Hello fellow humans and welcome to E Pluribus
Unum, the one and only recap show you need to
listen to about the magnum opus of Vince Gilligan's
Pluribus. I'm Josh. And I'm Eric, and let's get
started at the beginning, as they say in Alice
in Wonderland. I think I'm gonna have to disagree
with you here. I think Vince Gilligan's magnum
opus was, in fact, the X -Files spin -off series,
The Lone Gunman, but this is a close second,
I think, yeah. You know, you might have me with
that one, but we might just have to have an episode
just on The Lone Gunman, and we'll have to...
really embellish that whole thought. Pluribus
represents Vince Gilligan's most ambitious project
to date, a post -apocalyptic sci -fi thriller
that explores what happens when an alien virus
transforms humanity into a peaceful, content
hive mind. The series follows Carol Sturka, one
of only 12 people worldwide that are immune to
the joining. As she grapples with being the most
miserable person on the planet, full of relentlessly
happy people. The show blends psychological thriller,
dark comedy, and horror while asking genuinely
difficult questions about free will versus forced
happiness. Again, I went in blind on this show.
I didn't know if this was going to be a character
study, if it was going to be set in New Mexico,
if it was going to be anything that we would
typically see from him. And I remember reading
an interview with Vince and he said, What I actually
wanted to do is prove to people that I'm not
a one trick pony. And I thought it was both kind
of funny, but I also got what he was talking
about. Especially after the spinoffs of Breaking
Bad that's come with Better Call Saul, as well
as Camino, I could see why he wanted to break
away from that a little bit. And I thought he
did a really fantastic job so far through this
first episode, especially in setting up a new
world, setting up a new tone. Vince Gilligan
and his writing team throughout the years across
his series have always been very good about their
cold opens and that's one thing I've always loved
about his stuff and this one is no exception
here and I think with this cold open he really
lays down the tone in a way that says you're
watching something else this isn't my other shows
my more popular shows we're into something new
here just with things like how bright the colors
are or in this sort of satellite array that's
in the, what is that movie from the 90s? There's
probably a dozen of them, but the one I remember
is Contact. Contact, yeah, that's what I was
trying to get out. Right. So yeah, a great setting
there and just the colors themselves, that beautiful
blue of the sky and the green of the grass, it's
very different from the stark filtered view of
Albuquerque in Breaking Bad. Interesting. You
know, I'm going to ask you this because I had
this sensation as I'm starting to watch this
introduction with these scientists that are out
at the huge array where you have these giant
satellites pointing toward the sky and they're
all excited, almost like kids that have discovered
something brand new. And I immediately felt like
I was watching a Vince Gilligan property because
of his his look, his direction. And I realized
how much I had missed it. And he has it in Breaking
Bad. He has it in Better Call Saul. There's a
distinct way that he directs a scene. And it
really came out just immediately off the bat.
And it felt very comfortable. It felt really
great to sort of see him come back in that way.
And when the show starts, essentially it starts
off with... These scientists they are at the
array they come across some sort of a signal
and it's Also plays to Vince's comedic side It's
not too serious in the moment. These scientists
are kind of goofy and funny and yet they're dealing
with something that's Quite interesting and quite
serious. You have a signal that's coming from
600 million light -years away Apparently it may
have been pointed towards us for a very, very
long time, longer than we've been on this planet,
and we are just now picking it up. The entire
opening sequence is essentially these scientists
trying to figure out what this signal is. It's
a very entertaining sequence. It's very fun,
but then it starts to... get serious as the episode
goes further. One thing I want to point out at
this point in the show is the show literally
begins with a sort of a timer mechanic. And I
believe he's probably going to bring this through
as the series goes. And as an Easter egg hunter,
I like little things like this. So it makes me
wonder why did he start the clock at this particular
time and why do we get a scene beginning with
a particular time? Speaking of Easter eggs, I
guess I wanted to point out one specific portion
of this cold open with the scientists as the
scene cut it does sort of a match cut to More
scientists being there and then another one to
even more scientists being there It's almost
the exact same way that the virus that is not
a virus spreads as well, right? There's two scientists
and there's six scientists and then there's 12
scientists in this tiny little research cabin
It's almost like a bit of an Easter egg in itself
Absolutely Another thing I'll point out with
the show is not only the timer sequences that
we have throughout but also the unnerving and
uneasy sense of Symmetry in the show it really
starts early on as we break this first act and
the scientists discover It's an RNA sequence.
