Welcome to E Pluribus Unum, the podcast where
we dive deeper into the hive mind. I'm Josh.
And I'm Eric. And today we're going to be talking
about episode two entitled Pirate Lady. pirate
lady. This one goes over Carol as she meets the
other five Immunes that also speak English and
the first meeting between the remainder of humanity
that is no longer a part of the hive mind. Much
like the first episode, and I know we had mentioned
this in our previous episode of the podcast,
we open up with another really brilliant Vince
Gilligan cold open. This one reminded me of Breaking
Bad when the twin Mexican assassins are crawling
along the ground up to some sort of altar that
they pray to. This one very much had that Saint
tone and similar vibe to it as we're introduced
into this episode and introduced to the newest
character here. We start up in Morocco as this
person is cleaning up the dead bodies after the
joining as we find out it's called. And we follow
this person as they hop on a plane and then they're
heading somewhere, an unknown destination. All
of the Hive Mind is working around this person
as they're taking this journey to their destination,
so much so that when this character arrives,
who you find out is named Zosia, she is going
in to take a shower and all of the Hive Mind
are getting her clothes and her makeup ready.
And the whole time you're just wondering, what
does this have to do with the story that we've
been told so far? And of course we find out But
just giving you that introduction mystery is
such a Vince Gilligan thing to do and a really
great way to open an episode. And the other thing
is this entire opening sequence has no dialogue.
There's no conversation with all of the interaction.
And the interaction, again, is extremely unsettlingly
fluid. It's like watching a perfect process.
You're like, oh, that's really satisfying when
that happens. It also illustrates the thing about
how each of these hive mind characters can do
anything. She's first walking through the desert,
she goes to pull a body out of a car, she goes
to drive a scooter, then she drives to the airport
and jumps into a gigantic plane and apparently
is also able to fire it up and take off and then
land in Albuquerque. Then it shows that it's
sort of like a matrix scenario that Not only
are their minds connected and not only are their
memories connected, but they can share those
skills. You bring up a really great point about
they're doing all of this without speaking a
word. There's no dialogue in this opening scene.
And I think that goes back to our previous conversation
that we had about episode one, where we're talking
a lot about language and it's almost as if language
is sort of the crutch. that humans use for connection.
Whereas when you're a hive mind, there's no need
for language. There's no need for speaking even.
Is language a portion of what makes us an individual?
Is that a portion of how we bring our thoughts
into the public conscious as well? There's a
lot to think about there when it comes to not
only their mentioning of things like Finnegan
Wake in the previous episode, but the complete
lack of almost interaction that these characters
have since they are a part of one mind. In the
next scene is when she wakes up on the floor.
It's that shot of the close up of the liquor
bottle that is half empty lying on the floor
and it's slowly dripping onto the floor. And
I'm a huge film noir junkie and it just immediately
reminded me of a sort of film noir. the drunken
detective waking up the next day and having to
contend not only with the headache and the hangover
and such, but the results of the previous day.
And of course, the first thing that she lays
eyes on is the body of her dead lover, which
of course is another very noirish style of opening
up this episode and jumping right back into where
we left off with Carol as well. And it leads
us to the center part of this particular episode.
To summarize it, Carol realizes that she has
to bury her partner, and we go through this series
of scenes that she makes the attempt to do that.
And in the midst of trying to bury her partner,
we finally get introduced to Zosia, and Zosia
wants to just give her a bottle of water. And
she has some really great lines around that.
She says, we believe you're about to suffer from
heat exhaustion, and every doctor in the world
thinks so. It's funny and unnerving again, right?
It crosses that line in such a great way. But
what really sells it, Zosia is fairly stoic.
