WEBVTT 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:33.079 you Hello, Carol. Welcome to ePluribus Unum, 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:36.399 your favorite podcast on your favorite show, 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.399 Pluribus. Today, we are covering episode seven, 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:44.799 The Gap. Something tells me that that title has 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:48.039 some importance to this particular episode. We 00:00:48.039 --> 00:00:51.359 also have a unique episode going on today because 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:54.640 we have a special guest joining us, but we also 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:58.439 have Josh. Josh, how are you doing? I'm doing 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:01.299 well, a bit under the weather here, but I'm always 00:01:01.299 --> 00:01:03.420 here for Carol and everything that she needs. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:05.780 Even though we need our space, we still have 00:01:05.780 --> 00:01:08.239 the same feelings about you, Carol, and I am 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:12.159 here to assist in any way I can. I think that's 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.780 marvelous. We appreciate you being here, and 00:01:14.780 --> 00:01:18.760 we also appreciate Mr. Joe Price. He is the world 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:22.219 famous vocalist for the band Helephant and founding 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:26.890 member of the band CAN, Q -A -N. Be sure to check 00:01:26.890 --> 00:01:29.069 them out. Joe, how are you doing, my friend? 00:01:29.969 --> 00:01:32.650 Oh, I'm just happy to be here. Thanks for inviting 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:36.049 me. Absolutely. We are beyond pleased that you're 00:01:36.049 --> 00:01:40.189 here with us as we come to just a few episodes 00:01:40.189 --> 00:01:43.329 left in this season. And I think this is a rather 00:01:43.329 --> 00:01:45.909 important episode for us to cover, episode seven, 00:01:46.049 --> 00:01:50.010 The Gap. Before we do dive all the way in, another 00:01:50.010 --> 00:01:52.730 thing we would like to say is we have... kicked 00:01:52.730 --> 00:01:56.049 up our Discord, so check that out if you would 00:01:56.049 --> 00:01:58.109 like to have conversations with us or if you 00:01:58.109 --> 00:02:01.370 would like to talk about theories. We even have 00:02:01.370 --> 00:02:04.750 a stupid theory section there. It's probably 00:02:04.750 --> 00:02:06.709 my favorite section and I'm sure one of them 00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:08.810 is bound to be right. Josh, you have a pretty 00:02:08.810 --> 00:02:11.770 good one in there. I think I've got one or two 00:02:11.770 --> 00:02:15.789 good stupid theories in there, mainly about Carol 00:02:15.789 --> 00:02:19.569 being Bob Newhart and that she'll end up waking 00:02:19.569 --> 00:02:22.960 up next to Saul Goodman at the end of the series 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:25.120 and realized that it was all a dream at the end 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.039 of the day. I honestly pray that that's the answer 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:30.620 to this whole thing because if it were, I could 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:35.000 totally forgo the Soylent Green. That's all I'm 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.620 saying about that. That would solve a lot of 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:41.500 my concerns too. I think that's really the only 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:44.199 way you can really properly end any show ever, 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:48.080 frankly. That's our Discord. Secondly, we would 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:51.300 also like to recommend that you take a look at 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:53.819 our other podcast. It's called Dad, You're Wrong, 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:57.060 where we have a Gen X dad and millennial son 00:02:57.060 --> 00:03:00.819 duke it out over everything between horror, sci 00:03:00.819 --> 00:03:04.759 -fi, and fantasy, and a few other things. Apparently, 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:10.060 I'm wrong a lot. So, that happened. That's the 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:12.319 rumor, that's the rumor at least. Yeah, I don't 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:14.479 know why they named the show that is my question, 00:03:15.699 --> 00:03:18.180 but those are the housekeeping items that we 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:20.599 have for the top of our show here for episode 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:26.139 seven, The Gap, E Pluribus Unum. Mr. Price, once 00:03:26.139 --> 00:03:28.139 again, thank you for joining us. I would like 00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:33.050 to know. What are your overall thoughts for the 00:03:33.050 --> 00:03:36.849 show itself? We're into episode seven here. We're 00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:39.550 pretty deep. What are your overall thoughts? 00:03:41.050 --> 00:03:44.009 It's such a good show. Besides being shocking 00:03:44.009 --> 00:03:47.310 and startling and with these great characters 00:03:47.310 --> 00:03:50.270 and the depth, it becomes this real thought experiment 00:03:50.270 --> 00:03:52.710 to me and that becomes the part that's perhaps 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:55.669 most interesting in listening to your podcast. 00:03:56.229 --> 00:03:59.659 I found that you know, you tend to really kind 00:03:59.659 --> 00:04:03.039 of take the carol perspective and I mean I think 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:05.659 about what's different for this show to me is 00:04:05.659 --> 00:04:09.080 that I've seen a lot of Movies like I am legend 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:11.680 or night of the living dead yet You're walking 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:14.360 dead and there's just a few of us left and we're 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:17.959 fighting to survive It's the horde and so in 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:20.540 this one, it's uh, it's just a lot much more 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:25.180 seductive The evil isn't out to kill you apparently 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.240 Probably not at all, quite the opposite. So you 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:32.220 have a real different of genre and what really 00:04:32.220 --> 00:04:35.160 becomes interesting to me is the more the show 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:39.379 allows me to think about whether Carol is actually 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:42.139 wrong or whether she's right. When you think 00:04:42.139 --> 00:04:45.100 about the joining of the collective, like I guess 00:04:45.100 --> 00:04:47.939 our first gut instinct is that you're just sucked 00:04:47.939 --> 00:04:50.879 into a vacuum and it operates using your body. 00:04:51.339 --> 00:04:53.949 But my question is whether You become a part 00:04:53.949 --> 00:04:57.449 of a community and you're able to transfer between 00:04:57.449 --> 00:05:00.209 bodies. Go where you want to go as a consciousness. 00:05:00.329 --> 00:05:03.970 Can you explore the Alps in a body that's currently 00:05:03.970 --> 00:05:06.910 in the Alps? If you want to be in Kumbha's hot 00:05:06.910 --> 00:05:09.050 tub with them, you can decide to be there or 00:05:09.050 --> 00:05:11.529 not. Maybe somebody like you were mentioning 00:05:11.529 --> 00:05:13.829 about Kumbha last time. Maybe he was a dishwasher 00:05:13.829 --> 00:05:16.089 in his former life. Maybe today a dishwasher 00:05:16.089 --> 00:05:20.329 can be a surgeon, a world famous surgeon and 00:05:20.329 --> 00:05:23.069 feel that thrill. You know, it's that question. 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:27.310 Are they subsumed and consumed or are they transcending 00:05:27.310 --> 00:05:30.370 by joining? And that tension, it seems to me, 00:05:30.430 --> 00:05:32.870 is something that Vince Gilligan is, you know, 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:35.730 creating on purpose. It's kind of the point of 00:05:35.730 --> 00:05:37.470 the show. In some of his interviews, it sounds 00:05:37.470 --> 00:05:40.050 like it to me anyway. And I think that as the 00:05:40.050 --> 00:05:43.129 show goes on, for me, like, my Soylent Green 00:05:43.129 --> 00:05:46.769 Ick moment will be if the joined become the horde. 00:05:47.110 --> 00:05:49.529 Because, you know, when you have the horde, like 00:05:49.529 --> 00:05:52.980 in The Walking Dead, You succumb by breaking 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:55.319 down because you no longer can fight. You're 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:58.720 tired of the fight. And when you succumb, you 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.079 don't end up in an orgy in a hot tub. You just 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:04.720 end up devoured. So it's a different kind of 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:06.600 question to me and that's what I really like 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:10.420 about the show. It's certainly no hot tub time 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:13.949 machine. I would agree with that. My question 00:06:13.949 --> 00:06:17.310 in this philosophy is, do you also have the opportunity 00:06:17.310 --> 00:06:21.230 to opt out or are you still forced to experience 00:06:21.230 --> 00:06:24.790 what every other joint experiences on the planet, 00:06:24.910 --> 00:06:28.470 whether it's Kumba's hot tub or being a scientist? 