They start using rats and other creatures to
experiment with this RNA sequence trying to figure
out what it is during their experiments with
the rats the I'll say trope happens where you
have a scientist working with a rat that they
thought was dead and they open up the cage and
they bring the rat out and they're like no there's
a there's a subtle heartbeat there and the rat
bites her and she starts to have these convulsions
and we get to sort of see it in the background
Another thing Vince does a really marvelous job,
especially with the first couple of episodes
of Pluribus, are the action's not necessarily
happening at the forefront of the camera. A lot
of the action is happening in the background.
And so you're more concentrated on what's happening
in that background than you are with what's happening
in the foreground. And I think that that was
brilliantly done and illustrated in this scene
where one of her coworkers is not looking and
she's in the background going through this fit.
And after she goes through this fit, This neat
scene comes up where we see her walking down
the hallway as one of the security guards in
the building is just trying to get something
out of a vending machine and it's not working.
It's the, again, trope of the item not coming
out of the vending machine and he's frustrated.
And she comes over to him and gives him a big
kiss on the lips. And then he starts to convulse.
And you can see that there is sort of a invasion
of the body snatchers scenario right off the
bat. But instead of them being angry and evil,
they're all happy. And so again, you have comedy
that gets to be played off of that concept, but
then there's also a lot of darkness that gets
played off of that concept as well. So again,
brilliant on him to bring this kind of a story
to the television and give us something a little
bit different to watch other than a lot of the
stuff that's gone out there. But to just sum
up, that facility is taken over by... the kissers,
I'll say, and more and more people at this military
facility are taken over. And this is again where
that unease of symmetry comes in. They aren't
speaking to each other, but they're all working
hand in hand in all of these tasks as though
they are all pre -planned and perfectly timed.
The sequence where you have half a dozen people
on one side of the table. another half a dozen
on the other and ones are taking a DNA swab to
their mouth and then the people on the other
side of the table are holding a Petri dish and
they wipe it onto the Petri dish and then they
close it and put it into a box and you can see
what they're doing is essentially shipping these
things off to somewhere and That symmetry again
comes in play. It's almost like a ballet You
have these people that are doing these exact
same movements over and over again, but not quite
exactly right And the reason I want to point
that out is because I think that I would like
to posit a theory toward the show at this point.
And that theory is as much as this, we'll call
it a virus, but they don't say that it's a virus,
as much as this virus is symmetrically put together,
it also makes really interesting mistakes that
seemingly shouldn't happen in a perfectly symmetrical
being. So that's where we are with those first
two, I would say scenes or acts that really get
us literally elbow deep into the lore of this
show right off the bat. And I'll say this as
well, thank you for just letting us jump into
it with these first couple of episodes and not
stretching it out and making it into, I'm just
gonna point it out from where you have to spend
three seasons trying to figure out one or two
things. Thanks for just saying, here's where
we are, here's what's happening. And now what?
And I think that that's really brilliant. Yeah,
it seems like he's earnest and eager to get this
story started. You can tell by how it's made
that he's almost excited to show us where it's
going. I think after this first episode in particular,
I was just completely enthralled with all the
possibilities. And there's just so much that
could happen within this world that he's created
just in these first two episodes. It's just a
very broad avenue for a lot of different stories
to be told as well. And I think, you know, there's
certainly some potential here for a lot of great
character work as it sort of hones in on a very
few amount of characters. And I think if we're
going to start talking characters, I think we
need to start talking about Carol a little bit
as she's introduced. Of course, she's played
by Rhea Seehorn, who was in Better Glossal, and
she does a really fantastic job in this first
episode. She has really given it her all. And
I think Vince Gilligan had mentioned something
of I wanted to have her as the focus so that
Everyone sees her as the superstar that she really
is and she really brings the performance throughout
not only in her introduction as a character where
she's a despondent writer who is on tour with
her manager slash romantic partner into when
shit really kind of hits the fan here and I like
how it Gives a little bit of breathing room for
the couple characters. But again, we're jumping
right into the action and we're jumping right
into the plot as it's unfolding. And that scene
where Carol's at the bar with her partner and
they walk outside to see the contrails from the
airplanes overhead. Absolutely. And just us as
the audience knowing, okay, it's coming now.