She does smile a lot and she uses her eyebrows
and things like that. And as the episode goes
on, she emotes more, I think. But it's really
Carol's face. Carol's reaction to the behavior
of the people that are joined, it's art. Just
her reaction to the bottle of water. She pours
it out on the ground and Zosha's just like, I
hope you have water in the house. We just want
you to hydrate and take care of yourself. And
just the vitriol that is in Carol's face of,
I hate you. I want you out of my face. I want
you out of my yard. I want you out of my life.
And she tries to get rid of Zosha. And of course,
Zosha wants to leave. It seems like the joined
definitely want to please you. Like they said
the night before, the neighbors were like, oh,
you don't want us here? Oh, we'll leave. And
the entire neighborhood leaves. And Zosha's like,
oh, you don't want me to be here? Okay, I can
leave. No problem. I want to make you happy.
I want to appease you or please you. And that
is definitely a theme, as you'd mentioned in
the first episode, that I think rings throughout,
but it rings in a darker sense. This leads us
to Carol, actually, as Zosha's leaving. confronting
Zosia out in the cul -de -sac. And this is both,
again, a funny scene and a dark scene. Yeah,
I really love how Rhea Seehorn played this particular
portion because it plays to a bit of a comedic
effect where she gets really close to Zosia's
face and is almost inspecting her as if she recognizes
something and then she goes back inside and grabs
one of her romance novels and comes out and sees
that. Indeed, Zosia looks very much like the
made love interest within her romance novels,
who is named Raban. Almost as if they found this
person in Morocco that happened to look like
the male character in her book, Raban. Carol's
seeing that the hive mind has sent a female version
of this main character to her to almost manipulate
her or just to make her feel a little bit safer
or have a safe face to speak to. Yet we find
out that the only other person that would have
known that Rabban was initially supposed to be
female is her dead partner Helen, who she's burying
in the backyard right now. So we find out that
the hive mind was able to induct Helen's consciousness
before she died. Back in episode one, right before
Helen passes away, she gives a real creepy smile.
to Carol right before she kicks the bucket. And
we find out, of course, that wasn't necessarily
Helen's smile. That was the smile of the hive
mind. And you mentioned prior a bit about sort
of Carol's rage and Carol's anger and Carol's
hatred really to this hive mind. This is the
first scene where we find out that that rage
and that hatred has a physical toll as well.
I think this might be The most pivotal scene
in this episode and this is an episode of pivotal
scenes. So that becomes a real marker I'll also
say when this moment happened in the show. I
literally cheered because You can go into this
scenario thinking that there's no way around
it that you are One of a dozen people that aren't
part of this group and this group's trying its
darndest to make you part of it It's almost sort
of inevitable and it gives you this moment of,
oh, I do have a weapon with which to fight, and
maybe this can be rather powerful. And also the
way that they illustrated it becomes very powerful.
And you bring up this really great point, and
this is where we are, and this is why I think
it's so important to talk about this scene. Carol
is so smart to think. not, oh, this is really
great and I feel very comforted by it. It's very
much the total opposite of that. And she screams
at her and she says, you ghouls, you grave robbers.
And I thought, oh my gosh, that's exactly how
I felt in that scenario, but I didn't have the
words for it. And I thought, how succinct and
how clear and how true. You're using my partner's
memories that were exclusive to the two of us.
to try and charm me? How disgusting. How disgusting
are you? And I really appreciated that because
we come across a scenario later in this episode
that is the opposite of that. And it's almost
enraging to me, to be frank. But because she
gets so upset and she literally screams, your
ghouls, your grave robbers. And she pushes her
up against the car. And now Zosia is having an
episode. She starts to have a seizure and Carol's
like, Oh, Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are
you okay? Are you okay? And she just slides down
the truck and is just lying on the ground, seizing
and Carol's screaming around like, is anybody
around? The hive mind produce Zosia to essentially
calm Carol down. And they thought that this would
be a pleasurable face to look upon that could
help ease some of her fears. There's also something.
