Carol Lifts the Tarp in Pluribus Episode 5 — The Reveal That Rewrites Everything

Pluribus just pulled off a classic bait-and-tease: Episode 5 ends with Carol peeling back a tarp, reacting like she stared straight into a nightmare, and then… credits. No reveal. So yeah, we have to sit in the unknown for a week-plus. Here’s what the show actually set up, and the most convincing theories about what she saw.

How we got to the tarp

Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus Episode 5, titled 'Got Milk', dropped early on November 26, 2025. Most of the hour tracks Carol pushing harder and harder to undo the infection that swallowed the world. Her approach? Not exactly gentle. She ticks off the Others — the hive-mind beings — badly enough that they split, ghosting her and relocating to parts unknown.

Left on her own, Carol follows a trail that starts with empty milk cartons the Others have been chugging. She heads to the plant where those drinks are packaged and finds one ingredient that doesn’t belong: a white, powdery substance. That breadcrumb leads her to a storage facility.

Inside, she goes deep into one unit and finds rows of shelves, each loaded with… something, all hidden under tarps. She lifts one tarp, and whatever’s under there rattles her. Cut to black. No reveal. Thanks for nothing.

So what was under the tarp? The leading theories

• Mass conversion casualties, preserved: One theory says the storage unit is basically a morgue for people who died during the conversion — including the millions who died after Carol unknowingly triggered their deaths when she lost it and yelled at the Others. The show never told us where those bodies went, so this fits the gap. From there, it gets darker: the Others might be using the remains as nutrition. That would line up with the mysterious white powder at the factory — bone meal or something similar — and with the group’s whole stance that they don’t kill living beings. If they refuse to kill, their health would eventually crater unless they found a workaround, and stockpiled bodies could be their grim energy source.
• Helen’s body, relocated: Another idea floating around is that the Others exhumed Helen from Carol’s yard and moved her to the vault. But the show already hinted that wolves were trying to dig in that same spot, likely because they smelled the corpse, which makes it pretty unlikely the Others actually removed her. Even if this one doesn’t hold up, most versions of the theory still point to the same thing: whatever’s under the tarp involves human remains.

When we get answers

Episode 6, titled 'HDP', lands Friday, December 5, 2025 on Apple TV. If Episode 5 was the setup for a gut punch, the next one should be the swing. And if the milk-and-powder thread is what it looks like, Carol’s about to learn the cost of her own crusade — and exactly what the Others have been drinking to stay on their feet.