Spoilers Vince Gilligan's Pluribus starring Rhea Seehorn

[Gepard]

Go Manny. The hive is evil as hell and I hope he and Carol wipe it out.

It's a cyborg that hijacks technological civilizations to reproduce, spending half its life cycle as a virus and the other half as a radio signal. Everything about the hive is downstream of their being reprogrammed to, essentially, turn the Earth into a fruiting body for this alien thing.

 

[Brolan]

This season finale pretty much confirms that they are going to convert the unjoined any sneaky way they can. So now there is a ticking clock for Carol at least.

What are the odds they took Manousos’ stem cells in the hospital? Pretty good I think.

 

[trash80]

That was great, plus a real shadow over Carol for S2 (although Zosia did say it would require some luck).

 

[EmoBorg]

Good to see Carol finally getting a buddy that wants to get rid of the virus just like her.

Manousos appears more millitant though as he does not believe that they have souls. He might even consider killing them in the future.

Hopefully, those two work together and succeed without any loss of life.

These hive mind humans are very weird but they so far appear to be non violent.

Who is to say that the virus was created to conquer the world peacefully and the hive humans are preparing the earth for its new masters.

Sad to see the Peruvian girl willingly join the hive mind. Laxmi still dislikes Carol. I bet that enemity shows up next season. I do like Zosia tbh.

 

[Starkers]

Ha I knew it was an atom bomb the moment I saw the container

I thought the opening scene was terrifying. The way everyone appeared human and caring, right up until they infected her, then everyone became a mindless drone sent shivers down my spine.

It struck me during Carol's globetrotting holiday Zosia that she was effectively little different to Koumba, maybe she doesn't consciously realise what she's doing but like him she's playacting and getting herself a nice little love slave into the bargain (and the Others presumably planned this, they chose Zosia very specifically)

Glad she came to her senses.

Manousos is a little intense to say the least, and I'm not sure his actions are completely altruistic. Who is Rick? A former lover or friend or brother? Someone who died who Manousos thinks he can get back? Does he now accept the Others are just infected with a virus or does he think they are demons, and that perhaps he can contact the afterlife through them?

I guess his obsession with the radio frequencies makes a little more sense now? Has he stumbled on the frequency of their telepathic communication? Could it be jammed?

It's going to be a long wait for season 2

Couple of thoughts.

So the Others left Carol for 40 days (and presumably 40 nights) would that count as Carol being in the wilderness?

I wonder if there's any significance to Carol reading The Left Hand of Darkness?

 

[Gepard]

I guess his obsession with the radio frequencies makes a little more sense now? Has he stumbled on the frequency of their telepathic communication?

It seems clear that it is. That was one of the leading theories about the signal since, basically, the episode that introduced it.

Could it be jammed?

One of the textbooks prominently shown in the pan across Manny's table had "Faraday" in the title, and a Faraday cage is a metal enclosure designed to block RF transmissions. I'd say they're gonna try.

I wonder if there's any significance to Carol reading The Left Hand of Darkness?

Someone on Reddit brought up the parallels between the main character, Genly Ai, trying to bring the planet Gethen into an interplanetary alliance as a parallel to the Hive's mission of assimilation.

I interpret it as being a reference to Carol changing Raban's sex. She also has socks on with trans flag colors in the following scene (the camera focuses on them and everything), so that fits IMO.

 

[trash80]

Ha I knew it was an atom bomb the moment I saw the container

I thought the opening scene was terrifying. The way everyone appeared human and caring, right up until they infected her, then everyone became a mindless drone sent shivers down my spine.

Yes that was such a chilling scene, remind us how dangerous this virus actually is.

 

[Kraig]

I thought the opening scene was terrifying. The way everyone appeared human and caring, right up until they infected her, then everyone became a mindless drone sent shivers down my spine.

She also stopped caring for her animals, and opened the pen. The baby goat she was cradling at first, she abandoned and ignored when she became infected. Most of those domesticated animals are going to wind up being prey, or starve, and won't survive long in the wild.

 

[EmoBorg]

Someone on youtube mentioned that the radio signal 8.6130 MHz that Manousos noticed and wrote down for being different, is part of a group of signals, used by nuclear submarines to communicate with naval stations on land.

Carol might have more nukes than she think if Manousos figures it out.

 

[trash80]

Someone on youtube mentioned that the radio signal 8.6130 MHz that Manousos noticed and wrote down for being different, is part of a group of signals, used by nuclear submarines to communicate with naval stations on land.

Carol might have more nukes than she think if Manousos figures it out.

I do have a theory about the show (which is probably wrong) though it might tie into this. I'll put my theory below, its most likely wrong but just in case:

Spoiler: My theory

The virus is terrestrial in origin, a way to dominate the world by an unknown group. The masterminds are safely in submarines or other protected spaces waiting for everyone else to die out. Then they'll take over ands control an empty world.