Alien about that right because us as normal people
if we were to see that that's very off -putting
to us And it feels like we're being manipulated,
you know So it's almost as if in becoming this
hive mind have they lost their humanity and that
does every person on earth put together Not even
resemble a human anymore than they can't even
think in the way that a human would because they've
done something very unnerving at this point and
they didn't even recognize that that might not
be the best thing to do for Carol. And all of
the things that have been added to becoming a
hive mind, is there something that's taken away?
Is there a piece of humanity that's taken away
by becoming the hive mind as well? I think I
want to piggyback off of that for a couple of
reasons. Once again, not only do we see a hole
in their plan, where if Carol gets angry enough
that there is a physical reaction, in someone
who is joined, but also the lack of knowledge
of if they were to approach her in this way that
this was absolutely the wrong way to do it. And
they don't discover that until after the fact.
And if you notice, there's a lot of sequences
as we move on where they discover after the fact
that their thought process was absolutely wrong.
And she points it out. She points it out in her
very cynical but definitive way. And this is
one of those instances. She's like, no, this
was a terrible idea. And they're like, oh, we're
sorry, Carol. And then they try to find some
way to fix it whenever this kind of thing happens,
it becomes a pattern. And it goes again to your
concept of alien, right? They're not from Earth
or this RNA isn't from Earth or this resequencing
doesn't know about the cultures of Earth in the
way that seem obvious to the rest of us, but
it is able to do. other things like, again, be
either a heart surgeon or an airplane pilot or
whatever at any given instance. So in as much
as it's consciousness or a shared hive mind,
it almost seems computer, even less human in
a way that we would think of an alien overtaking
or something like that. And I also wonder just
to kind of go back to it because I'm a nerd,
the time sequencing through the show. This time
sequencing has something to do with what's going
on here. And I'm wondering if it's also hinting
towards something like that. And I find that
fascinating as far as how the theories might
play out. A super important scene in act two
there. And it leads us to Carol saying, hey,
are there other people out there in the world
that are like me, that are unaffected by the
joining? And Zosha says, yeah, there are some
people out there that are experiencing the same
thing you are. Yeah, we find out that there are
indeed, I believe, 12 or possibly 13. When she
is in the backyard telling her, yeah, there's
12, when she takes her later on to go meet them,
she says, oh, by the way, there's one more that
we just found today. And so they've added one
to it. And I think one thing that he's accomplishing
here by doing that is really exemplifying that
the hive mind isn't omnipresent. Right. As much
as we might think it is, it's only based on if
there is a person of the hive mind there, they're
not omnipotent, right? They're very much still
a organism that are attached through these nodes,
I guess you could call it, but it's not an omniscient
being by any means. So there are things that
they don't know. And we even heard that briefly
in the first episode that the hive mind doesn't
necessarily know why there are these 12 or now
13. Immunes that are out there in the world and
possibly even more and then we find out that
again bringing language back into it that there
are five other Immunes that speak English so
that Carol can communicate with them and it brings
a really cool scene where she asks Zosia if They
can all come together and Zosia gets a very far
away sort of distant look as if she's talking
to someone else in her head and And Carol gets
a bit worried and is asking you know, what is
happening? Are you still there? And then Zosia
clicks back into reality here and she says they
all said yes and then again the look on Carol's
face the look on Ria's face the disbelief shock
and also impressed At the same time, just the
reaction she has with that is so good and it
sells at 110%. The next scene is also again that
sort of funny Vince Gilligan humor. They're on
this gigantic plane, Carol sitting all the way
in the back and who's flying the plane? A waitress
from TGI Fridays. And this is what Carol harps
on. It's not anything else at all. She's just
like, you just need to pay attention to who's
that lady? She's from TGI Fridays flying the
plane. Yeah, you should pay attention to that.
But it illustrates again to her and to us the
concept of if you know it, I know it. And that
transferable skill is to me, sinister because
it could go sideways very quickly, but they play
it in the opposite way. Again, it's invasion
of the body snatchers, but instead of everybody
being evil, everybody is happy. And so now they're
forcing almost their happiness onto you. And
they're forcing this happiness onto the most
cynical person on the planet. And this scene
brings up a really great line from Zosia as well.
