Pluribus episode 4 has made its Apple TV debut – and it introduces a new character who, in my view, might be crucial to solving the sci-fi show's main mystery.
The Apple TV Original's latest chapter, 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 mystery man that's introduced in Pluribus episode 4?
That'll be Manousos Oviedo, who's portrayed by Carlos-Manuel Vesga. He's the individual whose voice Carol – and, by proxy, we – hears over the phone in Pluribus episode 3, aka 'Grenade'. Yep, Manousos is the cantankerous Paraguayan who, in no uncertain terms, tells Carol to leave him alone when she tries to contact him multiple times early on in 'Grenade'.
Pluribus episode 4's first act reveals that he's not only even more of a reclusive person than Carol is, but also far more distrustful of The Others.
That's made clear in the opening 10 minutes of 'Please, Carol', which shows Manousos hunkering down in the head office of his workplace – a storage unit company – and refusing to engage with The Others. In fact, he's so skeptical of them that he's bordered up the office's windows and ruins the meals they bring him. Manousos would rather eat dog food and sachets of sugar, which he scavenged from his customers' locked vaults, than deal with The Others.
That was the case until Manousos' landline-based run-in with Carol, anyway. Act 1 of Pluribus' fourth episode flashes back to the moment in episode 3 when Carol and Manousos spoke (read: shouted at one another) down the phone. 'Grenade' gave us Carol's perspective of that expletive-laden moment, so it's only right that 'Please, Carol' shows us Manousos' version of events.
It's vital that it does, too. After a foul-mouthed Carol hangs up on Manousos, the latter realizes that he's just spoken to one of only 13 people – Manousos and Carole included – who are seemingly immune to The Joining. After all, The Others don't have the capacity to get angry, let alone swear, so this is a clear sign to the solitary 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 it premiered on Apple TV. There are two queries above all others that require an explanation, though: 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 – that being, why doesn't Carol just ask The Others to find a cure. After all, as I predicted in the previously linked-to article, The Others can't lie to her. 'Please, Carol' confirms this is true, too, with Carol trying (and failing!) to use this to her advantage once she works out that 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 emit.
The last thing we see of Manousos is him scribbling down Carol's name on a piece of paper, so it's incredibly likely he'll try and track her down using the radio equipment available to him.
What if, though, Manousos is even more of a radio expert than we suspect? Sure, anyone can turn a dial on a radio to locate an Earth-bound frequency, but I believe there's more to him than meets the eye.
For starters, The Others didn't locate Manousos as quickly as the rest of the immune humans. Initially, Carol is told that she's only one of 12 people unaffected by The Joining. However, Zosia later informs Carol that a 13th individual living in Paraguay (i.e. Manousos) has been found.
This immediately piqued my interest. If The Others tracked down the other resistant humans instantaneously, why did it take them longer to find Manousos?
I theorize that he somehow used radio signals to scramble the hivemind's collective consciousness with the aim of becoming untraceable. While it may have worked initially, it clearly wouldn't have been long until they managed to thwart his plan. Remember, The Joining is the result of a radio signal-based RNA sequence, so it's plausible that The Others were able to work out what Manousos was doing, disable whatever frequency he was using to block them, and subsequently detect him.
If – and this fully depends on what I've speculated about in the previous four paragraphs – Manousos is a radio and/or signal specialist, he may be essential to reversing The Joining.
Think about it. The hivemind is bound by a 'psychic glue' born out of a reverse-engineered virus that was created in a lab using the RNA-based radio signal that humanity discovered in one of the best Apple TV shows' first episode. Unlocking the secret of this radio signal, then, is vital in deciphering it and potentially finding a cure – and who's better placed to solve this riddle than a guy who may be a radio enthusiast?
Okay, I'll admit someone with a scientific background would need to work alongside Manousos to decrypt the RNA part of this extraterrestrial signal. Right now, we don't know if someone like this hasn't succumbed to The Joining. If they're out there, though, I'd be stunned if Carol, Manousos, and this potential candidate don't team up to try and undo The Joining.
Pluribus episodes 1 to 4 are out now on Apple TV, aka one of the world's best streaming services. New chapters air weekly.
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