00:06:28.990 --> 00:06:34.110 So I find that interesting, but I don't know 00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:36.389 that it's alluring. It doesn't seem alluring 00:06:36.389 --> 00:06:40.310 to me. There is, I agree with Joe, a tantalizing 00:06:40.310 --> 00:06:46.290 aspect of joining the hive mind. I do see that 00:06:46.290 --> 00:06:48.689 transcendent sort of mindset and they do make 00:06:48.689 --> 00:06:52.329 it alluring to you to join a community. You know 00:06:52.329 --> 00:06:55.790 as a very solitary person myself I see the allure 00:06:55.790 --> 00:06:59.189 and not only joining a community but working 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:03.550 together as a greater whole and possibly more 00:07:03.550 --> 00:07:05.930 than the sum of our parts. So I totally agree 00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:08.149 and I see where you're coming from Joe, absolutely. 00:07:09.209 --> 00:07:11.610 It's not that I I don't necessarily think of 00:07:11.610 --> 00:07:14.509 myself as a joiner in general either It's the 00:07:14.509 --> 00:07:16.250 fact that they managed in the writing to make 00:07:16.250 --> 00:07:20.230 me wonder I think if the joining had no allure 00:07:20.230 --> 00:07:22.490 then kind of a one of the main tensions in the 00:07:22.490 --> 00:07:25.689 show would disappear Well, I don't know about 00:07:25.689 --> 00:07:29.129 this whole transcendence thing But I think we 00:07:29.129 --> 00:07:31.889 might find some answers along these lines or 00:07:31.889 --> 00:07:35.129 maybe it'll just become more confusing Today 00:07:35.129 --> 00:07:38.399 we're covering episode 7 the gap This one was 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:41.139 directed by Adam Bernstein, who had also worked 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:44.399 on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, written 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.639 by Jen Carroll from a story by Ariel Levine. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:52.079 We start off the episode and scene one with Carroll 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:56.120 driving back from Las Vegas. Yes, we have Carroll 00:07:56.120 --> 00:07:59.120 singing the R .E .M. song, It's the End of the 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.910 World. Carol has decided to make the best of 00:08:01.910 --> 00:08:05.089 her time in solitude after being shunned by the 00:08:05.089 --> 00:08:07.550 joint and I think being affected by her visit 00:08:07.550 --> 00:08:10.970 with Kumba who also rejected her. She has decided 00:08:10.970 --> 00:08:13.370 to come back and play around a little bit in 00:08:13.370 --> 00:08:17.529 her hometown and she's perhaps actually enjoying 00:08:17.529 --> 00:08:20.310 herself or perhaps pretending to enjoy herself 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:23.209 just to shut out the reality around her. We find 00:08:23.209 --> 00:08:27.009 her as she is picking up at a gas station on 00:08:27.009 --> 00:08:31.980 the way home and Not only does she go into the 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:35.100 gas station and make that call. Once again, we 00:08:35.100 --> 00:08:40.200 get a repetition of the answering machine from 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:44.179 the hive mind or the joint. And she calls them 00:08:44.179 --> 00:08:47.460 to tell them to turn on pump one, which they 00:08:47.460 --> 00:08:50.519 do very quickly. And she decides to make a second 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:53.419 call right after that. And she orders an ice 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:57.250 cold bottle of Gatorade and the red one. in particular, 00:08:57.370 --> 00:08:59.690 I believe it's the fruit punch flavor. Well, 00:08:59.690 --> 00:09:01.990 and it's got to be ice cold, right? It can't 00:09:01.990 --> 00:09:06.110 be anything else. And what I love is she's now 00:09:06.110 --> 00:09:09.730 grown to ignore the message. And it's almost 00:09:09.730 --> 00:09:14.009 like she's half become immune to it. But she'll 00:09:14.009 --> 00:09:16.110 put the phone down when the message starts to 00:09:16.110 --> 00:09:17.990 kick up and she'll go run some other air and 00:09:17.990 --> 00:09:20.470 like grab a scratch off ticket or something while 00:09:20.470 --> 00:09:23.169 she's waiting for the message to play. And just 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:26.759 the way that she goes about that, it's her not 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:28.779 doing it in the way that Kumba is doing it where 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:31.539 he seemingly is nice to them and asking them 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:36.259 politely, would you do this for me perhaps? How 00:09:36.259 --> 00:09:40.279 much can I push this? How many of these buttons 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:43.059 can I push before this breaks? I think we see 00:09:43.059 --> 00:09:45.679 that in these sequences at the very beginning 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:51.080 here. I see it as her having. a positive reaction 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:53.740 of there is no traffic, there are no people, 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:56.159 I can ask for anything that I want and basically 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:59.059 get it almost immediately. I'm going to do all 00:09:59.059 --> 00:10:01.940 the things that I would like to do from here. 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:05.899 And she, you know, embraces that, I think. Not 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:08.840 only does she get her gatorade, she calls them 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:12.019 back to give them a hard time for why it wasn't 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:14.960 cold enough. It was tepid, it was lukewarm. Do 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:17.360 better next time. You know, I would say that 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:20.259 she's taking her own advice. In the last episode, 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:23.500 she told Kumba to tell them to just pick a fucking 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:26.179 apple off a tree. And I think that's what she's 00:10:26.179 --> 00:10:28.419 doing. She literally plucked a red fruit drink 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:31.179 from the sky. She's just decided to pick the 00:10:31.179 --> 00:10:34.820 apple from the tree and enjoy it. My question 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:37.379 to you guys, though, is when she scratches off 00:10:37.379 --> 00:10:41.279 that $10 ,000 scratch off and wins, like I get 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:43.679 that it's meaningless and she just goes and moves 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:45.720 on. But I guess I wonder if there's any kind 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:47.799 of deeper significance to that that I'm not picking 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:51.929 up on. I felt like she felt the kick of winning 00:10:51.929 --> 00:10:54.710 that and living in a world that she couldn't 00:10:54.710 --> 00:10:57.409 cash it in, whether she needed it or not. I mean, 00:10:57.429 --> 00:10:59.769 who wouldn't want to win a $10 ,000 scratch off? 00:10:59.909 --> 00:11:03.389 But I think she also took it as just another 00:11:03.389 --> 00:11:09.269 thing that she's endured. It's insult to injury 00:11:09.269 --> 00:11:12.750 almost, right? And why not just peel out of there 00:11:12.750 --> 00:11:16.110 then and then go live your Kumba -style fantasy, 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:19.080 whatever that may be. Another thing I do want 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:22.779 to bring in at the gas station, doesn't she find 00:11:22.779 --> 00:11:25.419 fireworks there? And at the tail end, before 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:27.639 she takes off out of the gas station, she did 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:31.840 take some fireworks with her. A trunk load. That's 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:33.360 the way to do it right there. And those aren't 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:35.240 cheap either. Fireworks are expensive. Let me 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:38.659 tell you. I could blow that whole $10 ,000 from 00:11:38.659 --> 00:11:42.120 the scratch off. We have a really great scene 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:44.940 that I want to bring up and that's Carol back 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:48.779 at home. utilizing those fireworks for the first 00:11:48.779 --> 00:11:52.440 time in the episode. And what does she hear as 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.539 she's setting these fireworks off, but the howling 00:11:54.539 --> 00:11:59.860 of the wolves that we've seen in a previous episode. 