She asks Carol, are you sure you wanna do this?
And Carol asks Zosia, why? You know, why do you
ask that? and Zosia responds with, we can't protect
you from each other. And I thought that was almost
a haunting line from Zosia, an uncharacteristically
dark line coming from the hive mind at that point.
Well, it's subtly sinister, right? And this line
also, we need to reflect back on the previous
scene where it's the two of them speaking again
after Zosia had had the breakdown in the cultus
act, she comes back to help Carol. And Carol
asks, did that affect everybody or how many people
did that affect? And Zosha says, everybody that
was joined was affected by your emotional outburst.
And she says, why is that? She goes, for some
reason, because you're not joined with us. When
you have a high emotional outburst, it has an
adverse effect on us. So it's very clear in that
moment that they want to define this as a thing.
She asked, well, how many people did I hurt?
Because when she went to go seek help, she saw
that one guy was hanging from a man lift and
another woman had obviously fallen and her face
was hurt. She's like, how many people did I hurt?
It's interesting because Zasha will hold back.
on things she doesn't want to tell you. She will
reluctantly tell you because you want to know,
and she wants to please you, but she will hold
back if she feels like there's some negative
stuff going on here. And in this instance, she's
like, kind of like, mm -hmm, you know, almost
like a little kid, like, mm -hmm. And she's like,
how many, you know, five, six, a dozen, and Zosha's
not saying anything. And she goes, hundreds,
and Zosha still doesn't say anything. And then
she says, Thousands. And you could see Zosia
just slightly move her head and Carol gets sick
immediately. Just with the weight of thinking
that her emotional outburst literally cost the
lives of thousands of other people in this moment.
And this becomes important later too. And I think
the emotional outbursts affecting the hive mind
goes back to the line in the first episode of
they're connected by what he calls a psychic
glue. And we see that even in the first episode,
all of these hive mind beings are putting out
good energy, right? They're the helpful kids
next door or the folks in the very first scene
of the hive mind saying, we're just trying to
help Carol. So we see that they're putting out
a certain wavelength on the emotional spectrum.
And when they get the opposite wavelength coming
from Carol, it affects not only the Person in
front of you, but the entire hive mind as well.
So they sort of feed off of that Psychic glue
and live on this emotional wavelength as well.
It's a incredibly interesting stuff and a lot
of things that I'm hoping We get a little bit
more answer to down the line So we arrive in
Bilbao to where Carol meets four of the other
five English -speaking Immunes as we'll call
them here And we get to see not only the four
amuse, but they've also brought their families
who have already become one with the hive mind.
We see husbands and we see aunts and sons and
grandmas and they're introducing themselves as
this individual is this particular person's husband.
I think one thing in this scene that's Evident
is the other four immune that we meet in this
particular portion. They're not as distraught
as Carol is. They're not as angry as Carol is
about the circumstance. And not only that, but
they still have a link to the hive mind itself,
even though they're not a part of the hive mind,
their family is a part of the hive mind. And
they've accepted the people in their family that
are a part of the hive mind as if they're still
their family. It makes you question yourself
and think, if my family member had become a part
of the hive mind, would I be as accepting as
they are? Or would I be more like Carol and be
more cynical where they're not that person anymore?
And I don't know what it's become anymore. I
don't know what it is that I'm talking to anymore.
This leads me to my favorite moment in this scene
and my favorite moment in the episode. Again,
I just want to give Rhea the Emmy for her scoff
when she discovers the people behind them because
she's speaking to the four, introducing herself
and she starts to loosen up. And then she, again,
this is another sequence where what's happening
in the background is more important than what's
happening in the foreground. And what's in the
background are the family members. And she looks
over her shoulder and goes, do you know who these
guys are? And then that's where they do the introduction.
