Episode 8 of Pluribus was probably the most important one of the season so far when it comes to understanding what the hell the hive mind actually wants and where this whole thing is going, like this episode gave us so much information that we been waiting for since the beginning but at the same time it made everything more complicated because Carol is now in this weird position where she is falling for Zosa but also trying to save the world from the hive. The whole thing between Carol and Zosa in this episode was wild because you got Carol pretending to be all friendly and nice so she can gather intel about the hive, making her little whiteboard notes like some kind of detective and then you got Zosa and the hive doing the exact same thing back to her by overwhelming her with kindness and nostalgia so she stops trying to reverse the joining. Its like watching two people play chess but both of them think they winning when really they both just manipulating each other and the craziest part is Carol knows whats happening but she still ends up sleeping with Zosa at the end witch was definitely not something I expected to happen this fast but here we are, btw the sleeping part doesnt mean sex, but spending the night.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/
- Platform: AppleTV+
The episode opens up with Manusos waking up in the hospital after getting rescued from that Darien Gap situation where he fell into that tree with all the thorns and the dude is still being stubborn as hell refusing to accept any help from the hive even though they literally saved his life and patched him up. He threatens them with a scalpel just so he can leave the hospital and he even asks for an itemized bill for all the medical expenses because hes so stuck in his moral code that he cant just accept help without paying for it, witch is hilarious and also sad at the same time because this guy is willing to die rather than owe the hive anything. The hive members just stand there smiling while he does this witch is creepy as fuck, like they not even mad or upset they just happy to let him go because they know he gonna keep doing what he wants anyway. Manusos takes an ambulance and continues driving towards New Mexico to find Carol, and by the end of the episode hes only 31 kilometers away from crossing the border into the United States witch means hes gonna show up next episode and find out that Carol has been getting real cozy with the hive, thats gonna be an awkward conversation for sure. Back in New Mexico Carol is playing her own game with Zosa by acting all nice and friendly so she can ask questions about how the hive works without them getting suspicious, she even makes Zosa pink lemonade and offers to play board games with her witch is funny because Carol is the last person you would expect to be playing cards and acting all domestic, she really sells the part she have feelings for Zosa and I think she does. They play this game called Spit that Carol used to play with her cousins and the whole time Carol is asking questions about where the hive sleeps and how they communicate and what there plan is for the future and Zosa just answers everything honestly because the hive cant lie or at least thats what they want us to believe. The a very weird thing happens that its very logical from the science stand point, the hive sleeps together in giant rooms like stadiums and event centers because its more efficient to heat and cool one big space than a bunch of small ones, witch makes sense but also sounds like a bit creepy if it would be a bunch of strangers but lets remember they all the same mind, been already there Zosa insist Carol to stay over one night to see what its like and she wakes up in the middle of the night with her arm on Zosa witch freaks her out a little because she realizes that the whole world knows she did that, like there is no privacy anymore when your sleeping next to someone whos connected to 7 billion other people.
The biggest reveals in this episode come when Carol and Zosa go on a hike and Carol starts asking deeper questions about how the hive communicate and where the joining came from and Zosa explains that they use some kind of electromagnetic field in there body that acts like a natural electric charge that connects them all together unconsciously like breathing. Carol has this same field in her body but its just not being used witch is interesting because it makes you wonder if Carol could somehow disrupt that signal or interfere with it to weaken the hive, that could be important later on when she tries to reverse the joining and I dont know if this is just a lucky guess but I think thats what Manusos has been trying to research some how, remember how he was going through radio signals back at home, I think has something to do with it. Then Zosa takes Carol to look at the stars and shows her the planet Kepler 22b witch is 600 light years away and is where the original signal came from that started the joining, well the signal that on the first episode the scientist got through the big antenas, its not so clear if someone got posses by the signal or it was just an accident them trying to recreate the formula and accidentally lab rat injected with the formula bit that woman, but apparently the hive wants to build a giant antenna using all the electricity on Earth to send a signal back out into space so they can spread the joining to other planets witch is terrifying when you think about it, this is almost the Thanos way. The hive is basically a virus that wants to reproduce itself across the entire universe and infect every planet with life and there calling it paying it forward like its some kind of gift when really its just taking over everything and destroying individuality on a cosmic scale, not only that but also starve to death every single living thing they infect.
The most emotional part of the episode happens when Zosa takes Carol to her favorite diner from when she was younger, the place where she first started writing her Wicaro books and Carol is super happy and nostalgic about it until she realizes the diner actually burned down years ago and the hive rebuilt it from scratch just to make her feel good. They even flew in the old waitress Bri from Miami where she was living her new life just to play act this whole scenario, to me this shows how stupid the Hive Mind can be and not measuring they were too obvious and going too far with the act, thats when Carol snaps and realizes how manipulative the whole thing is because the hive is literally using her memories against her to distract her from trying to save the world. She drives off and goes home and Zosa follows her and they have this big fight where Carol calls out the hive for being manipulative and says someone has to put the world right even if it means being alone forever, but then Zosa kisses her and Carol kisses back and they end up sleeping together witch was definitely a turning point for both of them. You can tell Carol is torn between wanting to save the world and wanting to be with Zosa because she been alone for 60 days now and she misses human connection and the hive knows this and is using it against her but at the same time Carol is also using Zosa to get more information so its hard to say whos really winning this game. The next morning Carol wakes up and starts writing her new Wicaro book and makes the character Rabbon a woman instead of a man witch is her way of finally embracing her sexuality through her art I guess, this is the thing I dont like when content takes such a strong genre position, a problem Im starting to have with this series but I hope this is the only episode they go hard with it and just start to tame it down and go back to the important stuff, stop the joining.
The episode ends with Zosa freezing mid conversation and telling Carol shes about to have a visitor and then it cuts to Manusos driving towards the US border witch means hes about to show up and find Carol living with the hive and writing books and sleeping with Zosa. This is gonna create some serious tension because Manusos has no idea that Carol has gotten this close to the hive and he is probably gonna think she betrayed him or gave up on saving the world when really shes still gathering information and trying to figure out how to reverse the joining. The whole situation is messy and with one episode to end this season its going to be interesting how big of a contrast is Carol to Manusos personality. The finale is going to be interesting because you got Carol trying to play both sides, Manusos showing up ready to fight the hive and Zosa caught in the middle of all this just trying to make Carol happy. This episode was probably an 7.5 out of 10 for me because it had so much important information and character development but it also felt a little slow at times with all the board games and hiking scenes, but the ending made up for it and now I am hyped as hell for the finale.
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