Hello Carol. 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 talking
about episode six entitled HDP. Before we jump
into the episode though, a couple things of housekeeping
to knock off our list real quick. Absolutely.
I cannot thank you all enough. for getting us
to 800 listeners in less than three weeks. It's
just phenomenal and we just want to thank everybody
for taking the time to listen to our little podcast
here. Thanks so much for joining our little hive
mind that we've made with E Pluribus Unum. It
means a lot to us. If you like what we're doing
here on E Pluribus Unum, please feel free to
join us over on our other podcast entitled, Dad,
You're Wrong, where a Gen X dad and a millennial
son talk about horror, sci -fi, and fantasy,
and everything in between. And apparently I'm
wrong, so there's that. He is quite wrong, and
we'll see this in this episode again. No, I'm
kidding. Another fun little announcement around
that though next week on both e pluribus unum
and the dad you're wrong podcast We will be recording
for the first time ever live and in person. So
that's gonna be a ton of fun Never done that
before and we may even have a special guest or
two add in their own theories and opinions on
pluribus So that'll be a great time Interesting
stuff. I like it and be sure to stick around
with us at the end of this episode We're going
to be supplying a couple of our extra theories.
Definitely worth sticking around and hearing
a couple things that we've been talking about
throughout the first five episodes of E Pluribus
Unum. This will be a bit of an extra long episode,
but I think now is a perfect time to go ahead
and jump into episode six of Pluribus entitled
HDP. So what were your initial overall thoughts
on this episode? Man. Soylent green. Those are
my two words or my overall thoughts. For anybody
that listened to the last episode, I said if
this becomes a Soylent Green situation, then
I'm out. It hurt my heart to open up this episode
to the Soylent Green theory, but it made me think
harder about the episode as well. I'm just gonna
answer that question with Soylent green. And
then I'm gonna give you a Carol scoff. Well,
I gotta say, you know, being the one that was
proven right after my theory last episode, I
enjoyed this one quite a bit. But I did like
this episode overall. It hit a lot of things
I really wanted to see and added a few more questions
and a few more mysteries that I'm really excited
to. ponder on over the next week. So yeah, let's
go ahead and jump into this first scene here,
where we catch up with Carol as she exits Agrajet.
Yeah. I thought the opening scene where we see
the outside of the building and you have the
reverse audio as she makes her way to the door
and you see the flashlight bouncing around beyond
the door and she pops out real quick. I thought
that was very cool. I thought it was also very
alien, the way they made it look and feel almost
purposely. But she comes careening down the stairs
and drops her flashlight and is obviously dismayed
at what she had just seen. And everyone had theories
about what this could be or should be. And I
think I'm gonna still fight a little bit of this.
But she grabs her camera and decides to run in
and. And we get a sequence here where, I'm sure
you're probably pretty appreciative of it, we
bounce back into a handheld camera situation,
but rather than chasing Carol out the door, we
are in Carol's hands, and she's walking us through,
and she's very adamant about what she has to
show us and how she breaks it down for us. I
do love a good fan footage movie, so that's always
great to see. And of course, we see Carol as
she Makes her next video throughout the aggregate
facility and she's opening these plastic tarps
and pulling out What we've come to find out our
human body parts the first one being pretty Horrifyingly
a severed head. I thought it was interesting
that we're seeing sort of their food production
But they've also decided to leave all of this
food in Albuquerque, even though it is in a frozen
state. We know that the hive mind has left Albuquerque,
but they didn't take what seemingly and later
on in the episode is highlighted as something
that's very important. They seemingly have left
all this food there. So I assume that they're
going to come back for it or maybe the hive mind
is still. hiding away in Albuquerque in some
way, and maybe that's a clue that they're still
present in Albuquerque, and it's not as empty
as we have been led to believe. Yeah, it was
really aggravating. Look, here's my deal with
the whole Soylent Green thing. The human body
doesn't provide great sustenance, and this has
been scientifically proven. both the joined,
having scientists and doctors and so forth in
them, as well as Vince Gilligan would know that
eating human body parts is not healthy for you.
And there are some body parts that can actually
kill you. You get really horrible diseases from
them. The caloric intake you get from a human
being is not even a third of what you would get
from a horse, let's say, okay? Let's just make
the assumption here that being a cannibal is
wholly unhealthy for the human body, right? But
there are calories there to be had in desperate
situations, as we've learned. That being said,
isn't the human body also, in this instance,
the most processed food you could possibly ever
have? We already all eat garbage. Then you're
gonna process that creature into some sort of
caloric intake. It's absurd on its face now That's
the part that I don't like about the whole Soylent
Green Thing or it's a cookbook Twilight Zone
episode thing is on its face. That's what this
looks like Let's look at what she showed us in
the scene. She grabs a human head wrapped in
saran wrap. What is the nutritional value of
the human head and all the time it takes to cut
these bodies up and then process them as food.
It seems utterly pointless. Number one, you're
not gonna process a human head for food. Number
two, even if you did, the human brain, by the
way, is the thing that can give you a disease
that'll kill you. Number three, there's got to
be a better way. And I think I found a way to
answer it later, which is why I'm still here
and I haven't left. Yeah, that makes a lot of
sense. And I think some of that, at the very
least, is marginally answered later on in this
episode. But even for me, who subscribes to that
theory, there are some still unanswered questions
that I'm curious about. For sure. Well, and from
here, we essentially get her shot video, she
gets very aggravated and she goes, what's this
door and what's beyond this door? And we find
out it's another further processing of human
corpses. And then we get a snapshot into Carol's
home and what I would call the Vegas decision.
Yeah, so at this point, Carol has her next video
that she wants to send out to the survivors.
And you can see again, Ray's great performance.
She doesn't have to say a word. you can see that
she's processing. She doesn't want to trust the
hive mind with this particular video. And of
course, the closest survivor to Carol at this
point is Kumba, who I mentioned he was going
to be in Vegas at our particular hotel. So she
decides to pack up her things and drive from
Albuquerque to Vegas. But as she leaves, she
instantly comes back in and vacuums up her carpet,
which has the remains of the white substance
or what we find out to be HDP, and she's vacuuming
that up with a mask on her face. Well, it's the
shot, right? You see her exit the door, the door
closes, and then we just see a shot of the door
for almost 30 seconds, and then you see her pop
back in to do this. Another great way for them
to inject some humor in there. But now she jumps
into her favorite car, which is the state police
car, and she starts to drive off to Vegas. And
when she arrives, everything is so quiet. The
only thing you hear is the buzz of the lights.
