Pluribus has concluded its first season on Apple TV, and audiences are already eager to find out what’s next for Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) as she navigates being one of 13 people immune to an alien hive mind virus that suddenly takes over the world. This pandemic of peace and happiness sees Carol meet plenty of unique characters, such as her designated hive mind “chaperone” Zosia (Karolina Wydra) and fellow survivor Manousos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga). Pluribus Season 1 takes a slow-burn approach to its story; however, Vince Gilligan’s new sci-fi masterpiece succeeds as a thought-provoking dystopian narrative and a layered character study. Season 1 leaves audiences with far more questions than answers, making the wait for Season 2 all the more challenging.
Around two years will likely pass before Pluribus Season 2 premieres on Apple TV, and viewers will be pondering these five unanswered questions the most in the meantime.
5) What Makes the 13 Survivors Immune?
Pluribus establishes early on that only 13 people on Earth are unaffected by the virus, but the show has not yet explained why they are immune. Carol, Manousos, Koumba Diabaté (Samba Schutte), Laxmi (Menik Gooneratne), and the rest of them may share some unique quality. Or, perhaps they avoided the happy virus out of pure luck. Either way, Pluribus Season 1’s hesitancy to clarify what makes the group resistant to the hive mind sets up an even more intriguing exploration of the virus in Season 2 and beyond.
One also has to wonder what the majority of the survivors have been up to in the latter half of Season 1. It’s known that Carol and Manousos are working together to reverse the Joining. Koumba still appears content to live out his lavish fantasy, and Kusimayu (Darinka Arones) decides to join the happy collective. Everyone else’s status is uncertain, so it will be interesting to see if they re-emerge to help Carol and Manousos.
4) What Does Carol Plan to Do With an Atom Bomb?
In Pluribus‘ Season 1 finale, Carol returns to Albuquerque with a giant box and tells Manousos there’s an atom bomb inside. The episode ends before Carol has a chance to explain her plans for such a dangerous weapon, leaving viewers with a wild cliffhanger ahead of Season 2. Assuming a real nuclear weapon is, in fact, inside the box, one can theorize that it works as a deterrent to the Others, who could take drastic measures to infect Carol with the virus. The stakes are now sky-high, as the others have a way to obtain Carol’s stem cells through her frozen eggs. Regardless of what Carol decides to do with the bomb, the scene is a cool nod to the hive’s earlier admission that it would give her an atomic weapon if she asked for one.
3) What Is the Joining’s True Purpose?
Pluribus gradually reveals more details about the mysterious Joining, though its biggest secrets are yet to be unveiled. Derived from an extraterrestrial radio signal, the happy virus spread from rats to humans and escaped a research lab before wreaking havoc across the globe amid the Joining. Numerous moments in the show emphasize that the hive mind has a “biological imperative” to infect every human. However, it’s not certain if its existence serves a greater purpose than acting as a parasite to sustain itself. The alien life forms who broadcast the signal have not made themselves known in Pluribus as of Season 1, but audiences can probably expect to learn more about the Joining’s origin and true goal in later seasons.
2) Who Is the Real Zosia?
Zosia’s introduction in Pluribus Season 1‘s second episode is far from ordinary, as the story finds her in Morocco cleaning up corpses in the wake of the Joining’s destruction. Not much is known about the real Zosia, who, after contracting the alien virus, was hand-picked by the hive to accompany Carol because she resembles the female version of the writer’s Winds of Wycaro protagonist Raban. Through her conversations with Zosia, Carol manages to uncover small details about the real individual’s life, such as her upbringing in Poland, her love of mango ice cream, and her deceased romantic partner.
An entirely different person lies beneath Zosia’s agreeable and charismatic hive mind persona, and Pluribus has hardly scratched the surface of who she is when not under the influence of the virus. If Pluribus takes the anticipated route of freeing Zosia from the hive and unearthing her true self, it will be fascinating to discover the character’s backstory. Moreover, Zosia’s liberation would greatly change her dynamic with Carol, who has developed romantic feelings for her. Zosia is already the best supporting character in Pluribus, and there are so many exciting possibilities for her arc.
1) Can the Joining Be Reversed?
The most prominent question posed by Pluribus Season 1 involves how to reverse the Joining. Carol almost immediately strives to figure out how to end Earth’s subjugation, even directly asking Zosia how to undo the Joining — though Carol does not receive an answer. Meanwhile, Manousos’s experiments with radio frequencies enable him to disrupt the alien signal in the Season 1 finale. Yet, his effort only causes the Others to seize, as they did when they were initially infected.
Despite some promising leads, no one in Pluribus knows how to cure Earth’s population of its forced happiness, neither individually nor en masse. Fortunately, Carol and Manousos’s alliance means that the show should answer this question sooner rather than later. Pluribus Season 2 or later should delve deeper into the Joining and finally reveal the all-important key to defeating it.
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