Pluribus Episode 8 Isn’t At All What It Seems

When Pluribus series creator Vince Gilligan said that his new Apple TV series wasn’t about AI, I called bullshit. The body-snatching hive mind that takes over Earth was the perfect metaphor for the arrival of artificial intelligence in a post-Covid world. Since the first chilling episode—when a literal alien virus links all but a dozen immune humans on the planet into a single, all-knowing consciousness called “The Joining”— Pluribus’s exploration of AI and the loneliness epidemic already felt like the series that finally connected all the dots together.

Now that we’ve hit episode 8, I’m beginning to think that there’s more depth to Gilligan’s response when he told Polygon that he wasn’t thinking about AI. “I’m not saying you’re wrong,” Gilligan said. “A lot of people are making that connection… more power to anyone who sees some ripped-from-the-headlines type thing.” Still, even though he doesn’t want to reveal what the show is about—at least, in his eyes—I agree now that simply saying that the series is about wishing we could go back to a time before AI or a global pandemic diminishes its value.

It was smart of Gilligan, certainly, to ease us into the sci-fi series by introducing dystopian concepts that we’re all recently familiar with. Pluribus’s seven episodes so far have ushered viewers from a deadly virus to an AI-like cloud consciousness that seeks to fulfill our every whim quite smoothly.

Whether you enjoy watching the miserable and frustrated Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) fight to save humanity is another matter entirely. But episode 8 finally delves further into the show’s sci-fi concept by answering a fair number of questions about how the hive mind works. This new information, while not entirely mind-blowing, says more about the show thematically. “The Joining” is scary. The likeness to AI is uncannily funny. But the question this week isn’t how Carol seeks to win in the end. Hell, if we had that answer we would do it right now in the real world. This week is about what it even means to preserve your humanity in a world that wants to siphon it away from you.

The Charm Offensive

The idea first pops up in episode 6, when Carol finds out that the other immune humans have been holding diplomatic meetings with the hive mind about how to solve the impending food shortage. Technically, they first started talking in episode 2, but Carol wasn’t ready for that yet. (She was still screaming so loudly that the entire world convulsed from her negative psychic energy alone.) So, after weeks of the hive mind giving Carol the cold shoulder, they finally return to renew their talks in episode 8. Is it because Carol summoned them, or are they closer to figuring out how to turn her?

For starters, let’s dive into why Carol asked them to come back. Loneliness is a factor, obviously. The dozen other immune humans don’t want anything to do with her, and even a war as important as saving humanity is tough to do by yourself. It’s also assumed by now that the group knows a lot more about the hive mind than Carol does. So, it checks out that the only way to continue her investigation is to find a way to talk to them yet again. Hence, why this episode is titled “Charm Offensive.” It’s not only a tactic that governs how the hive mind operates, but going out of your way to please and encourage the other person is a political game that both sides can play. Keep your enemies close, as they say.

So, although episode 7 ended with Carol breaking down in tears as Zosia (Karolina Wydra) returned to embrace her at the bottom of her driveway, there’s more to this reunion than the need for human connection. After all, Zosia isn’t entirely human anymore.

We begin with an ice-breaking game of cards. Playing spit adds a bit of physical timing to offset a game like chess where Zosia could just tap into every grandmaster’s memory in the world. It’s interesting that Zosia is the first to suggest a board game, as we don’t really see the aliens ever do anything that it’s necessary for survival. It’s not like they still gather to play beach volleyball, or read a book under the shade of a large tree. I know they have memories to look back on if they ever want to experience something like walking the Great Wall of China, but they seem largely uninterested in such a task. Eating your favorite meal, rewatching a great movie, or doing anything for fun—that’s all lost on the hive mind. (More on this topic in a bit, but food for thought as we continue through the episode.)

Next, Carol finally sees where the hive mind of Albuquerque sleeps. Because they’re inhabiting human bodies, they still need to rest and recharge. As Zosia explains, they all congregate at a sports stadium and lie down on sleeping bags like hurricane survivors. There’s no more private property, of course, and it’s easier to conserve electric and heating in one big space instead of several little rooms.

This battle is a win for Zosia, not that the points really matter. But as both players compete in the Charm Offensive, convincing Carol to spend the night in the big hive-mind cuddle party is quite the emotional play.

