News Pluribus Pluribus: What That Ursula K. Le Guin Book Suggests About the Series Just some light reading for Carol as she sits by the pool By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 5, 2026 Credit: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Apple TV This post contains one spoiler from the Pluribus finale, specifically about Carol reading a certain book. The finale of Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus came out on December 26, and while the episode certainly included a lot, there was one moment that surely had sci-fi fans doing a double take and pointing eagerly at the screen. The scene in question had Carol (Rhea Seehorn) lounging at a pool while Zosia (Karolina Wydra) swims some laps. It’s the end of humanity, and for the moment Carol has accepted it. And what could be a better way to accept that the Joining isn’t going anywhere than to read Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness? “We talked about who Carol might read in general, especially for leisure,” Seehorn said in an interview with Mashable. “Not that Le Guin’s books are easy, passive reading, but they definitely seem like books and a voice and a literary level that Carol would admire.” The nod is a deft one: Le Guin, of course, is a literary legend, with The Left Hand of Darkness remaining one of her best-known works. The premise of the 1969 novel also has some parallels to Pluribus. In it, a man named Genly travels to the planet Gethen as an emissary of the Ekumen, a confederation of planets. The Ekumen wants the people of Gethen to join their organization, a mirror image of what the alien-virus thing in Pluribus has done to most of humanity, and what it seeks to do elsewhere in the universe. Genly is also like Carol, a human effectively surrounded by an alien species. Yes, I know there are other non-Joined in Pluribus, but Carol is isolated from most of them as well… she’s not even invited to their Zoom meetups! There are differences, of course. On Gethen, for example, people are ambisexual and only grow sex organs once a month (50/50 on whether they grow a vagina or a penis) and then have those organs disappear unless they’ve become pregnant. That’s a leap from what’s going on in Pluribus… or is it? How do the Joined consider gender? My initial guess is they consider themselves every gender and also none? Please discuss. Perhaps Carol is considering these questions while reading (or rereading… probably rereading) The Left Hand of Darkness by the poolside. Le Guin’s novel is also a great option for us to read while we wait for Pluribus season two, and we’ve got a list of other books to check out before then as well. [end-mark] The post <i>Pluribus</i>: What That Ursula K. Le Guin Book Suggests About the Series appeared first on Reactor.