Pluribus episode 3 release a few days ago and I got to be honest, this thing is starting to feel a bit too slow for my liking, the whole concept is interesting enough with Carol fighting against this happiness hive mind takeover but three episodes in and I am still waiting for something to really grab me and make me care, I cant denied its funny but is there more to it?. Gordon Smith directed this one and he did some Better Call Saul episodes so you know the production quality is solid but the pacing feels off, the Norway flashback opening with Carol and Helen at that ice hotel was really nice although I can only imagine the cold on a place like that and I guess they did this to try to give more layers to Carol as a character, showing she actually does have happy memories even though she loves feeling miserable but that whole sequence felt like it was dragging just to show us Carol has a favorite color which is purple. I mean we get it already, purple is everywhere in this show, her scarf is purple, the northern lights are suposed to turn purple, its like they are putting too much effort with simbolism instead of just telling the story, same as with Breaking Bad references I mention on the first two episodes, the grenade scene was probably the most interesting part of the episode along with the Nuclear weapon request that got me thinking. Carol literally pulls the pin thinking there is no way Zosia would give her a real one but she did, Zosia throws it out the window and got hurt badly after the explosion something hit her in the back which forces Carol to actually give a damn about her for a second. That moment worked because it showed cracks in both characters, for example why would Zosia drink if alcohol is bad for the body period no questions ask if they are all about efficiency and well being and there is Carol who waits at the hospital to make sure Zosia is ok which shows she still has empathy even though she acts like she does not care about anyone but then we are back to Carol just being pissed off about everything, asking if they would give her an atom bomb, which honestly felt like the show is trying too hard to be edgy.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/
- Platform: AppleTV+
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The Norway stuff at the beginning was supposed to give us more context about who Carol was before all this shit went down, we see her with Helen at this ice hotel made completely out of ice, Carol is complaining about how much money they spent just to sleep on a frozen bed, Helen is all excited talking to the hotel guy in Norwegian, Carol is sitting there asking if her book made the bestseller list and where exactly it landed. Its supposed to show us that Carol has always been miserable even when experiencing moments that should make people happy, Helen is trying to get her to enjoy the northern lights, Carol is calling it a screensaver and saying she needs to use the bathroom, but then there is this one moment where Carol stops and actually takes it in, she looks at Helen, she looks at the lights, and you can see on her face that she is happy for like half a second, that is the moment the episode should have focused on instead of all the purple crap. That moment is what makes the ending hit harder when Carol realizes the hive mind will give her anything she wants, the look on her face is the same look she had in Norway, like she is finally understanding something important, the dynamic between Carol and Zosia is probably the only thing keeping me watching at this point, Rhea Seehorn is doing amazing work here, you can tell she is trying to make Zosia feel like more than just a hive mind drone, there are moments where you see cracks in the programing, like when she looks back at Carol before getting on Air Force One at the end of episode 2, or when she tackles Carol to protect her from the grenade explotion.
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Those moments are what make this show interesting because they suggest that maybe the hive mind is not as perfect as it thinks it is, the grenade moment was wild because it showed just how literal this hive mind takes everything, Carol says sarcastically that she wants a hand grenade to make her happy, they actually bring her one, she pulls the pin thinking its fake, Zosia has to throw it out the window and takes shrapnel to her back protecting Carol from the blast. The aftermath is where the episode finally gets interesting, Carol is at the hospital waiting to hear if Zosia is ok, this DHL guy comes out to talk to her and Carol asks why the hell they gave her a real grenade in the first place, he says they would give her anything she asks for, another grenade, a bazooka, a tank, even an atomic bomb if she really wanted it, that scene at the end is the first time the show actually raise so many questions about what Carol is going to do with this information, the hive mind literally cannot say no to her but one thing is for sure that they want Carol and everybody else to turn in at all cost. They will give her weapons that could destroy the entire planet if she asks for them, that was the first time the hive mind doubt but I dont know if its because they wanted the scene to be funny, and now Carol is probably thinking about how she can use that to her advantage, maybe she can demand they bring her scientists, maybe she can demand they figure out how to reverse the virus, maybe she can just blow everything up out of spite, who knows at this point but at least now we have a direction for the story to go in, the problem is the show is taking way too long to get to that point, we are three episodes in and it still feels like we are in the setup phase, I get that Vince Gilligan loves a slow burn, Breaking Bad did not get good until Season 2, Better Call Saul took even longer but this is 2025 and people do not have the patience for that anymore, we are in an era of 8 episodes at most season.
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I need the show to give me a reason to care about Carol beyond just feeling bad that she lost Helen or that she is hilarious at been mad, I need to see her actualy do something instead of just reacting to everything the hive mind throws at her, the other big thing this episode did was show us more of the other immune people. Carol tries calling this guy in Paraguay named Manus, he tells her to fuck off in Spanish, she responds by telling him with "Chinga tu madre cabron" that was funny af. It seems like Manus is the only other person who hates the hive mind as much as Carol does and Im sure she will get back to him at some point, everyone else at that meeting in Spain was ready to either join or just live their lives in peace, Carol was the only one screaming about how they need to fight back and save humanity, I think the show is setting up Manus as someone who will finally give Carol an ally in all this, someone who understands what she is going through and wants to actually do something about it, but again we are three episodes in and we still have not met him yet so who knows when that is going to happen, the grocery store scene was another example of the show trying to be creepy but just coming off as weird. Carol goes to buy food and finds the whole place empty because the hive mind centralized all the resources, she demands they restock it, within minutes trucks show up and hundreds of people are walking around putting everything back on the shelves in perfect sync, it looked cool visually but it did not really add anything to the story except to show us again that the hive mind will do whatever Carol wants, we already knew that from the grenade scene, we already knew that from episode 2 when she stopped Air Force One by standing in front of it, the show keeps telling us the same things over and over again, Carol is miserable, the hive mind wants to make her happy, she hates them becuase they killed Helen and absorbed her memories, we get it already now lets move on to something new.
One thing I did enjoy about this episode was how it handled Carols grief, she is clearly still dealing with losing Helen, the hive mind keeps making it worse by bringing up memories they should not have access to, when they deliver a package that Helen ordered for Carol before she died, a massaged thing that Carol looked at in an airport, Carol loses her shit and tells them to forget everything about Helen and never think about her again. That moment worked because it showed just how much the hive mind does not understand boundaries or privacy, they think they are being helpful by using Helens memories to make Carol happy, all they are doing is reminding her that Helen is gone and that they stole her from Carol in more ways than one, the problem is the show does not really explore that grief in a meaningful way, it just uses it as another reason for Carol to be angry at the hive mind and then moves on to the next scene, overall I am giving this episode a 7 out of 10 because it had some good moments but it is starting to feel like the show does not know what it wants to be yet. Is it a character study about grief and loss, is it a sci fi thriller about fighting against a hive mind takeover, is it a dark comedy about the worlds most miserable person being forced to accept happiness, right now it feels like the show is trying to be all three and not really succeeding at any of them, I am still watching because I trust Vince Gilligan to stick the landing eventually but damn I expected more by now, three episodes in and I am still waiting for the show to actual y start, everything so far has just been setup and I am ready for some payoff.
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