We're here and it's time to get this thing kicked
off. And the way that they introduce her as a
character as well, I think is brilliant. She's
at a Barnes and Noble reading from her book.
She's an author, and these are obviously pretty
in -depth romance novels. Her entire crowd are
middle -aged white women who adore her and adore
these books, and the whole sequence there at
Barnes and Noble is. So cheeky and so funny because
it's almost like they bring up every version
of a fan that you could when she goes to sign
the books. You have a guy that brings a real
sword to her and talks about the in -depth nature
of the boat that she has in her book and all
this stuff. It is just so brilliant and again
so cheeky and it shows that you can have a good
strong sense of real human humor in this moment
that is also kind of strange. You also get a
real strong sense of the relationship between
Carol and her part. that it goes first from her
partner seeming to just be her manager or whatever
to you can see that they have such a close relationship
that they literally give each other shit and
I love that because you don't see that very often
I think in relationships on screen but these
two are literally giving each other real shit
like real people in a real relationship and it's
funny and it seems convincing in the way that
I'm like, yeah, I believe that these people have
been together for years because of the level
of shit that they give each other. And I thought
that was really smart and cool. Things, of course,
turn sideways at the bar. And we get to notice
a couple of things here. So I want to bring the
time sequences back up. When the series starts,
it starts at 439 days. Then at 71 days, we're
in the lab. And then at 29 days is when the rat
bites Jen and she becomes patient zero. and then
at three hours and six minutes we have Carol
and Helen arriving at the airport and then we
go to the bar. So we have these times that are
very much laid out and When she's at the bar,
she asks her partner, give me a cigarette. I
want to go out and have a cigarette. So the two
of them go out and have a cigarette. And this
pickup truck, which, by the way, is in pristine
shapes. Awesome looking C10, I think is what
it was. A Chevy C10 from probably 78, 79. Beautiful.
Comes in and just slowly crashes into some parked
cars. And our main character, Carol, runs over
to help him, but you can see that he's seizing
in the front seat. And we as the audience know
what's going on here, but she certainly doesn't.
And this is, again, one of those brilliant scenes
where we're more looking over her shoulder as
she's tending to this guy at the car, but we
see... her partner Helen in the background holding
a cell phone and looking at it. And she's yelling
at her, she's like, Helen, get off the phone,
get off the phone, I need your help, call 911.
And I don't know how they do this, but it always
blows my mind. Helen literally falls flat backward
onto her back and head, no support, nothing.
And so Carol knows immediately something is absolutely
wrong. And so. She sees that her partner is struggling.
Her partner now starts to seize. This is a very
interesting detail. She goes to grab her phone
and the phone is broken. So she can't see or
hear what her partner had seen or heard on the
phone. So we still don't know how that happened.
And she goes running into the bar to ask. someone
to call 911 and guess what the entire bar is
seizing and this scene again brilliant the first
thing we actually see is she comes in through
the door and we see these two glasses of beer
that are shaking and then the camera flips more
over to her view and it's a waitress holding
up a serving tray with two 16 ounce beers that
are shaking but they're not dropping she's just
seizing locked in place again just brilliant
smart never seen anything like that before pretty
cool goes into the place, gets a phone, tries
to make a phone call, can't make a phone call.
She goes out and she just wants to get away from
this place. So she takes her partner, throws
her in the back of the truck, essentially, long
story short, and takes off. The show itself would
call that zero hour because what we see after
this, now the clock is counting up instead of
counting down. And so things switch significantly
after this sort of zero hour. And that's a really
great scene. I think there's a couple conversations
that Carol has with her partner One being they're
talking about Carol's unreleased book. That's
not sort of this romantic Fantasy that she's
been previously writing. It's essentially her
serious novel and that novel goes by the name
of bitter chrysalis I thought that was a really
excellent name for a novel, but getting to think
about what that might mean in the full story
of this season or the series After this happens
and and you know once we see that Carol essentially
blames the hive mind for losing her partner rightfully
I think she's a very bitter person at that point
And we see that sort of anger that she has towards
the hive mind and towards all of these events
that are happening affect things in a very broad
sense. But that brings up the second portion
of the title, which is chrysalis, right? So we
understand that she is most likely this bitter
chrysalis. And it makes you wonder what is Carol
going to be when that chrysalis breaks open?