And you get this really great 28 days later scenario
where there's no one in the street, there's no
cars, there's no animals, there's nothing. It's
just the city and it's on. And not only the clicking
on and off of lights, but that distinct. sound
of neon lights. The sound design on top of the
visual language is what really sets the show
apart. Yeah, you know, when we get to Vegas,
it's a typical Vegas sort of scenario where you
have people in fancy dress and drinks and all
these lovely things. They actually open the scene
here with Sammy Davis Jr. song. And then they
sort of back away from a picture of Elvis Presley,
another classic Vegas character. And it is a
full -on Vegas party, as you would ever imagine
in any film. And of course, as we dig deeper
into this scene, we find out it is actually influenced
by a film. Indeed, it is. Yeah, I even have it
in my notes as Kumba's Casino Royale. At least
I hope that's the film that you are referencing
there. It's definitely a James Bond film. And
I know upon Kumba's introduction, you were not
the biggest Kumba fan. I didn't mind him so much
in those first couple early episodes that he
was in. It was with this scene that my dislike
of Kumba finally came out. There are a couple
things I do want to point out in this scene,
though, that I did think were interesting. All
right. in particular, it's Kumba's conversation
and the villain says your luck is about to run
out and Kumba responds maybe someday but not
today and I thought that might be a little bit
telling about Kumba's journey. I don't think
that Kumba is gonna have as happy an ending as
he truly believes. I think that there may be
some more repercussions for some of his actions
than he realizes. He does have a distinct lack
of fear unlike the other two sort of main characters
in this episode. He has sort of a king -like
behavior and he really is most importantly taking
advantage of the hive mind and their generosity.
So I do feel that that line has some pertinence
and that Kumba's luck is going to run out and
it's going to run out honestly sooner than later.
Another cool thing I want to point out in this
particular scene, the chips on the table that
they're betting with are a distinct color of
yellow and a distinct color of blue and purple
that we see quite a bit associated with the hive
mind. And if you notice in particular, The villain
has both yellow chips as well as blue chips,
whereas Kumba is betting exclusively with the
yellow chips. But I want to hear your thoughts
on this Kumba scene, since Kumba is your favorite
character of this entire show. All this episode
did for his character, it colors him in a worse
light, but there's a reason for it. And I'd like
to flesh it out a little bit. There's sort of
a back and forth between Kumba and the dealer
that's cheeky. And it's cheeky in a way of are
they playing together in order for him to win?
And then, you know, it plays out in the same
way that anyone would expect. He wins not just
with a flush, it's gotta be a royal flush, right?
And that's what makes everything so audacious.
But also think about him and the types of fantasies
he has. He has fantasies about beautiful women,
several beautiful women, having a harem of women.
He fantasizes of having his own suite and Vegas
and everyone adoring him and laughing at all
his jokes, even though they're all rote, pretending,
right? But it's almost like a child. It's a kid
who never had anything. now has everything. And
we know so little about him that my first thought
of him was he comes off as this sort of aristocrat,
but it's so fake that I'm like, you know what?
He was probably a dishwasher at a restaurant
or something. And now he has everything. And
so he doesn't want to let go of any of that stuff
because of the nature of his life. And when you
do a little bit of research, kumbha means that
you were born from the death of your mother.
Your mother died in childbirth, and so we're
going to name you this. I think that tells a
lot about this particular character and why he
might be the way that he is. Now, again, we don't
like him for his misogyny and his fantastical
nature, but when you see it as a child who had
nothing now has everything and I'm going to do
everything I can to hold on to this. They're
Lakshmi in another way and they don't want the
significant change even though it's staring them
bloody well in the face. And I honestly think
that's why they don't like having Carol around
is because she's a reminder that this isn't right.
She's a reminder that this may seem okay and
we may be willing to make compromises and their
decisions in order to make it okay. They're diluted
again. So he's another diluted character and
Carol is the reminder that, no, this isn't okay.
But think about this. He wins. He walks away
with the pithy comment. The women embrace him.
He goes, anyone else like to come along? And
the dealer is like, I would. And she goes off
with him. The funny part about this is these
two guys standing behind the villain, his thugs
or whatever, raise their hand, and he goes, maybe
next time, fellas. So darkly comic, darkly cheeky,
because again, you have to think, well, you know,
whether those two guys go with you or not, they're
going with you. So he exits. But think about
this. The second he's out of the room, the mask
is off. Everyone concludes being their individual
character. And by the way, this also means that
every single joined person can behave as an individual.
And that's terrifying. You know, they're that
duplicitous. And how come nobody's thought about
that? That it's not, hi, Carol, we'd like to
help you. It's this duplicitous nature of, to
your face will be really cool, but behind your
back, it's time to eat some humans. Yeah, it's
much different and you get a little sense of
how the sausage is made, right? but we pick up
the the very next scene with Kumba as he is in
a Hot tub with his I guess we could call it a
harem or is it a harem if they're all just one
hive mind I don't know but he's in the the jacuzzi
with his girls and he even invites the the housemaid
and to join them but His revelries are soon dismissed
by the hive mind as there is indeed a guest on
the way And this guest is somebody that they
don't want to be around anymore Also his reaction
and them leaving and he's whoa. Whoa, what's
going on? Well, you have a visitor and here's
the thing is he can't even take that as an answer
as they're walking away is like yeah, but don't
we have time for a little bit of and They're
like no and he slumps back in disappointment
And I'm like, this guy. And of course he's disappointed
because he's got to break away from, and I'm
going to say it in this way and I think this
is a good place to drop it. The hive mind are
his drug and they give him anything and everything
that he wants. And now when Carol shows up, mom's
home, got to stash the drugs even though I don't
want to. It says a lot about his character and
his behavior. The hive mind is a drug for him.
