carol fails to convince the rest of the survivors of the necessity of working to restore the world to what it was. Only this time the roles are reversed. Combine this dynamic with the fact that Carol and Manousos are both very stubborn people and use Google Translate to communicate, well, the meeting wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. After the first time the two spoke, Manousos muttered to himself, “Well, it’s going well.”
However, by the end of the episode, the two seem to be pretty much on the same page. This is because Carol learns that despite her budding romance with Zosia, the cell is still working hard to bring her into the fold (the episode actually begins by showing another survivor joining the cell via a new procedure). It all culminates in Carol receiving a large package that turns out to be an atomic bomb. I guess she wasn’t kidding earlier in the season.
The first season of For many It was an educational experience. Although there are plenty of post-apocalyptic shows out there, nothing quite compares to this bizarre, psychopath-infected version of Earth. And so, over the course of nine episodes, we see Carol emotionally dealing with her new reality, but also using that time to learn as much as she can about how the cell works. This in turn helps us, the audience, understand what is going on. All stories require some sort of scene setting, however For many“The unique nature demands that much more.
But the atomic bomb reveal at the end suggests that things are heading in a different direction in season two. I don’t expect For many To suddenly become a fast-paced show; Its measured pace is part of its appeal and allows it to delve into the nitty-gritty of the world. But many remaining lines and questions require more work than just learning more about the cell. Manoussos may have discovered a way to extract individuals from the hive using radio signals; The cell is in the midst of building a “giant antenna” to communicate with anyone or whomever sent the virus in the first place; The remaining survivors have to decide whether they want to join or not; The cell needs to find a solution to the impending food crisis; And oh, there’s that bombshell that Carol may or may not have a plan for.