The Golden Globe nominee talks to EW about Carol’s “impulsive” choice in episode 9 of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series.

Pluribus’ Rhea Seehorn breaks down Carol’s big decision in season 1 finale: ‘Most insane thing I could do right now’

The Golden Globe nominee talks to EW about Carol's "impulsive" choice in episode 9 of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series.

By Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly is a staff editor at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Wired, GQ, and Ars Technica.

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December 24, 2025 10:30 a.m. ET

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Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka in season 1, episode 9 of 'Pluribus'. Credit:

**Warning: This article contains spoilers for *Pluribus *episode 9, "La Chica o El Mundo."**

For nearly all of *Pluribus*’ first season, we’ve watched romance novelist Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) stubbornly push back against the hive mind that has taken over Earth.

But, after a dark period of loneliness that sees her nearly let a firework hit her, Carol leaves with Zosia (Karolina Wydra) for a multi-city vacation in the season 1 finale of the Vince Gilligan-created Apple TV+ sci-fi series. In a montage straight out of a travel ad, we see the pair share a bathtub in a high-rise apartment and hit some ski slopes before warming up in a spacious lodge. For the first time, Carol looks relaxed, even happy. Then she snaps back to reality after Zosia admits the Others have discovered a way to get her to join them without her permission.

Carol goes nuclear upon hearing she may be forced to join the hive mind in a matter of months. She arrives back at her Albuquerque home with an atomic bomb and tells Manousos (Carlos Manuel Vesga) she is ready to “save the world.”

"There’s a flaw and a super power that she has that she’s very impulsive, and she’s got a lot of bottled-up rage,” Seehorn tells ** of Carol’s decision. "And she has had to suppress it for a while now. It made sense to me for her to just impulsively think, 'What’s the largest, most violent, most insane thing I could do right now in response to what’s been done to me?'"

So what does Carol plan to do with the bomb now that it’s sitting in her driveway in a box? Seehorn says she doesn’t know, and she thinks Carol doesn’t know what her next move is, either.

Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka and Karolina Wydra as Zosia in season 1, episode 9 of 'Pluribus'.

“I don’t even need to know what I’m doing with it yet,” she says. “I’m just asking for an atomic bomb, and I want it sitting out in front of my house, and I’ll figure out the rest later.”

However, despite past incidents with a grenade and fireworks, Seehorn doesn’t think Carol would resort to violence in her fight to retain individuality. “She always felt horribly about accidentally killing any of these people,” she says.

In the first episode, Carol is portrayed as a misanthrope who is unhappy writing “mindless crap” that readers line up for. By the end of the season finale, which takes place more than two months after the initial Joining, she misses the company of other humans.

"I think if she had a therapist right now, she’d be pretty willing to admit, 'I may have made a mistake with how much I said I hate other people,'" Seehorn says.

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With no one else to confide in (most of the other "unaffected" humans meet and talk without her), Carol’s loneliness comes to a head, and she begins a romance with Zosia in episode 8. The pair’s vacation in episode 9 feels like a fairytale — until Carol begins poking holes in the fantasy and asking questions.

Seehorn found the situation humorous.

"You’re in this beautiful ski chalet, with a supermodel who would do anything for anything you say, and loves you, however you want to define that," she says. "Most gorgeous views, sitting in front of a fireplace. And she chooses to bring up exes, which we all know is a pretty big no-no on a date."

When Carol expresses that she’s happy, and Zosia says, "it only gets better," it leads Carol to become suspicious that the Others have a plan to convert her. She figures out they will use her frozen eggs — set aside when she planned on starting a family with her now-dead wife, Helen — to concoct a substance that will make her like them.

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The opening scene in episode 9 shows Kusimayu (Darinka Arones), one of the 13 humans in the world unaffected by the alien "virus," willingly joining the Others. She breathes in a steamy potion and soon begins convulsing on the ground before a big smile appears on her face. This scene actually occurs only days before the finale’s closing scene, signaling that Carol is running out of time. In the ski lodge, Zosia tells her that she has anywhere from one to three months left before the blissful virus takes over her mind.

Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka and Carlos Manuel Vesga as Manousos in season 1, episode 9 of 'Pluribus'.

Zosia’s news is a "kick in the face" to Carol, says Seehorn, and she’s "feeling like an utter idiot that I for a second thought any of this could be a real relationship."

Carol chooses to walk away from Zosia and join Manousos on a quest to figure out how to reverse the virus. And there’s a clear reason why she goes down that path.

"I do think saving the world to her still means individual thought and even maybe the possibility of… she misses unique love, unique appreciation of things, whether it’s books or people, not this biological imperative," Seehorn says.

The *Better Call Saul *alum, who received her first Golden Globe nomination earlier this month for her lead role in *Pluribus*, is eager to find out what will happen in season 2.

"I’m very excited to get the next script," she says.

All episodes of *Pluribus* season 1 are now streaming on Apple TV+.**

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Source: “EW Sci-Fi”