******SMILEY-FACED SPOILERS!😊******
Apple TV’s sci-fi series “Pluribus” sprang from the mind of writer/creator/producer (and occasional director) Vince Gilligan (“The X-Files,” “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul”), and while his new series also takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it’s not part of the “Breaking Bad” universe. If anything, Gilligan’s new series recalls his work on “The X-Files,” and perhaps even more from his love of Star Trek. Specifically, those episodes of Trek dealing with hive mind control, such as TOS’ “This Side of Paradise” and “Return of the Archons,” with just a pinch of the Borg thrown in, as well.
A panicked Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) tries to get help for her dying wife, as humanity itself transforms.
The story sees cynical sci-fi/romance novelist Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul”) struggling to retain her self-agency in a world that’s changed overnight, after an alien RNA viral sequence from 600 light-years away is replicated in a laboratory and leaked. Those infected work to spread the virus globally, and humanity is instantly transformed into a single, telepathically-linked mind. Initially, “the Joining” kills over a billion people, including Carol’s wife, but the remaining 7 billion are now a hive. This unified human race now works in blissful collective harmony, but at the cost of their individuality.
Borders no longer exist, everyone speaks all languages fluently, and every person now possesses the collective knowledge and experience of all humankind. A child is now qualified to perform a pelvic exam, while a former restaurant server can fly a jet plane. This seemingly benevolent hive wants Carol and the other dozen or so immune humans left on Earth to join them, by any means necessary.
S1, E1 & E2: “We Is Us,” “Pirate Lady”
I’ve already taken a more detailed look at the first two episodes of “Pluribus” in this link, but I’ll throw in a couple of brief, recapping notes for this season 1 overview (episodes 3-9 use the brief summaries from Apple TV in quotations). For my own ease, I’ll refer to the infected human collective as the ‘Hive’ (they’re also called “the Others”) and the remaining uninfected humans as the ‘immunes.’
A night of commiserate drinking together after a book tour turns out to be the last for Carol’s wife, Helen (Miriam Shor). Soon, the virus is rained down upon them in overhead chem-trails, and everyone is briefly rendered catatonic–except for those like Helen, who have a fatal reaction. Carol quickly realizes she’s immune. When everyone else awakens, they’re automatically linked to each other as a hive, and immediately work to repair the collateral damage their ‘joining’ has caused.
Note: “We Is Us” has a heavy, pre-apocalyptic, almost horror-movie vibe to it’s not necessarily indicative of series that follows. While it establishes Carol’s cynicism, I don’t think the character comes off as any more unlikable than anyone else. If anything, I found her very relatable in the pilot. Many of us (myself included) are fully capable of being a mite cranky even in the best of times, let alone the worst. Carol is just bit more vocal about it. Carol Sturka is a perfect champion for humanity’s right to be misanthropic and make bad choices.
The Hive selects Zoshia (Karolina Wyndra) as “The Pirate Lady,” a character from Carol’s imagination whom she resembles, as their spokesperson/liaison to her. Through Zoshia, Carol and the remaining immunes learn this new Hive only wants to help them, and that they’re completely honest. Members of the Hive can also be overwhelmed and even killed by extreme emotional outbursts of anger or hostility. This is an option Carol tries to avoid, since the Hive bodies are still living human beings.
Note: In “The Pirate Lady,” Zoshia is every human resources manager in every workplace I’ve ever seen, and Karolina Wyndra embodies her to perfection. The episode also introduces us to some other uninfected humans (immunes) from all over the globe, including Lakshmi (Menik Gooneratne) the Indian hover-mom who chooses to believe that the eerie Hive-child at her side is still her son. We also meet the über-hedonistic Koumba Diabaté (Samba Schutte), who returns in the episode “HDP.” After the apocalyptic horror tone of the pilot, “The Pirate Lady” is a bit closer in feel to the series that follows, albeit with a larger cast.
S1 E3: “Grenade”
The World just wants to help — which infuriates Carol. A heart-to-heart conversation ends with a bang.