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:02.600 And I like this quite a bit. It's sort of a call 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:06.419 back to one of my theories that I believe that 00:12:06.419 --> 00:12:10.080 this pack of wolves is a bit of a metaphor for 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:13.179 the joined. Wolves tend to work as a group, as 00:12:13.179 --> 00:12:17.169 a pack together. And as she hears them howling 00:12:17.169 --> 00:12:19.529 in the distance, and it seems to be surrounding 00:12:19.529 --> 00:12:22.309 her at this point, the wildlife seems to be leaking 00:12:22.309 --> 00:12:25.830 back into Albuquerque as the population has left, 00:12:26.830 --> 00:12:30.169 she howls back at the wolves. And not only that, 00:12:30.210 --> 00:12:34.750 but it ends in a really great little scene where 00:12:34.750 --> 00:12:39.409 she essentially has the last howl. She lets out 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:42.429 a... a final howl that is louder than all the 00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:46.129 others, and what do they do? But they cease their 00:12:46.129 --> 00:12:48.370 howling at that point as if they're recognizing 00:12:48.370 --> 00:12:52.350 the alpha wolf that has come among them. Basically 00:12:52.350 --> 00:12:56.309 howling the quiet emptiness of the world through 00:12:56.309 --> 00:12:59.090 singing pop songs. It's all kind of a piece. 00:12:59.750 --> 00:13:01.730 She's the one that provides us with the soundtrack 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:05.610 through her entire half of the episode. Why? 00:13:05.929 --> 00:13:07.929 Well, you don't have radio anymore unless you 00:13:07.929 --> 00:13:10.070 call them and ask them to play the local radio 00:13:10.070 --> 00:13:12.529 station and whatever they might play. I couldn't 00:13:12.529 --> 00:13:14.970 imagine what a joined DJ would sound like. Frankly, 00:13:15.110 --> 00:13:18.149 that could be good or absolutely horrifying. 00:13:18.590 --> 00:13:21.090 So she just makes her own soundtrack as she makes 00:13:21.090 --> 00:13:23.990 her way through. It's the end of the world or 00:13:23.990 --> 00:13:27.289 the Caddyshack song or anything else. The reason 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:30.370 I bring up the golf course scene and I think 00:13:30.370 --> 00:13:33.330 the reason that they used it in the spot is. 00:13:34.009 --> 00:13:36.330 something that Joe had brought up offline and 00:13:36.330 --> 00:13:38.690 I would like Joe to talk about it now about sort 00:13:38.690 --> 00:13:43.009 of your theory about the animals. Well, why are 00:13:43.009 --> 00:13:45.690 the joined unwilling to kill animals or to kill 00:13:45.690 --> 00:13:49.289 plants and to what degree are all life on earth 00:13:49.289 --> 00:13:52.049 joined? Are the animals somehow actually joined 00:13:52.049 --> 00:13:54.690 too and can they just see her through the eyes 00:13:54.690 --> 00:13:57.629 of that buffalo that's on the on the golf course 00:13:57.629 --> 00:14:00.539 there or is the rabbit really just a you know, 00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:02.919 a security camera that's keeping track of her. 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:05.279 We don't know. The show doesn't ever actually 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:08.139 suggest that. It's just one of those things that's 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:11.340 kind of fun to think about, but who knows? At 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:13.740 first I wanted to sort of ignore any of the animal 00:14:13.740 --> 00:14:17.980 or plant joining ideas, but when you bring it 00:14:17.980 --> 00:14:20.139 up in that way, I think it becomes very interesting. 00:14:20.179 --> 00:14:23.159 So I would love to throw that into the theory 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:26.179 pile there. I just like the idea that it was 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:29.080 sort of, here's the result of letting all the 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:34.139 animals out of the zoo or consolidating humanity 00:14:34.139 --> 00:14:37.179 in a certain way that allows the animals to re 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:40.440 -encroach on what used to be civilization. When 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:43.159 we get back into our state police car to get 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:46.519 out of there, it seems the battery is dead. And 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:49.179 I think this concept comes up more than once 00:14:49.179 --> 00:14:52.059 in the last episode. Manny's car had a little 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:54.750 bit of a battery issue there. And here we have 00:14:54.750 --> 00:14:57.450 Carol having a battery issue with her car. And 00:14:57.450 --> 00:15:01.470 she's also faced with the same or a similar set 00:15:01.470 --> 00:15:04.769 of choices here as Kumba. She goes outside of 00:15:04.769 --> 00:15:08.629 the country club and she has the lion's choice 00:15:08.629 --> 00:15:11.269 of vehicle. She could have a Porsche, she could 00:15:11.269 --> 00:15:15.529 have a Lamborghini, but she lands on a Rolls 00:15:15.529 --> 00:15:18.360 Royce. And it's not just any Rolls -Royce really. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:20.460 It looks like one that's been dressed for a wedding. 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:23.240 It says just married on the window. And there 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:26.559 are balloons coming from the doors just hanging 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:29.620 over the car that say love. They all say love. 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:33.659 And I assume there's probably some sort of not 00:15:33.659 --> 00:15:36.679 so subtle messaging here. But she cracks open 00:15:36.679 --> 00:15:40.340 the trunk. She throws in her golf clubs. And 00:15:40.340 --> 00:15:43.360 she throws in her shotgun and decides to take 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:47.840 the Rolls -Royce. This whole sequence as she 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:52.580 is going about these activities, to me it's really 00:15:52.580 --> 00:15:55.340 exemplifying her loneliness. And I think that 00:15:55.340 --> 00:15:59.320 is also shown in how she reacts to the message 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:02.480 that is left by the joined on the telephone and 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:07.259 how she has come to ignore that message. It all 00:16:07.259 --> 00:16:10.440 seems to me the mask for that loneliness and 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:12.340 she's trying to run away from that loneliness. 00:16:12.700 --> 00:16:15.539 And her choice of the Rolls Royce of choosing 00:16:15.539 --> 00:16:20.299 specifically the only vehicle that signifies 00:16:20.299 --> 00:16:23.580 the antithesis of loneliness, which is marriage 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:26.460 and having someone with you is just another way 00:16:26.460 --> 00:16:29.019 that she is coping with the loneliness that is 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:31.720 forced upon her. And it's very much that they 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:36.259 are utilizing her loneliness as a weapon to hopefully 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:40.519 get her to give her consent to become one of 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:43.220 the joined. I still don't see it necessarily 00:16:43.220 --> 00:16:47.200 as her masking her whatever she's going through, 00:16:47.220 --> 00:16:50.240 whether it's loneliness or depression or whatever. 00:16:50.340 --> 00:16:52.759 I see it as her opening her eyes and going, you 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:55.700 know what? Fuck it. I'm going to take advantage 00:16:55.700 --> 00:16:59.019 of it. It's sitting here. Kuma's doing it. I'm 00:16:59.019 --> 00:17:00.519 going to do my own version of this. I'm going 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:04.059 to go play golf. I'm going to go to Hymes Springs 00:17:04.059 --> 00:17:06.750 and I'm going to... lay in there completely naked 00:17:06.750 --> 00:17:09.950 and sing an Ellie song and I'm going to absolutely 00:17:09.950 --> 00:17:13.730 love every minute of it. I think it wears itself 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:17.390 out and I think it will for Kumba as well. But 00:17:17.390 --> 00:17:21.230 I think she's sincere in her elation and the 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:23.849 experience that she has. I don't feel it as she's 00:17:23.849 --> 00:17:26.130 covering something up or trying to mask it. So 00:17:26.130 --> 00:17:28.289 I like that those two ideas kind of wrestle with 00:17:28.289 --> 00:17:32.920 each other in a great way. Yeah. Yeah, I agree 00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.740 to a point as well. You know, I think after her 00:17:35.740 --> 00:17:38.099 last interaction with Kumba and finding out that 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:41.759 Kumba knows that the hive mind is indeed using 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:44.279 dead bodies as sustenance, she feels that there 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:47.059 is no other path now. She sort of lost her way. 00:17:47.500 --> 00:17:51.480 And this sequence of her finally getting out 00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:55.140 of the house and stop watching golden girls and 00:17:55.140 --> 00:17:58.059 taking advantage of things as her coming around 00:17:58.059 --> 00:18:01.829 to a bit of Kumba's style of thinking. you shall 00:18:01.829 --> 00:18:05.890 not besmirch the name of the Golden Girls. That's 00:18:05.890 --> 00:18:10.490 all I'm saying about that. As she exits the hot 00:18:10.490 --> 00:18:13.630 springs and whether she's experiencing a moment 00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:15.890 of pure freedom or she's trying to drown out 00:18:15.890 --> 00:18:18.910 her emptiness here, she heads over to the Georgia 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:21.950 O 'Keeffe Museum. Of course, she returns to a 00:18:21.950 --> 00:18:26.789 certain image and takes it off the wall. A little 00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:29.700 bit later, When she gets back home, she pulls 00:18:29.700 --> 00:18:32.680 the