The Pluribus Season 1 Finale Finally Pays Off The Show's Darkest Joke
by Devin Meenan · /FilmSpoilers for all of "Pluribus" season 1 to follow.
The darkest and most unsettling yet hilarious scene in "Pluribus" season 1 came at the end of episode 3, "Grenade." It's here that Carol (Rhea Seehorn) learns firsthand that the hive-minded Others are so desperate to make her happy that they took her flippant request for a live grenade literally. Carol then pushes one of the Others (Robert Bailey Jr.), trying to ask if there's anything they wouldn't give her if she requested it. Eventually, Carol asks if they would even give her an atom bomb. The Other dances around the answer but concedes that, yes, if that's what Carol wanted, they would give it to her.
This scene is there to show that the Others' morality is deeply off; they prioritize keeping people happy over preventing destruction. (See also: They're capable of eating dead human remains, "Soylent Green"-style, but they won't harvest plants.) However, the discussion is also a Chekhov's Gun (er, bomb), meaning when an author sets up a minor detail in a story to come back later. The tell is, when the Other eventually asks Carol if she wants an atom bomb, she replies: "I'm going to have to get back to you on that."
In "Pluribus" season 1 finale, "La Chica o El Mundo," that's what she does. The episode/season ends with Carol, who's learned the Others are about a month away from adding her to the hive-mind, returning home from her world tour with Zosia (Karolina Wydra). Presented with the two options of either submitting or resisting, Carol has decided she will help Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) defeat the Others after all. Carol and Zosia arrive via helicopter carrying a large wooden package. What's in the box, Manousos asks. Carol answers that it's an atom bomb.
What will Carol use the nuke for in Pluribus season 2?
By following up on the first atomic Chekhov's Gun, "Pluribus" has now planted another. The laws of narrative causality dictate Carol's new bomb will be a plot device in season 2 and, I'd bet, at some point it will go off. That could take some time; consider how in "Pluribus" creator Vince Gilligan's previous show "Breaking Bad," Walter White (Bryan Cranston) first suggested poisoning someone with ricin in season 2, but he didn't actually do so until the series finale.
For now, though, we're left with several questions. Why does Carol want the bomb? Is it for self-defense? She knows the Others will soon be able to assimilate her, so maybe she's going to threaten to blow the bomb up if they try? Or perhaps she's planning a murder-suicide contingency? Since she's allied with Manousos now, is the bomb instead going to be used to attack the Others?
It should be noted that the atomic bomb has some strong ties to the setting of "Pluribus." The show primarily takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (The real mayor of ABQ even cameoed on "Pluribus.") As you might remember from Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," the atomic bomb was developed in New Mexico at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; the first ever atomic test ("Trinity") was even conducted in the state. To this day, Los Alamos is in operation, and it lies about 90 minutes north of ABQ. Could New Mexico's state history have inspired the atom bomb story on "Pluribus"? We'll have to wait and see if this tale ends with a similar explosion.
"Pluribus" season 1 is streaming on Apple TV.