The hive mind is essentially a dopamine producer
for Kumba. And whether that is the constant hit
of dopamine that you get from posting on social
media and receiving a like or sitting down and
scrolling through different funny videos. That's
all just providing you with these quick hits
of dopamine. And we see that once the hive mind
has to retreat away from Carol, he's no longer
getting those constant dopamine hits that he
would normally get. So I thought that exemplified
not only a drug addiction, but the same addiction
that we have to things like technology and social
media. And when that's taken away, there's a
little bit of petulance that comes along with
that. This leads us to the hotel suite sequence
where he's trying to be charming and pouring
champagne. As we make our way through the hotel
and the suite and all that with Carol, she sees
images of him everywhere. When she pulls into
town, there are these huge. banners of him when
you get into the hotel and particularly into
his suite. There are photographs of him posed
in all kinds of suits and up close. But when
she gets to the suite, we get to have a conversation
between she and Goomba. And it's an interesting
conversation. At this point, we find out while
Carol is here to deliver this video and provide
proof to Kumba that the hive mind is using dead
bodies as their sustenance. We find out that
indeed Kumba already knows at this point. And
he says, is this about them eating people? And
she says, uh, what? And he says, it's troubling.
And that's all, that's all we really get as far
as his feelings on the hive mind consuming human
corpses. This is when we get our guest star of
the episode. As Kumba puts on a video, we have
John Cena pop up in a little vignette explaining
exactly what HDP really means. Absolutely. And
you have this silly soundtrack in the background.
The colors and the typefaces are all wonky and
weird. And even his delivery is rather stilted.
But the goal of this, very simply, is to explain
HDP or explain how and why they're using humans
for sustenance. Now, as we step into this with
the opening line, John doesn't introduce himself
as this individual is. He says... We are John
Cena. And I think that that's important because
before they were willing, I'll say, to point
out the fact that they are individuals still
to you. This individual is X, right? Now they've
just simply removed that. And I think as we move
along, we're gonna see more of the removal of
the Midwest kindness in these characters, and
they're going to become less and less. we care
about you and be more, we care about the hive
mind. So yeah, him introducing himself as we
are John Cena versus this individual is John
Cena, I think is important. And we've even seen
that with the hive mind's breakup with Carol,
but we find out that they're consuming human
derived protein, which From what your theory
is isn't quite enough protein for a human or
quite enough sustenance for a human to Really
live off of but he gives a fairly in -depth almost
middle school description of the process of Consuming
these dead bodies even up to the particular calorie
intake This is where the deep dive comes in right?
He goes through their no -kill philosophy And
again, I want to remind us of the conversation
we had about the hive mind's philosophy. And
I find it difficult to believe that just because
we've rewritten our RNA and that supposedly we're
all on the same page, that that page universally
becomes this. Number one, they cannot harvest
wheat, corn or rice. So they say they can't harvest
anything then they say we cannot pluck an apple
from a tree This is important for a couple of
reasons number one. What is an apple in so many?
philosophies religions thoughts it is knowledge
and Nope, we can't do that they can harvest windfall
items Meaning if the wind blows the apple falls
they can eat it They can milk animals that require
milking. That seems logical to me. Look, we have
the apple in the tree and knowledge kind of thing,
but look at all these things that they say they
cannot do. Who is telling them they cannot do
it? I liken this to a religion later on, but
there are so many things about what they can't
do, and it's to their detriment. It's to their
detriment not to harvest wheat. It's to their
detriment not to pluck the apple from the tree.
It's to their detriment, in some ways, really
not to raise cattle and have meat. So why are
you defending life, but they'll place themselves
in a scenario that they will starve themselves?
And their answer is to process human corpses
for the minimal amount of caloric intake that
they can get from that. And they even say there
are millions of tons of pre -existing food, but
even the existing food and the windfall will
only get us so far. There's a caloric deficit.
And so because of the caloric deficit, we've
created HDP. Then on top of that, they sell it
with these phrases. Again, words are extremely
important on this show. We had to take certain
measures Anybody that ever says that in a movie
or television or a book that is a villain line
We had to take certain measures Okay Otherwise,
it would go to waste. Okay. Hold on a second.
That's a human corpse that's not something that
goes to waste and He even mentions we know that
through human history that it's been frowned
upon Yeah Here's some more important phrases
in there. For those that we are consuming, we
do cherish their memory. I don't think this is
about who they were. I'm thinking this is about
the data that they pulled from their bodies,
which by the way, let's bring this all the way
back around. The reason that you would keep a
human head is that you could pull the data from
it. And another one, appreciate their sacrifice,
he says. Now they're sacrifices, and they just
told us that they are sacrifices, because he
brings something up later in the conversation.
So remember the sacrifice part. We were left
with little choice, he says, and on a daily basis,
up to 100 ,000 people die of natural causes and
accidents. Hold on a second. Y 'all came in here
and killed 800 million people. to do this and
what happens to those people that do die of natural
causes and or have already been dealing with
disease or anything else. And if you are this
hive mind that is so perfectly in sync, how in
the F are you having any accidents? How do accidents
happen in a perfect hive mind? And now what is
the Soylent Green actually being used for? Why
are they putting 8 to 12 percent of it into this
mana drink that they're creating for themselves?
Here's what I think, and if you're not ready
for a major theory, then close your ears for
a second. The reason that the joined make stupid
decisions, like processing human body parts for
food, or giving Carol a grenade is because they're
programmed and that they are programmed to become
extinct. And that is why a majority of the human
beings have joined or been joined and that their
goal isn't to survive. Their goal is to burn
off in less than 10 years is what he says. And
anybody can come in and take over. I like that
theory quite a bit. Yeah. I think it coincides
with a lot of things that we've heard in the
past, but particularly when we hear the hive
mind talk about things like a biological imperative,
it makes sense that they're biological imperative
to join everyone and have these very strict rules
of what they're able to utilize for sustenance
in order to Make the human species go extinct
considering that this RNA sequence was sent from
somewhere in outer space possibly by potential
invaders looking to Eclipse the the highest race
on the planet. So it makes a lot of sense I don't
know if I agree technically with everything that
you put down, but I think the vast majority of
it I can sympathize with and back you up on like
there are a lot of cultures that believe that
if you defeat a foe and consume them, you gain
their powers. So it makes sense why they would
have a human head there if they want to assimilate
whatever knowledge that they had. And it would
make sense that their biological imperative includes
not only not harming anything living, including
vegetation, but potential invaders. Absolutely,
but here's what I'm thinking again, and it goes
back to the efficiency of resources. Would it
be easier, faster, whatever, to destroy 8 billion
people, or would it be easier, faster, to allow
themselves to destroy themselves? It's one theory,
but... Here's the reason I bring the whole thing
up. It was my way of dealing with the Soylent
Green issue because that part of it just bothered
me. It can't just be that only, here's the answer
and that's it. I think they're putting it in
our face because that's what they want us to
do and go, yep, it's Soylent Green, that's how
we go. No, it's not Soylent Green. That is another
one of the stupid ways that the hive mind will
kill itself. and now it's willing to starve itself.