“Grenade” opens with a flashback to pre-Hive times, with Carol and her wife Helen taking a romantic holiday to an Ice Hotel in Norway. Despite Helen’s enthusiasm and a spectacular view of the northern lights, misanthropic Carol can only complain about the cold and other inconveniences. That Carol could resist such an enchanted, romantic getaway mirrors her future relationship with the Hive, who promise her a blissful utopia… at the cost of her soul.
It’s not until the end of the episode where the title finally fits, as Carol orders the eager-to-please Hive to give her a grenade. Convinced the eerily honest Hive would never give her a live weapon, Carol pulls the pin on the grenade, forcing her liaison Zoshia to grab it and toss it out the nearest window of Carol’s living room. The blast injures Zoshia, as the collective instantly dispatches an ambulance to the scene…
Note: “Grenade” tests the parameters of Carol’s freedom within the Hive. That they would give Carol a live weapon (per her request) demonstrates they’re willing to risk letting her kill herself, despite their insistent ‘love’ for her. That Zoshia instinctively grabs the deadly device and shields Carol from harm makes perfect sense, since the loss of a single human within the Hive would be no more consequential to them as one of us losing a few hair follicles. Better to placate Carol’s wishes and risk only one death than to trigger an outburst of her anger, which could kill thousands. This episode also establishes that Carol and Helen were keeping Carol’s eggs frozen in a fertility clinic, in hopes of becoming parents someday (this is important).
S1 E4: “Please, Carol”
Carol tests the boundaries of this weirdly honest world at the expense of her ego. Far away, a resolute individual learns he’s not alone.
Using the Hive’s honesty and openness against them, Carol searches a hospital pharmacy for sodium pentothal to test the parameters of their candor and probe for weakness without killing them. In this episode, we also learn of a trauma in her teens that strongly motivates Carol to hold onto her individuality.
Feeling some measure of guilt, Carol stops to visit Zoshia, who threw herself in harm’s way to save her from the grenade’s explosion. What Carol struggles to comprehend is that the Hive sees the sacrifice of an individual as little more than the loss of a few cells in a body. The sum of everyone’s knowledge and experience remains safely stored within the Hive consciousness.
Briefly and eerily harkening back to the zombie apocalypse vibe of the pilot, the moaning, teary-eyed hive surrounds Carol and pleads with her to stop her interrogation of a drugged Zoshia–who’s been pumped with a dangerous amount of sodium pentothal. The episode sees the saddened Collective pulling out of Albuquerque as a form of punishment to (and manipulation of) Carol, while still catering to her every need through drones and other technology.
Note: This episode sees Carol probing for weaknesses within the Hive; using their honesty and open access against them. It also reveals that Carol was sent to an anti-gay conversion camp as a teenager; a scarring experience which explains why she so fiercely (and understandably) clings to her individuality. Carol sees this new world as one large conversion camp–erasing individual identities (and sexualities) to where humanity resembles a colony of anthropoid ants. Also in this episode, we see poor Zoshia–or rather, the Hive’s use of her body–really going through the wringer. Zoshia’s body is still recovering from the grenade’s explosion when she’s (it’s) pumped dangerously full of sodium pentathol. This episode also gives us our first look at Manousos Oviedo (Carlos Manuel Vesga), a Colombian immigrant in Paraguay who runs a storage depot and keeps fiercely to himself. Manousos was the man on the other end of the phone in “The Pirate Lady” who hung up on Carol, telling her to go f**k herself, because he thought she was one of “the weirdos.”
S1 E5: “Got Milk”
Carol doubles down on her investigation — loneliness be damned. Meanwhile, howls in the night reveal a new source of danger.
Carol is left alone as a ‘timeout’ for nearly killing Zoshia (twice). During her time alone, she investigates the Hive’s brown protein liquid, which is stored in milk cartons, Carol makes an outreach video to the other immunes, whom she hopes to inspire into rebellion by documenting the Hive’s secrets. The ever-helpful Hive–still keeping their distance from Carol–use drones to carry her videos to the other immunes in multimedia formats.
Carol breaks into the dairy’s processing plant with no resistance from the Hive. There she makes a shocking secret, that leaves us with the series’ first (and so far only) true cliffhanger.
