Spoilers Vince Gilligan's Pluribus starring Rhea Seehorn

[Santa Kang]

Well, New Mexico, actually, but we honestly get that a lot.

But are you part of the United States?

 

[Starkers]

Lots of reviewers are saying this was the best episode of the series so far, and I can see why, but for me it's had the counterintuitive effect of totally putting me off the show's pace. This was a real straw-meet-camel episode for me.

Pluribus is a weird show. The way it's generates its ongoing conflict is pretty unusual: if it weren't for Carol digging in her heels, there would be no show. How do you write ongoing conflict when one "character" is so nice, so passive, so damned agreeable that they can't resist or pose any real threat? (You might, say, introduce a ticking clock element, first with the conversion threat and then with the reveal that the Joined will (eventually) starve to death. But both of those are pretty abstract, the first with no timetable and the second with a timetable of a decade. And then they wrote out that first ticking clock entirely, at least for now...)

I wondered after the second episode how on earth they would get multiple seasons out of this premise, and unfortunately the answer seems to be by padding the episodes. I call it the "Mike disassembling a car in the desert" approach, because Gilligan et al did this during BCS too, where material that any other team would have trimmed or cut is shown in excruciating detail.

But, fine, Carol is carrying the whole thing so I'll cut them some slack here. Except, now..maybe she isn't and I can't.

Based on where this episode left things, suddenly we have the potential for Carol to have internal conflict. And for her to have real, meaningful ongoing conflict with another character (Manousos.) This is much better! And, to me...it just makes the rest of the show look so, so much worse. I don't need or want to watch five minutes of Manousos hiking and saying the same mantra over and over when the potential for better, more engaging storytelling is over the horizon. It feels like the writing has its head up its own ass.

I can think of a few directions it could go. Is it possible that some of the Others' immune systems might fight off the virus, separating them from the hive? Of course if that were to happen whilst you get more independent characters you have to address the issue that if the Hive do know how to reverse the virus then why wouldn't a severed former member know? Unless you only have access to the hive mind when part of the hive?

It's always possible that whoever sent the transmission shows up (I doubt it, but you never know)

I can't remember but did they say what happened to people on board submarines or in the Antarctic? I remember them talking about the ISS (how the hell'd they get the virus up there?)

I still doubt there's only 13 immune people. One way or other any show that lasts more than a season tends to have a way of introducing new characters (take the Talies in Lost)

 

[The Grinch Doctor]

It's always possible that whoever sent the transmission shows up (I doubt it, but you never know)

Based on Gilligan's interviews about the show and just the general sense of the show, I would be very surprised if we ever see whoever sent the transmission. Hell, I would be surprised if we learn even basic facts about them.

I can't remember but did they say what happened to people on board submarines or in the Antarctic? I remember them talking about the ISS (how the hell'd they get the virus up there?)

I don't think submariners were addressed but I seem to recall some mention of Antarctic early on. As for how the ISS get the virus, I'm sure it was the same way the most of the world got it: Telecommunications. The same would be true for submariners...unless they were operating on radio silence...

I still doubt there's only 13 immune people. One way or other any show that lasts more than a season tends to have a way of introducing new characters (take the Talies in Lost)

I agree. We only have the Others' word on who is actually immune. I can't recall if Carol directly asked that question.

And I think I may have stumbled on where we might get new characters, although it raises the question if such submariners have some means of blocking the transmission if they were surface (which they would have to do eventually).

 

[King Bob!]

Of course if that were to happen whilst you get more independent characters you have to address the issue that if the Hive do know how to reverse the virus then why wouldn't a severed former member know? Unless you only have access to the hive mind when part of the hive?

Knowing it can be cured and being able to implement a cure are two completely different buckets of fish.

 

[Gepard]

Based on Gilligan's interviews about the show and just the general sense of the show, I would be very surprised if we ever see whoever sent the transmission. Hell, I would be surprised if we learn even basic facts about them.

Yup. That said, I think we will learn more about the nature of the virus and even where it came from, but only through implication, e.g from the behavior of the Joined themselves. If, say, they're all building giant radio transmitters that will imply something about the state of Kepler-22b's inhabitants.

 

[Starkers]

Based on Gilligan's interviews about the show and just the general sense of the show, I would be very surprised if we ever see whoever sent the transmission. Hell, I would be surprised if we learn even basic facts about them.


I don't think submariners were addressed but I seem to recall some mention of Antarctic early on. As for how the ISS get the virus, I'm sure it was the same way the most of the world got it: Telecommunications. The same would be true for submariners...unless they were operating on radio silence...


I agree. We only have the Others' word on who is actually immune. I can't recall if Carol directly asked that question.

And I think I may have stumbled on where we might get new characters, although it raises the question if such submariners have some means of blocking the transmission if they were surface (which they would have to do eventually).

I thought the virus was distributed via contaminated food and drink, kissing and aerosol not radio waves?

Knowing it can be cured and being able to implement a cure are two completely different buckets of fish.

Good point.

 

[The Grinch Doctor]

I thought the virus was distributed via contaminated food and drink, kissing and aerosol not radio waves?

Actually, you're right. I was conflating the original radio signal that transmitted the RNA sequence with the way the virus spread. What I think I was confusing is how the virus was spread on a global scale, thinking it was done through people's mobile devices but it was actually done by aerial dispersal of aerosols.

...but that still raises the question of submariners and the ISS. I imagine for the latter, a shuttlecraft was sent up. However, that's not so easy for submarines, especially if they're operating in radio silence.

 

[Gepard]

There's still the radio frequency Manny picked up – the Pluribus subreddit pointed out that the pilot episode mentioned cell service being down, and we saw that all the other frequencies Manny checked were silent, so something is going on with the radios.

 

[trash80]

I suspect once the various militaries were joined they simply sent messages to their submarines on patrol to surface, maybe sent a joined person to join the crews. Then once the crews were all joined just send the subs back to port.

 

[Starkers]

Yeah presumably the virus was sent up to the ISS as part of a regular supply run (just imagine the nightmare if one of them resisted the virus! )

There's an interesting prequel I guess because presumably people did figure out what was happening and tried to stop it/warn people but failed in their attempt. We see the initial infection, but obviously after this the story skips forward a month (I think) to when the mass infection starts. We're effectively seeing the Invasion of the Body Snatchers after the Body Snatchers have already won, but likely there are multiple stories in the intervening weeks (which all ended badly for the protagonists in that presumably they were infected).

I'm guessing once the virus was aerosolised it was game over. I'm assuming it's just in the air now so even if you were in a sealed bunker or submarine the moment you cracked a hatch open you're gone.

I am reminded of this...

 

[trash80]

I wonder what would happen if the virus mutated and started to affect other species. Maybe it already has.