In 10 years, most of the human population will
die out from starvation. Not all, most. But those
are just my thoughts, just on that video alone.
I mean, they're giving us a lot. This episode
is a huge information dump. It's not innocuous,
it's vital. And this brought up a thought for
me, and this came up while I was watching the
episode as far as extinction goes. There's no
mention of breeding at all to continue the life
of the hive mind. So even if everyone is joined
and even if they did have the sustenance, if
they're not breeding, then within a hundred years,
the hive mind is going to die out anyway. And
so they watched the video and there's a confirmation
at the end from John Cena and he says, you are
not. obligated to consume HDP. We will never
serve HDP to you. We already assume that you
don't want anything to do with it. Regrets on
not being able to speak in person, but for this
time being, we still need our space. And now
this is where Kumba has his confession. He admits
that he learned about HDP about a week ago. Carol
once again asks him, Jesus Christ, why are you
so... And she just lets that hang in the air
to give us a really great incomplete question.
At this point, twice, he mentions that it's only
troubling to him. He brings that up twice. It's
troubling that they consume humans, but it doesn't
seem to negate that he loves the hive mind. He
does leave it up in the air though as to what
his motivations are and why he's so okay with
everything. Why is he so compliant, naive, willful,
whatever. But he does remind her that they didn't
say that they were vegetarians, they said that
they would prefer not to consume animal products.
And that is a very interesting distinction that
we also made watching the episode. And she says,
at least all the fucking lawyers survived. And
then, of course, Kumba says, he goes, I'm in
no way pleased. The moral gymnastics are pretty
impressive with that one there. We also discovered
that the other survivors knew about the food
situation as well. The other 13 survivors are
already hip to it. Not only that, but they meet
on Tuesdays and Fridays. And Carol, obviously,
feels left out. And he just says, we took a vote
and we just thought it would be better because
we wanted to avoid drama. And I'll say this about
the show moving forward, too. If you ever see
Vince reiterate something, specifically exactly
the same thing again, which he does twice in
this episode, he's really saying you need to
pay particular attention to that. And I think
this is important. He reiterates the 10 -year
timeline. And then he also brings up the thing
about the robotic farming, which I thought would
be a great way to solve this whole... situation
here, right? And they're like, no, we would have
to build the machines. That sounds like a refusal
to me. And it's also another extremely dumb way
not to prevent everyone from starving to death.
And this is where I was struggling with the whole
Soylent Green issue. Is this like Idiocracy Part
2 here? And these people really are this stupid?
Or is it, are they programmed? I took that particular
point, especially around the robotics, as very
similar to the idea of gun control, right? Some
people's opinion on guns is that it's not the
guns that the problem, it's the people that are
the problem. So we shouldn't put any control
on guns. And it's the same thing in this case
where... If they were to make these robots, it's
the same thing as making guns and utilizing that
to kill things, in this case plants. And instead
you could just not make guns and you wouldn't
have a problem of killing quote unquote plants.
So I don't think it's anything about an idiocracy
or going into extinction or anything like that.
When it comes to the robotic problem in particular,
I think they don't want to create tools that
create death. That's what I got out of that particular
point. I mean, yeah, I don't disagree with you
on their excuse. So he also says something here.
Ultimately, this is not about you, Carol, meaning
it's about someone or something else and not
the other 13 and maybe even not the joint because
his second sentence is, or any of us for that
matter. And I think it's a bigger statement than
what it comes off as for as simply as it's written.
But she gets really upset when he says that.
And she's like, where's your nearest bathroom?
And she goes into the bathroom. And when she
does, she shuts the door. And of course, we see
this garish picture of Kumba. My favorite picture.
She scoffs at Kumba's photo on the wall. This
is Ray again. She sits down on the edge of the
bathtub and she expresses upset, scared. mad,
get your shit together, resolved and calculating
in the matter of about 30 seconds. It's really
incredible. I could watch that scene a hundred
times. It's ridiculous. She's far too good. She
just needs to stop. But I'll say this about her
most certainly. She will fight those emotions,
and fighting them and tamping them down isn't
the healthiest behavior. And I think throughout
the series, we are seeing her open that valve
up a little bit more, and it also allows her
to regulate herself in a way to think clearly,
as you mentioned in the previous episode. She
shot the video, she viewed it, she realized that
she needed to do a retake. That's a very thoughtful
process there. And I think we're moving from
her being a reactive person to being a more responsive
and thoughtful person. I don't know about you
guys out there, but a single glass of champagne,
it instantly knocks me out. Same thing with wine.
I'm out like a light, but she does accept the
champagne and she does fall asleep. And we get
the most human scene of Kumba so far in the entire
series, where he pulls the glass of champagne
away from her and lays a blanket down on her.
And it extends into his phone conversation that
happens next. He calls the hive mind and he says,
she's lonely and you can't hear what they're
saying. And he goes, yes, I understand. And he's
just trying to express to them, him feeling her
loneliness. I also believe that he's also feeling
his own loneliness. Not because everybody's gone,
but. When you step away from your drug or you
step away from your social media for an extended
period of time, you feel it and you start to
go, oh, you know what? Maybe that isn't the right
thing. And again, I think it's a helpful turning
point here. And I would say most importantly
in this particular scene, because one, he's trying
to compel them to come back. and provide her
with this comfort that she needs so desperately
as people around her, even if it's the joined.
And he, of course, overdoses on it every single
day, surrounding himself with Casino Royale.
And in this moment of quiet, he's on the phone,
and I think he sees himself in her, and then
he hangs up with them, and it's a very, very
clear scene. He walks over to the window that
faces out over Vegas, and you see almost as clearly
as he's standing there, his reflection in the
glass. And you can see in his face, he is reflecting
on his situation here and realizing that, unfortunate
for Carol as it is, she is the antidote to this
thing. And whenever... anyone that is not joined
interacts with her, they get a dose of reality.
They get pulled away from their dream or their
fantasy or the delusion, frankly. Now, in that
same shot, in the background, they're staying
at a place that's called West Gate. And the only
thing you see in the window is the gate part.
