THE PERFORMER | Rhea Seehorn
THE SHOW | Apple TV’s “Pluribus”
THE EPISODE | “We Is Us” (Nov. 7, 2025)
THE PERFORMANCE | Since it revolves around a single person surrounded by millions of cheerfully compliant pod people sharing a collective hive mind, the success of “Pluribus” really hinges on the quality of its lead performance. Good thing they cast Rhea Seehorn, huh?
After wowing us as Kim Wexler on “Better Call Saul,” Seehorn stepped into the spotlight in the “Pluribus” premiere as Carol, who finds herself the only person unaffected when a mysterious force from space turns nearly everyone else on Earth into smiling zombies. Before the change, Carol was a self-loathing book author who resented her fans, and Seehorn let that resentment seep into her voice as Carol dismissed her own books as “mindless crap.” But suddenly, everyone around her was collapsing, and Seehorn shifted into horror movie mode as a panicked Carol tried to make sense of what was happening. Those collapsed people include her book agent (and apparent life partner) Helen, and Seehorn was heartbreaking as Carol struggled to get Helen’s limp body to a hospital, desperate to protect the one person on this planet she could actually stand to be around.
As Carol drove through abandoned streets past wrecked vehicles, Seehorn’s stunned face drove home the sheer magnitude of what she was dealing with. (Creator Vince Gilligan relied on Seehorn’s face to do a lot of the heavy lifting here, and it worked.) Sadly, Carol couldn’t save Helen, with Seehorn sobbing over her dead body. But then other people started popping back to life and calling Carol by name, and Seehorn’s voice shook with titanic force as she demanded to know what exactly caused all of this.
It was a tour de force performance, all the more amazing since she carried nearly every scene all by herself. In “Pluribus,” Seehorn is pretty much on her own — and she’s proven she’s more than capable of handling it.
Scroll down to see who got Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…
HONORABLE MENTION: Joey Batey
Joey Batey in The Witcher Season 4 Episode 5 – Netflix
From ill-fated romances to bloody battles with beloved casualties, “The Witcher” Season 4 was a pretty dark affair, and understandably so when you consider the state of the Continent. Moments of levity, however fleeting, were much appreciated, none more so than the unexpected musical moment in Episode 5, courtesy of Jaskier. Joey Batey clearly had a ball retelling the tragic tale of his stolen poetry, perfectly matching the colorful, Disney-esque energy of the big ensemble number. Not unlike Zoltan, we found ourselves enthralled by Batey’s high-energy performance, which excelled as much in its comedy (“We don’t do velvet!”) as in its dramatic, triumphant conclusion. Would we gladly take another musical number in the fifth and final season? To quote the bard himself: “Yes, b*tch.” — Andy Swift
HONORABLE MENTION: Sheryl Lee Ralph
Abbott Elementary Sheryl Lee Ralph Barbara – Courtesy of ABC
We wouldn’t expect someone as old-fashioned as “Abbott Elementary’s” Barbara Howard to be addicted to her phone, but when the Abbott staff was forced to give up their phones this week, Barbara went through serious withdrawal — and Sheryl Lee Ralph had us giggling all episode long. She was in rare form as Barbara fretted about being out of the loop in her church choir group chat and not being able to play songs on Spotify for her class, her voice gathering a religious fervor as she declared, “We should have never strayed from records and CDs!” (We love it when Barbara gets all holy roller on us.) Ralph also added a hint of mischief as Barbara realized her daughter’s new baby could upstage her choir rival, smiling devilishly before bellowing: “I need my phone!” Barbara eventually got her phone back, but we kind of wish someone would take it away again… just to watch the hilarious fireworks that would ensue. — D.N.
Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!
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