ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Pluribus Episode 7 BREAKDOWN and ENDING EXPLAINED

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

Pluribus Episode 7 is all about the price of solitude, and I'm wondering, did we just see Carol Break? Welcome back Screen Crush, I'm Brian Erie, and let's talk about Pluribus Episode 7, The Gap. Now, that title of the episode has a few different meanings. It literally refers to the Darien Gap. This is a 60-mile-long patch of rainforest in Panama that Manus tries to cross. Now, the Darien Gap is what prevents the completion of what's called the Trans-American Highway stretching from Alaska to Chile. If you want to drive your car on this highway, then at this point, you just have to take a ferry. Now, in past videos we've talked about how Carol values her independence.

I am a very independent person. But then she is confronted with the reality that in the modern world, nobody is truly independent. It takes a complex global supply chain to stock your supermarket. And in this episode, both Manusos and Carol learn this lesson in different ways. He learns that there are limitations to his human determination. And she learns that eventually, even the most independent person will succumb to loneliness. So the title, The Gap, has a lot of other non-literal meanings. meanings. It represents the growing gap between Menusos and Carol. They began with very similar

viewpoints. I don't like you people. I want nothing from you. But Carol gradually relies on them more and more, while Minusos doubles down on his independence. But the gap also refers to this metaphorical gap between civilization and chaos, between sanity and insanity, and between comfort and struggle. See, I think very soon Carol will have to choose if she wants to live like Minusos or like Casanova McBoner. Like Mark Twain said, Heaven for Claren, climate, hell for company. They blame the beasts, heaven, or hell. So let's break this episode down and talk about how these themes will continuously

emerge throughout this story. We start on a blue sky, but this is not just a pretty image. This is where the joined are watching Carol from. Remember, later they tell Minusos, which made me laugh out loud. Like, I don't know that Gilligan and his team are actually trying to make the joined into a one-on-one metaphor for AI, but you have to admit they behave like the embodiment of the internet itself. And where does all of our day to live? In tiny paddles on the ground.

No, in the cloud. Carol is in a great mood after learning that the joint cannot assimilate her without her permission, so she no longer has this oppressive ticking clock. And because she's all by herself, she has to make her own music, singing, It's the end of the world as we know it. Now that REM song is a total bop, but it's also deeply ironic. The first lines are, that's great. It starts with an earthquake. Michael Stipe wrote the lyrics as kind of a stream of consciousness, so the song is about a delus of images and media that eventually just kind of numbs you. When you're faced with so much happening at once, you can either isolate yourself, like Minusos, or accept it like Carol. And ironically, the joined are the ones who have

accepted this deluge of information and data, and they embody the song's hook, and I feel fine. Carol stops at a gas station near Red Rock State Park in Arizona, and of course, the shelves are empty, the joint have consolidated all food. Last episode she made a proclamation about the joint. Fuck them. And now she's taken that to heart. Like Casanova, she's decided to use them for her own benefit. She is redrawing her own moral lines. She won't use them for companionship, but she will use them for comfort. Now this is the beginning of that growing gap between her and Minusos. While he struggles in the jungle, she decides that she can get drunk and play with fireworks. So Carol not only critiques the temperature of the Gatorade.

I didn't say lukewarm. I said, Ice cold. Do better next time. But she's even adapting to the length of their ridiculous voicemail message. She kills time by playing the lottery, and she even leaves money in the penny tray. Now this is showing her clinging to a last vestige of civilization. See, currency is literally how governments exert control over their people through an agreed upon understanding of the value of collected wealth. And even though money is now meaningless, both she and Minusos are approaching it differently.

Carol throws money around like its monopoly money, while Minosos, as we'll see, clings to civilization. He pays for his gas. He tells the joint that everything they have is stolen. For Carol, though, this is a form of play acting. It's a less extreme version of what Casanova was doing when he pretended to be James Bond. Later, she sets off fireworks and here's the Coyotes Howl, and rather than be afraid, like she was last episode, she joins the pack. Ow! Oph! Oph! Losing it, Doc! Symbolically, this is showing us that Carol has rejected civilization. She's no longer trying to save the world. Instead, she's going to enjoy the chaos. On the golf course, she's singing the Kenny Loggins hit from the golf movie Caddy,

movie Caddyshack. I'm all right. Nobody but I found me. Again, she's telling herself, I'm all right. I am fine. This is fine. I can do this. This is fine. I'm okay with the events that are unfolding currently. Notice there's a rabbit on the course, just like the gopher and catty shack, and also a bison,

because remember, all zoos are empty. Now, I have said in past videos that Carol was driving this cop car because, in part, she is now the leader of the free world, the sole representative of a free citizen in America. But when the car won't start, she doesn't try to fix it. Instead, she snags a Rolls Royce. Now, the just-married balloons here are deeply ironic. The car was a symbol of the love two people had for each other, but now it's just a car for one lonely person. So, by rejecting the cop car, she is rejecting her role as an authority figure in civilization, and to let us know that she has rejected civilization, the next song she sings is...