When Carol returns home, she walks over to her white board of what she’s learned about the aliens so far and reminds herself of an important fact to keep her head in the game: “6. THEY EAT PEOPLE.”

The Hive Mind Love Bomb

As Carol and Zosia go hiking, play croquette, stargaze, and get massages together, we confirm a few more aspects about the hive mind operates. They’re able to communicate unconsciously by tapping into electromagnetic fields. It’s not telepathy, so Carol’s inner thoughts remain her own. Touching one of them isn’t like touching all of them—though they’re “aware,” it would be too much to experience all at once.

Most importantly, Zosia reveals that the alien signal came from a planet that orbits a star named Kepler-22b. That’s a real planet, according to NASA. It was discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope in 2011, and it exists around 640 light years away from Earth. Theoretically, it’s one of the habitable planets outside of our solar system that may contain liquid water on its surface. “It may be one enormous ocean,” Zosia suggests. “Sometimes we close our eyes and try to picture it.” Sadly, it’s too far away. As Zosia says, “We’ll probably never learn the first thing about them.”

Zosia also reveals that they’re building a giant antenna to rebroadcast the RNA sequence that sent the virus to Earth, just as Kepler-22b did. “We’re grateful to them, and we’ll pay it forward, however long that may take,” Zosia tells Carol. “We have to share their gift with whoever else might be out there.”

The croquet scene is especially interesting because it seems as if Zosia is actually having a lot of fun. She teases Carol about being worse at the game by putting up the score on the big board, and she even gloats about winning. If it’s just human mimicry, she’s getting surprisingly good at it.

But their flirting takes a turn after Zosia love-bombs Carol by recreating her favorite diner, which had closed before the Joining. The hive mind rebuilt the joint in an empty lot after it burned down just for her. Carol gushes about how she spent hours creating the Wycaro series at that diner, and that she was particularly fond of a kind waitress named Bri. Then, when Bri appears at their table, Carol turns white as a ghost. Much like Koumba’s (Samba Schutte) self-staged Vegas party, she realizes that none of it is real.

“You are trying to distract me, and knock me off course,” she tells Zosia later. “It’s all an act, and manipulative bullshit, because you know I haven’t given up.”

Surprisingly, Carol also admits that she’s grown to enjoy her time with them. “But this? This is a trainwreck,” she continues. “This is unsustainable. It is mental illness. It’s psychosis. You’re starving and you can’t even pick a goddamn apple off a tree?” Someone has to put the world right, she says, even if it means that she’s all alone again.

The hive mind is losing this battle. So, Zosia takes drastic measures. She kisses Carol—and the two of them sleep together. The night inspires her to continue writing her Wycaro series, and Zosia is enamored with the first chapter. For now, it seems as if the distraction worked. Either that, or the game is simply back on.

“And Now I Know”

When Carol washes the dishes later that morning, she stares out her kitchen window at the memorial site she made for her deceased partner, Helen (Miriam Shor). Then, when Zosia appears behind her, it felt like a nod to audience that Carol is simply playing house. I don’t trust it completely. I believe Carol really is fighting an internal battle here. A war of information. A charm offensive.

Carol asks Zosia what her (or, well, the woman formerly known as Zosia) favorite food is and she says that it’s mango ice cream. She tells her a story about a man in her neighborhood who sold it out of a little cart when she was growing up, and how she was fascinated by the giant ships at the port. Where were they going? Who were they for? she recalls thinking. “And now I know.”

In a way, Zosia saying “and now I know” feels like one of the final pieces to the puzzle. This is the crux of the whole show so far. If the entirety of human knowledge and experience was in my brain, I could look at something like a ship and know everything about it. Who built it, why, where it was going—its entire lifespan. I could do that for any object or person on the planet, as if knowing that information tells me anything, really. I still wouldn’t know the answers to any of life’s biggest questions: Why are we here? What happens after we die? What is our purpose?

The hive mind might believe that they have a purpose: to spread their genetic code and expand their collective reach. Hell, all living beings on Earth have a natural imperative to reproduce. But what does it all mean? Much like anything we learned this episode, the hive mind is simply an answer that leads to even more questions. At the aliens’ very core, they know as much as we do.

Next week, when Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) arrives to meet Carol in the season finale, I can’t see him jiving with Carol’s new direction just yet. She’s still figuring it out herself. As we learned this week, it’s possible that the hive mind is, too.