And when they're done with their introductions,
she does a full 360 and scoffs. She goes, and
that scoff is perfection. It is absolute perfection.
And it explained everything in her whole thought
process of this is like, yep. And that is absolutely
what we don't want. And that's why it's so important
for her to get these English speaking people
that aren't joined separate into a room and have
a conversation with them about their current
circumstances. I think this brings us to the
next character introduction as we find out that
the final immune that speaks English is arriving
and that his mode of transportation came a little
bit late since he had a specific request as we
see Air Force One. pull up outside and everyone
goes out on the tarmac and we meet a character
by the name of Kumba. And he believes that Air
Force One is going to be the best place for them
to sort of convene and have their first immune
meeting. Most of the other folks we get introduced
to that aren't joined are fairly average folks
in their own little worlds. You know, whether
their culture or their language, they seem like
you and me, essentially. And Carol is sort of
that too, but she just has the cynicism and all
these other things. And then you have this guy,
and he is almost in his own movie, essentially.
He thinks he's really funny, charming, has something
to say for everything, clever, all of those things.
I myself found him quite annoying, even as we
get toward the end of the episode. but I understood
the idea behind his character and how they could
utilize it, but flamboyant. We'll just say he's
a flamboyant character. Obviously he rolls in
with Air Force One. My favorite part of this
sequence is they're sitting at the table and
he's talking about Air Force One, the movie with
Harrison Ford. And he goes, well, actually what
Harrison Ford did, he didn't actually leave the
plane. He was actually hiding in the, and then
they interrupt him. And I'm like, he's actually
talking about Air Force One, the movie. It pleased
me to no end. I thought that was really great.
Yeah, because we know as the hive mind is leaving
that particular room, they turn off all of the
listening devices at Carol's request. But with
that little line that seemingly is just a piece
of comic relief, is there a piece of the hive
mind that has not left just like Harrison Ford
is in Air Force One? So that's certainly something.
to think about. And we don't know at this point
if the hive mind has the capability to lie. Are
they capable of deception? They seem like they're
not. They seem like they have to tell you the
truth if you're insistent. And we find that out
later too. And even earlier before where she's
like, how many, how many? eventually they will
seemingly tell you the truth, but it's almost
like they don't want to tell you the truth if
they think it's going to hurt you in some way,
whether it's your feelings or something else.
And as much as they're not acting deceptive,
they do exactly what they say they're gonna do
and they do it immediately. Not only that, but
if telling the truth hurts you, does the hive
mind automatically... Decide to be deceptive
at that point because it seems like their main
prerogative is to not hurt anything not only
humans but anything that's living as we find
out later and One thing I wanted to point out
specifically about Kumba as a character. I think
he's brought in specifically to be the antithesis
of Carol we have Carol who has a hundred percent
unequivocally Decided to be against the hive
mind where we have Kumba who has completely bought
in and decided to not necessarily be a part of
the hive mind, but to accept the world as it
is and how it's become and to continue to live
like this. And it brings up a curious question.
I think that's something that will be explored
a bit later in the season between these characters
is that we have some of the immune who bought
into the hive mind so much that one of the characters
She in fact wants to become a part of the hive
mind. She would like to be brought into the hive
mind and be with her aunt again. And I think
the distinction there that I'm trying to make
is I don't believe that Kumba is of the same
mind as that young lady. I think he very much
wants to be apart from the hive mind still, but
he enjoys the world that the hive mind has created
around him. He still wants to be an individual.
And you can see in the way he acts and the way
he talks, he very much thinks of himself as an
individual. I think that possibly Carol and Kumba
have more in common than is initially disclosed
in this episode. It creates a really good tension
and you make a great point. They are definitely
totally opposite of each other and also are willing
to challenge each other. And you have these really
tight conversations between the two of them that
I think are valuable. But they do have sort of
a roundtable. They eventually ask the joint to
go out on the tarmac, and they're in the main
office in Air Force One, and they have their
little sit down. As Carol broaches the conversation,
she says, what are we going to do about this?
