Pluribus Episode 8: Is Kepler-22b real? How the alien planet reveal changes everything

Pluribus Episode 8 is titled Charm Offensive. It was released on December 19, 2025, on Apple TV.

The penultimate episode of Vince Gilligan’s critically acclaimed sci-fi series presented viewers with one of the most important truths of the season, thus changing our perception of the alien hive mind that has been getting rid of human individuality. Carol Sturka, while getting closer to Zosia and the Others, makes some very shocking discoveries about the virus that had been brought to Earth from a far-off planet called Kepler-22b, and the terrible consequences of what the hive mind has in store for humans next.

If you have been riding along since the start, you would remember the early scenes with the astronomers freaking out about that alien RNA signal. Pluribus Episode 8 is the moment the rollercoaster hits the loop. The alien takeover isn’t just an Earth problem. Turns out, the rabbit hole goes way deeper.

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Pluribus Episode 8: Carol’s strategic shift and the Kepler-22b revelation

In Pluribus Episode 8, Carol is done being the sad, lonely, and painting “come back” on her driveway. Now she has changed her strategy with the Others. We saw her flipping the switch from emotional meltdown in Episode 7 to playing it nice in the latest Episode.

The opener shows Carol and Zosia reunited at last. Carol tries to act “normal.” You can see her social skills creaking from all that alone time. Throughout Pluribus Episode 8, it’s like Carol is on an alien date with Zosia. They are hiking, getting spa treatments, hitting croquet balls around, and hitting up the observatory for some stargazing.

But Carol is not just hanging out. She has a whiteboard at home where she jots down everything, every little thing about the Others. She is playing the long game, pretending she is cool with the hive mind, while actually just gathering dirt.

So what’s she learning? The Others eat people. They turn humans into HDP (human-derived protein), they communicate through electromagnetic fields in their bodies, they pile up and sleep together for warmth, and they use trains to haul their “food” around. The big reveal is that they are building a mega antenna to beam their alien signal to other planets.

Meanwhile, there’s Manousos (Carlos Manuel Vesga). He wakes up in a Panama hospital after nearly dying in the Darién Gap. The Others save him, and he still won’t play along. He is grumpy, wants a receipt for his medical bills, and then hijacks an ambulance to go find Carol.

The most important thing from Pluribus Episode 8 is Kepler-22b. As Carol and Zosia are on their stargazing date, Zosia sets up a telescope and points Carol at Kepler-22. That’s where the alien signal is beaming from. She starts rattling off planet facts, talking about Kepler-22b. She says it’s about twice Earth’s size, and she figures it might just be one gigantic ocean world.

The very fact that Kepler-22b is not a fictional entity, and a real exoplanet that was found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, makes this revelation very notable. As per NASA’s exoplanet catalog, Kepler-22b was found in December 2011 and became the first known transiting planet confirmed to revolve around a Sun-like star in the habitable zone, where liquid water could potentially be on the planet’s surface.

The exoplanet is situated at a distance of around 640 light-years from our planet, specifically in the Cygnus constellation. According to Wikipedia, Kepler-22b, which is initially estimated to be 2.4 times the Earth's radius, is categorized as a “super-Earth” with a radius about 2.1 times that of Earth. Its orbit around the star takes about 290 days, and even though its mass and surface composition are still uncertain, the majority of scientists are leaning towards classifying it as an ocean planet or water world, which is what Zosia implies in Pluribus Episode 8.

The BBC Sky at Night Magazine says Kepler-22b stays in a sweet spot, the “Goldilocks zone”, around its star. It is neither too hot nor too cold, just maybe right for liquid water. It orbits around its sun a bit closer than Earth does, but the star is 25% less bright than our Sun, so it sort of evens out. That’s real-deal detail Pluribus Episode 8 ran with, so the sci-fi isn’t making stuff up out of thin air.

Kepler-22b’s location in the habitable zone and its possibility of being covered by an ocean made it one of the most curious exoplanets to talk about in terms of alien life. The planet has also been showcased in other sci-fi stories, especially as the planet where HBO’s Raised by Wolves takes place. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) points out that although scientists do not know what type of planet Kepler-22b is, rocky, gaseous, or liquid, the discovery was a great step forward in the search for Earth-like planets.

The Kepler-22b reveal flips the storyline of the series. What started as a story about Earth going through a bizarre transformation suddenly feels way more like cosmic horror. In Pluribus Episode 8, Zosia tells Carol about the Others building a “giant antenna” to blast the RNA sequence out to other planets. She says:

“We are grateful to them, and we will pay it forward, however long that may take. We have to share their gift with whoever else might be out there.”

This statement sounds way creepier when you think about it for more than two seconds. This disclosure points to the alien virus behaving like a chain letter through the universe. The dialogue between Carol and Zosia indicates that Kepler-22b might not be the original source of the virus but rather one link in a very old chain. Hence, if Kepler-22b had earlier been transformed the same way before sending it to Earth, the latter would be regarded as the most recent culture to get the transformation and get roped into spreading this cosmic hive mind further.

Pluribus Episode 8 also hints at the fact that the Others might think they are doing everyone a favor by handing out this “gift” of connection and happiness, but they are actually erasing everything that makes people, people. It’s not like the hive mind is twirling a mustache and plotting in a dark lair, but their “kindness” is just a trick to spread the virus as far and fast as possible.

And the antenna actually solves the power outage mystery that has been hanging over the show. The Others have been using up Earth’s energy resources to build a massive transmitter, big enough to blast a signal across space to who-knows-where. Carol’s house is off the main grid, which is why she still has lights, but everywhere else? All that energy is fueling the Others’ big cosmic campaign.

With only one episode left in Season 1, the tension is through the roof. Carol has got the whole fate-of-Earth in her lap. Does she pull the plug on this antenna scheme, or just let our planet become the next guinea pig in some cosmic science experiment that’s apparently been rolling across the galaxy for eons?

Then there’s that Kepler-22b reveal. Somewhere out there, light-years away, other planets might be picking up these signals as we speak/write/read. Win or lose, Pluribus is exploring free will, happiness, and what we would toss aside just to feel a little less alone. Kepler-22b is like a reminder that the universe is huge and most of it is a complete mystery. Who knows what else is out there, lurking, just waiting to flip our lives upside down?

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Also Read: Pluribus Episode 8 recap: The Alien RNA's Origin revealed