And I think this is important because I believe
in some ways he is the gate or he is the gatekeeper
for conversation and knowledge between he and
the joined and he and the other survivors. What
I like to think is that he's also ultimately
the gatekeeper to the answer to Carol's problem
and that he has the answer or may have the answer
later. as to how we can reverse this. And I think
that's why he's gonna end up being a very important
character in the future. This brings us to the
next scene. And this is where Carol wakes up
the next morning and Kumba has made her breakfast.
We've got some toast, avocado, eggs and bacon,
a very nice breakfast by all means. But something
interesting happens while they're eating. And
I wanna get your thoughts on this because as
he's eating, he's taking his meal, ingredient
by ingredient, right? And then Carol smashes
the avocado into the toast and throws some eggs
on top of it, slaps a couple slices of bacon
on there and proceeds to nosh away. But as she's
doing that, Kumba begins mimicking her. Potentially,
he grew up poor and he didn't grow up with everything
that a lot of people have the privilege to grow
up with. And so he didn't even know about smashing
avocados into a piece of toast and covering it
with eggs and bacon. Also, it's a cultural connection.
Right? Mimicking his cultural connection. So
he's unconsciously even almost sinking with her
to seek that human connection that he's really
denied himself. He hasn't surrounded himself
with real human beings. He's surrounded himself
with robots, essentially. And so having a real
human being in front of you doing real human
things on their own in their own individual way,
that's the most unique thing that's probably
happened to him in the last week. even though
he was James Bond a minute ago. I want to throw
out a stupid theory. Can I just throw out a stupid
theory? Please do. He's a plant. And so, as a
joint, you can still behave as an individual,
as we learned at the beginning of this episode.
And perhaps, as you mentioned in a previous episode,
one or more of our immune may not actually be
immune. We don't know because we still haven't,
in my opinion. undeniably answer the fact of
whether they can lie to us or not or be deceptive.
And I'm going to say that they can, especially
with them going from James Bond to as soon as
he leaves the room, completely shutting off and
then getting rid of everything. It just, that's
duplicity in its greatest sense. I think it very
much could be a small hint of Kumba coming around
to the carol way of thinking. I think that that
could be in place there. I like that. I want
to push back on a couple of things that you had
mentioned there, though. I dare you. I think
particularly in this episode, I want to push
back on the fact that there seems to be some
individuality within the hive mind. I think it's
more of they're able to masquerade as individuals
as opposed to there being still some individuality
within the hive mind. I don't disagree with you
on that. That is exactly what I was trying to
say. Oh, okay. Perfect. The other thing, and
this is a disagreement I think we had in the
previous episode, going back to where Carol was
writing on the whiteboard about her finding out
that they cannot be deceitful. I think Vince
Gilligan as a writer and a storyteller is intentionally
very much spelling out that this is a hard and
fast rule for this world, that they cannot be
deceitful, they cannot lie. erasing the question
mark and underlining cannot lie, I very much
think that's a part of his visual language where
he wants to say to us, this is indeed a rule.
And I think we both have different trains of
thought on that, but I... I'm a suspicious person
at heart, so there's that, but I'll say this
to back your line of thinking, as I said earlier
in the episode, if you ever see him... reiterate
something, especially if you see him reiterate
something very specific, as he does twice in
this episode, he's obviously done it in that
situation too. So I can hold onto that. That's
what I love about this, man, because there's
a lot of other stuff out there where you don't
get this level of de -arising and satisfaction
out of the conversation around it. Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more. Well, I tell you what
she says You know what? I'll just I'll pick out
one of my own sweets here and I'll clean up and
you could very clearly see on Kumba's face his
dismay and that's very much of the dismay of
The 13 year old you're keeping me away from my
video games. You need to leave now it keeps him
from his drugs and so he gets the look and she
reads it very quickly and in a progressive version
of Carol, she goes, oh, I'm just fooling with
you. And he's like, you know, thank God. She
goes, why would I stay here anyway? This is like
a trillion dollar lit up ashtray. To Coomba's
response, he says, I'm sure it's no Albuquerque.
That's a great line. But we do get to this sort
of apple conversation in the foyer of his suite
as he's walking her out. And he says, and again,
this is where it becomes sort of religion -y,
if that's a word. He's walking her out and he
goes, well, you know, if there's any way that
you could maybe even try to help us figure out
a way to help these people not starve. And she
says, I don't know, tell them to pick a fucking
apple. And then she tries to take a few steps
back, but she can't. She says, no, actually,
no. But he says, just like an evangel would,
he says, they do not see it that way. Is it tolerance?
Is it capitulation? It's so weird. And it was
just a strange way to... have an answer to anything
like, I don't know, cannibalism or any of the
other weird things that they've been doing since
we've met them. But I think it was very important
because she points out something that's so blatantly
obvious that the biological imperative of a human
being would be to pluck the apple. So this point
in the conversation with Kumba, we find out that
the hive mind has seemingly solved their problem
of making the remaining survivors join into the
hive mind, but they can't do it without their
consent. Since it seems to take stem cells from
the separate survivors that need to be specifically
tailored to that person. And those stem cells
need to be retrieved by a long needle via the
hip bone. And that is a very painful process.
And of course, knowing the hive mind and knowing
their thoughts on not only consent, but harming
another individual. We realize at this point
that the hive mind needs consent from each of
the survivors to harvest their stem cells and
create this, I guess we can call it an antidote
to become one of the joined. And much as I theorize
prior, Kumba has decided that he does not want
to be a part of the joined much like Carol. He's
very much an individual and he very much relishes
being this individual amongst the rabble. He
does not want to be a part of the hive mind.
And at this point we get Carol's first interaction
with the hive mind as she denies the consent
to harvest herself. And I would add another factor
on to Kumba's line of thinking here. He doesn't
want to go back to his old life, whatever that
may be. If he was a con man, a petty thief, a
dishwasher at a restaurant, he doesn't want to
go back to that. And who would after becoming
almost king of the world here? But yeah, she
wants to verify, so she has to call and listen
to that message, which is more and more painful
every time you have to listen to it, but also...
painfully comic, but they do verify that her
wishes will be respected, that it's too invasive
and painful for them to do it without direct
permission. I want to posit another theory here,
and this is a big theory, so again, if you don't
want to hear this theory, cover your ears, but
this theory is Carol is the cure. I think if
you are one of the immune, and in this case,
Carol, and there obviously is something that
makes her and them different, wouldn't it be
logical that you could derive an antidote from
Carol's blood and see that injected into a joint
and see if they don't return as themselves? Yeah,
I haven't thought of that personally, but I like
where your head's at and it's very much the last
of us. Zombie apocalypse kind of feel where there
are immune folks and they are indeed the possible
cure to this virus. Yeah, I also say this too.
