Pluribus Episode 4 made its debut on Apple TV and introduces a new character who I think could be crucial to solving the sci-fi show’s main mystery.
The latest episode of the Apple TV Original, titled ‘Please Carol,’ continues to follow its main character, aka Rhea Seahorn’s Carol, as she tries to find a way to reverse The Joining.
Who is the mysterious man introduced in episode 4 of Pluribus?
That will be Manousos Oviedo, played by Carlos-Manuel Vesga. He is the individual whose voice Carol (and, by proxy, we) hears on the phone in Pluribus episode 3, also known as ‘Granada’. Yes, Manousos is the Paraguayan curmudgeon who, in no uncertain terms, tells Carol to leave him alone when she tries to contact him several times at the beginning of ‘Grenade.’
Pluribus The first act of episode 4 reveals that not only is he a lonerer person than Carol, but he is also much more distrustful of the Others.
That much becomes clear in the first 10 minutes of ‘Please Carol,’ which shows Manousos huddled in the headquarters of his workplace (a storage unit company) and refusing to associate with The Others. In fact, he’s so skeptical of them that he boarded up the office windows and ruined the meals they bring him. Manousos preferred to eat dog food and bags of sugar, which he scavenged in his clients’ closed vaults, than deal with The Others.
Anyway, that was the case until Manousos’ confrontation with Carol over the landline. Act 1 of Pluribus‘ The fourth episode returns to the moment in episode 3 when Carol and Manousos talked (read: yelled at each other) on the phone. ‘Grenade’ gave us Carol’s perspective of that expletive-laden moment, so it’s only fair that ‘Please Carol’ shows us Manousos’ version of events.
It is vital that this is the case as well. After a foul-mouthed Carol hangs up on Manousos, the latter realizes that he has just spoken to one of the 13 people (including Manousos and Carole) who are apparently immune to The Joining. After all, The Others don’t have the ability to get angry, much less say bad words, so this is a clear sign to the reclusive Manousos that others like him still exist.
Why Manousos could be key to answering Pluribus’ biggest question
Pluribus has provided more questions than answers since its premiere on Apple TV. However, there are two questions above all others that require explanation: Who or what caused The Joining? And is there a way to undo it?
The end of Pluribus Episode 3 raised a big question about The Joining: I mean, why doesn’t Carol ask the others to find a cure? After all, as I predicted in the previously linked article, The Others can’t lie to you. ‘Please Carol’ confirms this to be true as well, as Carol tries (and fails!) to use this to her advantage once she realizes they can’t even tell little white lies.
That’s where Manousos fits into the equation. He may be a storage unit manager, but as episode 4 reveals, he’s also pretty handy with radios and the frequencies they broadcast.
The last we see of Manousos is him scribbling Carol’s name on a piece of paper, so it’s incredibly likely that he’s trying to locate her using the radio equipment he has at his disposal.
What if, however, Manousos is even more radio-savvy than we suspect? Sure, anyone can turn the dial on a radio to locate a frequency bound for Earth, but I think there’s more to it than meets the eye.
For starters, The Others didn’t locate Manousos as quickly as the rest of the immune humans. Carol is initially told that she is only one of 12 people unaffected by The Joining. However, Zosia then informs Carol that a thirteenth individual living in Paraguay (i.e. Manousos) has been found.
This immediately piqued my interest. If The Others instantly located the other resistant humans, why did it take them longer to find Manousos?
My theory is that he somehow used radio signals to alter the collective consciousness of the hive mind with the goal of becoming untraceable. While it may have worked initially, it clearly didn’t take long until they managed to foil their plan. Remember, The Joining is the result of an RNA sequence based on a radio signal, so it’s plausible that the Others were able to figure out what Manousos was doing, disable whatever frequency he was using to jam them, and subsequently detect him.
If – and this depends entirely on what I have speculated in the previous four paragraphs – Manousos is a radio and/or signals specialist, he may be essential to reversing La Unión.
Think about it. The hive mind is held together by a ‘psychic glue’ born from a reverse-engineered virus that was created in a lab using the RNA-based radio signal that humanity discovered in the first episode of one of Apple TV’s best shows. So unlocking the secret of this radio signal is vital to deciphering it and potentially finding a cure, and who is better positioned to solve this riddle than a guy who may be a radio enthusiast?
Well, I admit that someone with a scientific background would need to work alongside Manousos to decipher the RNA part of this extraterrestrial signal. Right now, we don’t know if someone like that hasn’t succumbed to The Joining. However, if they’re out there, I’d be surprised if Carol, Manousos, and this potential candidate didn’t band together to try to undo The Joining.
Pluribus episodes 1-4 are now available on Apple TV, aka one of the world’s shows best streaming services. New chapters are broadcast weekly.
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