print off the wall in order to replace it 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:35.380 with the actual painting itself. And this doesn't 00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:38.559 seem like a moment of her masking a depression 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:40.960 or emptiness. This is a moment of, hey, since 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:43.519 I can, I'm going to have the original right here 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:46.839 in my house. Well, for someone who's been through 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:49.519 the level of trauma she's been, including the 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:52.319 horrific death of her partner and the whole world 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:56.650 changing as it has, to now feel slightly empowered 00:18:56.650 --> 00:19:00.450 in this moment and to have the presence to go 00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:02.809 ahead and just take that thing that she wants 00:19:02.809 --> 00:19:05.710 in her place. That says something about her character 00:19:05.710 --> 00:19:07.309 too, and I think it's kind of what you were getting 00:19:07.309 --> 00:19:09.789 at with the way she's singing and kind of skipping 00:19:09.789 --> 00:19:14.230 through the apocalypse. The painting is called 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:16.950 Belladonna, painted by Georgia O 'Keeffe, who 00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:20.849 is a native of New Mexico. That belladonna plant 00:19:20.849 --> 00:19:24.200 specifically is a form of nightshade. So that 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:27.240 is a poison as well. And it's almost a bit of 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:30.940 a call back to the plant that Walter White uses 00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:33.940 in Breaking Bad to make his ricin. Well, I assume 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:36.839 that they had selected this painting for a particular 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.920 reason. It is great. And I think it works in 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:44.359 a ton of ways. She goes home, she gets the idea 00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:47.039 standing in her kitchen to give them a call and 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:50.720 demand a meal. that is based on the past anniversaries 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:53.799 that she had with Helen at a specific restaurant. 00:19:54.819 --> 00:19:57.559 And when she gets to the restaurant, we have 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:01.420 several plates that are covered in the chrome 00:20:01.420 --> 00:20:03.859 dome that we had seen before that for whatever 00:20:03.859 --> 00:20:05.839 reason always reminds me of Looney Tunes cartoons. 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:10.180 And she is dressed to the nines. That dress is 00:20:10.180 --> 00:20:12.299 absolutely amazing. That chain around her neck 00:20:12.299 --> 00:20:15.180 is impossible. And she starts lifting up the 00:20:15.180 --> 00:20:19.109 lids to these dishes, naming them off essentially 00:20:19.109 --> 00:20:22.670 and saying with some of them what date or year 00:20:22.670 --> 00:20:27.490 it was. And she has very clear memories of these 00:20:27.490 --> 00:20:30.730 moments and these meals with Helen. It's like 00:20:30.730 --> 00:20:33.809 she gets to the apex of enjoying her environment 00:20:33.809 --> 00:20:37.329 here. Even being willing to have them recreate 00:20:37.329 --> 00:20:40.829 these meals from her past using their understanding 00:20:40.829 --> 00:20:44.190 of Helen, which she's so offended by. And then 00:20:44.190 --> 00:20:46.920 when she's sitting there, trying to enjoy it 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:50.359 in this beautiful dress and this amazing scenery, 00:20:50.859 --> 00:20:53.599 slowly those wolves start coming back in again. 00:20:54.140 --> 00:20:55.880 There's a couple of great things in this portion 00:20:55.880 --> 00:20:59.339 as well. When she requests this dinner, there's 00:20:59.339 --> 00:21:03.339 seemingly some hive mind hidden away somewhere, 00:21:03.339 --> 00:21:08.220 since they're able to get into Albuquerque and 00:21:08.220 --> 00:21:10.240 get into the specific restaurant and cook this 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:14.200 meal for her. There is an aspect of that performative 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:19.559 nature of how the hive mind is still there, but 00:21:19.559 --> 00:21:22.380 purposefully hidden away from her and that they 00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:24.859 are still very much in Albuquerque despite what 00:21:24.859 --> 00:21:27.259 we've been led to believe. And I loved, I'm sure 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:30.059 there's quite a few different songs on this player 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:33.319 piano that she has. The first one that popped 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:36.400 up in my head as I was looking at it is Dancing 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:39.140 on My Own by Robin, who is a great pop star. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:42.680 I thought the song choice adds to the potential 00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:45.019 loneliness that Carol's feeling at this moment. 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:48.900 Yeah, I definitely want to troll through the 00:21:48.900 --> 00:21:51.119 selections that she thumbs through because something 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.319 tells me that every single one of those songs 00:21:53.319 --> 00:21:56.559 has a point that she could have selected and 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.240 it would have still landed. But what she ends 00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:02.039 up landing on with the player piano is the song 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:05.519 I Will Survive. Again, pretty strongly on the 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:09.660 nose there, but very defiant to the wolves that 00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:14.269 are howling. I wonder if, as you said, is this 00:22:14.269 --> 00:22:17.970 the apex of her enjoyment of being alone? Is 00:22:17.970 --> 00:22:21.650 this the last thing that will satiate either 00:22:21.650 --> 00:22:25.410 her loneliness or satiate her being able to be 00:22:25.410 --> 00:22:28.089 alone and do anything that she wants? Again, 00:22:28.089 --> 00:22:30.450 I don't know if it's a production thing. I don't 00:22:30.450 --> 00:22:34.609 think it is, or if it is a thing within the writing 00:22:34.609 --> 00:22:39.839 of the show. They are too quick to answer. without 00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:43.319 having known what she wanted already. There's 00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:45.420 no way that they could have made all of these 00:22:45.420 --> 00:22:48.880 meals so specific to these places with these 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:52.559 ingredients this quickly, in my opinion, without 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:54.700 having already known it in some way. And I'm 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:56.819 gonna refer back to the grocery store stocking 00:22:56.819 --> 00:22:59.180 before, or even the Gatorade that she gets in 00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:02.940 five minutes that is tepid, but I'm sure it was 00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:06.829 ice cold when they left. I just find it... impossible 00:23:06.829 --> 00:23:09.250 to stock the grocery store to have the Gatorade, 00:23:09.250 --> 00:23:14.410 to have these fanciful meals on the go without 00:23:14.410 --> 00:23:19.130 having some sense of already knowing. Well, it 00:23:19.130 --> 00:23:22.309 does sound incredible. Amazon knows because you 00:23:22.309 --> 00:23:24.630 look at something a few times and they kind of 00:23:24.630 --> 00:23:26.809 know your patterns. If you're likely to buy it, 00:23:27.170 --> 00:23:30.650 the AI will move it to a facility closer to you 00:23:30.650 --> 00:23:32.450 so that when you do order it, it shows up the 00:23:32.450 --> 00:23:34.849 next day. But then, you know, if you think about 00:23:34.849 --> 00:23:37.609 it, Helen is not just Carol's partner, she's 00:23:37.609 --> 00:23:40.930 her manager. And she manages everything about 00:23:40.930 --> 00:23:43.369 Carol from trying to manage her moods to her 00:23:43.369 --> 00:23:46.490 schedule. She understands Carol better than herself, 00:23:47.289 --> 00:23:50.990 apparently, in a lot of ways. So the idea that 00:23:50.990 --> 00:23:53.730 everybody that Carol knows, including the person 00:23:53.730 --> 00:23:56.829 who knows Carol better than herself, maybe there's 00:23:56.829 --> 00:24:01.450 something to that. Well, I believe this is probably 00:24:01.900 --> 00:24:07.500 Josh's favorite part. Our next match cut is your 00:24:07.500 --> 00:24:11.680 favorite character, Manny. Yeah, it cuts in a 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:15.240 wonderful way right to Manny from the sound of 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:18.299 the music to almost dead silence. We only get 00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:23.519 the sound of the plastic hose as it's slapping 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:28.019 against the metal gas tank. But we see Manny 00:24:28.019 --> 00:24:34.900 with a yellow scarf. And as he's walking to retrieve 00:24:34.900 --> 00:24:40.019 gas from another stalled vehicle, he is practicing 00:24:40.019 --> 00:24:42.880 his English. So we see that he's on this journey, 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:47.720 not only to go find Carol, but he also sees the 00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:50.460 need to communicate with Carol once he gets there. 