And I was impressed that she actually knew all the lyrics to that Steppenwolf song. That woman had taste. Now at the hot spring, she's enjoying being nude and singing Nellie's Hot in here. I am getting sick, but I'm gonna take my nose off. This song is incredible. She's enjoying the freedom to sing as loud as she wants in public places with nobody around to judge her. This is her phase where she's like, Kevin in Home Alone when he first thinks he made his family disappear. And then she decides to take full advantage of her situation when she visits the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.

Now, on Gilligan's show Breaking Bad, this is where Jesse's girlfriend, Jane, took him for a visit. Georgia O'Keefe painted all kinds of stuff. Some of it evoked and erotic nature. She's super freaking, yeah. And then, like Casanova, she decides to use the end of the world for a luxury. She takes an original O'Keefe and replaces the print of it in her home. Now, this is in sharp contract to Minusos, who would rather walk for miles in the heat,

than steal a car or even a single tank of gas. And as she takes the painting, in keeping with her stream of consciousness playlist, she's saying, George's on my mind. And I love how each song is then interrupted, as the episode catapults us to the next phase of her apocalyptic wandering. Now remember, a few episodes ago, she was horrified that the joined were able to remember a favorite meal she had with Helen.

It's the exact meal you had at that B&B you stayed at in Provincetown. Like Minusos, she threw the food away, but now she's decided to embrace their gifts. She orders that same French toast and other autobiographical meals from her time with Helen. It's like she's going out on a date with her wife, but without her actually being there. And then she activates the player piano.

Now, a player piano has been used for years as a symbol of a rudimentary artificial intelligence, or at the very least, as a symbol of machines taking jobs from humans. They took our job! Kervonagut's novel, Player Piano, imagines a future where machines do all of the work and humans live their lives on a universal base income, very similar to the world where Carol now lives.

Everything she could ever want is provided for her, and she never has to work. But remember, there was also a player piano prominently in the show Westworld, because the symbolism here is that the machine can play any music that Carol wants, but it's essentially just a recording. There is no actual soul in the instrument, just like with the joint. They can recite any song, they can play any music, but they cannot truly appreciate art. Your books are an expression of you, and we love you. So, look, there's an obvious parallel here with AI. AI can play you a song. They can even write you a song.

a song, but it's really just an amalgamation of ideas that a freethinking human being dreamed up in the past. So the song is, I Will Survive a 70s disco ballad about Gloria Gaynor surviving a breakup. And in a sense, this is Carol. She has broken up with the joint, and she's decided to survive in any way she can. And I also thought that this image was reminiscent of the works of Edward Hopper, who we've referenced in past videos. Hopper specialized in painting people in solitude from a distance, you know, almost like we're looking at them and we're interfering in a private moment. In fact, this shot of Carol is paralleled later with this shot of Minusos. Now, Carol embracing luxury is unlike Minusos, who finds value in his struggles to go north. He's brought along his English learning tapes, which, by the way, is a detail that I missed last week,

and thanks to all of you on our popular Discord server for pointing this out. And actually, hey, shout out to the whole Screencrush Discord community. You guys, it's been so much fun to talk about the show with you on there, and if you're not on the Discord, it's free, and there is a link below. It's like the internet before they ruined it. Now, as I mentioned earlier, we see his determination, through this long, silent sequence. Unlike Carol, he doesn't sing. He just repeats the phrases that he's learning in order to complete his mission.

And then is my mission to be able. I am not one of them. Now, this is symbolic of the growing gap between them. She lives a life of indulgence and luxury and song, while he suffers to cling onto any form of civilization. So I guess I should explain the geography here in a little bit more detail. So Albuquerque is 5,100 miles from Padagway. And like I said earlier, there is this highway called the Transamerica. highway that stretches from Alaska to the bottom of Chile. But there's this 60-mile gap, the Darien Gap that is completely impossible and where you can't build roads. And this is where most people will take an auto ferry or have their car freighted to the other side. Now, the

Darian Gap does have an interesting history though, it was actually named after your mom. Now, as he ventures further into the jungle, his mission becomes more and more clear. I wish to save your world. While Carol luxuriates in the end of the world, and she feels fine. Menusos is clinging to this idea that he is the hero. His determination can restore civil So to test his commitment to civilization, he has to venture far away from it, deep into the jungle. And so just imagine this story from his point of view. He's the hero here.