Note: If there is such a thing as a weakest episode in this riveting series, this would be the closest thing to it. While I personally enjoyed “Got Milk,” its pacing might seem glacial to some, as Carol plays Nancy Drew; making connections between the Hive’s food supply and a seemingly abandoned local dairy. There’s suspenseful atmosphere with seeing Carol, alone and vulnerable in Albuquerque, with the threat of wild animals in the night. The episode also establishes Carol making outreach videos to her fellow remaining immunes, hoping to inspire resistance. The episode ends on a horror-style cliffhanger, as Carol finds an unseen something in the dairy so shocking that she nearly screams aloud. We also learn that this ridiculously pacifistic Hive, who won’t even pluck“a f**king apple from a tree,” have found a unique, if imperfect, solution to their food supply issue. “Got Milk” is the only episode of this series that feels incomplete on its own, though it establishes quite a lot.
S1 E6: “HDP”
Carol shares a horrific discovery and learns new truths in the process. Mr. Diabaté lives life to the fullest in Sin City.
With video evidence of the Hive’s human-made protein drink, Carol races to Las Vegas to meet with the decadent Diabaté (Samba Schutte), the immune we met in “Pirate Lady” who’s living the good life in Vegas with Hive-peopled James Bond sex fantasies and Air Force One at his disposal. Nothing about the Hive shocks Diabaté, nor does he care–he’s living the good life with dozens of people dedicated to fulfilling his every whim. While cordial to Carol, Diabaté shares none of her appetite for rebellion.
Adding insult to injury, the Hive uses the body of former pro wrester-turned-actor John Cena to explain its human protein drink to Carol. Since the Hive can’t kill animals or plants, they use harvested human corpses as protein sources–a repellent, though logical food source, so long as humans continue dying (something even the Hive can’t cure–mortality). This darkly comedic cameo minimizes human cannibalism to sound more like a healthy protein shake.
We see Manousos (Carlos Manuel Vesga) play Carol’s video (subtitled for his convenience by the Hive). He also finds a curiously active short-wave radio frequency. Bitterly resisting any offer of assistance from the Hive, Manousos begins a slow, dangerous odyssey to New Mexico to join forces with Carol.
Note: In one episode, we see three characters with three very different ways of dealing with the Hive. Carol’s side quest to see Diabaté in Las Vegas side provides genuine comedy. Her meeting with Diabaté also establishes that the Hive will not take stem cells or other DNA from the immunes without their express permission (this will be on the quiz later). At this point in the season, Carol is also feeling terribly lonely without the Hive, despite the fact they drink liquified human corpses for food. Manousos, on the other hand, is bitter, angry, and fiercely independent from “the weirdos.” Unlike Carol’s dependency, or Diabaté’s indulgences, Manousos wants nothing whatsoever to do with this new world order, except its end.
S1 E7: “The Gap”
Manousos begins a dangerous trek to meet Carol. Returning home from Las Vegas, Carol gets creative with her rebellion.
After reaching the end of paved roads, Manousos continues on foot through the wild jungles of South America, on his long, treacherous trek to New Mexico. Despite the Hive’s offer to take him anywhere in the world he wishes, Manousos refuses. During his journey, he’s impaled on the trunk of a spiked Chunga. The Hive monitors Manousos’ journey via drones, and immediately airlifts him to a hospital. His harsh existence is in stark contrast to Carol’s easy, convenient suburban life in Albuquerque.
After a whirlwind tour of swinging golf balls into office windows and exclusive trips to luxury restaurants and spas, Carol has reached the end of her rope. The former misanthrope paints a massive sign on the street in front of her house: COME BACK.
Zoshia is the answer to Carol’s wish, and she collapses into Zoshia’s waiting arms.
Note: “The Gap” is a study in loneliness, as we see Manousos struggling to survive on his own in the harsh South American jungle, while the well-off Carol battles painful loneliness in Albuquerque. In the end, this episode reveals a basic, universal truth: Human beings are, for better or worse, social animals. We need human contact, even if only an occasional visit, or a much-needed airlift to a hospital. Realizing that Zoshia is not an individual per se, Carol nevertheless melts into her arms with the abandon of a terrified toddler finding its mother in a mall full of strangers.
S1 E8: “Charm Offensive”
Carol takes a different tack with The Others and discovers more than she anticipated. Manousos awakens in unfamiliar surroundings.