We kind of have to get somebody turned from the
joined back to normal before the end of this
season. Can we get that? I'm just asking, I won't
put that out there. We may indeed see it, yeah.
We may indeed see that. It would be interesting,
and who would you want it to be? I would foresee
it being probably Zosia, possibly? No, when I
first thought of it, I wanted it to be the most
unconventional person. Just make it the most
unconventional person that you possibly could.
Make it Larry. Make it Larry, yeah, that's what
I was gonna say too. Make it Larry. I'm gonna
make t -shirts now that say, make it Larry. on
my chest and by episode nine, we better have
Larry back to his original sunburned bike riding
self. So let me add another double caveat to
that. Not only is she the cure, but in order
for her to become the cure for all of humanity,
she'll have to sacrifice herself. I can see it,
certainly. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
So she leaves and as she's leaving, we see that
Kumba has a Lamborghini. for every day, and they're
even dated with Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday.
And he leans into the car window to say something,
for what it's worth, the world is doing the best
it can. It misses you. Zosia misses you. They
want you to come back, Carol. They want you to
have a change of heart. And I want to break this
down for just a split second. When you first
say, for what it's worth, the world is doing
the best it can, I immediately just think of
Earth and the world. And then he says, it misses
you. Not we miss you or they miss you, it misses
you. And I think that that's important. Then
he starts to give a breakdown. Zosia misses you.
They want you to come. Well, now it's just the
hive mind is what you're saying. And now you're
saying that the hive mind is doing the best it
can. And what's Carol's response? Fuck them.
Watch your toes. And she peels out of the parking
lot. Again, anything that. Vince Gilligan says
in one of his shows, even if it's just a small
one line, there's meaning behind everything that
he does. And I agree with you that when he specifically
says, it misses you, there's something there.
And arriving late, later than most episodes would,
we finally get our timestamp. And our timestamp
is also. quite a bit different than previous
timestamps. And if you guys stick around, I will
go through our timestamp theories at the very
end just for those folks that are as nerdy as
I am. The first timestamp that we see on the
screen in this episode is 12 days, 12 hours,
42 minutes, and 58 seconds. And it ticks up to
43 minutes and zero seconds until it reverses
and goes all the way back to nine days, 18 hours,
16 minutes, and 58 seconds. And then we see it
tick up to the 17 minute and zero second mark.
Now, we've never seen the time go up and then
go in reverse and then go back up again. And
during this small sequence here, we also hear
a ticking clock in the background. But what do
we reveal? It's actually our friend's egg timer.
in Paraguay, who has now become my favorite character,
Manousos, as he is continuing his search across
the different radio signals. And we see now that
he's coming to the very end of the frequencies
that he's searching out. He gets to, I think
it's 9 .999 .0. And we find out that there's
nothing on that frequency. But interestingly
enough, he turned back a few pages and goes back
to another frequency, which is 8 .613 .0. And
he has a question mark with this frequency within
his notebook. And as he readjusts back to that
frequency, we hear that some sort of mechanical
sound to my mind, it brought the idea of a garden
sprinkler. That's what I got out of it, but I'm
sure it's something else. I'm surprised it didn't
remind you of an EDM song. Because that was my
first thought. I was like, now somebody's working
on a beat there. It could be. Yeah, they're working
on some grind cores or whatever. Whatever is
popular now with Gen Z. But the first thing I
thought of is this is the frequency the hive
mind communicates on. The only frequency that's
being used because this psychic glue that holds
the hive mind together, it's not magic. There
is a scientific explanation for how they communicate.
And I'm no expert, I'm no scientist, but it would
make sense if they... communicated via radio
waves because they do carry incredibly far. In
fact, they carry outside of our atmosphere and
into space. So it would make sense that there
is a frequency on which they do communicate.
No, I like it as well. It reminds me of our scientists
in the very first episode chasing down this signal
that kicks off every 78 seconds. Yeah, when he
rolls back to 8 .613 .0, he does receive some
sort of a signal, and I listen to it probably
about four times, and it sounds like there is
some math in there as well. It would be like
two instances, three, four, three, five. It's
almost like a number station kind of a thing.
The frequency, 8 .613 .0, is actually not a frequency
that anyone uses. It's considered to be in between
frequencies. And I thought if he specifically
chose this, he's not looking for anyone that's
on the frequency, like the joined. He's looking
for someone that's off the frequency, that's
in between, that is not a part of. And it rings
true for the themes that I think are in the show.
What happens next is really interesting though,
too, because He goes back out, as he did in the
previous episode, to investigate the food that
they dropped off. And we find out why he's having
such a hard time fighting not eating this food.
It's literally his mother's cooking. And that's
got to be extremely difficult to pass up, especially
with the food that they displayed before. I'm
sure it was marvelous. But he receives an envelope
in the mail. And it is not a data card. It's
not a CD. It is a VHS tape. Which if you have
listened to any of our Dad, You're Wrong episodes,
you know that we are indeed very big fans of
VHS tapes. But this particular VHS tape is the
first message from Carol as she is explaining
her initial findings that she sent out. This
seems to prove to Manny, as I call him now in
my own personal take, that Carol is indeed survivor
like him and not only that that she Has the same
thought process of the hive mind as you know,
they're of like a mind without a doubt Yeah,
but this video inspires him to finally break
out of this prison and At this point when he
finally leaves the self storage facility We even
have a shot of him opening the gate and as he's
exiting the camera switches to behind the gate
And we see him leaving that confined prison that
he made for himself. Any future shots we see
of him are very much like the shots we've seen
of Carol throughout this episode, where she's
very much framed in the center of the frame now,
as opposed to being in a small portion of the
frame and seeing a lot of the surroundings, often
empty surroundings. Now we see Menousos very
much in the center of the frame and he's no longer
obstructed. And this is exemplified in the shot
as he's walking down the streets of his city.
And as he's walking down the streets, you see
the streetlights coming on around him. So he
very much sees that they're aware of him exiting
this prison. And as he re -enters the world,
it lights up around him. And he's going back
to his house where he finds some food and he's
gathering supplies. And it very much seems as
if he is finally determined to make the trip
that we've been waiting for and finally go to
meet Carol. And this is the scene again I alluded
to earlier where he's doing the reiteration.