00:24:50.740 --> 00:24:53.440 The first thing I believe we hear him utter is 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:56.660 yellow. the dog is yellow. But that's not the 00:24:56.660 --> 00:24:59.259 only yellow thing that we see Menousos with in 00:24:59.259 --> 00:25:02.259 this scene. Of course, he has his wonderful little 00:25:02.259 --> 00:25:05.259 convertible that is a very stark yellow, but 00:25:05.259 --> 00:25:09.559 even the cassette tapes that he's utilizing to 00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:12.160 learn English are very distinct yellow as we 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:16.180 see that yellow is indeed the color of individuality 00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:19.640 and he has another great. a line here, especially 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:22.519 about the yellow dog. He says, the yellow dog 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:27.000 chases the gray cat, almost as if these individuals, 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.700 himself and Carol are the predators to what could 00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:33.440 be the gray cat in the hive. Well, and then is 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:35.579 the girl who freed the mouse from the mole strap, 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:38.059 is that Carol? Then she's the girl freeing the 00:25:38.059 --> 00:25:42.180 mouse. Yeah. I feel like there has to be some 00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:44.740 significance to that, especially since that is 00:25:44.740 --> 00:25:48.769 such a unique line and Why would you choose to 00:25:48.769 --> 00:25:53.950 have that as something to teach someone conversational 00:25:53.950 --> 00:25:57.309 English? It's almost like you're teaching someone 00:25:57.309 --> 00:26:00.569 English through reading a children's book. Normally 00:26:00.569 --> 00:26:02.170 it would be, you know, where's the bathroom, 00:26:02.390 --> 00:26:06.069 right? Or can I ask for the check please? Or 00:26:06.069 --> 00:26:07.789 something like that. But it's not that at all. 00:26:08.289 --> 00:26:10.700 I also want to point out when he's walking, in 00:26:10.700 --> 00:26:13.259 the middle of this road, a guy rolls up to him 00:26:13.259 --> 00:26:16.420 and is the extremely friendly joined person that 00:26:16.420 --> 00:26:19.240 is there to be like, hey, Manousos, how are you 00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:22.059 doing? Hey, we would like for you to hydrate 00:26:22.059 --> 00:26:24.519 more. And if you need a ride, I'd be happy to 00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:26.420 give you a ride. We can fly you there. You could 00:26:26.420 --> 00:26:29.559 be there within the end of the day. And he wants 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:32.160 absolutely nothing to do with them. The importance 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.319 of this conversation, though, is that they're 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:37.059 using the exact same language on Manousos that 00:26:37.059 --> 00:26:40.329 they used on Carol. at the very beginning as 00:26:40.329 --> 00:26:43.009 well, being overly helpful, overly considerate, 00:26:43.170 --> 00:26:46.509 overly everything. And he reads it in the exact 00:26:46.509 --> 00:26:48.730 same way she does, that there's something wrong 00:26:48.730 --> 00:26:52.470 here. Nobody does this or is like this. You're 00:26:52.470 --> 00:26:55.750 obviously not who you were before. You can move 00:26:55.750 --> 00:26:58.970 on. I've got this. And it also illustrates throughout 00:26:58.970 --> 00:27:02.509 this last half of this episode how resourceful 00:27:02.509 --> 00:27:05.329 Menousos is. And I believe that he must have 00:27:05.329 --> 00:27:07.970 some sort of training or education or something. 00:27:08.140 --> 00:27:10.759 that has provided him with the knowledge that 00:27:10.759 --> 00:27:13.859 he uses in this episode to make his way to the 00:27:13.859 --> 00:27:19.180 gap. He doesn't have training in siphoning gas 00:27:19.180 --> 00:27:23.960 without drinking it, which led me to this pair 00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:26.660 of thoughts. When do tropes become so a part 00:27:26.660 --> 00:27:29.480 of culture that if Manny didn't drink the gas, 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:31.660 people would be taken out of it because that's 00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:35.140 such a trope in movies, but also that Manny strikes 00:27:35.140 --> 00:27:38.069 me as the kind of guy who Just isn't happy without 00:27:38.069 --> 00:27:41.329 the taste of gas in his mouth. You got to feel 00:27:41.329 --> 00:27:45.450 the grit. Exactly. And every time he siphons 00:27:45.450 --> 00:27:47.470 gas, which we see a couple of times throughout 00:27:47.470 --> 00:27:51.349 the sequence, he leaves a crisp hundred dollar 00:27:51.349 --> 00:27:55.750 bill under the windshield wipers. And to me, 00:27:55.829 --> 00:27:59.269 what this signifies from a new source is that 00:27:59.269 --> 00:28:03.650 not only is he an honorable man, but that he 00:28:03.650 --> 00:28:06.789 sees a future. for the earth and that things 00:28:06.789 --> 00:28:09.950 can go back to normal. And he's very much a man 00:28:09.950 --> 00:28:12.769 of faith. He believes that things can be better 00:28:12.769 --> 00:28:16.470 past this point. I see him very much as a man 00:28:16.470 --> 00:28:19.390 of faith and that he believes that he is on the 00:28:19.390 --> 00:28:22.470 righteous path in that regard. And he still believes 00:28:22.470 --> 00:28:24.950 in doing right. Honorable is a wonderful word 00:28:24.950 --> 00:28:26.849 for this man, without a doubt. I think it goes 00:28:26.849 --> 00:28:30.769 beyond that even. I think it's that he also believes 00:28:30.769 --> 00:28:35.150 in paying his dues, so to speak. But he's saying 00:28:35.150 --> 00:28:37.710 that the only way that you can take part in something 00:28:37.710 --> 00:28:41.529 is if you pay your dues for it or you pay what 00:28:41.529 --> 00:28:45.250 is owed. And again, you do such a good job of 00:28:45.250 --> 00:28:47.970 putting it into the religious realm for him. 00:28:48.230 --> 00:28:50.490 This is what a very faithful man would do. This 00:28:50.490 --> 00:28:54.089 is what a very godly person would do, do unto 00:28:54.089 --> 00:28:57.369 others in this really taking care of other people 00:28:57.369 --> 00:29:00.970 kind of way. And you really get to see our two 00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:04.380 characters who are clearly not enamored of the 00:29:04.380 --> 00:29:07.119 joint, but then they're contrasted here. Carol's 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:09.700 way of handling things is not at all putting 00:29:09.700 --> 00:29:13.480 hundred dollar bills under windshield wipers, 00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:15.420 you know? It's interesting that they're both 00:29:15.420 --> 00:29:18.019 different, but at the end they seem to lead to 00:29:18.019 --> 00:29:20.599 basically the same place, the arms of the joint. 00:29:21.660 --> 00:29:25.539 Our friend is driving his mustard yellow MG Midget 00:29:25.539 --> 00:29:30.200 and he gets to... a spot here that has clothes 00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:33.440 scattered all over the place. And I don't know 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:35.960 about you fellows, but when I saw this, it became 00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:39.480 very unnerving, especially the angle. I think 00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:41.359 we were almost at ground level with the car. 00:29:41.539 --> 00:29:43.619 And he finally gets to a part to where he can 00:29:43.619 --> 00:29:48.440 no longer drive the MG. It was almost out of 00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:50.559 a horror movie, right? When you encounter those 00:29:50.559 --> 00:29:53.920 clothes and we see the joint as they almost... 00:29:54.190 --> 00:29:57.390 dissolve out of the jungle. It was incredibly 00:29:57.390 --> 00:30:00.710 creepy. And at this point, they're essentially 00:30:00.710 --> 00:30:04.829 pleading him not to go into the gap. And they 00:30:04.829 --> 00:30:07.309 seem so much more emphatic than they normally 00:30:07.309 --> 00:30:10.970 are. When you have Zosia give Carol a bottle 00:30:10.970 --> 00:30:15.029 of water that she refuses, it's very much here, 00:30:15.150 --> 00:30:17.769 take it. We highly recommend you take it. All 00:30:17.769 --> 00:30:19.849 the doctors on the planet recommend you take 00:30:19.849 --> 00:30:23.859 it. But if you don't, that's fine. But when we 00:30:23.859 --> 00:30:27.259 have these Native peoples, like you said, fade 00:30:27.259 --> 00:30:31.660 in and standing before Manusos, they have a laundry 00:30:31.660 --> 00:30:34.339 list of all the reasons you should not go into 00:30:34.339 --> 00:30:37.339 the gap. Most people that do go in there die. 00:30:37.539 --> 00:30:39.819 We don't want you to go in there. We can take 00:30:39.819 --> 00:30:41.880 you exactly where you need to go. You can be 00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.019 there by the end of the day. Please don't do 00:30:45.019 --> 00:30:50.279 this. And all the while, his gaze never leaves 00:30:50.279 --> 00:30:54.210 them. He's always watching this group of the 00:30:54.210 --> 00:30:56.029 joins standing sort of in front of what looks 00:30:56.029 --> 00:30:58.190 to be a creek or a small river that would lead 00:30:58.190 --> 00:31:01.769 into the gap here. Well, and Manousos is just 00:31:01.769 --> 00:31:04.750 perfectly designed to hate the nanny state, which 00:31:04.750 --> 00:31:07.809 is what they kind of seem like to me. He sets 00:31:07.809 --> 00:31:10.890 his own car on fire. It's just the most brilliant 00:31:10.890 --> 00:31:14.250 moment. Seconds before it actually happens, I 00:31:14.250 --> 00:31:15.910 knew it was going to happen. It's one of the 00:31:15.910 --> 00:31:18.150 things I love about the writing in this show. 00:31:18.410 --> 00:31:20.869 It can surprise me, but sometimes it doesn't 00:31:20.869 --> 00:31:22.930 surprise me in a way that makes me want to cheer. 