The following contains spoilers for Pluribus Episode 4, “Please, Carol.” Stream it now on Apple TV.
As Carol continues to navigate the murky waters of this new reality in Pluribus, she makes discoveries at every turn. In Episode 3, “Grenade,” she learned the lengths to which the people in the collective-controlled mind would go to please her. So much so that one confirms even if she were to ask for an atom bomb, they’d get one for her. They wouldn’t be happy about it. But they would, as he says, “move heaven and Earth to make her happy.”
She makes another crucial discovery in Episode 4, “Please, Carol,” that could blow the whole situation wide open. Based on this knowledge, Carol decides to do something risky, even dangerous, which results in a horrifying situation that could end in tragedy.
In Pluribus, the Hive Mind Can’t Lie
Carol leaning down to talk to Zosia while holding a grenade in Pluribus.Image via Apple TV
As Carol continues to talk to and learn from various people within the hive mind, or rather human bodies representing the same collective thoughts, she starts to understand more. It dawns on her that they don’t just want to make her happy; they can’t say no to her, and they can’t lie to her either. It’s not that they don’t want to; they downright can’t. She could ask them anything and, like it or not, they must answer truthfully. At least she thinks this is the case.
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To test the theory before she takes things a step further, Carol pulls aside a random worker (played by Somebody Somewhere’s Jeff Hiller) to grill him. She asks him about her books and if they like them. Her reasoning for doing so has selfish intentions as well. She wants to know what Helen thought of her books.
With an awkward smile, he tries to deflect. “Helen loved you very much,” he explains, then reminds her that she told them Helen was off limits. But she gives them an exception this one time. He reveals Helen thought they were harmless cotton candy. As for the last novel, Carol’s partner only believed it was “meh.” It hurts Carol to hear the truth, but this also confirms her theory.
Now, it’s time to really test it. She visits Zosia in the hospital and outright asks if there’s a way to reverse the joining. Zosia dances around the question, avoiding an answer. “We want so much to please you, Carol,” she says, “but we can’t answer questions like that.” Her non-answer confirms to Carol that it is possible. There is a way to stop herself from joining the hive mind. Now that she knows she can stop what seemed to be her inevitable future, she will do whatever it takes to find out how and get it done. So now, it’s time to get to work.
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It’s unclear at first what Carol is doing, but it’s understood that it’s related to this discovery. She breaks into a lab at the hospital and frantically searches, starting with a book about dosage calculations. She looks up the page on Thiopental Sodium, a short-acting form of anesthesia, then grabs a few bottles.
She tells a doctor who catches her there that she wants heroin or some other type of opioid. She makes it seem as though she’s looking for an escape from the horrors that are going on. He warns her of the dangers of using drugs and their addictive properties, but happily points her in the direction of what she wants.
When she gets home, she injects herself with the sodium solution, then sits on her couch in front of a tripod-mounted camcorder and waits. Fast-forwarding in time, she wakes up groggy on the couch at an undisclosed time later. She rewinds and plays back the video and finds her going on a tangent for seemingly hours, rambling on about anything and everything. She’s spilling her guts. Bingo.
Pluribus Episode 4 Leaves Zosia’s Fate Unknown
Karolina Wydra as Zosia on PluribusImage via Apple TV
It appears Carol’s little self-test was to determine if the concoction she injected would have the desired effect, and it did. She visits Zosia in the hospital and wheels her outside under the guise of getting some sunshine.
While in the elevator, she secretly injects the solution into her IV. After a few minutes, Zosia becomes groggy, now in the same state Carol was when she took it at home. Zosia is in the right compromised frame of mind now to disclose the information that Carol needs.
She pleads with her hive-mind companion to tell her how to reverse the joining, how to maintain her agency, and stop this hive-mind behavior. Zosia might be incapacitated, but her mind is still there and active, and thus, others feel what she’s feeling. She’s trying to find a way not to say anything, and her groggy state is helping since she can barely speak anyway. Carol, in her desperate state, manipulates Zosia. “Is this making you sad, not giving me what I want?” she asks.
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But then, the hive mind approaches. “Please Carol, please Carol, please Carol,” they all say in unison as anyone nearby approaches, sensing what is happening to Zosia. They can’t physically stop Carol from doing what she’s doing.
“You can’t touch me!” Carol yells. “I have agency, and you cannot interfere,” she reminds them of the control she still has over her life. They have to keep her happy, after all. Carol even handcuffs herself to Zosia so that they can’t tear her away, even if they tried. She is intent on getting the answer she needs.
They are clearly panicked and distraught, begging her to leave them be. Zosia is unable to lie, but it seems like she is held back from speaking, not only from the drugs but also from the hive mind. It all becomes too much, and Zosia passes out and goes into cardiac arrest. She’s dying.
They perform compressions as Carol stares on in horror. She wanted to force Zosia to tell her the truth, but she didn’t want to hurt her. Is Zosia dead? We’ll have to wait until Episode 5 to find out.
The Apple TV Show Has One of the Most Powerful Characters on Television
Rhea Seehorn as Carol on PluribusImage via Apple TV
Now that Carol knows they can’t lie to her, making her even more powerful than she thought, it will only be a matter of time before she meets others and continues to ask questions. Even if Zosia has sadly died (it’s still possible she’s alive), Carol can approach anyone and ask the same question. If she works on the questions the right way, or even works with the other 12 individuals, she could get closer and closer to the truth.
What’s interesting about the dynamic is that Zosia, and thus everyone in the collective mind, truly believes they are doing the right thing. In joining them, they would be helping Carol. “We’ve been you, but you have never been us,” Zosia tells Carol early on in the episode when Carol tries to reason with her.
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Carol recalls a story of her childhood when her mother put her in a conversion camp after suspecting (or learning) that she was gay. Carol likens this to what Zosia is trying to do to her, making her into someone she’s not. But Zosia points out that it goes both ways, and Carol’s insistence on trying to break the hive mind is trying to change her, too.
Whoever might be right, Carol has found a gaping hole that can help her. She could bring virtually any hive minder into a lab with her and ask them to walk her through a step-by-step scientific process to reverse the hive mind. Every single hive minder would have tremendous scientific knowledge, gleaned from the scientists who are part of their collective consciousness. She could have someone by her side to answer yes-or-no questions as she tries to conduct the experiment herself.
But getting there might not be as easy as it seems. The hive mind is smart, intimidating, and knows how to protect itself. This was evidenced way back in Episode 1 of the biggest hit show on streaming right now, when the two scientists were seen skillfully spreading the virus with what seemed like malicious intent. Just as Carol can find crafty ways to manipulate their rules, they can find clever ways to skirt around their obligations to her.
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They can’t harm her, and they can’t lie to her. They have to keep her happy and well cared for. But they also need to protect their interests and the hive mind’s strength at all costs. This puts both sides in a challenging (and powerful) position, at odds with one another.
Carol has now tested them to the max, willing to drug and manipulate the person sent to be her trusted companion to get what she wants and end the existence of the collective mind. She won’t stop at anything, but maybe neither will they.