Image Credits: © 2025 – Apple TV+ via IMDb
After the highly anticipated opening episode of “Pluribus,” many flocked right to the next episode that premiered the same day. The first episode revealed so much so quickly, it felt like a never-ending spiral to hell that kept me wildly engaged through the whole episode, and I was begging for this next episode to keep that train going.
Episode Two: “Pirate Lady”
We start with a very strange opening as we watch a mysterious lady (Karolina Wydra), clearly infected by the “virus,” making her way from place to place, performing any duty required of her. While she starts by dragging a dead body out of a car, she very quickly finds herself flying a plane to an unknown destination. An opening this mysterious reminded me of the days of watching “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” which were full of question-raising openings like this that slowly revealed themselves over time.
We then cut to Carol (Rhea Seehorn), who, after waking up and being forced to stare at Helen’s (Miriam Shor) body on the floor, is reminded that the events of last episode weren’t just a bad dream, and that life is forever changed now. She wraps Helen up in a quilt and begins to dig a grave in her backyard, as the lady from the opening seemingly gets off her plane and showers, clearly preparing for something.
It isn’t long before this lady appears at the door to Carol’s backyard, asking that she hydrate after digging for two hours. In the sickest way possible, there is something so funny about Carol’s interaction with this lady that is impossible not to die laughing at. You have a reasonably rude and annoyed Carol turning down any offer of help from this lady, or more accurately, the “virus” collective, at every turn, to which this lady never talks back or is disrespectful in any way. An important thing to note, too, is that this lady tells Carol they are still months away from fighting out how to add Carol to their collective, giving the audience good insight into how long Carol has to save humanity. If that’s even what ends up happening.
As the lady starts to leave, Carol stops her as she realizes she looks identical to one of the lead pirate characters, Rabon, from the front cover of one of her novels. This sparks Carol into referring to the lady as the Pirate Lady, which remains hilarious throughout the whole episode. She is a much more calming presence than Davis Taffler was in the last episode, but still remains slightly terrifying in a very subtle way.
That is, until Carol screams at the Pirate lady and she begins shaking uncontrollably, similar to how everyone was in the last episode. While the audience stares in confusion, Carol goes into town, seeing that everyone is like this, but when they all wake up again there were some casualties. Carol goes back home feeling guilty, and as the Pirate lady returns, she confirms that they are affected by Carol’s emotions, which can have negative outcomes. Carol asks how many people she accidentally killed, to which the Pirate Lady refuses to fully respond, merely saying, “It’s a few.”
This whole idea that screaming at them equals killing them is an interesting ripple, because if Carol was looking to completely remove the “virus,” then this would surely be the easiest way. But, since the real person they used to be also dies, it really isn’t practical, but more something to be careful about.
The Pirate Lady then helps Carol dig this grave, which felt really wrong. This is the equivalent of watching your spouse get murdered and then handing the murderer a shovel and a lemonade and burying the body together. While we can’t possibly understand how difficult this has been for Carol, seeing the Pirate Lady, or more accurately, everyone on the planet, wanting to help Carol is heartwarming, even if extremely messed up.
The Pirate Lady then informs Carol that they have found another person immune to the “virus,” leading Carol to ask how many of them speak English. The Pirate Lady says there are 5, propelling Carol into having her ask to meet up with them. Since the Pirate lady is technically everyone, she asks them, and they all agree.
We cut to Carol and the Pirate Lady on a plane, on the way to the meet-up spot in Bilbao, Spain. While I, like Carol, was very excited to meet all of the other survivors, the Pirate Lady brought up an interesting point. She looks to Carol and says, “We can’t really protect you from one another.” I hadn’t really stopped to think that maybe the other survivors don’t think the same as Carol, and this idea becomes a huge factor as she meets the others.
Once Carol arrives and sees the others, we learn their names are Otgonbayar (Amaraa Sanjid), Xiu Mei (Sharon Gee), Kusimayu (Darinka Arones) and Laxmi (Menik Gooneratne). They all seem to be nice people, but an extremely awkward tone haunts this entire interaction. While I expected at least one of them to be freaking out, similarly to Carol, it seems everyone else has quite a calm attitude. It seems Carol notices this too, and is especially weirded out by the fact that all of them brought a family member with them, which are technically all a part of the collective, so it really isn’t them.
Carol then also notices that there should be one more, but the Pirate Lady informs her that this other man requested a very specific aircraft so it took him longer and he will be there shortly. Hearing this already made me nervous, and those fears became true after seeing him land in Air Force One plane.
We learn the other immune individual is named Koumba Diabaté (Samba Schutte), and with his flashy suit and line of supermodel flight attendants by his side, it is clear he has taken a different approach to the end of the world. Instead of being afraid and trying to fix the problem, Koumba has instead chosen to take advantage of the opportunity to do whatever he wants.
