Full spoilers follow for Pluribus Episode 7, “The Gap,” which is available now on Apple TV.
Portrait of two lonely people. This is a woman, and this is a man, and they have nothing, and nobody, left in the world. Two human beings who are dying… But little do they know that their salvation, and that of the human race itself, awaits them… in The Twilight Zone.
Wait, wait! Make that, The Pluribus Zone!
We’ve already talked about Pluribus creator Vince Gilligan’s love of sci-fi, and while he’s clearly woven many genre tropes into his very buzzy new show – from end of the world concepts to telling stories about the real world through the thinly veiled layer of metaphor – for some reason this week’s episode, “The Gap,” gave me Rod Serling vibes in particular. Maybe it’s how “The Gap” bears similarity to various Twilight Zone premises: in Carol’s case, the exploration of a loneliness that can drive a person to the brink of insanity (“Where Is Everybody?”); for Manousos, it’s his dogged determination to make it through a dangerous landscape (“I Shot an Arrow into the Air”); and for the pair of them, it’s the idea of the last woman and last man left alive who are forced together to save humankind (“Two”). Of course, those ideas in and of themselves aren’t unique to Serling’s classic show either, but the combination of them all here really has me in a New Year’s Eve marathon mood three weeks early.
The episode begins with Rhea Seehorn’s Carol in something of a state of denial. Her meeting with Koumba (Samba Schutte) in Vegas last week was a good news/bad news situation. The good news was that the Joined can’t harvest any uninfected person’s stem cells – in order to “cure” that person and therefore bring them into the Joined – without the person’s express permission. Which, of course, Carol is not willing to give. (More on that below.) The bad news, however, was a real blow to our favorite romance novelist: Most of the other uninfected have been meeting without Carol, and basically don’t want anything to do with her. (Also, their ideas about how to deal with the Joined situation seem pretty dumb.)
And so we meet Carol on her drive back to Albuquerque, and she’s singing her heart out – “It’s the end of the world as we know it / And I feel fine!” One of these statements is not like the other because one’s not true…
Having cracked the case of the mystery milk two weeks ago, only to then have Koumba reveal that she’s been out of the loop on that front, and then to find out that nearly everyone else like her on the planet is basically ostracizing her, has not been good for Carol. Putting aside for a second the fact that she is completely and utterly alone, there’s also the matter of curing the Joined. And she has zero plan or solution on that front.
'I’m alright / Don’t nobody worry about me,' Carol sings, falsely.And so it’s fireworks and golf and beer and hot-spring bathing and dress-up dinners (while a player piano bangs out a concerto version of “I Will Survive”). And singing. So much singing. But there’s also something very wrong with Carol at this point. “I’m alright / Don’t nobody worry about me,” she sings, falsely.
Because while being able to hang a real Georgia O'Keeffe painting in your house is cool and all (“Bella Donna”), being driven to the point of desperation that you’re willing to take a face full of fireworks is very much not cool. So when Zosia (Karolina Wydra) finally returns at Carol’s lowest point, Seehorn’s frantic embrace of her plays like a turning point of the season. Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) might just have to rescue Carol from herself at this point.
Speaking of which, thousands of miles away, that other sole holdout on planet Earth continues his road trip to find Carol. The episode splits its time between the two characters, with Manousos’s increasingly harrowing journey reflecting the differences in how the two characters have dealt with the Joined’s arrival. And while their methods are completely opposite, the end result is devastatingly the same.
For Manousos, his unwillingness to engage with the Joined may be striking at first – he’s always ready to pull his knife when they approach – since we’re so used to Carol’s flippant attitude to them, but if you take a step back, it’s hard to argue with where he’s coming from. I mean, the entire world has been taken over by some alien force, including everyone he’s ever known. Wouldn’t you want to have a knife on you too?
The problem with Manousos, however, is that while Carol will take international flights and Gatorade in equal measure from the Joined (even if the latter is a bit warm), Manousos will accept absolutely nothing from them. Which means making the journey up from Paraguay alone, and eventually attempting an arduous hike into the Darién Gap despite the warnings he receives from an uncharacteristically sober band of Joined: he’s in for heat, humidity, dirty water, snakes, spiders, insects, bacteria-plagued plants, and more, they warn.
Carlos-Manuel Vesga’s steely performance really nails the idea that the character would just as soon take his chances against a Chunga palm tree than accept a handout from the Joined. Manousos’ introduction, and the script and actor’s willingness to let us in, has been a serious slow-burn. But the little touches we’re given are telling, like his turning and putting his hand on his car’s hood as if to say goodbye to his faithful companion before entering the Gap. His character is so different from Carol that it should be really interesting to see how they interact once they finally meet up, which at this point might not be until the series finale in two weeks.
But all the while, he’s been teaching himself some basic English phrases for when he does get to Carol: “I am not one of them. I wish to save the world.”
Questions and Notes From Kepler-22b
- About the stem cells situation: Lots of folks have pointed out that the mention of Carol’s frozen eggs a few weeks back may be a way around this situation for the Joined since they’d be able to harvest them without having to get permission from Carol. But then again, that would seem to go against the spirit of the Joined, wouldn’t it? We’ll see.
- Man, the “Hello Carol, this is a recording…” message basically needs to be remixed into a dance track at this point.
- Seehorn’s howling back at the wolves was fun, but I also was wondering if we were in store for another attack for a second there. Maybe Carol should just go live with the wolves and become one of them. She’d probably be better off.
- We haven’t talked much about the cinematography in this show, but DP Paul Donachie’s eye is something else, bringing a beauty to what is kind of a post-apocalypse hellscape. Yes, the wide shots of the vast New Mexico landscapes are one thing (not to mention what appear to be striking authentic international locations as well), but then you get curious and lovely touches like the close-up of a rabbit in the grass as Carol drives off in the distance.
- I can’t imagine Manousos is going to be happy about being saved by the Joined, even if they did save his life.
- Losing just 5% of your body’s water content could lead to fatigue and headaches. Even kidney stones!
Connexion