And at one point, Goomba just says, why? Because
you could see all the people at the table besides
Carol. have essentially accepted the situation
as it is, but they also have something she doesn't
have, and that's their families or their connections
to the world. And I believe she may feel she's
lost all of that, except for her humanity. And
that's why she's in part working so hard to,
quote unquote, save humanity, is she's talking
about saving her own humanity, her own individualism,
her own separation from the hive or the joined.
I agree with you, though. I think it even comes
up at some point, if you were given the choice
to join or not join, do you still have that choice?
And it'll be interesting how that actually plays
out. And this is also where we discover that
they've also let all the animals out of the zoos.
And Kumbha even says, all dogs are off their
chains. Peace on earth. And I found that really
interesting because I don't know that it's the
greatest idea in the world to let all the animals
out of all the zoos or to let all the dogs off
of their chains. And it'll be interesting to
see what that decision from the joined becomes
later. And I think that brings up another interesting
question and that's why are the animals not assimilated
into the hive mind? And maybe it's just because
assimilating animals into the human hive mind
would have a lot of the humans recreating animal
behaviors or something along those lines but
an interesting question on why the animals weren't
assimilated but we do find out that the hive
mind itself has a very altruistic view of life
in general whether that's human or animal they
don't want an animal to be in a cage and they
don't want a dog to be on the leash and of course
in the next scene when they're all having lunch
we find out that they don't even want to kill
an animal to eat it so they specifically say
that they will not kill a chicken to cook it
for you and even when Kumba says well if I kill
a chicken Will you cook it for me? She does indeed
say, yes. So there is a still that appeasement
there at work, but you see when Zosia replies
to Kumba and tells him, yes, that it's almost
a bit of a moral quandary for her to answer that
question. Well, and she answers, we will mourn
the creature, but yeah, I'll cook it for you.
And then he asks, are you vegetarian then? Or
do you eat meat? She says that very interestingly.
She doesn't say, yes, we're vegetarians. She
says, we prefer not to. I want to bounce back
to the Air Force One, not to say nothing happens,
but essentially she doesn't really convince anyone
one way or the other. And the resolution in the
scene is she says, does anybody have any ideas
they'd like to bring to the table? And Kumba
like crosses his fingers and says, how does everyone
feel about lunch? And the final thing, I... would
like to add on to the Air Force One scene is
we find out that during Carol's initial bout
of rage to Zosia, another character, another
immune by the name of Lakshmi, was driving in
the car with her grandfather, who at that point,
of course, was a part of the hive mind. And during
the sort of repose that the hive mind had after
Carol's bout of rage, Lakshmi's grandfather died
while driving that car. So Lakshmi already dislikes
Carol. And we find out from Lakshmi that not
only was it the quote unquote few people that
died. That's what Zosha had told Carol earlier
in the episode, but 11 million people died when
Carol had her initial bout of rage with Zosha.
So just adding so much more of an expansive view.
on what is a very close quarters character story
at the same time. The things that these six immunes
are doing have global repercussions. And in this
scene, Carol also points out very eloquently
the hypocrisy. And she asks, I think she almost
has to ask three times when she really wants
an answer from them from hard questions. How
many people died during the joining? And they
eventually answer over 800 million. And she goes,
well, I guess you got to break a few eggs. Because
she's pointing out the fact that, oh, you won't
kill and you let animals out of the zoo and all
these other things. But when you came here, you
killed 800 million people. And Zosha's answer
was, it is our biological imperative to do so.
