The Others Are Totally Out To Get Us On 'Pluribus'

On the AppleTV series Pluribus, space pirate romance novelist Carol (Rhea Seahorn, sublime) finds herself in the aftermath of gigantic global change. A virus communicated from beyond our solar system has spread across the world, subsuming most of humanity into a hive-mind and killing millions. Now that the dust has relatively settled, the hive-mind is determined to convert the holdouts, of which Carol is one.

Like Carol, I bristled at the offer. These body-snatched pod-people want to make folks so happy that they throw away their individual identity to become a part of a human ant colony? No thanks! The Others’ dreams of global peace and pacifism sound fantastic, but something’s fishy. Put me in a tinfoil hat if you wish, but I’m convinced the hive-mind’s goal isn’t nearly so altruistic as they claim. I’m not sure that the Others are capable of altruism as we know it.

To be clear, I don’t think the hive-mind is evil, at least not in the way that humans would think of evil. The hive-mind is the product of human scientists playing with a code communicated by a signal from beyond our system. They’re something other than human, probably operating on a morality that would be alien to us. The hive-mind representative, Zosia (Karolina Wydra), described their goal of joining the world in one consciousness as a “biological imperative.”

This implies there’s no moral or ethical consideration because, as an imperative, the hive-mind is bound to follow it. This would jibe with the hive-mind’s virus-like behavior. This could also hint at why the signal from beyond the stars was sent to begin with. Perhaps once a planet is joined, the signal is sent out so that more planets may be joined as well. Viruses love to spread! They’re not evil, they’re doing what they exist to do.

All that said, it stands to reason the Others would spare no expense in achieving total control of the globe. Cue the news media blaring headlines like “Your life is your own,” and the lavish gifts the hive-mind bestows on the holdouts. When Carol meets a group of other English-speaking people who have not joined the hive-mind, she sees what gifts they’ve been plied with. Beautiful women surround Koumba (Samba Schutte) and Laxmi (Menik Gooneratne) is allowed to keep her child, Ravi (Rayaan Kamal Khan), though he is now the hive-mind’s body.

Carol is offered first-class flights, Michelin-star meals, even a grenade or a nuclear weapon, should she wish for it, all to wear down her resistance. Zosia herself is an offering, due to her resemblance to the romantic lead of Carol’s books. In the most recent episode (“Please, Carol”), Carol tests the Others’ honesty by asking for an unvarnished opinion of her books. They gush about the character arcs and plot twists, even recite a passage verbatim. But can this opinion be trusted if there’s a giant ulterior motive behind it?

When Carol uses the grenade she asked for, Zosia is wounded but unwavering in her commitment to the conversion mission. This ties back to the Others’ near-masochistic dedication to nonviolence despite the 886, 477, 591 people killed during the takeover. It seems like these are acceptable casualties in pursuit of their goal. This renders all their enticements and pacifications hollow because they’re in service of a “biological imperative.”

Whenever Carol rages and screams at the Others, they go into seizures. These seizures appear to ripple out to whole clusters of Others, claiming thousands of lives. This is presented as an involuntary reaction to her behavior, but I’m not sure. If the hive-mind and the Others have a biological imperative to spread and are comfortable with collateral damage, could these seizures be part of their plan? The Others could be attaching a terrible price to Carol’s resistance, to drive her into their fold. Carol is furiously resistant, but if that resistance takes other people’s lives, she might subdue herself. If giving Carol everything she wants fails, perhaps they would use death to convince her instead.

The Others are genuine in their offers of peace and happiness, but what is that peace when it comes only once all bodies are ruled by one mind? It’s the peace of a virus, something that would stop at nothing, not at expensive gifts, pleasing lies, or loss of life, to keep spreading. That’s beyond altruism or honesty. Whatever the Others say or do, it’s to serve its goal of total dominance.