The new TV series by Bravo Vince
Pluribus is already a great show. Everyone knows it and everyone agrees on it: To Plurb is To Be Alive. I'm not here to glaze the show, though. I'm here to analyze it and think about it really really hard.
This page is meant to be a sort of living record of what I know, what I think I know, and what I think will happen in Pluribus. Do not expect anything comprehensible. Do not expect theories that make sense. I'm so hopelessly autistic that I sometimes annoy myself. I merely feel a need to write down what I think and, I don't know, annoy people with it?
There is some amount of excitement about getting to watch this as it's coming out. I was much too young for Breaking Bad when it still aired, and sadly unaware of Better Call Saul until much later still, I never got to theorize about a Bravo Vince show before! Plurbing will save me. Plurbing—and yes, it does feel good—will either save me or be the death of me. I have actually been plurbing it this whole time and you didn't even notice lollll get kinda pranked? Get kinda pranked and owned actually? lol I just plurbed all over the Okay that's enough.
Last updated . Up to date with season 1, episode 5
What's it gonna be about
To analyze this, it might help to look back to the past, for a bit: Gilligan's previous two shows have been about person being corrupted by power/greed, turning from honest men into brutal criminals.
In Breaking Bad, sorely unremarked citizen and upstanding normal-ass guy Walter White "breaks his bad" to provide his family with a lot of yummy drug money. Because he's smart and just sorta knows how to make meth. By the end of the series, everyone's favorite squishy little bean turns out to be, like, a murderer and stuff. Why would Chara Dreemurr make him do such a thing?
Well, he was never a good guy to begin with, actually, so don't even start. Frail and insecure about his masculinity, he decides that he simply needs to be a man—THE man—and provide for his family and then everyone will like him and think he's cool. Walter goes from a very meek and insecure man to a manipulative, aggressive, unpredictable and still highly insecure guy (and believe it or not people didn't start liking him). He probably practiced being Heisenberg (most badass guy ever) in the mirror, but the point is that he goes through a change throughout the show. His experiences turn him to someone he wasn’t when the show started.
Better Call Saul focuses on little old Jimmy McGill's gradual evolution into the titular Saul Goodman. It might be said that the Saul persona was, like Heisenberg, also there the whole time. Sure, I guess. The difference here is that... well, actually, he and Walter are quite similar now that I think about it. They both want more out of their life and attain it through illegal (or at least immoral) means, make some not-so-good choices, and end up on the road of criminality. It just so happens that they're actually pretty good at being bad people.
But, I hear you ask...
Sierra, what does literally any of that mean for Carol Sturka?
Well, she's going to become a notorious criminal who kills people, obviously. She's a terrible person at her core and indulging in crime while trying to do better in life is going to turn her into a monster. Obviously.
Actually, sorry, no, I don't think any of that. Perhaps becoming a drug dealer or criminal lawyer isn't the carreer path Carol has ahead of her, not like that's a particularly fruitful endeavor nowadays. The key aspect here is change, how is Carol going to change throughout the series?
what is the hivemind, exactly?
What's important to remember about the hivemind is they're not just "everyone in the world and also they're soooo nice," they have been infected with a virus. they have a disease which makes them like this. in a way, you can consider the virus itself as the antagonist of the show—not the hivemind, but the thing that's controlling them. The people are essentially cells in this greater organism which is the hivemind, but all their brains have been incorporated as well, of course. brains which give this virus the ability of thought and reasoning, but also the memories and knowledge of the entire world. knowledge which is vital to take over the world, to put it bluntly, as effectively as they have, but I get ahead of myself. the title most likely being a reference to e pluribus unum (from many, one) also supports this. the resulting entity is a singular entity which is composed of many parts. point being, the hivemind is a virus but also a new kind of organism. it's strengthened by infecting humanity, possibly hijacks the thoughts, and it also seems to have a moral code when it comes to life. But most importantly, it is a virus.
So with that out of the way, we can establish its end goal, which, like all viruses, is simple.
To reproduce and spread.
Allow me to explain by discussing something from the first episode, namely, what was up with that rat?
One might assume that it's being joined, which as we see countless times has major effects on humans, but... shouldn't it be convulsing? Every single time when someone gets joined they start fucking tweaking until suddenly everything is fine. But the rat was waiting, was it not? Infected? yes. Joined? Probably not. Acting under the influence of the virus? Absolutely. I believe that the rat was playing dead, because the virus seemingly understood that in, order to spread, it would need to cause a breakout and infect a human. I'm going to assume that its primary target is humanity, either way.
If we presume the virus only has access to the functions of whatever has been infected, in this case a bunch of rats, they would still have this sort of idea that "the big creatures observing us are in control. they are more powerful than us." The virus' base instincts would naturally tell it to spread to said lifeforms.
This theory isn't bulletproof, but you can understand my reasoning I hope. The virus was able to spread to humanity because the rat plays dead (possibly even weakening or stopping its heartbeat to appear "more dead") in order to get within range to bite one of the scientists and spread the virus further.
After the virus infects a human and binds them to its will, the first instinct is to spread, which it does mouth to mouth lmao. Then, once they have enough (for now,) they begin mass producing petri dish cultures of the virus, and they do it in the most perfect and efficient way possible.
But, already, it seems the primary goal of spreading has already been achieved, no? What could possibly come after infecting every human on the planet save for ? well, no, it hasn't actually. it was able to spread to earth from space, so it could be the case that they're gonna attempt that as well. no guarantee that other life will even have DNA/RNA but I suppose the panspermia hypothesis could be true in this universe, and if so maybe the origin of the virus is also the origin of life as we know it as well?
And so, what comes next is the most systemic and efficient exploitation of all the resources the virus is willing to use in order to live as long as possible, and eventually escape the planet. they're probably gonna look for suitable planets, where intelligent, RNA driven life can occur, and spread via radio signal again. much easier than going interstellar