Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Spoilers for the entire season 1 of “Pluribus” to follow.
The darkest, most disturbing, and most hilarious scene in Season 1 of “Pluribus” occurred 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 casual request for a live grenade literally. Carol then pushes one of the others (Robert Bailey Jr.), trying to ask him if there’s something they wouldn’t I give it to her if she asks. Finally, Carol asks if they would even give him an atomic 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 morality of the Others is profoundly deteriorated; they prioritize people’s happiness over preventing destruction. (See also: They are capable of eating dead human remains, “Soylent Green” stylebut they won’t harvest plants.) However, discussion is also a Chekhov’s gun (er, bomb), which is when an author sets up a minor detail in a story to return to later. The problem is that when the Other finally asks Carol if she wants an atomic bomb, she responds, “I’m going to have to get back to you on that.”
In the Season 1 finale of “Pluribus,” “La Chica o El Mundo,” that’s what she does. The episode/season ends with Carol, who has learned that the Others are about to add her to the hive mind in about a month, returning home from her world tour with Zosia (Karolina Wydra). Faced with two options: submit or resist, Carol decided she would help Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) defeat the Others after all. Carol and Zosia arrive by helicopter carrying a large wooden package. What’s in the box, asks Manousos. Carol replies that it’s an atomic bomb.
Why will Carol use nuclear weapons in season 2 of Pluribus?
Following on from Chekhov’s first atomic gun, “Pluribus” has now installed another. The laws of narrative causality dictate that Carol’s new bombshell will be a plot device in Season 2 and, I would wager, that at some point it will explode. This might take a while; Consider how, on “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 do it until the series finale.
For now, however, we are left with several questions. Why does Carol want the bomb? Is it to defend yourself? She knows the Others will soon be able to assimilate her, so maybe she’ll threaten to detonate the bomb if they try? Or maybe she’s planning a possible murder-suicide? Since she is now allied with Manousos, will the bomb instead be used to attack the Others?
It should be noted that the atomic bomb has close ties to the setting of “Pluribus.” The show takes place primarily in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (The real mayor of the ABQ even appeared on “Pluribus”.) As you may remember from Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” the atomic bomb was developed in New Mexico at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; the very first atomic test (“Trinity”) was even conducted in the state. As of today, Los Alamos is in operation and is approximately 90 minutes north of ABQ. Could the history of the state of New Mexico have inspired the story of the atomic bomb on “Pluribus”? We’ll have to wait and see if this story ends with a similar explosion.
Season 1 of “Pluribus” is streaming on Apple TV.