All of her narrative is from the video that she
shot that we already know, we've already heard
it. Now he's hearing it for the first time and
what they do marvelously with this moment is
it's her. voiceover as he's going through his
last actions here at the storage facility. The
video ends, and she reiterates again about how
it's so important that you enjoy your individuality
while you have it, before the virus is forced
upon you. And in that last moment, make sure
you treasure your individuality. And that's when
he exits the gate and you see him walking out.
So it's marvelously mirrored in her voiceover,
his action as he makes his way through this scene.
If you just watch this last 12 minutes of the
episode, it is a horror film. It's a guy who
is having to stay in a creepy place. He gets
a mysterious video. There's a creepy woman standing
outside of his house. Everything's starkly lit.
When he goes down through town to get back to
his apartment, everything's dark and then all
of a sudden all the lights are on. That's very
much a horror film scenario there. Quite honestly,
this ending sequence with Manousos was far and
away my favorite portion of the episode. Very
cool. I really, really love this portion. When
he returns home, as soon as he gets in, he's
yelling out, if anybody's in here, you better
come out now. Of course, nobody's in there. But
he's going back essentially to gather supplies
to make this trip up to Carol. He's gathering
all the supplies that you would want in a zombie
apocalypse. Even going back to previous episodes,
he treats this as if it were a virus pandemic.
Yeah. Once he does get into his apartment though,
he stands there in the doorway and to his right,
you very clearly see a photograph of what seems
to be a father and a son. And they really made
it sit there for a minute. And I think it's important
in my play into Manny's character. And within
this apartment, we get a particular shot that
I like that's mirrored in the final shot of the
episode. From the camera's perspective, we have
two distinct paths. We have one path that is
an empty hallway that leads to a crucifix, which
almost seems to mean that this is the path of...
the solitariness of religion and that could be
a path of how Menousos goes about approaching
the hive mind which has been in the past making
a prisoner of himself. And then of course on
the right side of this path we have him as he
is now gathering his go -bag, his go -bag, the
necessary things he needs to make this trip to
find Carol because he's found a kindred spirit.
And that's reflected in the final scene as well.
As he's exiting and he hops in his car, which
is a very distinct yellow, he hears somebody
speaking to him off to the side, and we see that
there is a woman silhouetted in the darkness
here. And again, in a very horror movie fashion.
Absolutely. The yellow MG midget who wouldn't
want a little MG midget to tool around in. It'll
be interesting to see him making it through.
the entirety almost of South America and Mexico
to get up to Carol. When we get outside, he fires
up the midget and he starts to drive it out of
the garage and it stalls on him right there.
And what I love about this scene is I can imagine
most people watching this scene are completely
confused on what's going to happen next with
this car. But there is a woman standing starkly
there in the shadow and it's very much like a
horror film, but we discover that this is his
mother. And she says, you know, we can help you,
let us help you. Do you have questions? We have
answers. And he goes, but you can't be my mother
because my mother was a bitch. Such a carol line,
right? Ain't it though. But he's also being honest,
right? He's also saying. your character is different
than my mother. There's no way you are my mother.
And this is the reaction I feel like all the
other 13 or 12 should have had. You are obviously
not my son. You are obviously not John Cena anymore
or whatever. But these two people of all the
world are like, nope. I'm like, gosh, I'm definitely
on this team. But you could see how the joint
were trying to manipulate him in the same way
that they were trying to manipulate Carol by
using his own mother. Again, how tasteless and
wrong and stupid to do that. And not only that,
but her lovely cooking is like, how can you damn
this woman's cooking by doing this? It's terrible.
But he's not buying it. He's not buying any of
it. And so what does he do? He push starts the
MG, which is what you can do with a vehicle like
this if the battery happens to be low. and he
kicks up some smoke and rolls on down the road.
And in this shot, again, it's another shot of
two separate paths that Menousos can take. He
can take the top left path, which seems to be
the more brightly lit path, which is where his
quote unquote mother. had come from, and which
is why we see her in such stark relief. But he
instead takes the other path, which leads down,
down into the darkness. And I think they're saying
a lot of things about Minuso's choice in both
of these scenes, where there is possibly an easier
path. And he has now finally made the decision
to go down into the depths and join Carol where
she is. I think finally getting Carol out of
her loneliness and adding an ally to the cause
is going to change the dynamic of the show in
a pretty stark way, and I'm very much looking
forward to that. Yeah, me too. So again, another
phenomenal episode, to be honest. I was very
pleased to be able to find my own way around
the Soylent Green issue. Do you have any final
thoughts on this episode before we move into
the bonus material? There's a lot to contemplate
and a lot that has changed my previous theories.
And quite honestly, there's a lot that you had
caught that I hadn't, that I am very much looking
forward to pondering as I wait for the next episode.
So another great episode of Pluribus. I loved
it. All right. Well, we appreciate you sticking
around for an extra long episode. We had a lot
that we wanted to go over, and maybe some of
it's relevant, maybe it's not, but I feel like
we're talking about a lot of things that other
folks aren't talking about. Would you like to
bounce into some color theory? We can talk about
the colors. Perfect. Yeah, this is something
that I had mentioned about not only Vince Gilligan's
visual language, but how he utilizes color within
his TV shows. And this is very much exemplified
within Breaking Bad in particular, but he uses
that to great effect within Pluribus as well.
And this goes back all the way to episode one.
And even the very first time we see Carol, she
is wearing this very vibrant yellow jacket. I
think we can both take that figuratively as well
as literally she is sort of this yellow jacket
or this wasp in the hive, if you will. And she
is this natural predator to the bees. And it
really shows Carol as the threat that she is
to the collective, the threat that she has to
these bees and the hive to the point where When
Carol causes distress to these hive members that
they convulse, they end up seizing very similar
to what bees do defensively. When they find a
wasp that's invading their nest, they, they tend
to vibrate. And this is also by the way, how
bees tend to communicate. They communicate with
vibration. So that could very much be the psychic
glue that the hive mind communicates with and
Carol being the largest threat. To the beehive
that they have encountered and we see that throughout
the the series this stark yellow color the big
one that pops into my mind when Carol opens the
Recycling bin and it has a very stark yellow
lid on it. And of course, what does she find
in there? but the empty milk cartons so it's
almost guiding her to the answer of what could
potentially be the weakness of the hive mind
in the stark yellow lid on this recycling bin.