Zoshia takes Carol to a formerly closed favorite diner of hers that’s been reopened by the Hive to look exactly as it did when Carol used to dine there. It’s the same diner where Carol used to handwrite ideas for her books on legal pads. Carol’s nostalgic illusion is broken when she sees one of the old waitresses, and realizes the Hive has used the retired woman’s body to help create this bizarre charade in order to manipulate her.
Carol and Zoshia continue their reunion tour. As bedtime approaches, Carol learns the Hive prefer to sleep together en masse in sports arenas, because single large spaces are more efficient to heat and cool than thousands of individual homes. Just one of the many unusual habits of the Hive.
Awakening in a Panamanian hospital, a still groggy Manousos discharges himself and insists on paying “the weirdos” for his medical care, even though the concept of payment is obsolete. Manousos doesn’t want to be indebted to the Hive for anything.
Note: Carol is finally asking some of the questions viewers have about the Hive; how they live, where the virus originated, how they sleep, etc. We learn the last planet the virus signal was transmitted from was Kepler 22b (a very real exoplanet, 587 light-years away). Carol also experiences a bit of horror at seeing her favorite (long retired) waitress working at the diner without any self-agency. The diner is a reminder that everything Carol sees and experiences is a custom-made pantomime for her manipulation. In contrast, we see Manousos insisting on paying the ‘weirdos’ for anything he takes from them, including emergency medical care, to ensure his independence. I’m guessing the Hive now has samples of Manousos’ DNA from blood and tissue left behind in the hospital, which they can use to create a custom version of the virus for him…
S1 E9: “La Chica o El Mundo” (“The Girl or the World”)
Season finale. Manousos arrives in Albuquerque and complications ensue. Carol visits the last best place on Earth.
After his long, near-fatal journey, Manousos Oviedo arrives in Albuquerque to meet Carol Sturka, but they don’t exactly hit it off. Carol is put off by his ruthlessness and presumption, while he’s disgusted by her relaxed relationship with Zoshia/the Hive. Carol doesn’t invite Manousos to stay with her; offering him an abandoned house on her cul-de-sac. They communicate through pigeon Spanish/English and via Carol’s iPhone.
Carol and Zoshia continue their romantic tour together, taking in a ski trip in a snowy resort. Carol’s cynicism returns, and she asks Zoshia if the Hive has access to her frozen eggs at the fertility clinic, and if they’re using them to create a custom-made virus for her. Honest to a fault, Zoshia answers yes to both questions. Realizing their time together has been nothing but a masterfully executed mind-f**k, Carol breaks it off with Zoshia–or rather, the animate body of Zoshia.
Zoshia returns Carol home via helicopter. She also delivers a final parting gift, per Carol’s request; a large crate carrying an atomic bomb! Realizing she cannot peacefully coexist with the Hive without losing her own identity, Carol joins the militant Manousos to “save the world.”
Note: The season one finale “La Chica o El Mundo” shows us why the Hive can’t be trusted, despite their honesty; they lie by omission. In “HDP,” Carol relaxes when she learns the Hive won’t take her DNA without consent. However, the Hive fails to mention they have access to her frozen eggs. They know this through the late Helen’s memories, which were uploaded to the Hive consciousness when she died. The finale also opens with a chilling prologue sequence set in rural Peru, where immune Kusimaya (Darinka Arones) finally consents to be assimilated into the Hive. Aided by what appears to be her Hive-mind family and community, Kusimaya awakens after her brief convulsion and smiles. She then frees her once-beloved animals and walks away. Kusimaya’s entire life, village, and culture are gone forever. This is perhaps the highest price of joining the Hive; the rich buffet of human culture and experience will be forcibly blended together into a bland, colorless paste.
Summing It Up
Given the absurdly long hiatuses between seasons of streaming shows, it may be couple of years before we see a second season of “Pluribus.” In the meantime, season one leaves viewers with a lot to chew on. With older, nostalgia-driven sci-fi franchises feeling very stale lately (looking at you, Star Trek and Doctor Who…), smart, well-written new shows like “Pluribus” ably fill the void.
