Multibus episode 9 is now out on Apple TV – and with that the first season of the hit sci-fi mystery drama has ended.
There’s also quite a bit to unpack from the Season 1 finale. From to bombshell moment that confirms a recent fan theory about Carol, whether there will be a second season and more, plus I’ll try to answer your biggest questions about the Apple TV Original’s latest chapter. I’ll go through them in the order they appear chronologically in episode 9 because it’s necessary to discuss this post’s earlier questions to help explain the ones that come after.
Who is Kusimayu? And why does she join The Others?
If, when this person appeared in episode 9’s first scene, your first question was “…who?”, you’re not alone. I also did not immediately recognize who Kusimayu was.
We’ve met her before though – yes, she was actually one of the five other immune humans that Carol (and, by proxy, us) were introduced to in Multibus‘ premiere in two episodes. You may also recall that the Peruvian national was steadfast in her desire to join The Others in Episode 2, titled ‘Pirate Lady’, because she wanted to join her loved ones who had already been assimilated into the hive mind.
She also doesn’t have to wait too long to become part of The Joined. As episode 9 begins, it is revealed that more than 71 days have passed since The Joining took place in Multibus episode 1 – and finally, The Others have created a specific strain of the alien virus that caused The Joining, which will only affect Kusimayu.
Remember, Multibus In episode 6, Carol made two major discoveries about The Others, one of which was that they could not transform the immune system without developing a strain that was genetically encoded for that person. The only way to do that was to collect stem cells from the immune system, which the Others had to consent to. In short: If you don’t agree, The Others can’t get the stem cells needed to make the stem, so you’ll retain your autonomy. FYI, remember this for later because it’s important.
In any case, Kusimayu clearly allowed The Others to do the above so she could join them, which is what happens in episode 9’s opening sequence. Where there were once 13 immune individuals, there are now 12…
Will Carol and Manousos finally meet in Pluribus episode 9?
Yep – and, predictably, things don’t get off to a good start. At all.
Carol and Manousos’ meeting has been teased ever since Multibus‘ sixth episode and, after this season’s penultimate episode, confirmed that it will finally happen in its finale. But while originally singing from the same “we’re gonna save the world” hymn sheet, that’s not the case as they cross paths.
In fact, thanks to her budding romantic relationship with her hive-mind chaperone Zosia, Carol’s perspective on The Others has changed. Admittedly not to the point where she wants to join them, but enough that her new view of them doesn’t jibe with the Manousos’. It inevitably creates friction and, long story short, leads to Carol pretty much cutting ties with the Manousos and, for the time being, the chance to find a solution to reverse The Joining with her Colombian ally.
What does Manousos discover about The Others?
Speaking of that solution, it looks like Manousos learns something incredibly important about The Joined in one of the best Apple TV shows’ latest episode.
After meeting with Zosia—much to Carol’s chagrin—and learning all about The Others, he conducts an experiment. When he requests another member of The Joined, he evokes his inner ‘early season’ Carol by getting angry with that person.
As we learned in Multibus episode 2, anger not only disrupts the connection between the hive’s minds, but causes its human hosts to have a seizure that, if the rage displayed by an immune human is strong enough, can cause millions of Others to die. So when Zosia lays down and suddenly starts convulsing in Carol’s home, we know what’s about to happen.
When a panicked Carol enters Manousos’ temporary residence and blames him for intentionally causing another potentially fatal incident, Manousos heads to his ambulance to grab his portable radio and notepad full of radio signals. Finding the only frequency – 8613.0 – that picked up a signal in Episode 4, Manousos soon realizes that the static he heard in that chapter now registers an identifiable, yet audible sound.
When he re-enters the house, he makes the now undefeated Duck, whom Carol had calmed down, endure another fit by yelling at him. As a distraught Carol rushes back to her home, Manousos places the portable radio on the Other and begins to tell the person locked inside his own mind to free himself. It’s unclear if Manousos’ experiment would have worked, though, because a shotgun-toting Carol soon returns and, after firing a warning shot overhead, forces Manousos to stop what he’s doing.
After Manousos’ introduction in episode 4, I proposed a theory – a theory that at least episode 9 proves partially correct – that Multibus‘ at that time the mystery individual was the key to solving his great riddle. So that radio waves/signals/frequencies are apparently decisive for reversing The Joining. After all, this cataclysmic event was caused by an extraterrestrial RNA-based radio wave that, as we learn in episode 8, traveled from an actual exoplanet called Kepler-22b to Earth.
It therefore stands to reason that The Joining could be undone by using some form of reverse engineered radio wave. Manousos and Carol could use the 8613.0 frequency to help affected people escape the stranglehold the hive mind has on their minds as well.
The only other way to potentially free infected individuals seems to be to make them remember a core or favorite memory. In episode 8, Zosia appeared to break free for a nanosecond after she told Carol a story about mango ice cream. Could Manousos and Carol use this along with the 8613.0 frequency to fully free people from the hive mind? I wouldn’t rule it out.
Wait, is Carol being forced to become part of The Joined?
By the sounds of it, yes. Even worse, she doesn’t have long before her freedom is taken from her.
After Manousos’ failed experiment, The Others leave Albuquerque just like they did in episode 5. This time, Carol joins them because she still doesn’t trust Manousos, especially after the stunt he pulled and because of her romantic entanglement with Zosia.
Unfortunately for Carol, it doesn’t take long for reality to hit, as she soon finds out that The Others have not only found some of her stem cells, but are making a DNA-specific strain of the alien virus to be used on her.
Since the Apple TV show’s sixth episode, fans have theorized that The Others would use Carol’s frozen eggs — we first learned about these in episode 3 — to their advantage at some point. This is shown to be the case, with Zosia confirming that The Joined have collected stem cells from Carol’s eggs to make the aforementioned strain. Zosia tells Carol that it will take one to three months for The Others to make the perfect strain to infect Carol as well. In short: enjoy your freedom while you can.
Not surprisingly, Carol is not happy about this, and so we see her return to Albuquerque and reunite with a puzzled Manousos. Why is he confused? Well…
What’s in the giant steel box that Carol takes home?
Shaking her home, Carol takes a giant steel box – one carried by the helicopter she’s flown home in – with her. She locks eyes with Manousos when her mode of transportation leaves and tells him “You win. Let’s save the world” before heading off on the drive. As she does so, Manousos asks what the giant package is, to which Carol replies “Atomic bomb”.
Now, as part of a big question raised about The Joined in Multibus episode 3’s final scene—since they can’t lie—we learned that The Others would give Carol anything she asked for to keep her happy. Despite their clear discomfort, that would include giving her a nuclear weapon if she asked for one.
So has Carol actually brought a nuclear weapon with her as a deterrent to prevent The Others from trying to convert her, or is it just a metaphorical nuclear bomb? Knowing Carol, I suspect it’s the former, but we’ll have to wait for Season 2 to know for sure. Speaking of which…
Will there be a second season of Pluribus?
Yes! When Apple won the fierce bidding war for the exclusive rights to Multibus in September 2022, it aired two seasons of Vince Gilligan’s latest television creation. So we get at least one more installment on one of the world’s best streaming services.
Right now, however, there is no word on when it will be released. In mid-November, Gilligan told RadioTimes.com that its writing team would soon reconvene to begin work on the next season’s scripts. Considering that means Season 2 is still in its pre-production phase, it will be a long time before it airs on Apple’s streaming platform. My best guess? We won’t see it until mid-2027 – and that’s incredibly optimistic.
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