Well, that was a hell of a mic drop last line – and something fun to tide us over until we get that second season (which has already been greenlit by Apple, so fear not, it is coming). But what a wild ride. We got to see just who Manuosus really is – and how his incredibly narrow view of this new world does not, at all, mesh with Carol’s. Or, at least it doesn’t until Carol gets a chilling reminder that she’s not embarking on a whirlwind romance with someone who loves her, warts and all, but is, in fact, being manipulated and love bombed by an entity that knows (almost) everything about her and just how to maneuver her to get what they want.
Let’s talk about Carol before we get into the new partnership that might be able to bring things back to normal – or at least stop the way things are. Everything we’ve learned about Carol was brought into sharp focus at the close of the episode. A loner, Carol thought she never really needed anyone – save for her person, Helen. The trauma of her teenage years saw to it that she never managed to fully trust anyone else. After all, when your own mother, the person who should love you unconditionally, sends you off to conversion therapy – telling you that you are wrong for just being yourself – that leaves some pretty deep scars. And that type of betrayal follows you. Forever, on some level.
The Carol we see in the finale, well, she’s managed to throw off the shackles of her despair and play at being happy. Because she has convinced herself that Zosia is her person – that Zosia loves her. Not Koumba – who she took Zosia away from at the start of the season. And not Manuosos, a man who has spurned the Others at every turn. How could Zosia love any of them when she is spending all her time and energy on Carol? I mean, Zosia was using singular pronouns and told that beautiful story about mango ice cream – which I still think was more the individual and less of the hive mind, but more on that theory later. But, like I suspect we all knew deep down, Zosia isn’t Zosia. She’s Them. And even if there might have been flashes of someone who Carol could love and who could individually love her back, she’s still the enemy.
It’s fascinating that the only way the Others truly manage to screw up with Carol is when they talk of the Joining. They cannot seem to grasp that for someone like Carol, that concept is terrifying and not a comfort at all. And she’s expressly told them why: Conversion Therapy. The entire concept of conversion therapy is chilling. Trying to change who you are, because you have been told by someone or something that you aren’t good enough as you are? That’s a horrific concept. Speaking as a queer woman, that desire to be “normal” is something nearly every queer or trans person has longed for at some point. Because someone or something will tell us that we’re not – whether it be family, friends, peers, religion. And Carol? Her experience of being rejected by her mother – by being sent to a place that tried to force her to change an innate part of who she is? That’s no different than what the Others are trying to do. They say they don’t want to hurt her – that they can’t hurt her – but this? This is the worst possible thing they can do to her.
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t do this.”
“Please understand that we have to do this because we love you.”
The idea of love being a reason to force your own world view on someone isn’t a new concept. It happens every day in every facet of our lives. People are constantly doing things that hurt others out of a misguided sense of love. It’s a way for them to couch their actions – that can be seen as malicious, short-sighted, or violent – as positive. The Others, out of a sense of love, want to destroy Carol, want to take away her sense of self, want to drag her against her will into their hive. But because they know best, because they cannot imagine someone not being happy with the way they experience the world, they must be right. That’s no different than what Carol’s mom did to her when she was a teenager. It’s the fastest way to shatter whatever fragile trust Carol built with the Others. It’s how to drive Carol back to Manuosos and start the pair on a path to try to save the world.
And on that front, well, we have some movement. Sure, Manuosos and Carol had a different way to look at just who they are trying to save. But by episode’s end, I think they both are almost on the same page. Manuosos now thinks of the Others as people – instead of just pods with no souls – and believes his radio wave theory could get them to turn back into who they once were. This is a Vince Gilligan series, after all, and while it’s not a puzzle box show with answers to be found, everything that we see does matter – and those radio frequency tests did. So, our dynamic duo might not be friendly, but they do now have a shared goal. And a ticking clock.
The outstanding question is just how they’ll be able to test their solution when they have one. Because I’m not sure Zosia is going to come back to Carol if she asks – the Others are more crafty than they let Carol believe. But again, if there’s a solution to be had, you best believe the show is going to test it out on Zosia – because the reunion of the real Zosia and Carol is bound to be interesting – and something we’re definitely going to see should it come to that. So, season two is going to be Carol and Manuosos working through a plan and determining a way to save the world – if there is one – before the Others synthesize stem cells from Carol’s eggs (which again, diabolical, taking something that has such deep emotional significance to Carol and manipulating it in a way to hurt her). I cannot wait.
On a macro level, however, what a hell of a season. As I wrote in my initial review, I’ve been waiting to see this series since the moment it was announced in the aftermath of Better Call Saul’s final season. The team Vince Gilligan as surrounded himself with behind the camera and in the writing room remains top notch – I’d gladly watch anything those folks cook up. We all knew Rhea Seehorn was a true acting giant, but the work she turned in this season is nothing short of phenomenal. Holding the screen for scene after scene with no partner? Incredible. And Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga, Samba Schutte, and the rest of the supporting cast? Amazing. Wydra had the seemingly impossible job of playing the entire world’s consciousness as a person and somehow managed to turn Zosia into more than a talking robot. I found myself rooting for her and Carol to get together – even though I knew it would blow up in Carol’s face. Vesga was exceptional as a man with such a stringent inner morality that he wasn’t able to accept the idea that he needed help. Watching that tightly wound man unravel over the course of the finale was a master class in subtle acting. He needed to show us that there was a empathetic person under that cool exterior and he did. And I really hope Koumba comes back in season two – because Schutte took what could have been a comic relief role and turned him into a multi-facetted man who has a genuinely good heart. I think our misanthropes will need his help to enact whatever plan they come up with. But if they don’t, I guess there’s always the atom bomb.
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