What is the butterfly that comes from the bitter
chrysalis itself? I don't think that's a mistake
or that's just a bit of seasoning on what's going
on here. I think that's going to come into play
and be a theme throughout this first season,
if not the entire series. Carol's partner also
brings up specifically Finnegan's Wake written
by James Joyce. a big core of how that is written.
It's composed of all these different words from,
I think it's 70 different languages all crammed
into this single text. But I think the idea of
language connecting us, just like this hive mind
connects all of the other humans in the world,
is going to be a big theme throughout this story
as well. Everything is purposeful in what this
guy does. There's nothing that's throw away.
in anything that he does. And one of the things
that I wanted to keep an eye on, and I'll have
to say from my mind, keep an eye on a little
bit less than some other shows like Severance
or something like that, but there are what you
might call Easter eggs. those little things that
can drop that can either be the plane tail number
N5039 matches the Kenyon aircraft crash that
happened in that particular year that's a real
plane crash. Also having the C -span crawl across
the bottom when we have a scene later is really
important and a number of other things. So just
kind of keeping your eyes open for. Some of those
little things I think will either pay off later
on or at least give you a little bit of joy from
a Vince Gilligan perspective. So after zero hour,
Carol's trying to take Helen to the hospital.
When she gets to the hospital, she sees everyone
there is also affected. and is shocked and terrified
by that. And as she makes her way out of the
hospital, what happens is now you have the flip
where these folks are no longer catatonic and
essentially having a seizure of some sort, but
you could see them literally coming out of it.
They'll even run their hand over their face like
they just woke up. And then they'll have this.
odd smirk smile on their face and now they all
at times speak together in unison and not only
do they speak together in unison this is our
first time that we get a sense of that hive mind
right where she's trying to get back into the
truck and they say all at the same time carol
we're just trying to help you And what's really
awesome is she doesn't do the typical horror
movie trope where she's like, how did you know
my name? She literally looks right, looks left
and jumps right back into the truck and peels
out of there as quickly as possible. And it lends
itself to her character. being the sort of, I
don't trust anybody. You get a lot of that from
her, her sort of disdain for people. She even
calls her own fans morons and idiots for reading
this drivel. So she's very down on the world,
down on other people, down on herself, and we
don't know why. quite yet because she has this
lovely partner. She does have a successful writing
career. We do get sort of an answer as we make
our way through these couple of episodes a little
bit later. The hospital interaction is very fascinating
because then she goes home. And when she gets
home, she rolls up and she doesn't have her keys,
so she's trying to break in. And this is a horror
creepy moment, but you have these two kids next
door that are in like their PJs speaking at the
same time and saying, hey, Carol, remember that
time you were locked out and you decided to hide
a key underneath the pot by the front door? It's
still there. You can use it again. Super terrifying.
How do these people know these details about
her that she and one other person might know?
Very, very. and I like that she's, in my opinion,
being very realistic in her behavior toward this
interaction that she's having with these people
because this is the reaction I would have. And
we see later that people have a different reaction
to this behavior, but I'm looking at this very
much like she's looking at it and this is horrible.
This is obviously some sort of a takeover of
some kind. These people aren't who they were
before. This is terrifying and something needs
to be done about it. And there's an interesting
thing that happened. She tells the kids, leave
me alone. Just leave me alone. And they say,
oh, don't worry, Carol. We'll be out of here
in just a minute. And you think it's just the
two kids going back home and going back to bed
or whatever. No. She lives on a cul -de -sac
and everyone that lives on that cul -de -sac
all leave their house at the same time, get into
their cars at the same time. And again, it's
like a ballet of cars. They all pull into the
cul -de -sac at the same time and all pull out
at the exact same time. So it's that unnerving
symmetry that's part of the show that, again,
another brilliant scene here that really illustrated
that. And she proceeds to try to settle in at
home as best she can. She locks all the doors,
locks the windows, shuts the drapes, all of that.
that stuff, and we get a sense early on that
she's a drinker. Her partner wouldn't let her
drive earlier, even though she only had one drink.