00:31:22.990 --> 00:31:25.609 And this is one of those moments. I was rising 00:31:25.609 --> 00:31:28.470 out of my seat for this. It was fantastic. This 00:31:28.470 --> 00:31:31.950 was a cheering moment. Yeah, I think this was 00:31:31.950 --> 00:31:34.990 very much my favorite scene of the episode where 00:31:34.990 --> 00:31:38.910 he lays his hand on top of the MG as if to say 00:31:38.910 --> 00:31:42.549 goodbye to a good friend. And at that point he 00:31:42.549 --> 00:31:45.289 goes to the trunk of the MG, pops it open, pulls 00:31:45.289 --> 00:31:50.210 out the gas canister. and proceeds to, while 00:31:50.210 --> 00:31:53.589 staring at the hive mind, pour the gas canister 00:31:53.589 --> 00:31:57.509 over the MG and light it on fire. And he says, 00:31:58.109 --> 00:32:00.750 nothing on this planet is yours. You cannot give 00:32:00.750 --> 00:32:03.390 me anything because all that you have is stolen. 00:32:03.849 --> 00:32:07.089 You do not belong here. It was just such a brilliant 00:32:07.089 --> 00:32:12.210 sequence and just solidifies Menousos as by far 00:32:12.210 --> 00:32:17.779 my favorite character in this series. Joe, what 00:32:17.779 --> 00:32:20.599 are your thoughts on the line he delivers here? 00:32:20.779 --> 00:32:24.579 How does that make you think about the joined 00:32:24.579 --> 00:32:27.619 sort of now and his perspective of it? And does 00:32:27.619 --> 00:32:29.920 it change your sort of transcendent thought you 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:32.539 had earlier on? I mean, at the end of the day, 00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:34.940 whether he likes the change that they've gone 00:32:34.940 --> 00:32:36.960 under or not, they are still the people of the 00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:40.039 earth. And Kumba says in the last episode to 00:32:40.039 --> 00:32:42.880 Carol, if he misses you, come back. And that's 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.069 where I started wondering about If they won't 00:32:45.069 --> 00:32:48.430 even pluck apples off a tree, does that mean 00:32:48.430 --> 00:32:50.789 that they share the consciousness with the tree? 00:32:51.289 --> 00:32:54.309 And at the end of the day, Manny, being such 00:32:54.309 --> 00:32:56.789 a man of God and a man of faith, what do you 00:32:56.789 --> 00:33:00.490 do? You reject earthly things. You reject the 00:33:00.490 --> 00:33:04.049 earth. So that's a real interesting tension to 00:33:04.049 --> 00:33:07.039 me and how his character works. It brought to 00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:11.440 mind the thoughts of colonialism for me and America 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:15.160 in general being essentially stolen land and 00:33:15.160 --> 00:33:19.960 that may add into your theory of potential invasion 00:33:19.960 --> 00:33:24.440 and the hive mind just being a tool for extraterrestrial 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:27.420 invaders. I actually want to bounce on something 00:33:27.420 --> 00:33:30.720 Joe had mentioned earlier and it's about the 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:35.960 are the animals joined? Are the plants? joined 00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:39.880 and not for surveillance purposes. Because now 00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:44.980 the line that Kuba said earlier, which is, it 00:33:44.980 --> 00:33:49.059 misses you. He doesn't say, we miss you, they 00:33:49.059 --> 00:33:53.779 miss you. He says, it misses you. And if your 00:33:53.779 --> 00:33:56.539 sort of theory is true here that every living 00:33:56.539 --> 00:33:58.720 thing on the planet is actually joined except 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:01.940 for these 13 human beings and maybe a few other 00:34:01.940 --> 00:34:04.589 creatures, I don't know. That makes a lot of 00:34:04.589 --> 00:34:06.609 sense. Now it's not necessarily a surveillance 00:34:06.609 --> 00:34:10.150 state or something like that. It is now Earth 00:34:10.150 --> 00:34:13.110 has been joined and you're one of the few things 00:34:13.110 --> 00:34:17.469 that hasn't joined and it as a whole misses you. 00:34:17.769 --> 00:34:19.829 I guess that makes her the flea on the Earth 00:34:19.829 --> 00:34:22.690 and the Earth is very forgiving of its fleas. 00:34:24.010 --> 00:34:26.389 To a certain extent, but at some point the dog 00:34:26.389 --> 00:34:30.170 has to scratch. Well, needless to say, we love 00:34:30.170 --> 00:34:33.010 Manny's monologue here. It is the standout for 00:34:33.010 --> 00:34:37.849 me for this episode. He absolutely ignores the 00:34:37.849 --> 00:34:40.690 joined and he grabs his go -bag along with his 00:34:40.690 --> 00:34:45.530 machete and forges on into the Darien Gap. I 00:34:45.530 --> 00:34:48.730 feel the sequence begins far away and we see 00:34:48.730 --> 00:34:52.289 Manny rather small in this huge jungle that is 00:34:52.289 --> 00:34:56.170 encroaching on him. As we make our way through 00:34:56.170 --> 00:35:00.849 this sequence, Manny has a mantra, and as he 00:35:00.849 --> 00:35:04.289 becomes more and more tired, and as he comes 00:35:04.289 --> 00:35:07.190 across more obstacles, we tend to get closer 00:35:07.190 --> 00:35:10.210 and closer on Manny as he's trying to make his 00:35:10.210 --> 00:35:14.409 way through the jungle. And I really loved his 00:35:14.409 --> 00:35:17.369 mantra that he goes through here. He says, I 00:35:17.369 --> 00:35:22.590 am a nusos oviedo. I am not one of them. I wish 00:35:22.590 --> 00:35:25.610 to save the world. And I just love that as he's 00:35:25.610 --> 00:35:28.550 repeating it. And we get a lot of repetition 00:35:28.550 --> 00:35:31.530 throughout this series, not only Manny's mantra 00:35:31.530 --> 00:35:34.530 or what he's repeating to learn English, but 00:35:34.530 --> 00:35:39.829 the repetition of the hive mind's message to 00:35:39.829 --> 00:35:42.849 Carol. Most shows, once you've heard, let's say 00:35:42.849 --> 00:35:45.550 the voicemail message once or twice, we know 00:35:45.550 --> 00:35:49.309 what it is. He's making us listen to every single 00:35:49.309 --> 00:35:53.780 word, every single time. And that is purposeful 00:35:53.780 --> 00:35:58.900 to us as the audience. He's ribbing us a little 00:35:58.900 --> 00:36:00.900 bit here and making it a little tough on us, 00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:03.820 but I think he's doing it in great fashion. We 00:36:03.820 --> 00:36:07.139 do get a moment where he gets to make camp, he 00:36:07.139 --> 00:36:09.980 has a fire set up, and you can see that he's 00:36:09.980 --> 00:36:14.119 trying to use the mantra as a way to keep him 00:36:14.119 --> 00:36:19.300 on track and maybe keep his fears allayed, but 00:36:19.300 --> 00:36:23.429 he's definitely worried. even he's starting to 00:36:23.429 --> 00:36:25.269 second -guess himself as to whether he should 00:36:25.269 --> 00:36:28.369 have done this or not, we notice that the rocks 00:36:28.369 --> 00:36:30.849 are slippery as he might cross a certain section, 00:36:31.090 --> 00:36:33.570 and he's tired, and he's obviously not getting 00:36:33.570 --> 00:36:35.989 much sleep in the jungle. And he finally gets 00:36:35.989 --> 00:36:39.989 to a section where we find the trees that were 00:36:39.989 --> 00:36:42.750 mentioned earlier by the joint before he went 00:36:42.750 --> 00:36:45.809 into the gap, and these are the porcupine trees. 00:36:46.190 --> 00:36:49.110 And I myself had never seen these before, and 00:36:49.110 --> 00:36:52.739 when you see them, These are terrifying trees. 00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:56.679 They do have these three, four, five inch spikes 00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.019 on them all the way around the trunk. And you 00:36:59.019 --> 00:37:01.420 can see that they're dripping with something, 00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:04.340 whether it's bacteria or poison. And not only 00:37:04.340 --> 00:37:07.780 that, when he gets to the porcupine tree forest, 00:37:08.360 --> 00:37:11.539 they're pretty close knit. He's having to kind 00:37:11.539 --> 00:37:15.820 of skim by them and try not to get too close 00:37:15.820 --> 00:37:19.119 to the porcupine trees. As you said, you start 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:21.099 to see him stumbling and I was thinking, you 00:37:21.099 --> 00:37:23.960 know, Oh, he's going to break his ankle or something 00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:26.500 and be stuck out there. And then what, but, you 00:37:26.500 --> 00:37:28.860 know, if you give me Chekhov's diseased pork 00:37:28.860 --> 00:37:31.079 and pine trees, somebody better get impaled on 00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:34.420 it. And, and they sure do. I think we all let 00:37:34.420 --> 00:37:36.420 out a shout as we were watching that at that 00:37:36.420 --> 00:37:40.519 point. Definitely. But when he was impaled on 00:37:40.519 --> 00:37:44.750 that tree, yes, I was shocked. because of his, 00:37:44.829 --> 00:37:47.369 and you bring up a great word, Josh, because 00:37:47.369 --> 00:37:51.510 of his righteous nature, my first thought, or 00:37:51.510 --> 00:37:55.329 I would say my second thought was how's he gonna 00:37:55.329 --> 00:37:58.630 get out of this? You know, this is our guy and 00:37:58.630 --> 00:38:01.429 he