Full spoilers ahead For many Episode 9 of La Chica o El Mundo is available now on Apple TV.
And then there was one! Eh, two!
Finally, after nine episodes of being alone on opposite sides of the globe, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) and Manusos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) come face to face. And everything didn't go well at all. Big surprise.
But before we get to those two, “La Chica o El Mundo” (or “The Girl or the World”) begins with a look at Kushimaya (Darinka Arones), a Peruvian girl who is one of the 13 uninfected and whom Carol met back in Episode 2. She was the one who actually expressed interest in joining the Others, also known as the Joiners, and here we see that the hivemind has finally figured out how to do this. “We will never harm you,” Kushimayu’s family and friends – or former relatives and friends? – tell her. And they don't physically hurt her, of course. She simply inhales a live virus that turns her into one of them. So why is this scene so terrifying?
God, the way the beautiful tribal singing that the villagers used to caress Kushimaya's ears suddenly stops as soon as she joined in… it's terrible. When the villagers, including the now-aligned Kushimai, proceed to completely shut down the place – silently, but with a smile, always with a smile – it shows another danger lurking behind the Kepler-22b virus: the complete and insufficient destruction of human cultures. Just ask this little goat who runs after Kushimaya as she opens the animal enclosure, betraying her old way of life one last time. Baaaaah.
From there we cut back to Carol and Zosia (Carolina Otter), Albuquerque's oddest couple, watching a satellite image of Manousos' ambulance as its arrival approaches (“And he's in the ambulance?” “Long story,” Zosia says in her disarming way).
(It's notable that the opening title states that this takes place approximately 60 days after the Joining, whereas the previous scene with Kushimayu takes place 71 days before. We've seen this kind of time shift used before, mostly to convey the more important aspects of Manousos's story in comparison to Carol's, since they didn't really line up linearly for the viewer. And by the end of this episode, Carol will have caught up with Kushimayu's latest development. It's just a great way that creator Vince Gilligan and his writers created this story.)
But let's return to the first meeting of Carol and Manousos. God, could it be worse? I mean, could things have turned out better… for us, the audience, that is? I mean, how damn awkward is it when they greet each other outside the house? Of course, the language difference was always going to complicate things, but we're talking about two of the last 13 people on Earth who have free will… and maybe the last two who really don't care about that very concept. It could have been a Hollywood-style meeting, with much fanfare as they ran and hugged each other. But no, instead we get “I’m not dangerous” and instant disagreements. And it only gets worse… Is this guy snapping Carol's fingers!? Man!
It's funny, but the collision between these two was inevitable. They are too similar, too stubborn. And that's why they are the only ones who can save the world.
This is, of course, assuming the couple can agree on what saving the world actually looks like. Here we learn that Manousos thinks, at least at first, that if the Joined cannot be returned to their non-hive forms, then they are better off dead. Carol claims that they are still people and, besides, they won’t harm even an ant. “Isn’t it evil to value a person the same as an ant?” Manousos answers.
Now that he's in town, Manousos begins running his own tests to figure out how to break out of the Joined, though he's more inclined to push the boundaries. It all starts with him finally talking to representatives of the team, in particular Zosia, which Carol does not appreciate one bit. But it also leads to a moment that is clearly important to Carol's mission against the hivemind, as painful as it may be: Zosia tells Carol that the Joined, and therefore Zosia, love Manusos as much as they love her. And Carol is so hurt not only by the statement of fact, but also by how carelessly Zosia conveys this information to her. Like, Certainly they love them equally, it seems, says Zosya. Isn't it obvious?
The funny thing is that Manousos may be closer to finding the key to undoing all of this, or at least he has a better theory than Carol ever had. His whole mysterious radio frequency/personal reverse plan coaxing is interrupted here, of course, by Carol's shotgun, but it seems to be as good as any other approach. AND he was also sure that he would warn the whole world to lie down before he began.
So, this leads to Carol and Zosia going to heaven, traveling the planet and living the perfect life. Girl or world? It seems Carol has made her choice… which is very un-Carol. Perhaps she was just bored. Maybe she wanted a normal life again with a loving companion. Perhaps she disliked Manusos and his approach so much that she was willing to ignore the larger problems of the Joiners. But even if the news of her frozen eggs had not been revealed, it is difficult to believe that she would not have eventually returned to Manousos.
But that bomb went off anyway, and it's both heartbreaking and scary for Carol. Now the clock is ticking for her, and she has nowhere to go but home… to her new best friend, whether you like it or not: Manousos. Yes, and also an atomic bomb.
Questions and notes from Kepler-22b
- I'm surprised that the frozen egg issue developed as expected. It actually seems a bit jarring considering all the times they've been mentioned before. I thought another twist awaited us.
- “I mean, he's not dangerous, is he?” Yes, Manousos apparently has a darker history than we assumed, at least judging by Zosia's answer here.
- By the way, why does Manousos carry a machete and not, I don't know, a gun? Of course, with the latter he will have a better chance of defending himself. Unless this whole “is he dangerous” thing is connected to some story with this blade…
- “You know what, you can go right back to your ER and go fuck yourself. I'm finito!” Who hasn't said this themselves once or twice?
- Carol's phone translating everything, even after Manousos dropped it down the drain, is just the perfect touch to their first meeting.
- Yes, that's the Golden Girls DVD menu that plays when Carol wakes up on the couch. “Thank you for being a friend [Manousos]!”
- Radio frequencies that can bring people out of their hive mind state! It's not exactly the same, but it's reminiscent of the classic Star Trek episode “This Side of Paradise.”
- I loved watching and writing about this season, so hopefully I'll be back for a second season!
