Pluribus Episode 4 Ending Explained: Did Carol Kill Zosia — Or Are We Being Misled?
Pluribus Episode 4 yanks victory out of Carol’s grasp just as she nears a breakthrough. Zosia, her best hope for answers, is struck by sudden cardiac arrest—and the fallout may point straight at Carol.
Episode 4 of Pluribus hits like a gut punch. Carol finally feels close to cracking the Joining, then the whole thing slips right through her fingers. And yes, the hour ends with Zosia flatlining. And yes, that is on Carol.
- Release: November 21, 2025
- Where to watch: Apple TV+ (new episodes Fridays)
- Creator/showrunner: Vince Gilligan
- Main cast: Rhea Seehorn (Carol), Karolina Wydra, Carlos Manuel Vesga
- Current vibes: IMDb 8.8/10 after 4 episodes; Rotten Tomatoes 100% after 4 episodes
So, where do we pick up?
We open on Manousos, another person who resisted the Joining. He is alive, alone, and stashed in a storage unit like a doomsday squirrel. He avoids the Joined completely, which quietly confirms Carol is not the only one white-knuckling it through this new hive-mind world.
Carol builds a rulebook
Back home after the grenade chaos (still wild), Carol goes full detective. She starts a running list of what the Joining can and cannot do, just pinning every weird observation to the board. The big breakthrough: the Joined cannot lie. That is a massive rule. It gives Carol an angle on how the collective speaks and how to pry real information out of them without getting spun.
Enter: Zosia, the one person who might actually know
Carol goes straight at Zosia with the obvious question: can the Joining be reversed? Zosia stays calm, says nothing useful, and does the Joined thing where she sidesteps anything concrete. Carol realizes she will not get a clean answer by playing nice.
The risky plan
At the hospital, Carol sneaks into the pharmacy and lifts a vial of sodium thiopental. Yes, the so-called truth serum. (It is a sedative, not magic, but it can lower inhibitions enough to make people talk.) Before she touches anyone else, she takes a small dose herself to see how it hits. Then she circles back to Zosia.
The confrontation
Carol waits for a quiet moment, gets Zosia away from the foot traffic, and slips the drug into her IV. At first, it is subtle: Zosia slows down, her words get fuzzy, like she is trying to hold her thoughts together and they keep sliding off the table. Carol presses her about a cure, about ending the Joining, about any way out.
That private moment does not stay private. The Joined begin drifting in, forming a calm, unnerving ring around them, and echoing one line back at Carol:
"Please, Carol."
They are not panicking. They are mirroring Zosia's emotional state like a human feedback loop, which is somehow creepier.
The collapse
Then the floor drops out. The sedative hits Zosia much harder than Carol planned. Her voice fades, her body goes slack, and she crashes into cardiac arrest right there, in front of everyone. Members of the Joining step in and start CPR while Carol just stands there, watching the consequences of her plan in real time. The show makes it clear: this is on her.
What the episode actually tells us
The no-lying rule matters. It changes how Carol can interrogate the Joined, and you can feel her crossing lines she never would have crossed just a couple episodes ago. It is messy, desperate, and it tracks with where this character is mentally: the most miserable woman on Earth, now saddled with saving it from enforced happiness. That paradox is finally pushing her into choices that feel dangerous and, frankly, inevitable.
The craft of it
Vince Gilligan and team keep a low hum of dread running through the whole thing. Even the quiet beats feel like they are waiting to detonate. The way the Joined slowly gather, the calm repetition of that one line, the camera hanging on Carol a hair longer than comfortable — it is all slow-burn tension that pays off with a vicious final beat.
Bottom line
Episode 4 widens the world (hello, Manousos), locks in a crucial rule (they cannot lie), and sends Carol down a path she probably cannot walk back from. It is bold, it is bleak, and it makes next Friday feel way too far away.
Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV+. Seen the new episode? Tell me where you land on Carol's choice — gutsy move or unforgivable line crossed?