is righteous. In what way will he potentially 00:38:01.429 --> 00:38:05.670 get out of this? And he certainly tries. Yeah, 00:38:05.670 --> 00:38:08.429 this is where he decides to cauterize his wounds 00:38:08.429 --> 00:38:12.219 with a red hot machete. They talk about grit 00:38:12.219 --> 00:38:14.440 in your teeth and being ready just to see that. 00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:17.139 It's interesting to me because when I was watching 00:38:17.139 --> 00:38:19.079 this, I had to think about what it was really 00:38:19.079 --> 00:38:21.599 saying to me and it felt like the most poignant 00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:24.119 scene in the episode, which is, it seemed like 00:38:24.119 --> 00:38:27.480 self -flagellation to me. They specifically mentioned 00:38:27.480 --> 00:38:31.130 the bacteria -laced spines. And I feel like I 00:38:31.130 --> 00:38:32.650 should mention, I'm not sure if these are actually 00:38:32.650 --> 00:38:34.750 called porcupine trees. I think I just made a 00:38:34.750 --> 00:38:36.369 joke of that and now we're all calling them that, 00:38:36.409 --> 00:38:38.349 but I don't know if there's actually a name for 00:38:38.349 --> 00:38:40.090 these things. That's the cool thing about the 00:38:40.090 --> 00:38:41.809 show. We call everything what we want to call 00:38:41.809 --> 00:38:43.789 it. We call them the joined. Everybody else calls 00:38:43.789 --> 00:38:45.829 them the others. I'm not going to call them the 00:38:45.829 --> 00:38:48.090 others ever. They will always be the joined. 00:38:48.250 --> 00:38:51.050 So these are porcupine trees, my friend. I like 00:38:51.050 --> 00:38:53.670 the joined and I like the porcupine trees. And 00:38:53.670 --> 00:38:55.710 I do think it's interesting that here we have 00:38:55.710 --> 00:38:59.949 Manny in the cathedral of heaven, the jungle. 00:39:00.300 --> 00:39:04.659 surrounded by the earth, defying everything and 00:39:04.659 --> 00:39:07.760 his own hubris perhaps has led him to this spot 00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:10.400 and he's burning it out with a leather strap 00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:13.340 clenched between his teeth. It just says so much 00:39:13.340 --> 00:39:17.780 about his character. Yeah, if we see Manny as 00:39:17.780 --> 00:39:20.659 this man of faith, this righteous man, it very 00:39:20.659 --> 00:39:24.179 much brought to mind the self -flagellation and 00:39:24.179 --> 00:39:27.920 the paying of penance. it was quite honestly 00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:30.800 a horrifying scene to watch. And it just shows 00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:36.219 how much will Manny has and what he's willing 00:39:36.219 --> 00:39:41.960 to do to reach his goal specifically to shun 00:39:41.960 --> 00:39:45.139 the joined at the same time. Cause we know they 00:39:45.139 --> 00:39:48.460 mentioned prior that he can just wave to them 00:39:48.460 --> 00:39:51.139 in the air and they'll come, but he does not 00:39:51.139 --> 00:39:54.380 do that. And we see the next scene. as he's stumbling 00:39:54.380 --> 00:39:57.079 through the jungle still saying his mantra and 00:39:57.079 --> 00:40:00.800 ends up collapsing. And indeed the joined was 00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:04.579 watching him the entire time and they come to 00:40:04.579 --> 00:40:08.239 his rescue in a helicopter. Well, what another 00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:12.940 contrast between Menousos and Carol. Menousos 00:40:12.940 --> 00:40:15.619 is literally burning himself to stay alive and 00:40:15.619 --> 00:40:18.460 Carol is considering sitting still to let herself 00:40:18.460 --> 00:40:22.150 be burned to death. I didn't catch that. That 00:40:22.150 --> 00:40:24.849 was a good one. I also want to point out, Joe, 00:40:24.929 --> 00:40:27.150 you mentioned earlier about how these are two 00:40:27.150 --> 00:40:29.829 people that are going through their own gauntlet, 00:40:30.570 --> 00:40:33.889 though similar and different, and they end in 00:40:33.889 --> 00:40:37.670 the same way, in the arms of the joined. And 00:40:37.670 --> 00:40:40.750 I think this brings us into the third act as 00:40:40.750 --> 00:40:44.250 we catch up with Carol. We see something that 00:40:44.250 --> 00:40:47.809 we haven't seen yet and that is a fairly large 00:40:47.809 --> 00:40:50.789 time jump as we move from, I believe it's 12 00:40:50.789 --> 00:40:56.449 days to 48 days. It's about 36 days of a time 00:40:56.449 --> 00:40:59.679 jump. as we catch up with Carol. When we do the 00:40:59.679 --> 00:41:01.940 jump from the jungle back over to Carol, she 00:41:01.940 --> 00:41:05.440 has her booyah jams from 1998, which apparently 00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:08.280 are quite important. She has her own mixtape 00:41:08.280 --> 00:41:10.960 going here. And it's Judas Priest, you got another 00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:14.139 thing coming. So again, you have another strong 00:41:14.139 --> 00:41:17.579 defiant song from our Carol here, as she's hitting 00:41:17.579 --> 00:41:19.940 golf balls into the office building across the 00:41:19.940 --> 00:41:23.400 street. At this point, Carol has lost her path. 00:41:23.639 --> 00:41:26.300 She's lost her way forward. After hearing from 00:41:26.300 --> 00:41:29.679 Kumba that even the other immune don't agree 00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:34.360 with her on her stance of ingesting humans, being 00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:37.639 wrong, as I think all of us really feel about 00:41:37.639 --> 00:41:42.360 that, she doesn't see a way to overcome the joint 00:41:42.360 --> 00:41:45.119 anymore. And we have this segment here in the 00:41:45.119 --> 00:41:49.659 cult of SAC. And she's sitting in a circle of 00:41:49.659 --> 00:41:52.780 fireworks. as they're erupting sort of sequentially 00:41:52.780 --> 00:41:56.420 all around her. And the final firework tips over, 00:41:56.739 --> 00:41:59.460 and it's facing right towards her head. And there's 00:41:59.460 --> 00:42:04.400 almost a strange, nihilistic acceptance that 00:42:04.400 --> 00:42:06.980 comes across Carol in this moment as she is facing 00:42:06.980 --> 00:42:10.659 down this firework and accepting her fate, much 00:42:10.659 --> 00:42:13.840 as Menousos in the prior scene was denying his 00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:17.190 fate. She does have that nihilistic look. And 00:42:17.190 --> 00:42:19.269 I got a little bit worried there, but I think 00:42:19.269 --> 00:42:23.630 she has endured enough of this solitude in order 00:42:23.630 --> 00:42:27.250 to, as Kumba had said in the previous episode, 00:42:28.230 --> 00:42:31.710 have a change of heart. It's a very passive -aggressive 00:42:31.710 --> 00:42:33.969 way to get someone to do that, in my opinion, 00:42:34.030 --> 00:42:37.869 but here we are nonetheless. And as she faces 00:42:37.869 --> 00:42:41.309 down this firework, it does fire off. And it 00:42:41.309 --> 00:42:45.019 seemed like it didn't even phase her. as it whizzed 00:42:45.019 --> 00:42:48.159 not even inches past her face, landing in the 00:42:48.159 --> 00:42:51.420 roof of her neighbor's house. I love the way 00:42:51.420 --> 00:42:53.820 the camera just slowly closes in and you see 00:42:53.820 --> 00:42:56.300 her face and she doesn't move a muscle, but you 00:42:56.300 --> 00:42:58.719 know what's going on in there. I guess that's 00:42:58.719 --> 00:43:01.219 the question. Is it her final submission? Is 00:43:01.219 --> 00:43:04.679 she giving in? Is she broken? I don't know. I'm 00:43:04.679 --> 00:43:07.739 not sure if she's given in or if she's just gotten 00:43:07.739 --> 00:43:10.900 more resolve. I guess we'll find out. I very 00:43:10.900 --> 00:43:14.329 much see it as At this point, Carol has lost 00:43:14.329 --> 00:43:17.809 her path. She's lost her way forward. She is 00:43:17.809 --> 00:43:21.469 now officially fully alone and she's accepted 00:43:21.469 --> 00:43:25.030 the fate of if this firecracker goes off in my 00:43:25.030 --> 00:43:27.949 face, then I'm okay with this being the end. 00:43:28.369 --> 00:43:31.150 But we see this blue firework go off and it lights 00:43:31.150 --> 00:43:35.590 the roof of her neighbor's house on fire. And 00:43:35.590 --> 00:43:38.150 what does she utilize to put out that fire but 00:43:38.150 --> 00:43:41.699 a yellow garden hose? But as she puts out the 00:43:41.699 --> 00:43:44.780 fire, it brings us to the next scene in which 00:43:44.780 --> 00:43:48.659 she heads to Salmon's hardware store to pick 00:43:48.659 --> 00:44:11.030 up a five -gallon bucket of paint. write something 00:44:11.030 --> 00:44:14.690 in the center of that cul -de -sac in large letters 00:44:14.690 --> 00:44:18.469 that point up. And of course, we know that whether 00:44:18.469 --> 00:44:20.949 she likes it or not, they're watching her either 00:44:20.949 --> 00:44:23.650 from a satellite or from a drone or from something 00:44:23.650 --> 00:44:26.349 else. And then she goes into the house, into 00:44:26.349 --> 00:44:28.349 her house, and sits in front of the painting, 00:44:28.469 --> 00:44:32.670 the Belladonna painting, and watches it. And 00:44:32.670 --> 00:44:34.650 then we hear a car pull up, and we wonder, who 00:44:34.650 --> 00:44:38.800 is that? Turns out it's Zosia. And Carol comes 00:44:38.800 --> 00:44:44.380 out and hesitantly, slowly comes towards her 00:44:44.380 --> 00:44:48.559 and then embraces her completely. She's shuddering. 00:44:48.599 --> 00:44:53.039 She's gasping. She's so relieved and so upset. 