 

[Booji]

Well, I hope we get season 2 some time before 2028.

 

[Starkers]

I do have a theory about the show (which is probably wrong) though it might tie into this. I'll put my theory below, its most likely wrong but just in case:

Spoiler: My theory

The virus is terrestrial in origin, a way to dominate the world by an unknown group. The masterminds are safely in submarines or other protected spaces waiting for everyone else to die out. Then they'll take over ands control an empty world.

I'll be disappointed if that's the case. If you can create that kind of virus why would you distribute it in such a convoluted fashion rather than just releasing it? And if you wanted to kill off the population why not create a virus that makes everyone kill themselves?

I suppose this way all the infrastructure remains intact and maintained right up until everyone dies, the Others will keep the world ticking over until they lack numbers to do so, but it still doesn't explain why you'd make it look like it was extra-terrestrial in origin and just hope whoever was studying it made a mistake.

And at some point surely the global population will be small enough that it could sustain itself purely from foraging and Human-Derived Protein, though even if humanity survives, long-term there'll be a limit on our population. We're not going to be venturing out into space any time soon, which seems to be the goal of the virus, to me at least.

I highly doubt it, but wonder if Gilligan ever watched the Blakes 7 episode Killer which has a sorta similar idea. The virus in that is more of your traditional killer virus but it is designed only to target humans who've ventures into space, the idea being not to kill humanity off, merely to confine them to one planet.

 

[camdudetenger2018]

i wonder what season 2 is gonna be about now

 

[1001001]

My son and I finished Season 1 last night.

The show creates some very interesting ethical dilemmas for Carol, most obvious is how do you reverse the virus without killing the host?

Which then makes me think if this truly is a virus (or something that acts like one), when they broadcast the "recipe" to other worlds, will the people of Earth all die? Infect, then spread? Will the human immune system eventually defeat the virus on its own?

Assuming for the moment that Carol does not know how to deploy and/or detonate an atomic bomb, is it a bluff? "Leave me alone or else?"

I hope they get more into the signal itself, where it came from, what is it's purpose (if there is one)? She was right on when she observed this is unsustainable...how does a species who can't feed themselves survive?

And some serious creepiness...when Zosia tells her the truth at the ski lodge, Carol's domestic fantasy falls apart. Unresolved trauma of her wife's death...

Lastly... +1 for having Howard from Better Call Saul be the recorded voice on the phone.



I hope they don't make us wait years for Season 2.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I do have a theory about the show (which is probably wrong) though it might tie into this. I'll put my theory below, its most likely wrong but just in case:

Spoiler: My theory

The virus is terrestrial in origin, a way to dominate the world by an unknown group. The masterminds are safely in submarines or other protected spaces waiting for everyone else to die out. Then they'll take over ands control an empty world.

Unless the full plan is for one dude, to get the world to themself for one life time, a small enough population sample is going to find mass incest impossible to avoid, eventually.

 

[King Bob!]

Unless the full plan is for one dude, to get the world to themself for one life time, a small enough population sample is going to find mass incest impossible to avoid, eventually.

I’m not sure the hive mind even has sex within the group. There was a scene where Zosiah ticks off the number of births and it seemed extremely low. Like 1,600, IIRC.

 

[Booji]

The bomb is probably nothing more than the new pizza on the roof. On the podcast, Vince mentions they came up with the idea after a getting a note from the studio saying the original ending wasn't quite right. They got their shock season finale ending and that's probably the end of that.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I’m not sure the hive mind even has sex within the group. There was a scene where Zosiah ticks off the number of births and it seemed extremely low. Like 1,600, IIRC.

Births per day.

It's 70 days since they took over, all pregnancies coming to term for the next 7 months were conceived before zero day.

Do they want to be babies?

Do they want to raise non hived babies?

Do they consider abortions to be murder?

Had a nice thought

Mothers milk, all that immunity shit and antibodies.

What if the hive can't get the next generation?

 

[King Bob!]

Births per day.

Yes. On average, according to Google, there are about 360,000 births per day.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Yes. On average, according to Google, there are about 360,000 births per day.

Google...

One character, Zosia, mentions a specific count of 965 births (and 1,674 deaths) over a 10-minute period in one episode, but this is a momentary data point within a vast global population, intended to highlight the scale of life events, not an overall birth total for the collective.

Meanwhile the bomb, which is only a power move on Carols part, actually shows promise.

A nuclear explosion severely disrupts radio transmissions by creating vast, highly ionized layers in the atmosphere, causing "blackouts" for HF/MF/VHF signals through reflection, absorption, and refraction, while also generating Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) that can fry electronics; essentially, the ionized air acts like a giant, temporary shield or mirror, scrambling signals, whereas regular radio relies on stable atmospheric layers, making them incompatible during the event.