‘Pluribus’ Shows What It Means To Be a True Hater

“It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater / I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress / I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct” - Kendrick Lamar

In 2024, award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar engaged in an intense and highly publicized rap battle against singer/rapper Drake. It became the subject of broad public discourse that made its way far beyond the hip hop/rap community and out to the mainstream, culminating with Lamar performing his knock-out punch of a diss track, “Not Like Us,” at what is arguably America’s largest (metaphorical) venue, the Super Bowl. In addition to the acerbic wit displayed within his lyrics, what made this feud break containment was the sheer depth Lamar’s contempt, detailed in the “Euphoria” lyrics quoted above—for my money, however, “Meet the Grahams” exceeds the other songs in the battle in terms of cold-blooded vengeance—with this particular snippet going on to achieve anthem status for anyone who’s ever abhorred another person.

If anyone deserves a hater anthem, it’s Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga).

Pluribus has become yet another hit for Apple TV, courtesy of tv legend Vince Gilligan returning back to his sci-fi roots (having cut his teeth as a writer/producer on X-Files) and starring the Emmy award winner of my heart, if not real life, Rhea Seehorn. Karolina Wydra, portraying leading hive mind representative Zosia, has become the breakout star of the series, but my favorite aspect of the show is Vesga and the way he portrays Manousos with a loathing for the hive mind that’s remarkable in just how unwavering it is.

Both Carol and Manousos want to find a way to reverse the effects of the alien “virus,” but their approaches have diverged drastically from one another. Manousos truculence makes Carol look like a mere puffball, with her anger and attempts to undermine the hive mind coming off as little more than those of a tantrum-throwing teenager. “I just want my Sprouts back,” Carol huffs to the hive mind. Manousos, on the other hand, eats dog food before he’d willingly accept a morsel of anything prepared by the hive mind.

Any doubts that Manousos isn’t a true hater down to his core were entirely dispelled in episode seven, when he made his way to Albuquerque in a convertible from deep in South America, driving roughly 4,000 miles/6,437 km before The Darién Gap—and the help offered by the hive mind to traverse it—forces him to make the ill-advised journey on foot. When his body is wracked by infection from his trust fall gone wrong with the Chunga palm, his inability to stay conscious is the sole reason why he receives medical treatment as opposed to dying. His hatred runs so deep that literal moments after he regains consciousness, Manousos takes a hostage. For him, death would’ve been preferable to the antibiotics administered to him, and if by some chance he and Carol find a way to ‘fix’ humanity, better believe he’s going to pay that $8,277.53 back. “Plus one ambulance,” of course.

Manousos is the world’s biggest hater, though it stems from being the most morally absolute character in the show—the thought of him encountering Diabaté (Samba Schutte) leaves me wondering what the odds are of Manousos’ hands winding up around the other man’s neck. Moral absolutism, however, as we’ve come to understand in the current day and age, is flawed at best; we know little about Manousos, but what we know for certain is that he’s capable of nearly anything in service of his principles, though it’s worth noting that we’ve yet to see him actually hurt anyone else. After what we’ve seen, I do believe it’s entirely possible.

With the U.S./Mexico border now crossed, Manousos will make it to Albuquerque in a matter of hours. One can only imagine that his relief will be short-lived the moment Carol, for example, asks for translation help from a close-at-hand Zosia. “I want to save the world,” is the phrase he’s prepared to tell her, but what lengths is he willing to go to make that happen? Even more titillatingly, what will happen now that Carol has, both figuratively and literally, begun sleeping with the enemy?

The finale for Pluribus begins streaming tonight on Apple TV.

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba.