For a very long time, we knew exactly one (1) thing about Vince Gilligan’s Apple TV series “Pluribus”: He wrote the lead role specifically for “Better Call Saul” star Rhea Seehorn.
This lone morsel of information was all we had to go on for literal years of the show’s development, forcing us all to speculate on what Gilligan has cooked up for her. But at long last, “Pluribus” has finally arrived, and perhaps the most shocking thing of the explosive premiere was just how different Seehorn’s character Carol Sturka is from her Emmy-nominated role as Kim Wexler on “Better Call Saul.”
Kim Wexler was fierce and indomitable: a lawyer with such a strong moral backbone, she’ll walk away from it all to save her soul. Carol, on the other hand, is trapped in the muck of her regrets and resentments, all too comfortable living a life of consistent disappointment. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Seehorn addressed the one thing that the two characters have in common, despite how different they seem.
“Somewhere deep, deep down, [Carol] has this thing where she’s going to fight for what she thinks is right,” Seehorn pointed out. “That is probably the only thing that’s similar to Kim Wexler, the character I played [on ‘Saul’]. Other than that, they’re pretty much polar opposites.”
As Kim Wexler fought her way out of the trenches of the law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, she never let the petty indignities of the work get in the way of doing what had to be done. And here, too, Carol carries on that spirit, as she is seemingly the only person left on Earth who thinks being assimilated into an alien mass consciousness isn’t such a good idea.
Kim was the hero we all wish we could be, but Carol is ‘reluctant’ to lead the charge on behalf of humanity
Gilligan has said he was inspired to make “Pluribus” because he was tired of writing villains, but that doesn’t mean Carol is a goodie-two-shoes. Seehorn recounted how Gilligan has reminded her that Carol is “a very reluctant hero” who hopes someone else will go through the struggle of saving humanity so she can wallow in her grief following the death of her manager and partner.
Despite their differences, both Carol and Kim surprise themselves with how capable they are of fighting through the pain. While Kim was able to maintain the facade of having everything under control, Carol is all exposed nerves and explosive emotions. The characters could hardly be more different, and it’s thanks to Seehorn’s fearless portrayal of them that Carol remains a sympathetic protagonist even as she pushes everyone else away.
There is one more thing the two characters have in common: Seehorn was crowned TVLine’s Performer of the Year in 2022 for her work on “Saul’s” final season, and the debut of “Pluribus” had her retake the throne as Performer of the Week.
