Pluribus star Rhea Seehorn reacts to shocking finale twist: “I wanted to throw up”

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Pluribus episode 9.

Pluribus star Rhea Seehorn has opened up about her reaction to the gut-wrenching twist in the final episode of the record-breaking first season.

A key plot thread has been Seehorn’s character Carol trying to ensure that she won’t be ‘turned’ and absorbed into the hive mind.

While viewers thought she was safe, as the Others need Carol’s stem cells for the procedure and can’t obtain them without her permission, the series finale, La Chica o El Mundo, contained an utterly devastating moment as Carol discovers that the Others have access to her frozen eggs... which contain her stem cells.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Seehorn revealed her visceral reaction when she read the script for the episode: "It’s horrible. It gave me a pit in my stomach, and then when the answer comes out, I wanted to throw up."

The surprise moment opens up the possibility that at some point in the future of the series viewers will see Carol herself ‘turned’, absorbed into the shared consciousness of the Others. For Seehorn, the fact that this came at the hand of Zosia felt like "the worst betrayal ever."

The twist had actually been built up to far earlier in the series — the fact that Carol has had her eggs frozen was first revealed in a passing comment from Carol back in the season’s third episode, Grenade.

Speaking about how the twist is set up, Seehorn continues, "This happens all the time with Vince [Gilligan]’s scripts — and Gordon Smith’s, Alison Tatlock’s, [and] Jonny Gomez who did the penultimate episode — all of our brilliant writers.

"There are things that I didn’t see coming, but at the same time, they don’t feel like shock value. I was able to look back and think, 'These seeds have been planted'. There was information there — it didn’t come out of nowhere. And it makes perfect sense."

The seeds had been planted so well, in fact, that a few fan theories popped up after Grenade was first released — a few people had begun to speculate that Carol’s frozen eggs could hold the key either to the Others assimilating Carol, or Carol finding a way to reverse the process. Typically, the more pessimistic outcome has taken place.

Looking ahead to the second season (which has already been commissioned by Apple TV), Seehorn suggests, "It starts the whole plot ticking again, of [Carol] being ‘turned’. They can now do this without [her] consent."

However, when it comes to more intricate plot details for season 2, Seehorn is just as in the dark as the audience: "The good news for me is that I don’t have to keep secrets because I don’t know anything! I can’t tease anything other than I can’t wait to get this next script!

"I love how they ended it and I’m very excited to see, like, is she going to be able to recruit any of these people to help? God, I hope so. I don’t think she can do it as a one-man job."

Pluribus is available to stream now on Apple TV.

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