Pluribus - The new show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan

[stuuupid_idiot]

I'm kind of confused about how the hive mind even works at this point. The writers can only handwave the issue for so long before the mounting questions and contradictions defy suspension of disbelief.

Previous episodes seem to imply that the hive is a single consciousness, with individuals acting like cells in a superorganism. It constantly speaks as "we," and conversations jump from individual to individual. It is superhuman in its ability to be aware of everything happening everywhere, all at once, but is still a single personality into which everyone has been subsumed.

The latest episode suggests that at least a crumb of the individual remains. Zosia implies - and Carol writes in her notes - that the hive is aware of everything, but only the individual feels (Zosia enjoying her back rub). But:

• How is there still an individual left to experience anything? If emotions are experienced on an individual level, wouldn't we see tension between how individuals feel and what the hive mind wants?
• Isn't this contradicted by the fact that the whole hive mind: A. shuts down when Carol gets mad, B. collectively cries and sobs when she drugs Zosia? The latter seems like collective emotion to me.
• The statement that it would be overwhelming for the hive to feel everything that each individual feels is a problem for the whole premise. Is it not equally overwhelming to be aware of everything that is happening to every individual?

I'm sure I'm not the only one with these questions. Just had to get them out of my system.

 

[CoolFool]

I don't really get the complaints about this show being slow. I kept reading that complaint so much that I went in expecting to dread it, but I personally didn't find it too slow except for a few parts on episode 7.

 

[soy woah jaque]

emotions

Emotions are one thing, external stimuli like physical pain is something else.

I don't really get the complaints about this show being slow. I kept reading that complaint so much that I went in expecting to dread it, but I personally didn't find it too slow except for a few parts on episode 7.

Even when binge watching I could feel the pacing was sluggish. There's several minutes worth of filler in every episode, with some being almost 50% filler scenes of nothing happening. I don't see how this show could have any rewatch potential as it's just dragging out mystery boxes.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Can't wait for the ultimate bad guys to be ''le neo-nazis'' again... oy...

 

[Devil's Avocado]

Some stills from the finale:

Spoiler: images

Regarding the third image

Spoiler: scene description

It's very likely the third post from this image. The poster was right about the first two so I don't see why the third spoiler would be incorrect.

 

[BigJoey41X]

Can't wait for the ultimate bad guys to be ''le neo-nazis'' again... oy...

nigga what the fuck are you talking about?, get the politics brainrot our of your head.

I'd argue that this show is more anti-communist with the clear anti-collectivist and pro-individuality messaging.

anyway, I really hope the finale sticks because most of the season wasn't all that fun to watch, the first episode with Humanity falling to the Plurb virus and Carol absolutely freaking out, and then the second episode of her getting introduced to some of the Immune was undeniably great TV.

 

[Devil's Avocado]

Due to the holidays, the finale will be available tonight/tomorrow morning depending on the timezone.

 

[Brutality]

Manusous is the best part of this show

 

[florida_cat_enjoyer]

Manusous is the very definition of locked in.

Carol rant below:

Spoiler

Learning electromagnetic and wave physics while Carol whines about “saving le world guise” but goons with her sex slave. There’s a semi-famous scene in the show 24 where Jack Bauer shoots a pedophile in the chest then saws off his head. His boss is furious but Jack tells him something along the lines of every wants results but doesn’t want to actually get their hands dirty. That’s Carol, she wants results but doesn’t want to do what it takes, not until her life is threatened.

Also I guess Helen basically meant nothing? Or at least Carol got over her so quickly. What’s the point of even including her “relationship?”

 

[Brutality]

Something I realized in this episode as well is just how narcissistic Carol is, and the Lodge scene really emphasized it for me. I immediately remembered how she bickered with Helen about not wanting to do the trip to Norway and sleep in the igloo and how Carol grew to love the hive because ultimately it couldn't talk back or express a contradictory opinion, and only when Carol's immediate peace is threatened when Zosia reveals that they've found Carol's eggs and are actively working to convert her does she finally go back to Manusous and agree to help him

 

[CervixHammer]

Carol finally got around to asking for what I would have within the first week.

 

[NSJAP]

THE WRATH OF HUMANITY INCARNATED, WHEN THEY SAW HIM SOME WERE FILLED WITH HOPE, SOME WERE FILLED WITH PRIDE, SOME WERE FILLED WITH RAGE, BUT ALL OF THEM SCREAMED!

 

[Wujime]

Holy shit Carol is actually really fucking dumb. She does the exact same shit the black guy did but at least he's self-aware and enjoys it, Carol was delusional and wasn't even enjoying it really.
Manousos saved the fucking show.