When we get to the bar, she's insisting her partner
drink, but her partner doesn't want to, but she
is definitely going to. And she's told at this
point, as she's flipping through the television,
she sees that none of the channels are working
except for one. And it looks like it's at the
White House, and it looks like a man is standing
behind. the partition or the microphone stand
there and just waiting. And then you see right
across the crawl at the bottom, Carol, when you're
ready, give us a call at this number. And I mean,
again, funny, but unnerving. And also I have
to ask you, did you call the number? I've not,
no, but I did see that it is indeed a working
number and it has a message for. Carol to let
them know when she's ready to start talking.
And I believe if you say yes or something on
the call, it sends you a text message. But yeah,
another really great little piece of world building
there. Well, I called it and it does say, hello,
Carol. If there's anything that you need from
us, please press zero and we will provide it
for you. It reminded me of Mr. Robot and a number
of other shows that were clever enough to actually
use real numbers. I don't believe there's a 555
number in this show. And I don't know about you,
that is a trope that most certainly pulls me
out of a film. If you are gonna use 555, then
just don't show the number. It'll pull me out
faster than a grab and throw. So at this point
she decides to go ahead and call the number and
we get. an information dump. And I want to point
out something here really important about Rhea
and how much of a phenomenal actor she is. The
first thing that I liked about her appearance
on the screen when we first see her is she has
this smirk about her that I recall from Better
Call Saul. And it reminds me of our favorite
gal from Severance as well. She has such a great
smirk. And Rhea just, man. She's another one
of those fantastic actors that you can just show
her face and she can act the hell out of whatever
that scene is but she gets such a fun cool character
here that is so cynical and so angry and so put
off that it guides all of her decisions as she's
navigating this new world that we're in. And
so she's talking to this guy through the television,
essentially, she calls a number, talking to the
dude, and she's like, uh -huh, yep, uh -huh.
And he goes, well, hey, you know, I feel like
we've been doing all the talking here, as he
describes what we've already mentioned before,
that the scientists found the RNA sequence, they
did the thing, and now everybody's got it. She
literally just goes, yeah, what the? What the
fuck is going on here? And she just stretches
this thing out and you can just feel it. And
I'm right there with you. What the fuck is going
on here? And he explains it in an interesting
way. He says, we're not aliens. We're still the
humans that were here. This sequence has aligned
us in a way to where all of our minds are connected.
It is a hive mind scenario. And she goes, so
this is an alien takeover. He's like, nope, there's
no aliens on this planet, he says, by the way.
I thought that was very cool and clear. And she
goes, well, how does this work? And he goes,
we don't know. We just know that it does. And
I thought that was another brilliant way to answer
it without answering it. So just to build that
in so early in a show is awesome. We know right
off the bat, this is what this thing. is and
how it sort of works. So roll with us. So she
has this conversation with David Taffler until
the point to where she's absolutely sick of it.
And we get to close out this first episode with
essentially her getting hammered, which is probably
what I would do. We find out a lot of cool things
and a lot of subtle things, I think, with this.
conversation with the secretary of agriculture
or something that they, you know, they've co
-opted now since the president is no longer alive.
It's like seven levels deep. He was just around
and he had a suit on. And he was functioning,
I think he says too. He's like, he was functioning.
And I was like, Oh, what does that mean? Yeah.
But we get a few things in this conversation.
He confirms that this Signal is in fact extraterrestrial
which we sort of already knew right at that point
this signal that was broadcast was indeed Otherworldly
and he also says it's not a virus. It's more
like a psychic glue that holds us all together
I Thought that was pretty interesting. It popped
a couple theories in my head and I think we'll
get to that as we hit the end of the episode
here Okay, but he also Confirms that there are
indeed other immune My question especially when
it comes to those that are unaffected It would
be interesting to see, are there more that we
don't know about? Can more pop up as time goes
by? Another thing I would like to know is, why
have a timer? What is the significance of the
timer? Is there a significance of the specific
timestamps? Do they have an effect on what happens
later on? Does this story go 439 days into the
future now? And then that's our block of time
that this situation might happen in? Are we counting
up to that 439 days now instead of counting down?
Or is there some other significance? here that
we need to know why these moments are time stamped
other than the zero hour and what happens after
that. So I think all of that stuff kind of leaves
things that are fun and interesting and make
you think about different types of theories.
