Vince Gilligan<\/a> and his writers clearly establish the Joined as the villains\u2014or explain in any meaningful detail how the Joining works?<\/p>\nI think I\u2019ve made my position on this alien infestation pretty clear. And if not, I hope my use of the word \u201cinfestation\u201d here is clarifying. I believe the Joined have good intentions and that they tell the truth as they know it. I also think this doesn\u2019t matter\u2014which is why I also don\u2019t care much about the particulars of the Joining. You can be the \u201chappiest\u201d entity in the universe, but if your life consists of working all day and then heading straight to sleep\u2014without taking a few hours to yourself to read a romantasy novel or watch The Golden Girls\u2014then that is, objectively, A Bad Thing. Individuality matters. For me, what happens to Kusimayu is chilling.<\/p>\n
As for the way Pluribus has been telling its story\u2026I feel like we had these same arguments about Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul? Look, Gilligan loves process. He loves to create impossible situations for his character, and then to explore the ramifications in full, rather than rushing to a resolution. He likes to watch people think their way through problems\u2014and so do I.<\/p>\n
The problems Carol faces in this episode are trifold. After the opening credits, we jump back to the Day 60 arrival of Manousos in Albuquerque, where he immediately creates three complications for Carol: 1.) the language barrier between them; 2.) the vast difference between how radical they want to be in their approach to the Joined; and 3.) the deep fear within Carol that the arrival of Manousos means saying goodbye to Zosia.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take these one by one, starting with the language barrier, which generates some sublime comedy. The credited writers for this episode are Alison Tatlock and Gordon Smith (the latter also directed), but it\u2019s very Vince Gilligan to consider every potential snag his characters might face and then to come up with entertaining results. In this case, when Manousos pulls up to Carol\u2019s house in his ambulance, after they\u2019ve exhausted their respective English and Spanish vocabularies, Carol pulls out her cell phone and opens an unexpectedly annoying translator app.<\/p>\n
The whole business with the app is hilarious. First of all, it\u2019s not entirely accurate. The app can\u2019t determine that Carol means \u201clistening device\u201d when she says \u201cbug.\u201d (A confused Manousos: \u201cInsecto?\u201d) When it can\u2019t figure out a translation, it inserts the phrase \u201cunknown word or name.\u201d And it won\u2019t\u2026stop\u2026translating. Even when a paranoid Manousos grabs her phone and tosses it down a storm drain, we can still hear it babbling away.<\/p>\n
This brings us to the second complication, which is that Carol sees the Joining as a problem to be solved eventually, while Manousos sees it as an emergency. He doesn\u2019t understand why Carol would be using a phone the Others could monitor. Her best, most reasonable explanation for why she engages with them at all is that she still thinks of the Joined as humans, who can be saved. Manousos though says these \u201cweirdos\u201d are better off dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carol\u2019s lack of urgency is also due to her having learned to trust the Joined\u2014or at least to trust Zosia. She believes these folks are fundamentally harmless, given their \u201cno kill\u201d ethos. (Manousos, unmoved: \u201cIsn\u2019t it evil to value a man the same as an ant?\u201d) Also, since she\u2019s forbidden them from harvesting her stem cells, Carol\u2019s sure she\u2019s in no danger of being absorbed into the hive mind against her will.<\/p>\n
The yawning gap between how Carol and Manousos intend to approach this crisis provides some rich drama. Carol is understandably wary of the machete-wielding Manousos, who insists they hide from the Joined by talking in his ambulance. (Carol: \u201cNo, we talk in the casa.\u201d) Carol also really wants Manousos to see that her new friends aren\u2019t so bad\u2026which is why her heart sinks when he finds a motion sensor she wasn\u2019t aware of stashed inside her liquor cabinet. Carol learns from Zosia that the sensor was installed by Helen to make sure Carol wasn\u2019t sneaking booze when they were going through fertility treatments. But this explanation hardly placates Manousos, who is now also very curious about Carol\u2019s chummy relationship with her \u201cchaperone.\u201d<\/p>\n
This brings us to complication three and to the point where this episode\u2019s drama intensifies to \u201charrowing.\u201d After Carol banishes Manousos to a neighbor\u2019s house, she panics when she sees him over there talking to Zosia. As is the collective\u2019s way, Zosia tells Manousos \u201ctodo\u201d (\u201ceverything\u201d) about their relationship\u2026because, after all, the Joined \u201clove all jerks the same.\u201d The situation then gets worse when Manousos attempts an experiment. He screams in the face of an Other named Rick, then uses his radio and the unique signal he found back in Paraguay to soothe Rick and to try to coax some humanity back into him. (Meanwhile, back at Carol\u2019s house, Zosia is convulsing. It\u2019s all quite frightening.)<\/p>\n