And I thought that was Also terrifying and telling
but it was also an excuse. Yeah, and I think
it's 867 million people died within the joining
there and I believe that's over 10 % of the population
of the entire planet Right. That's certainly
breaking a few eggs for sure. My question then
becomes where does this philosophy come from
then? Because just because our minds are all
glued together doesn't mean that we all collectively
immediately agree on a specific philosophy. They're
not asking you. And she even says at the dinner
table, she goes, you didn't ask any of us. You
didn't ask a single one of us if we wanted to
do this. You just did it. And then that's where
she says, well, this was our biological imperative
and stuff. Okay, where does that come from? Who's
biological imperative? It could very well be
the biological imperative of the human race at
the end of the day. One of the reasons I enjoy
the show so much is that it begs conversations
like this. And that's what makes it so intriguing
and what makes you hell bent on watching this
next episode. So I got to say Vince Gillian really
is knocking it out of the park. Absolutely. I
still want to know where this collective philosophy
came from because there were humans on this planet
that were more than fine with murdering other
humans. So how do you get to a consensus with
every person on the planet that through this
collective psychic glue that we all agree that
we're not going to kill anymore and we're not
going to eat meat anymore? Who came up with the
idea to even do that is also a question. Where
does that even come from? I guess my question
is Now that we've adjusted our DNA using this
RNA, are we just saying now we're just going
into our next evolutionary step of being a collective
hive mind that is vegetarian? My point of view
on it is that the majority of badness or ill
will or evil comes from a distinct lack of empathy.
And a lot of folks out there suffer from a lack
of empathy. But when you are pushed into a hive
mind where everyone is everyone, the only response
is empathy because we are the same. Now we are
one. So the empathy is at that point intrinsic
to humanity. Going back to what E Pluribus Una
means out of many, one, now we are one. Now all
we know is empathy. And with that empathy comes
the idealism of the hive mind. So I think that's
where it comes from. Knowing each other, knowing
everything about every other person on the world
is the purest form of empathy. And that's why
those feelings are no longer there. You know,
I can subscribe to that. I can see that as a
possibility. I'll put it in that box for now.
In the interest of time, let's kind of wrap the
tail end of this bad boy up. They have lunch
and we have another opportunity where Carol gets
deeply upset because of the hypocrisy that's
at the table and she goes storming off. And as
she got, it's great. It's like a cartoon. It's
like that meme of Kid Rock making his way down
the hill with his elbow swinging. And she literally
ends up, you know, ass over tea kettle. And of
course the joined come. and run over there to
try to help her and rescue her. And because she's
so agitated, her rage comes out again. And she
gets really upset and starts screaming at them,
so much so that, of course, they start to have
their seizure. And, of course, the joined family
members at the dining table have their seizure
as well. And that sort of wraps that scene up.
Interestingly, we get this overhead shot of these
joined people seizing around. Rhea's character
as she realizes, oh my gosh, I lost my temper
again. The next scene, she wakes up in bed and
she picks up the phone and dials zero, I guess,
or something. And she's like, hi, Carol, how
can we help you? And she says, are you okay?
She's actually concerned for Zosha's welfare.
And she's like, we're doing perfectly well. And
then she says, how badly did I upset the other
five? And she says, all but one have left. And
of course it's Kumba. We have to mention also
that Kumba is always surrounded by half a dozen
basically supermodel style women. I find it super
gross and also super weird for two reasons. Number
one, it's just super gross and super weird. The
other reason is these people are all joined.
And it's something that Carol points out earlier
and this is important and I love this. When you
speak to any of the joined you're speaking to
everyone on earth that is joined So if you're
physical with one of the joined you are physical
in a sense with everybody else on the planet
and that could include your cousin your gynecologist
the guy that you had a crush on in high school
and I'm like when she says it out loud because
it's a thought you already have you're like Yeah,
no, no. But Kumba has no problem with this, apparently.
And he has several women around. And it's insinuated
that they are his harem. And at this point, the
whole reason that Kumba has stuck around is to
ask Carol, can I have or borrow Zosha? And you
can see that they put this here for a reason.
It's interesting, because I think it plays out
at the very end. And that is, Zosha says, I can't
make the decision because if I make the decision,
I will hurt one of you. And I can't do that.