Another way this popped up is with the poker
chips. So when Kumba is doing his little casino
Royale routine, the bad guy who's got his cheesy
little eye patch on and all of that, he's betting
with yellow chips, but he's also backing those
yellow chips with a large stack of blue chips
as well. And what do we see? Kumba betting with
exclusively yellow chips. So again, Kumba being
very much an individual who does not want to
join the hive mind is also exuding the same yellow
color of what really means individuality. And
there's many frames within this show. that have
the contrast of both the yellow and the calmer
blues. And I think that's exemplified a lot in
this final scene with Menousos where he's choosing
these separate paths and either choosing to go
into the light or go into the darkness. So Colors
has a lot to do with Vince Gilligan's visual
language and when... We see those, we can recognize
some of the themes that he's trying to push out
to us as this thing is going on here. But I know
you have been talking about the timing and the
clock that we've been seeing throughout the entire
series. I'm very excited to hear your theory
on this because I think we might have differing
opinions. Well, to bounce on what you had just
mentioned. I also noticed when he was putting
his go -bag together that his backpack was also
yellow. And I think you're absolutely right.
I think it very distinctly points to individuality.
My thoughts on time stamps here. Pluribus doesn't
have time stamps that are standard. Here's 14
days later or anything like that. Everything
is very precise. 12 days, 12 hours, 42 minutes,
58 seconds. That's all very tightly wound into
that. And I think that how specific Vince's being
with this isn't accidental. Where did I start?
We started pulling the timestamps from every
single episode. And honestly, for me, I went
straight for prime numbers. So when we start
to analyze these prime numbers versus non -prime
numbers, we find something that's very interesting.
Episodes one through five all had prime numbers
built into their number sequence. Episode 5,
where we get a dark reveal, had no prime numbers
in it. And this episode here with the multiple
timing had both. prime number examples and non
-prime number examples, because I think this
is a transition episode, transitioning us into
deeper truths, but then also doing the standard
things, which is tell us the story, build on
our characters, things like that. And whenever
we see these sequences with Carol or Manusos,
those are prime numbers. they are not part of
the collective, that storyline is a prime storyline.
The other ones are the composite storylines when
we see more about the dark reveals or things
like that. So the core thesis is Vince Gilligan
is using prime numbers as narrative markers within
the countdown time stamps. Primes represent immunity,
individuality, and resistance. and composites
represent corruption, the hive mind, and divisibility.
The mathematics hinge between that horror and
hope kind of thing, and I think that that's what
he's dancing around. That is probably the biggest
version of the timestamp thing that I can think
of, that he's actually pointing out to us, these
prime numbers go to these folks, these composite
numbers go over here, and that's all that it
is. My second theory on the numbers is even simpler
and better, in my opinion. When I first saw these
time stamps in the very first episode, I thought,
he's just putting these in here. And then that's
it. There is no Easter egg, there is no secret,
there is nothing. I kind of like that, to be
frank, especially with all the math that I did
to get here. And I did all the tricks. I tried
to turn the numbers into letters to see if they
spelled something. I tried binary, you know,
10011. Nothing else really matched up. The only
thing that really matched up was that we had.
certain episodes that had those prime numbers
and other episodes that did not have those prime
numbers and that they did make a tonal and theme
difference in each one of the episodes. Those
are the two theories that I have for the timestamps.
I'm not really hearing anybody else out in the
world really breaking down the timestamps and
what they mean. My only other thing I'd like
to add to the end of the timestamp, if it is
arbitrary or if it is even part of the prime
number theory that I have here. We start off
with 439 days before the joining. It would be
pretty cool and not unlike Vince to bookend his
series with it ending with 439 days after the
joining and this is when our timeframe is. We
have these 14 months with which to play this
story. And in the way that it's playing out,
almost literally day by day here in front of
us, we do have a lot of space here with 14 months
to have the purported four seasons that Vince
would like to have with this particular show.
And he has said that he has a very, very good
idea of how it will end, but, quote, if a better
idea comes across my desk, I'll use it. Again,
I think I would like to throw my theory in that
Carol is the antidote and she may have to sacrifice
herself at the end of the series in order to
save all of humanity. But beyond that, my friends,
that is as convoluted as you can get with the
timestamp theory. I got to say that when we talked
prior to the episode, you mentioned that you
were going to dive deep into your number theory
as far as the clock goes. I was very much prepared.
If we were on another podcast, I would say dad,
you're wrong. But upon hearing your explanation
of the prime number theory, I think that is brilliant.
I think that is so good. And honestly, at this
point, if, if the theory were to break and it
is just a clock, I might be a little bit disappointed
because that is such a great theory. I really
love the prime numbers not being divisible and
the non -prime numbers or the composite numbers
being divisible and that separating the different
scenes and the different episodes. I think that
is wonderful. I really, really enjoy that. I
came into it thinking it is just a tool, right?
I thought it was just a tool to - Yeah, we're
watching 24. We're just watching 24, that's all.
I thought it was just a Jack Bauer tool to show
you how long. the sequence of events have been.
So I really, really like that theory. I hope
that it is indeed something. And I certainly
have not seen that out in the ether as people
have been talking about the episode. So somebody
call Vince Gilligan and tell him to listen to
the podcast, because I think he would be surprised
by what you have found here, because that is
some pretty deep thinking. That's some deep research,
and that is... very, very intriguing idea. So
I like that quite a bit, and I'm very happy that
you put in as much work as you have with these
numbers so far. Well, I appreciate it. It's definitely
a nerdy pursuit, but I wanted to dig into that.
But yeah, I'm sure we'll come up with more items
as they hit our desk, so to speak, and we will
deal with them accordingly. Other than that,
I think we did a pretty good job throughout the
episode just hitting on some of the core theories
that either we're thinking about or are out there
in the zeitgeist and people are bouncing around.
If you have any theories, feel free to jump into
any of our social media feeds and comment on
any of the episodes or get a hold of us through
your favorite podcast listening platform. I think
that'll do us for today, Carol. Thanks so much
for joining us for episode six of E Pluribus
Unum on the episode HDP. I would love for you
to join us on our next favorite podcast, which
is Dad, You're Wrong, where a Gen X dad and a
millennial son talk everything from horror to
sci -fi to fantasy. And I hope to see you guys
next week. Thank you so much.