The plan doesn\u2019t work. But for Manousos, it\u2019s a solid start. As for Carol? She\u2019s not ready to accept that Manousos\u2019s aggressive presence in Albuquerque now means Zosia (and everyone else) will leave again. Nor is she ready to engage with Manousos\u2019s pithy challenge: \u201cDo you want to save the world or get the girl?\u201d It\u2019s more complicated than that. Manousos feels he\u2019s lost everything. Carol still has something\u2014someone\u2014to cling to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLa Chica O El Mundo\u201d takes a couple of unexpected turns at the end. First, Carol leaves Albuquerque for an extended vacation with Zosia, visiting a hot spring, a beach, a luxury urban hotel, and a ski lodge. They look to be having a great time in their little bubble of abundance, shielded from the emptiness of the world just outside their range of vision.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s trouble in paradise. During a conversation at the ski lodge, Carol senses a hesitation in some of Zosia\u2019s answers about the future. After further probing, Carol learns the Joined are actively planning to convert her. They can access her stem cells from the eggs she froze with Helen, and they\u2019re about a month away (or maybe two or three) from figuring out how to make them usable, at which point Carol will Join. \u201cIf you loved me you wouldn\u2019t do this,\u201d Carol says. Zosia replies, \u201cWe have to do this because we love you.\u201d She then adds, unconvincingly, \u201cBecause I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We close on a cliffhanger, as Zosia deposits Carol and a big crate back in Albuquerque, via helicopter. Carol tells Manousos, \u201cYou win. We save the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s in the crate? Oh, just an atom bomb. We\u2019ll have to wait for season two to learn how Carol plans to use it\u2014if she has a plan at all. But we don\u2019t need to wonder why she\u2019s feeling so apocalyptic. We can see it in the stricken look she gives to Zosia before she steps off the helicopter and says goodbye\u2026perhaps forever.<\/p>\n
Just consider Carol\u2019s history. Think of her as a teen, glowering her way through conversion camp. Think about her family, shaming her so profoundly that as an adult Carol continues to hide who she is from her fans. Think about this persistent pessimist being lucky enough to find a wife who understands her moods\u2014and then losing her in the Joining. And now here\u2019s Zosia, who outwardly affirms Carol while secretly planning to change her. Imagine how devastating all of this must be. With Zosia, Carol insists\u2014sincerely\u2014that she\u2019s the best, happiest version of herself. But it\u2019s still not enough. Damn it all.<\/p>\n
Stray observations\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 There\u2019s some fine visual storytelling in the sequence where Manousos tries to make amends to Carol by retrieving her phone from the storm drain, using his machete to attract the phone\u2019s magnetic charging case. (There\u2019s also some good comedy, as the phone translates his mumbling: \u201cNine thousand kilometers for this shit,\u201d followed by, \u201cShut your trap!\u201d)
\n\u2022 There\u2019s some more fine visual storytelling in the scene where Carol grills Zosia about her Manousos encounter. Behind Carol\u2019s head, entirely unremarked upon, we see a flash from the ambulance\u2019s lights, as Manousos goes off to find an Other to yell at.
\n\u2022 Because Manousos has isolated himself, he\u2019s never spoken to any non-Joined besides Carol. He\u2019s surprised to learn that not only are they uninterested in helping her, they openly find her irksome. (\u201cScrew you too, Laxmi!\u201d) After abashedly admitting she\u2019s not well-liked, Carol tells the dour purist Manousos, \u201cBut I bet they\u2019d love your sparkling personality.\u201d
\n\u2022 This goes unexplained, but I\u2019m going to assume that Manousos\u2019s conversation with Zosia has a lot to do with why he shifts from \u201cthey should all die\u201d to trying to save Rick.
\n\u2022 I\u2019m not entirely sure what to make of Manousos, who can come across as obnoxiously single-minded. (The scene where he snaps his fingers at Carol to request assistance doesn\u2019t exactly coat him in glory.) Deep down, he does seem to be a thoughtful and sensitive person. But is he open to changing his mind? During Carol\u2019s 14 days away, do you think he asks the Joined for any drone deliveries?
\n\u2022 Without persuasive evidence, I can\u2019t think of the Joined as malevolent. They\u2019re a nuisance, yes. To put this in Fantastic Four terms, they\u2019re like the planet-eating alien Galactus, who has a biological need to feed. Unlike Galactus, the Joined care about the organisms on the worlds they consume. The problem is that they refuse to accept individuality as a preferable alternative to assimilation. We can talk more about the metaphorical implications when the show returns. Until then, kiddos\u2026be yourselves.<\/p>\n
Noel Murray is a contributor to The A.V. Club.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s start with the cold open\u2014emphasis on the \u201ccold.\u201d The Pluribus season-one finale, titled \u201cLa Chica O El…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-208621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}