And Kumbha loves this. And Carol says, you know
what? I don't care. Go. And so they leave. And
the next scene is she's getting on one plane
and they're getting on another and she's looking
out the window and she sees them boarding. And
the last person to board is Zosha and she does
the movie trope of stopping and then turning
and looking exactly at the window where Carol
is and Carol sees her and then slides the shade
down for the window. And Zosha joins the rest
of the people on the plane. But there's this
wonderful moment again and Rhea just nails this
silent moment where she acts the entire thing
with her face. In fact, the camera angle is over
the seat in front of her and you just see her
eyes peeking out over the back of the seat. and
the camera turns around and we get a little bit
closer look and she has an epiphany of some kind.
We don't know what it is, but it's enough to
make her leap up out of this seat and go running
down the aisle and saying, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait. And there's this great scene that's
the very last shot. It's like the John Cusack
film where he has the stereo over his head and
she stands in front of this Air Force One with
her arms splayed out and she's like, stop. And
then it goes to black. So she realized something
and she felt compelled to get on that plane And
I think she realizes something about Zosha and
that we're gonna find out in the next episode
Yeah, and I think that brings us to a really
great ending question here is That look from
Zosha as she turns back to look at Carol in the
other plane What does that mean to you is that
look? manipulation by the hive mind into thinking
that Zosia wanted to stay with Carol so that
they can get her a little bit more bought into
the hive mind or is that a sign that there is
still some individuality in the hive mind and
that Zosia wanted to look back specifically at
Carol because she felt that as an individual
that whole Glance back at Carol from Zosia is
almost something that you would read in a fiction
romance novel that somebody happened to write
within this world. Very reminiscent of something
that you would read and something that Carol
might have written. So what are your thoughts
on that? Well, I hear your purple sand thoughts
on this thing and I like the perspective that
they are. possibly again, and maybe not even
maliciously so, using what they know about her
to get her to do what they think is the right
thing. Let's say that that's what this is. If
you have a majority of the people saying, we
shouldn't kill and we should be vegetarians or
whatever, and anything else of their philosophy,
then let's roll with it. I would like to add
a different spin to it, although I like yours.
My spin is this, the person that actually looked
back at Carol was her girlfriend in there or
her wife or significant other, her partner, right?
And that's my thought is that it's Helen in there
looking back and that there is a sense of individuality
and memory and all those other things. Here's
what I think this episode is about. I think the
episode is about family. And it was shoved in
our face that everybody had either a sense of
family, which is a majority of those that spoke
English, and even with Kumba, he makes his own
family with his harem. But with Carol, she didn't
have that, except for Zosha, because Zosha, and
everybody else too, has a part of Helen in them.
But Zosha represents even more of that because
of the characterization of Rabban, and that Rabban
should have been female before, and maybe even
Rabban is male after Helen a little bit. So for
me, I thought of it as more, that was the part
of Helen looking back and saying, I hope this
isn't the last time I see you because I still
have all that love and those memories and all
those things of Helen. That's still Helen in
there. Whereas for Carol, Carol has lost Helen
because Helen's not standing right there in front
of her. Are they ghouls? Are they grave robbers?
Or are they people that are saying, hey, I'm
still in here. You haven't lost me. And through
Azosha, you can still be with me. Well, I think
that might be the best place to put a pin in
this episode as episode two of Pluribus. Pirate
Lady, it was entitled. Is there anything else
you want to add? I think we've got it. I'm very
much looking forward to the next episode. I like
that. It is episodic. I like that we have to
wait for it. It gives us those opportunities
to have a conversation between them and share
our theories and thoughts. And like you said,
it's very thought provoking. So yeah, here's
to episode three. Thank you, fellow humans for
listening to E Pluribus Unum, where we cover
the fantastic show Pluribus. We're looking forward
to talking to you next week.