Pluribus on Apple TV is in full swing, with Episode 4 “Please, Carol” revealing more about the hive mind and Carol’s (Rhea Seehorn) potential to stop herself from joining, even possibly ending the situation for good. But in her desperation to do so, or at least discover how, she may have gone too far.
Zosia (Karolina Wydra) has been Carol’s appointed companion from the start and has always treated her kindly. Of course, she doesn’t truly have a choice but to serve Carol. But Carol manipulated her in such a tragic way that the bond could be severed for good. That said, it reveals to Carol that she has a fighting chance.
Carol Learns the Hive Mind Can’t Lie to Her
In Episode 3, “Grenade,” Carol learns the extent to which the hive mind will go to make her happy when she sarcastically asks for a grenade, and Zosia brings her an active one. This results in an explosion that injures Zosia when she instinctively lunges to protect Carol. Zosia winds up in the hospital, and Carol feels tremendously guilty. She learns from another hive minder, however, that they would go even further if Carol asked them, reluctantly admitting at her urging that they would procure an atom bomb for her if it would make her happy.
While visiting Zosia in the hospital after she begins to recover, Carol asks if there’s a way to reverse the joining. Zosia is visibly uncomfortable and says that, as much as they want to help Carol, she can’t answer that question. But her lack of response is an answer in itself. After testing another random hive minder, played by Jeff Hiller, Carol realizes they will do anything for her and cannot lie to her. They might try to deflect, even massage the truth to soften a blow. But if she asks them a question, they have to tell her the truth.
However, Zosia is crafty, and she will find ways to withhold rather than disclose, as she did in this instance. So, Carol needs to figure out a way to put Zosia in such a state that she has no choice but to talk. But how can she do this? Carol figures it out, but her desperate move may have gone too far.
Carol Drugging Zosia Was a Step Too Far
Carol sneaks into the hospital lab and steals a vial of Thiopental Sodium, a short-acting anesthetic. After reading up on dosage calculations, she runs a test. She injects herself, then sits on the couch in front of a mounted camcorder to see what happens. When she comes to, presumably hours later, she watches the footage that was captured. She is clearly out of it and rambling on and on. She’s speaking truths, including admitting that she’s sexually attracted to Zosia. This is the outcome she wanted. Her plan? To do the same to Zosia.
She returns to the hospital and tells Zosia she’ll take her outside in a wheelchair for some fresh air and sunshine. While in the elevator, she adds the solution to Zosia’s IV, then waits. It only takes a few minutes, by the time they’re outside, for Zosia to feel as though something is wrong. She can’t put words together, and she’s feeling awfully groggy.
Carol immediately begins pleading with Zosia to reveal how to stop and reverse the hive mind. Is it a drug? A chemical of some kind? What does she need to do? All Zosia can manage to say is “no” over and over again, but Carol persists. Slowly, people around her start approaching, feeling what Zosia is feeling. “Please, Carol, please, Carol,” they keep repeating, speaking what’s in Zosia’s head that she can’t articulate. Carol handcuffs herself to the woman and declares her agency as an individual, reminding the people they can’t touch her, insisting that they back up. They do. But they keep going. “Please, Carol, please, Carol.”
The scene in one of Apple TV’s best shows is unsettling. It becomes even more so when Zosia is in visible distress. She keels over, and the others tell Carol that she has gone into cardiac arrest, asking for permission to try to revive her. Carol is stunned, realizing she might have gone too far. She never intended to hurt Zosia. They begin chest compressions, but it’s unclear if Zosia survives.
Zosia Didn’t Deserve It, But Carol Has No Choice
It’s a complicated situation. While it’s easy to say Carol went too far, did she truly have any other choice? Zosia told her earlier that they could be as close as weeks away from discovering a way to force her and the other 12 immune individuals around the world to join the hive mind. The clock is ticking.
Knowing for certain there is a way to reverse it and restore the world to its original state, however, it makes sense that Carol would go to whatever lengths necessary to figure out how to make it happen. With that said, Zosia is still a person, even if she doesn’t have control of her own mind. And Carol manipulated her in a terrible way, risking the woman’s life so she could get what she wanted.
In an earlier conversation, Carol reminds Zosia of a situation when she was a teenager, since she knows Zosia knows the story. Carol’s mother put her into a conversion camp when she was 16, as Carol was discovering herself and coming to terms with the fact that she was a lesbian. Zosia knows how that made Carol feel, her mother trying to turn her into something she wasn’t. Zosia is trying to do the same thing to her, she claims.
But Zosia tells Carol it goes both ways, claiming that Carol is trying to make Zosia like herself, too. “We’ve been you,” she says, “but you have never been us.” In an earlier episode, Zosia tells Carol that they see the situation as if Carol is drowning, and they are trying to offer her a life preserver. She has good intentions. But can the situation be likened to when Carol was a teenager and her mother tried to change her mindset, making her into something she wasn’t?
Either way, Carol’s decision could have killed Zosia. It’s unclear how the hive mind will react to this. While they are obligated to serve Carol and keep her happy, they also need to protect their existence as a whole at all costs. This puts them in a precarious position. Making Carol upset not only goes against their mission, but it could also put others in danger. Carol learned earlier that if she loses her temper, the hive mind can become frozen, convulsing violently, a condition that has already killed millions.
Carol, played by Rhea Seehorn in one of her best performances, didn’t mean to harm Zosia. But based on the outcome of this situation, it might make her think twice about the lengths she’ll go to stop this and who she will involve. Zosia no longer has control over her own life. But she’s still human and didn’t deserve what happened to her. How it plays out going forward will indicate whether Carol even has a chance against the hive mind, or if she may have no choice but to relent and join them. Stream Pluribus on Apple TV.
- Release Date
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November 6, 2025
- Network
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Apple TV
- Directors
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Adam Bernstein, Zetna Fuentes, Melissa Bernstein
- Writers
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Ariel Levine