This leads to all of the survivors gathering in a microphone-free office, where Carol intends to discuss how to get rid of this collective and save humanity, but no one else seems to be on board. This entire scene is the epitome of ragebait, as the more Carol tries to get them on board with saving humanity, which they should already be on board for, the more it ends up just pushing them further against her. They always find some way to argue and make the situation worse, painting Carol as the bad guy here. Everyone seems to be in denial, and when Carol brings up trying to fix the world, they offer no solutions. Koumba brings up the point that for the first time ever, there is peace on Earth. Since murder, robbery, racism and so much horror are gone, Koumba feels the world has never been better, even if individuality has been thrown out the window.
It’s honestly hilarious to watch because of how much it backfires, but in such a tragic way. “Pluribus” is able to echo exactly how Carol feels, frustrated that all of this pressure to save the world is now all on her, since all the other survivors are too selfish.
They then make their way to dinner in the lovely hills with beautiful weather, as a gorgeous-looking meal is placed before them. As all the other survivors with their hiveminded family members look at the food in amazement, Carol continues to drink. Which honestly, in the moment, I can’t even blame her.
The Pirate Lady then reveals to everyone that they do not kill, which shocks everyone thinking they are vegetarians. But as the Pirate Lady doubles down on the idea that they don’t purposely kill, Carol showcases the hypocrisy of that saying, “They won’t step on a bug, but they’ll enslave the entire planet.” The Pirate Lady argues that their collective isn’t slavery, but Carol fights back, saying she doesn’t remember everyone being asked if they want to join, therefore proving everyone was forced into it. We also learn that the collective started slowly from the lab, bringing in thousands of newcomers every day, but once the military found out, they had to accelerate their plan.
Carol then asks numerous times how many people died because of the spread of this “virus,” and while the Pirate Lady is at first reluctant to answer, she reveals that it killed 886,477,591 people. This is way more than I possibly expected, and really puts into perspective how selfish all of the survivors are being in the grand scheme of deaths that happened the day before. There is also a sense of guilt that the Pirate Lady has when she says the number, as if she knows that she is proving Carol right.
Laxmi then reveals to us and Carol that earlier in the episode, when she made all of the collective uncontrollably shake, she inadvertently killed 11 million people. Carol looks to the Pirate Lady, knowing that she lied to her. Koumba tries to change the subject, but Carol continues to drink heavily, declaring she is going home.
Before she leaves, she takes one last stand, yelling at all of the survivors that they are traitors to the human race. And I have to say I fully agree. It felt really relieving seeing Carol say what we’ve been yelling at our TVs the whole episode, even if when she storms off she face plants in the grass.
As the Pirate Lady comes over to help her out though, Carol screams for her to get off, accidentally causing another seizure-shaking attack for the collective. Carol slowly realizes what she has done as all of the survivors’ family members start to violently shake, understanding that she has accidently murdered millions again.
When Carol wakes up, you can feel her guilt, even if she never says it exactly, especially after fully understanding how she burned pretty much every bridge connecting her to the real people left, except for one.
Koumba is still here, but not to join her side, but to simply ask if she can take Zosia, which we learn is the Pirate Lady’s real name, with him on his trip to Las Vegas. It is clear his only intent is to have sex with Zosia, which is messed up for more reasons than I have time for here, but it ends with an argument where Zosia makes one of them choose since she can’t, but Carol just walks away.
Cut to Carol on the plane back to Albuquerque, more lost than she was when she originally left, forced to look at Zosia as she boards Koumba’s plane. It was at this moment I think I realized the same thing Carol did in that moment. That even if it’s all the collective, and that saving one person from Koumba’s harem might not mean a lot to them, it is still the right thing to do. Carol then bursts her way out of the plane and stops Koumba’s plane, ending the episode.
Episode Two: “Pirate Lady,” really began to forward the plot, as we see Carol and Zosia’s bond begin to form, and Carol ruins the relationship with every other English-speaking survivor. It is clear they have no intention of helping Carol, merely standing by as the world ends around them, but Carol still seems to have the full spirit. Especially after attempting to save Zosia at the end of the episode, it is clear Carol’s mission is just beginning.
While Episode One did a great job of worldbuilding, it didn’t really show us what the plot is going to be, and that’s where Episode Two knocks it out of the park. Even if a lot of questions didn’t get answered, like “Why were all the planes lined up when the ‘virus’ affected everyone?” or “Why did Zosia feel the need to lie to Carol about how many people she killed?” I don’t think we are too far away from understanding so much more about this insane world.
It might be early to say this, since there have only been two episodes and both have been written and directed by the masterful Vince Gilligan, but I do truly believe there is something really special here. I never would have expected something so mysterious, giving me many of the vibes that made “Severance” such a hit show, but on a way larger scale. I hope the next episode continues to forward the plot as much as this one did, and I can’t wait to report back.
Episode 2: Pirate Lady – 8/10
Samuel J. Beadle is a second-year English major. SB1033446@wcupa.edu