 

[Devil's Avocado]

Carol made the right choice by aligning with Manousos as that will lead to way more interesting plot with them trying to crack the case. The other choice would've been more tame lesbian romance which is just meh.
Manosus seems to have figured out or is about to figure with all his physics textbooks that it's possible to separate individuals from the hive by taking them deep underground, a Faraday cage, maybe even an elevator would work. Basically anywhere would be fine if that place blocks off the frequency.
There was nothing about that in the finale, but I still believe that blocking off the signal (though it will be interesting to see how a member of the hive reacts when they are cut off) is only the first step. I still believe that the second part will be Carol with her knowledge that Zosia got real weird when Carol started probing her with personal questions. So I think the move is to isolate a person and then go to town on them with questions about their life before until the link breaks. And their guinea pig will be Zosia. Oh well, I guess we'll find out in 2-3 years.

Also, did it seem really weird to anyone else that when talking about her past partner, Zosia only referred to as them not he or she. It's like writers deliberately want to keep Zosia's sexuality ambiguous only for it to lead to finding out she's straight and doesn't want to bang Carol anymore after getting unlinked. It would be pretty hilarious though if it really was some tranny with they/them pronouns but this show is not Euphoria and Apple just doesn't produce shows edgy enough to go down that road.

Overall a pretty decent finale, in large part saved by Manousos just not giving a fuck and proceeding with his mission any means necessary. 7/10. Now the long wait begins.

 

[Kulee Baba]

Holy shit Carol is actually really fucking dumb. She does the exact same shit the black guy did but at least he's self-aware and enjoys it, Carol was delusional and wasn't even enjoying it really.
Manousos saved the fucking show.

Yeah it’s an interesting choice that we’re not following the smartest or most noble person in the show. Carol just sucks:

It takes a month for Carol to realize that the Plurbs are consuming dead people for protein. But Diabetes and the connected survivors figured that out along with knowing the Pluribus will have a mass starvation. But Carol is the most noble person right? Nope Manousos tried to trek the fucking Darien Gap and is willing to just study this shit no matter how vain it is while Carol goes on a lesbian honeymoon with a Polish woman she should damn well know isn’t in an actual romantic relationship with.

Hope it doesn’t take two years for season 2. I don’t want to be an old man when this show wraps up.

Also it pissed me off when she shot a fucking shotgun at Manounos’s direction. He’s the hero of
the show for not snapping at the dumb bitch.

 

[Imperial Citizen]

Also, did it seem really weird to anyone else that when talking about her past partner, Zosia only referred to as them not he or she. It's like writers deliberately want to keep Zosia's sexuality ambiguous only for it to lead to finding out she's straight and doesn't want to bang Carol anymore after getting unlinked.

It was Carol who described Zosia’s partner with ‘they’’. She wants to keep her dream fantasy alive through ignorance.

 

[Wujime]

I want to say that the scene in the beginning of this episode, might be the most kino scene Vince has ever produced.
The peruvian girl is filmed with a Lamb, associating her with an archetypical innocent animal and sacrificial object, the whole framing of the scene mimicking what could be considered both a tribal rite of passage into adulthood, and the sacrifice of the maiden. The passage itself in this rural shithole being mediated by something ostensibly high techy, which is inhaled like the drugs of old tribal time giving the subject a trascendental trance, possibly also carrying themes of the annihilation of the individual as he's immersed into the modern interconnected world. Then the sudden stop of chanting as soon as the girl is assimilated, the pretence drops and no one has to keep up appearences of being people and sticking to any legacy of culture anymore. The lamb, previously attached to the girl gains freedom, but clearly loses a friend she was attached to, the lamb is no longer worthy of her love anymore. And I have to think the release of the episode on Xmas eve is no coincidence: many of us will eat lamb tonight as per tradition, in the world of pluribus, the lamb was saved, the girl being sacrificed in his stead.

Maybe I'm just a schizo retard, but I truly believe that scene was so dense of meaning.

 

[spaztocate9000]

I bet while Manny was in the hospital they took some of his stem cells too. The last episode really made the dumb dyke even less likable.

It was ok when she experimented and hurt the hive, but when Manusos does it (even better then she did btw) now she has issues? Fuck this dumb bitch, if humanity is ever in this predicament at least give us 1 white male to save us.

 

[Cryogonal2]

The lamb, previously attached to the girl gains freedom, but clearly loses a friend she was attached to, the lamb is no longer worthy of her love anymore.

Also, dogs barking in the distance. The lamb is doomed.

 

[florida_cat_enjoyer]

It's like writers deliberately want to keep Zosia's sexuality ambiguous only for it to lead to finding out she's straight and doesn't want to bang Carol anymore after getting unlinked.

Definitely going to be an issue when they figure out how to free people. I hope the writers don’t make Zosia a “love interest” after she’s freed. Not sure if they will have them keep their memories while in the hive or not, but I hope she’s pissed.

I want to say that the scene in the beginning of this episode, might be the most kino scene Vince has ever produced.

It was a very kino opening and the episode was good. Probably the first time since the first two episodes where I was wishing there was more time left.

Also, dogs barking in the distance. The lamb is doomed.

It’s quite interesting to see how the hive told Carol they take care of animals bonded but this was a counter example to that. I think season 2 will show the hive being much more cruel.