He's the guy on the hero's journey to find this sage in the north who can fix mankind. And maybe instead he's just going to find a lady in a spa singing 80s classic rock. Now, his single-mindedness and the chanting of his introduction phrase is also like the joins voicemail to Carol. There are both greetings for Carol that are repeated endlessly. But the message of the joint is devoid of any. passion, while Minusosos's mantra becomes more ingrained with every step he takes. Now, the tree he falls on is probably the spiky Pocote, the National Tree of Panama. Afterwards, he has to heal his wound, so he goes full rambo and sears his flesh. And then finally, he reaches the natural end of individualism.

His journey into the heart of darkness defeats him and he is dying. So the helicopter, like the joined, appears from the cloud. And it's like a human-operated version of the drones that have been carrying for Carol. But he doesn't wave to them for help. He raises his arm, which could be a wave, or he could be telling them to stay back. Is it raven or drowning? Stevie Smith, my guy. High five. And then, my lord, we go to 48 days after the joint, 36 days after Carol's spa day. She has been listening to a mix called Boo-ya jams from 2006.

Any guesses what's on that? Our outcast for sure. Definitely. Let me know in the comments if you have any other guesses about what's on Carol's mixtape. Now, the song here is Judas Priest. You Got Another Thing. Ironically though, the lyrics are way more appropriate to Minusos's story. They go, if you think I'll sit around as the world goes by, you're thinking like a fool,

because it's a case of do or die. Out there is a fortune waiting to be had. If you think I'll let it go, you're mad, you've got another thing coming. Again, this is a song of a guy venturing in the jungle to save civilization. Not the song for a lady that's hitting golf balls into a skyscraper. See, Carol is the one who has let the world go by, while Manusos is the one who is grappling for what he wants. She set up her own fireworks show, set the stars and stripes forever, and she aims a firework at her face.

Now, I'm not sure if this is an accident or if she's actually attempting that thing will get us demonetized if we say its name. She could just be doing this for the thrill because she wants to feel something new and exciting. And this actually reminds me of the show The Good Place, where people in heaven become very bored because they need some kind of challenge. This is how I spend most of my time, sitting in beautiful places, drinking my milkshake, slowly peeing into my pants.

In some ways, this is all Carols. good place. This is what she wanted at the start of the series. Remember, we were introduced to her surrounded by adoring fans and she just wanted them to all leave her alone. See, a big part of storytelling is giving the character what they want and then watching them suffer the consequences for getting their heart's desire. And her malaise is symbolized by this wide shot where we see her at the bottom of the frame. Interesting. While the fireworks are happening up off camera, see Carol lives in this gap between them, just like this episode's title. Instead of fully becoming one of the joined, we're fighting against them, she's chosen to inhabit this strange limbo. And after she starts a house

fire, she kind of watches it in a daze. I mean, she's finally found something interesting to do. Now, she could stay here and just watch it all burn and fully embrace the savage life, you know, the life of the wild dogs. But then she makes this silent decision to restore some order in civilization. Now, she's probably doing this just to save her own house, but this is where a lot of public works and government began. In self-preservation, like in towns in the Old West, the very first public organizations established were often fire brigades, and then government and organization and order gradually grew up from there. The next morning, she paints something mysterious in her cul-de-sac, and when the car drove up, did any of you also expect it to be Minusos? I mean, after all, the episodes seem to be leading

toward their meeting, but Pluribus, remember, is a show about character first. And a show about plot, the story would be about Minuso showing up, and they begin to work on a way to restore humanity. But instead, this is a story about Carol learning to cope with loneliness, Carol learning who she is. She has this beautiful Georgia O'Keefe painting, but nobody to share it with. So finally, she has to admit that, like Minusos, her independence has its limitations. Zosha returns and that numbness finally disappears. So now the question is, she going to hook up with Zosha? Why is she got to be so goddamn f***able?

I mean, I'm not kidding. How far will Carol take her new loneliness here? Will she form a kind of parisocial relationship with Zosia? Zosha, where she embodies her pirate fantasy, and Carol begins to think of her as an individual. Will she become, to a lesser degree, like Casanova McBoner? Is Minuso still alive? And what happens when he shows up? Then going to create like a weird love triangle between the three of them. Now, the song over the credits is the Age of Aquarius and Español. Now, this is from the musical hair, but the song itself is about the beginning of an age of enlightenment, science,

art, and civilization. Menusos is clinging to civilization throughout his journey, and Carol allowed herself to become feral. But, Now, she has just invited civilization and community back into her life. Well, guys, that's just what I think about this episode. But if you caught anything that I missed, let me know in the comments below, or you can add me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads, or on that free-to-join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, welcome to the channel. Please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts.

For Screencrush, I'm Ryan Erie.