Pluribus just pulled off its tensest hour so far, and Apple is having a little too much fun blurring the line between the show and your real life. Also: the numbers are huge, and next week looks messy.
The thiopental gambit that might break the Joined
Episode 4 turns on Carol Sturka making a brutal call: she injects herself with thiopental sodium and then gives it to Zosia, the human face of the alien hive mind. Thiopental sodium, a.k.a. sodium pentothal, carries the pop-culture nickname "truth serum," but in the real world it is a barbiturate used to knock you out before surgery, to treat certain convulsions (including ones triggered by local anesthetics), and to lower dangerous brain swelling when a patient is on controlled ventilation. Carol is banking on it loosening the hive mind enough to cough up the one thing she cares about: whether the Joining can be undone.
It ends badly. Zosia goes into cardiac arrest. The hive mind closes in around them, crying and chanting "Please, Carol" like a single person. We cut to black without an answer on whether Carol just found leverage or lit the fuse on something worse.
Google got in on the creepiness
There is a new Google Easter egg that mirrors the show’s ever-watching collective. Search "Pluribus" and you get a scrolling message under the search bar that reads:
"What are you searching for, Carol?"
It’s a neat bit of marketing theater: the search page itself playing omniscient observer, the way the Joined hovers over Carol in the series. Fans have noticed Apple’s aggressive, clever rollout around the show — the in-world texts, billboards, even pages from Carol’s book popping up — and now this. One viewer, @shortnsevered, called out the stunt on Nov 20, 2025, praising how playful the campaign has been.
It’s also blowing up
The timing of the Easter egg lines up with the show smashing early records on Apple TV+. In its first seven days in the U.S., Pluribus racked up 6.4 million viewing hours, per Luminate. That was good enough for a No. 4 overall rank even though only two episodes were available while other series had fuller slates (via Deadline). Internationally, it hit No. 1 in over 100 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Mexico, India, and France. Deadline also reports it’s Apple TV+’s biggest global drama launch ever, edging out the previous record holder, Severance Season 2.
Quick refresher on the basics: the show is created and run by Vince Gilligan, Season 1 is nine episodes, and at the moment it sits at an 8.6 on IMDb and a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s streaming on Apple TV+.
Episode 5: what we’re walking into
The next episode drops Friday, November 28, 2025, though Apple TV+ usually flips the switch Thursday nights around 9:00 pm Eastern. The immediate mystery is simple: does Zosia make it? If she does, the hive mind now knows exactly how far Carol is willing to go. If she doesn’t, Carol will have killed the person she’s connected with the most — and whatever fragile trust she had with the collective probably goes with her.
- If Zosia survives: the Joined gets a crystal-clear read on Carol’s desperation and her moral red lines (or lack thereof).
- If Zosia dies: Carol is responsible for Zosia’s death, and the fallout — psychologically and with the hive — could be permanent.
- Also watch Manousos Oviedo: the Paraguay self-storage manager we met in the Episode 4 cold open is one of 13 known uninfected survivors. He has been holed up in his facility, scanning for other unaffected signals while his food runs low. He may have to venture out — and he already knows of one other uninfected person from that brief Episode 3 phone call: Carol.
However you slice it, Carol’s play was bold, reckless, and probably the only move she thought she had left. We’ll see if it pays off.