Dexerto caught up with Manousos star Carlos-Manuel Vesga ahead of the Pluribus finale, where he revealed an overlooked detail about his character that explains, in part, why he is so adamantly against joining the hive mind.
Up until Episode 7 of the Apple TV series, Manousos had remained somewhat of a mystery. All we knew was that he lives in Paraguay, he’s immune to the alien virus, and he hates the Others (so much so that he resorted to eating dog food to avoid interacting with them).
We also found out that he’s been scanning radio frequencies and recording findings in his notebooks, suggesting he may be closer to figuring out a cure than Carol (Rhea Seehorn). And in Episode 7, Manousos embarked on a dangerous trek through the Darién Gap to find her.
During this time, he refused to accept any help from the hive, even risking his life to avoid them. Dexerto took the opportunity to ask Vesga how much he knew about his character before filming began, and his answer provides insight into Manousos’ mindset.
Manousos’ past shapes his resistance in Pluribus
Vesga said he didn’t learn a huge deal about his character’s backstory other than “the facts”, one of which is that Manousos is “ a migrant from Columbia to Paraguay.” But the actor went on to explain that this may be part of the reason he’s so reluctant to Join.
“ That sounds like not a lot, but it is a lot. I mean, migrating implies a lot of things. It implies loss and fear and adaptation and trauma and all of that,” he told us. “I think that says a lot about his stand in regards to the Joining.”
That experience makes Manousos instinctively resistant to the hive mind. Having already endured loss, displacement, and trauma, the idea of surrendering himself to a collective and rebuilding his life from scratch offers no comfort. For Manousos, Joining would mean giving up the identity he fought so hard to keep.
Zosia star Karolina Wydra also didn’t learn about her character’s backstory, but for an altogether different reason. “We talked about a lot of things on set. We had many discussions about the new world,” Wydra told us.
“For me, with Zosia, to be honest with you, I didn’t ask Vince [Gilligan] about it and I didn’t do work on who Zosia was prior to the Joining, just because I didn’t want it to color who she is today – because who she was before doesn’t exist.
Wydra went on to say, “ She’s so unflappable and blissful and joyous and content. And if she has, let’s say, the opposite of that past, it could seep in and could maybe make me seem more manipulative or that I have a secret.
“I didn’t want any of that. I just wanted to focus on who she is today. Because that’s all she is, that’s her truth. Her truth is Zosia 2.0.”
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