At the start of its ambitious first season, “Pluribus” sees its central protagonist Carol (Rhea Seehorn) dead set against joining the Hive, whose violent creation killed her wife. Once she learns the Hive can’t lie, Carol begins testing the parameters of her new existence. She quickly learns the Hive is dedicated to serving her every need without fail. Over time, Carol comes to enjoy her seemingly special status as an immune; watching as the Hive opens fully stocked grocery stores and even luxury spas solely for her convenience and comfort. After discovering the initially shocking secret of the Hive’s corpse-based food supply, Carol is soon numbed into acceptance. Until the finale, Carol doesn’t fully grasp that everything she sees is nothing but a mass manipulation campaign by the Hive to eventually seduce her into their collective.
The Hive’s manipulation of Carol began in “The Pirate Lady,” when it directed an attractive, Moroccan-born woman named Zoshia (Karolina Wydra) to act as Carol’s liaison. Carol, still grieving over Helen, develops complex feelings for Zoshia, but learns her feelings are one-sided. Zoshia, by her very nature, is incapable of true reciprocation. Carol’s romantic getaways with Zoshia comes to an abrupt halt when Carol learns the Hive has access to her frozen eggs, giving them the necessary DNA to create a version of the virus to assimilate her. Everything about the Hive, even its romantic getaways, are entirely performative. None of the Hive-persons possess enough agency to love a single person. After her sobering breakup with Zoshia, the season finale sees Carol resuming her mission of total resistance. To that end, she now has a dead-serious ally in Manousos (Carlos Manuel Vesga), and an atomic bomb–a parting gift from the Hive.
Unlike Carol and Manousos, Koumba Diabaté (Samba Schutte) is an immune who fully enjoys the Hive’s willingness to grant his every wish (until they can assimilate him, of course). As Frank Sinatra might say, he’s gonna live, live, live until he dies. We see Diabaté using the Hive to cosplay as characters for his James Bond-inspired fantasies (“HDP”). Whether he’s using them, or they’re using him, Diabaté doesn’t care. In the season finale (“La Chica o El Mundo”) we also see Peruvian immune Kusimaya (Darinka Arones) finally succumbing to the Hive with the aid of some Hive-minded fellow villagers. Once Kumisaya awakens from her predicted convulsive reaction, she smiles, and casually walks away from her village. Kusimaya’s culture and village were a pantomimed facade, like Diabaté’s Bond fantasy. That is the true price tag of joining the Hive; the death of human culture.
“Pluribus” is a series layered with meanings and interpretations. It’s about resisting conformity, and the value of individuality. For some, the Hive represents a near-utopian alternative to our currently doomed human race, forever at war with itself. The Hive has achieved global peace by eliminating all religious and ethnic prejudices, along with sexism, jealousy, material greed, national borders, language barriers, and every other obstacle humanity’s placed in its own way since the model began. It’s the dream of a truly unified humanity. It’s John Lennon’s “Imagine” reified, but with a high price tag. Yes, humanity is at peace, but it only comes in one generic flavor now.
The Hive brings to mind old fears of the American ‘melting pot,’ where rich cultures are reduced to food items on a menu, or holidays on a calendar. Of course, holidays and varieties of food are of no use to the Hive. We’re left wondering if Carol and Manousos really can ‘save the world.’ Our ‘salvation’ would mean a return to our cherished human individuality, though it would also mean returning to our self-destructive tendencies as well.
“Pluribus” is the most thought-provoking sci-fi series since the reimagined “Battlestar Galactica,” and I look forward to season 2, however long it takes…
Where to Watch
“Pluribus” season 1 is available to stream exclusively on AppleTV.
What an incredible entry about Pluribus, which is the best show of 2025, bar none. I also appreciate your acknowledgement of the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, which in its series finale, seemed to show that humans are gonna human, for better or first worse. Thus the price of self-will.
I would love to see a panel someday on which universe would be more dystopian-under the Borg or Pluribus’ Hive?
I have some friends who have been watching Pluribus. I haven’t so far. But from I know, it feels like something most significantly new for sci-fi TV.
I hope you have a chance to see this show, Mike, because I’d really love to hear your thoughts on it. You always have such interesting observations.
Thank you very much.
You’re very welcome.