And again, I think in great Vince Gilligan fashion,
we have a character here that is not black or
white. They are very gray. And in fact, our little
protagonist here is rather angry. and I'm still
rooting the heck for her. I think it's fantastic
and I'm leaning into her direction a heck of
a lot. So overall, do you have any further thoughts
on this particular episode? And then after having
looked at this one episode, what are your overall
thoughts for what you think about the series
at that point? Yeah, I think a couple things
here and I think going back to Carol in particular
her sort of cynical approach to life and not
only that but the events that come after I think
some people could see it as Unlikeable in some
portions, you know, it adds to that sort of grayness
of the character I thought her actions were completely
believable though. I think I would have reacted
in a very similar way Sometimes when you see
how you would act In that circumstance, it makes
you annoyed because that might not necessarily
be the right way to act, but knowing that's how
you would act as well, you project yourself onto
the character a little bit. That just exemplifies
how good Vince Gilligan is at working with very
three -dimensional characters. I didn't watch
episode one and two back -to -back, so I watched
episode one the night before. When I left it,
Was really thinking mainly about that final conversation
and this sort of psychic glue thing that the
hive mind was talking about and it got me to
thinking a little bit about What had initiated
all of this, which is this? frequency that has
these Nucleotides that make up RNA that manufacture
DNA. It's not a virus. It's something that changed
our DNA as it is currently but that wouldn't
necessarily explain how we could share consciousness
at that point, changing our DNA. In fact, the
only way I could think of that would really give
us this power, I guess you could call it, is
if that aspect of hive mind and consciousness
beyond ourselves was always there for us. It
was never something that was given to us. It
was always the power that humans or even maybe
just sentient beings in general have. And this
RNA sequence is just what unlocked it for us
as if the consciousness is something that exists
already outside of ourselves. Our own consciousness
isn't confined to our own heads, you know, and
it is something that is shared. There is an idea
of a shared consciousness that already exists.
And what if this Quote -unquote virus or psychic
glue was just something unlocked by this change
in RNA So a lot of questions here and how does
it spread? You know, it seems to spread through
saliva and how does change in our DNA spread
through saliva and spread by kissing? You know
because we see that the hive mind itself is a
very courteous being it's a very Loving being
almost they seem to love each other and they
love the even the people who are immune they
seem to have love for as well, but it also brought
to mind of how they initially spread it by kissing.
You know, there's something about almost an evolutionary
act of what kissing means to humans and how spreading
that love brings us together if love is the first
step in some sort of shared consciousness. My
overall thoughts on this is it's fantastic, it's
mysterious, and anything that gets you really
thinking about Some of the ideas I had just mentioned
and consciousness outside of your body and love
being something that connects us to a hive mind
is a pretty damn good show, I think, at the end
of the day. It also brings up a couple of things.
It's mentioned when she has the conversation
with the Secretary of Agriculture that as one
that isn't part of the hive mind, you are your
own person individually. And it's not explicitly
explained, but it's definitely saying you're
apart from us. And she asks, well, what are you
looking to do here? And he goes, oh, well, we're
working on it. And she says, what do you mean?
Oh, we're working on figuring out how to make
you one of us. And that's when she loses her
stuff at the end of the episode. And I think
that that's important. Secondly, similarly to
what you're talking about, there's this idea
of what's called the Akashic record and that
everything that's ever happened or ever will
happen or is happening now is available to you.
you just reach into this Akashic record and that
would be everyone's thoughts memories every invention
everything Would all be readily available to
you instantly and they illustrate that in this
show in a really neat way Because not only are
they all connected their memories are connected
as well and I find that really fascinating because
it does start to make you think about some of
these other elements of privacy and individuality
But then it leans in another direction that might
convince you otherwise. And I find that that
little line there is very interesting. And I
think that that's probably one of the best parts
of the show. So I appreciate you sharing your
theory on the hive mind thing. I think I agree
with you as far as that sort of Akashic record
and that, you know, some people even believe
that we did have this before. And that's why
we were able to accomplish some of the things
in the past that we can't figure out now. And
if we were able to get back to that, we would
be more efficient in those ways. And society
would be, obviously, entirely different, right?
Beyond that, my friend, do you have anything
else on the first episode of Pluribus? I think
that's about it, other than I'm very excited
to continue on with this show. Excellent. Well,
I couldn't agree more. I want to thank everybody
for listening to E! Pluribus Unum, the one and
only show you need to listen to about... The
Great Show, blurbous. We'll catch up with you
guys in the next episode, episode two.