Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) goes full detective mode in episode 4 of Pluribus. Armed with blunt questioning (but tragically no deerstalker hat or magnifying glass), she uncovers a major revelation: The Joining of the Others’ hive mind can be reversed.
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So, how did Carol find this out, and what does this mean going forward? Let’s break it down.
Carol learns that the Others cannot lie.
In episode 4, titled “Please, Carol,” Carol sits down for a frank chat with one of the Others named Larry (Somebody Somewhere‘s Emmy–winning Jeff Hiller). Throughout the scene, she asks him some tough questions about her relationship with her partner, Helen (Miriam Shor). What did Helen think of her Winds of Wycaro books? Did she think Carol’s unpublished novel Bitter Chrysalis was actually any good?
Drawing on the Others’ hive mind, which contains all of Helen’s memories, Larry reluctantly gives Carol some hard truths. Helen thought that Winds of Wycaro was “harmless,” the literary equivalent of “cotton candy.” She also only thought Bitter Chrysalis was “fine.” In fact, she hadn’t even finished reading Carol’s draft.
The conversation with Larry is a painful one, with Carol picking away at her grief about Helen. Yet it’s also useful: Thanks to Carol’s insistence that Larry answer her, even if it’s an answer that will harm her, she learns that the Others are incapable of telling a lie.
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She decides to use that discovery against Zosia (Karolina Wydra), still in the hospital following episode 3’s grenade explosion. Carol flat-out asks whether there’s a way to reverse the Joining. When Zosia waffles, telling Carol the Others “can’t answer questions like that,” Carol knows she’s onto something.
“Your non-answer is my answer,” Carol reasons. But how can she get Zosia to spill the Others’ secrets?
Carol uses sodium thiopental, aka “truth serum,” against Zosia.
The answer to Carol’s quandary? Drugs!
She raids the hospital stash for sodium thiopental, a barbiturate that serves as a general anesthetic. The drug lowers inhibition, making it a kind of “truth serum,” as evidenced by Carol’s test injection on herself. Within minutes, Carol loses any of her composed grouchiness. She begins dancing around her living room, sobbing about Helen, and even doing dramatic readings of the Wycaro books. (She’s right, these books should be a movie.)
But most fascinating of all is when she reveals what she truly thinks of Zosia — that she’s “so goddamn fuckable.” If the sodium thiopental can get Carol to reveal her deep-kept secret that she’s attracted to one of the Others, then surely it can get Zosia to tell her how to reverse the Joining, right?
Not quite. A drugged Zosia manages to hold off on telling Carol the truth, instead going into cardiac arrest. But her panic, and that of all the Others begging Carol to stop, is proof enough that the Joining can be undone. The “how” remains a mystery, though. But don’t worry! After all her sleuthing in this episode, you can bet Detective Carol isn’t done with this case.
Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.
