Pluribus is a new sci-fi show from Vince Gilligan, the guy behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. People may not have expected his next project to be about what happens when humanity is taken over by a hive mind, but he also used to write for The X-Files, so this kind of mind-bending story is actually right up his alley.
Anyway, Pluribus revolves around Carol (Rhea Seehorn), one of only 13 people on Earth who have not been absorbed into this hive mind. No one knows why she’s immune. No one knows whether the hive mind has a hidden motive. No one even really knows what to call the hive mind; I’ve seen it referred to as the Joined, the Others, the World, and the Plurb. Pluribus is an original story in a world dominated by big IP, so its future feels wide open in a way that’s rare nowadays. Everyone has their theories and critiques, and I’ve seen a few I think are very wide of the mark.
There’s a big twist coming about the Joined
Sometimes a hive mind is just a hive mind
We want heroes and villains in our stories, and obviously, the first candidate for the “villain” role in Pluribus is the hive mind itself. The hive mind first gets hold of humanity after scientists decode a message from outer space. After that, it spreads worldwide, part of its “biological imperative” to absorb every person on the planet. During the transition, it ends up killing 900 million people. We have our villain.
And yet, most of the people who remain immune have accepted the hive mind into their lives; it’s only Carol and a Paraguayan man named Manousos who seem upset by what’s happening. And the hive itself is extremely helpful and friendly, which annoys Carol to no end. They make her food, they restock her favorite grocery store, they even give her a hand grenade when she jokingly asks for one; they’ll move heaven and earth to make her happy, and what’s villainous about that?
Looking at discussions about the show, a lot of people seem to think that the hive mind is going to take some kind of outwardly villainous turn, that we’re going to find out its real purpose is to soften up our planet for an alien invasion, or maybe that they’re going to turn on Carol and attack her. But I don’t think Vince Gilligan is the kind of showrunner who will make things that easy for us. I think the hive mind is what it seems — a huge happy blob — and that the drama of the series will be in seeing how Carol and the few remaining free-thinking humans deal with it.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Pluribus producer Gordon Smith seemed to agree. “At this point in the show, they’re certainly Carol’s adversary, but it’d be less interesting if we were just waiting for them to put the brain slug into her ear or slip something into her skin,” he said. “That’s where everyone’s head is going to go. As Carol says, we’ve all seen this movie, so the challenge for us is to show you the movie you haven’t seen.”
We’re expecting a twist, some wicked heel turn, which is why we won’t get one.
Carol is “unlikable”
Likability isn’t the point
Another common complaint I’ve seen is that our lead character Carol is “unlikable.” I’ll agree that she’s difficult. Even before the hive mind takes over, she’s unhappy with her career as a writer of schlocky romance fiction and has enough problems with alcohol that she has a breathalyzer installed in her car; it won’t turn on unless she passes. And then, after the Joining happens, Carol is deeply distrustful of the Plurb and makes her feelings known at almost every juncture. The tagline for the show describes her as “the most miserable person on Earth,” and that pretty much nails it.
But I don’t see how her being miserable makes her unlikable or unsympathetic. After all, Carol’s wife, Helen, dies during the Joining, so she has good reason to mistrust the Joined. And we find out in the episode “Please, Carol” that she has an inborn mistrust of groupthink in general, left over from when her mother sent her to a conversion camp as a teenager. I’ll gladly root for Carol in the battle against a personality-destroying hive mind, or even against a character like Koumba Diabaté, a man who’s decided to use his immunity to the hive mind to be as amoral and hedonistic as possible.
An even more important point is that Carol being miserable doesn’t mean she can’t be entertaining, which is ultimately the goal of any TV show. Reacting to the end of the world by binging Golden Girls reruns is definitely entertaining, not to mention relatable. Using her broken Spanish to tell off the only other person on Earth who might be on her side is plenty funny, as is Carol finding new ways to try and make the hive mind uncomfortable. I’ll take “entertaining” over “likable” any day.
The show is about AI, or about our political divide, or…
If there’s a theme, it’ll emerge naturally
Again, because Pluribus is an original story, it’s uncommonly wide open to interpretation, and some viewers have already decided what it’s “about.” Some point to the way the Plurb (I think that’s my preferred name for the hive, FYI) talk like eager-to-please chatbots, and conclude that it’s all a metaphor for AI. Others think Carol’s isolation reflects how people increasingly live in their own realities when it comes to politics.
Gordon Smith isn’t interested in those kinds of one-to-one readings. “If I said that it’s a metaphor about not using your phone, you don’t need to watch the show. The show becomes useless. The show becomes meaningless,” he said. “[F]or us to say, ‘No, it should just be this one-to-one correspondence,’ it limits both the storytelling and the availability of the show to ask questions that people are going to be interested in. This is such a conceptual show, and my hope is that it makes people think about and feel different things in different ways.”
Basically, I think we’re way too early into Pluribus to nail down what it’s “about,” if anything. I think it’s better to just enjoy the ride.
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Pluribus is “too slow”
I’ve also seen complaints that the show is “slow,” but I disagree there, too. Not only has plenty happened — the world as we know it has ended, after all — but measuring the quality of a story by how much stuff happens seems short-sighted to me. Learning about Carol is important. Seeing the different ways the immune people respond to the Joining is interesting. Watching Carol try to trick the Plurb into revealing its secrets is tense, and there’s great black comedy peppered throughout.
I’m not sure what kind of show Pluribus is going to become, but I’m thoroughly enjoying watching it get there. Every new episode is a new opportunity to bowl us over. Episodes air on Apple TV+, the new home for prestige TV.
- Release Date
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November 6, 2025
- Network
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Apple TV
- Directors
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Adam Bernstein, Zetna Fuentes, Melissa Bernstein
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Rhea Seehorn
Carol Sturka
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Carlos Manuel Vesga
Manousos
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