00:44:53.059 --> 00:44:56.119 And it's like she's lost her grip to a point 00:44:56.119 --> 00:45:00.000 and can't even hold back the pain she's been 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:03.300 feeling. And of course, Zosia shows up in a bright 00:45:03.300 --> 00:45:06.139 blue car. How about that? And I think there's 00:45:06.139 --> 00:45:08.780 two different ways to interpret the scene as 00:45:08.780 --> 00:45:12.800 Carol falls into the arms of Zosia. And Zosia 00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:17.159 not very emphatically embraces her back, but 00:45:17.159 --> 00:45:20.719 we have to think, was this a plan of Carol's 00:45:20.719 --> 00:45:24.760 to call back the joined, begin the next phase 00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:27.940 of her plan or a new phase of her plan? Or is 00:45:27.940 --> 00:45:30.280 it truly that she's lost her path completely? 00:45:30.750 --> 00:45:34.750 and the weaponizing of her loneliness by the 00:45:34.750 --> 00:45:39.010 joined have defeated her. And she's now at the 00:45:39.010 --> 00:45:41.690 mercy of the joined almost just to have some 00:45:41.690 --> 00:45:44.530 sort of connection back in her life. After these 00:45:44.530 --> 00:45:49.130 36 or so some odd days, I'm of the mind that 00:45:49.130 --> 00:45:52.829 she has been defeated and that there is no ulterior 00:45:52.829 --> 00:45:55.269 motive for her to call back Zosia or call back 00:45:55.269 --> 00:45:59.230 the joined, but she has finally succumbed to 00:45:59.230 --> 00:46:01.940 that loneliness. You know, Carol doesn't strike 00:46:01.940 --> 00:46:05.039 me as much of an actor. When you watch her, the 00:46:05.039 --> 00:46:08.480 way she hugs Zosia, that doesn't seem fake. And 00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:10.440 she doesn't seem like a person who doesn't say 00:46:10.440 --> 00:46:13.460 what she thinks. In fact, she seems to very specifically 00:46:13.460 --> 00:46:16.559 always say what she thinks. But then when I thought 00:46:16.559 --> 00:46:18.960 about her sitting there taking this painting 00:46:18.960 --> 00:46:22.300 and finding some agency with herself again in 00:46:22.300 --> 00:46:24.719 a new way, and sitting there looking at it while 00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:27.260 she waited for them and then you realize after 00:46:27.260 --> 00:46:29.780 the hug that she put the call out to ask them 00:46:29.780 --> 00:46:32.460 to come. I wasn't sure what she was painting. 00:46:33.440 --> 00:46:36.360 You know, she's faced down her own death. She 00:46:36.360 --> 00:46:39.199 gave up on life. And then when it missed her, 00:46:39.239 --> 00:46:41.360 it was like a coin toss and it set that house 00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:45.099 on fire. And if she was really truly given over 00:46:45.099 --> 00:46:47.099 to nihilism, she could have just sat there and 00:46:47.099 --> 00:46:49.320 let it burn down and burn down the whole neighborhood 00:46:49.320 --> 00:46:51.920 and her too. but she didn't. I think she made 00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:54.460 a decision and she got up and she got grabbed 00:46:54.460 --> 00:46:57.320 that yellow hose and put out the fire and put 00:46:57.320 --> 00:47:00.400 her next plan into action. And I think that the 00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:03.179 notion that somehow she is going to be the poison 00:47:03.179 --> 00:47:07.179 pill that walks into them is fascinating. I'm 00:47:07.179 --> 00:47:10.400 on the side of her being calculating because 00:47:10.400 --> 00:47:15.079 we've seen so much of that in her anyway and 00:47:15.079 --> 00:47:20.269 so much of it before and also thinking ahead, 00:47:20.929 --> 00:47:24.130 she paints the cul -de -sac, she goes into the 00:47:24.130 --> 00:47:26.989 house, and she sits there in front of her painting 00:47:26.989 --> 00:47:29.889 and sort of meditates on it, right? She even 00:47:29.889 --> 00:47:32.849 reacts to it, almost like she's having a conversation 00:47:32.849 --> 00:47:35.190 in her mind. And then what does she do? She calls 00:47:35.190 --> 00:47:39.329 back to them and brings them back. It doesn't 00:47:39.329 --> 00:47:42.869 seem necessarily like, quote unquote, a change 00:47:42.869 --> 00:47:46.210 of heart. It seems like she's using their own 00:47:46.210 --> 00:47:49.800 methods against them. to get them to do what 00:47:49.800 --> 00:47:54.239 she wants them to do again. And as far as the 00:47:54.239 --> 00:47:59.079 reaction, yes, it is a true and honest reaction. 00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:02.980 She's been alone for 36 days. The next human 00:48:02.980 --> 00:48:05.139 being, whether it's a robot or not, you're going 00:48:05.139 --> 00:48:08.980 to embrace it because that is human nature. That 00:48:08.980 --> 00:48:12.980 doesn't mean that she has failed or given up 00:48:12.980 --> 00:48:16.260 or is willing to embrace the joint at all. At 00:48:16.260 --> 00:48:19.019 the end of the episode, we have the closure of 00:48:19.019 --> 00:48:22.579 the two threads and the gauntlets have been traversed. 00:48:22.699 --> 00:48:26.320 They've both gone through torment and torture 00:48:26.320 --> 00:48:29.500 and have ended up in the arms of the joined. 00:48:29.860 --> 00:48:31.820 And I mean, what could be next? Yeah, and we 00:48:31.820 --> 00:48:35.699 only have two more episodes left. So prime yourself 00:48:35.699 --> 00:48:38.739 for hearing the word penultimate a lot for the 00:48:38.739 --> 00:48:41.539 next week. Now that we've run through it and 00:48:41.539 --> 00:48:44.019 shared our thoughts on it, Josh, again, what 00:48:44.019 --> 00:48:45.699 are your overall thoughts on this particular 00:48:45.699 --> 00:48:48.440 episode? I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I think 00:48:48.440 --> 00:48:52.199 specifically because we've got much more of Menousos 00:48:52.199 --> 00:48:55.019 and his journey and those are always such a pleasure 00:48:55.019 --> 00:48:58.300 for me and the juxtaposition of their two journeys 00:48:58.300 --> 00:49:00.619 throughout this and how they deal with loneliness 00:49:00.619 --> 00:49:05.739 and how Carol has lost her path whereas Menousos 00:49:05.739 --> 00:49:08.320 has found his path I think was a really great. 00:49:08.750 --> 00:49:13.369 two sides of the same coin. And to me, it was 00:49:13.369 --> 00:49:17.369 very heartbreaking at the end to see how Carol, 00:49:17.449 --> 00:49:21.349 in my eyes at least, had lost her path and see 00:49:21.349 --> 00:49:25.110 her finally embracing the joint. My final thoughts 00:49:25.110 --> 00:49:27.469 are, oh gosh, I can't believe there's only two 00:49:27.469 --> 00:49:30.550 episodes left. They're not going to sew anything 00:49:30.550 --> 00:49:35.110 up, are they? The journey they've taken us on, 00:49:35.210 --> 00:49:38.579 I can't even imagine what's coming next. It's 00:49:38.579 --> 00:49:41.059 such a fascinating place to leave us. The chess 00:49:41.059 --> 00:49:44.639 pieces are clear, understood and on the board. 00:49:45.539 --> 00:49:47.480 And how is this going to play out and where is 00:49:47.480 --> 00:49:49.079 it going to leave us at the end of the season? 00:49:49.320 --> 00:49:52.679 I hope with the level of writing we see here 00:49:52.679 --> 00:49:54.920 that we're going to get some reveals that have 00:49:54.920 --> 00:49:57.800 some sense of leaving us salivating for more. 00:49:58.079 --> 00:49:59.679 And I, from what I understand, it's going to 00:49:59.679 --> 00:50:02.380 be a couple of years before we have more. So 00:50:02.380 --> 00:50:04.420 I guess we should just really chew these well 00:50:04.420 --> 00:50:08.449 and enjoy them. Yeah, and I think they're also 00:50:08.449 --> 00:50:10.650 certainly rewatchable, right? We can go back 00:50:10.650 --> 00:50:13.210 and see if we can't find a few more pieces of 00:50:13.210 --> 00:50:15.789 information that will get us through the long 00:50:15.789 --> 00:50:21.170 stretch as we wait far beyond 45 days, 20 hours, 00:50:21.389 --> 00:50:25.849 42 minutes, and 55 seconds. I kid. Bringing that 00:50:25.849 --> 00:50:28.929 up though, actually, we have two time stamps 00:50:28.929 --> 00:50:32.079 in this particular episode. One's not so unique 00:50:32.079 --> 00:50:34.679 and the other one is, and I have to say both 00:50:34.679 --> 00:50:37.139 of these are non -prime numbers, so if we match 00:50:37.139 --> 00:50:40.699 that up with our previous prime number timestamp 00:50:40.699 --> 00:50:44.019 theory, what we're getting here are some dark 00:50:44.019 --> 00:50:46.079 reveals, and maybe the dark reveal for Carol 00:50:46.079 --> 00:50:49.960 is that she embraces the nihilistic view and 00:50:49.960 --> 00:50:55.500 the joined, and Menousos, of course, defies the 00:50:55.500 --> 00:50:58.480 joined and goes into the gap anyway and could 00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:01.699 potentially die. two pretty dark storylines. 00:51:02.059 --> 00:51:06.059 When we get to our second timestamp, this is 00:51:06.059 --> 00:51:10.159 a significant time jump and we have 48 days, 00:51:10.360 --> 00:51:14.719 16 hours, 57 minutes, and 12 seconds. Again, 00:51:14.920 --> 00:51:18.760 not another prime number, so we have some dark 00:51:18.760 --> 00:51:23.440 reveals in this episode for Carol as well. Those 00:51:23.440 --> 00:51:25.300 are just the two timestamps that we had for this 00:51:25.300 --> 00:51:27.380 episode and I wanted to bring those up to align 00:51:27.380 --> 00:51:29.960 them with. the current theory we have. Whether 00:51:29.960 --> 00:51:32.539 it falls apart later or not, you know, there's 00:51:32.539 --> 00:51:34.840 always potential there, I'm sure. Well, thank 00:51:34.840 --> 00:51:38.280 you once again, Carol, for joining us on E Pluribus 00:51:38.280 --> 00:51:41.960 Uno for the Pluribus episode seven, The Gap. 00:51:42.280 --> 00:51:45.079 We want to thank Joe for joining us as well. 00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:48.239 So many insights, Joe. It's been a real pleasure 00:51:48.239 --> 00:51:50.920 having you on the show. And honestly, I believe 00:51:50.920 --> 00:51:53.019 I can speak for Josh and say we would love to 00:51:53.019 --> 00:51:55.460 have you back sometime. I appreciate that, man. 00:51:55.559 --> 00:51:57.849 Anytime, I'd love to come back. That's fantastic. 00:51:57.949 --> 00:51:59.849 I always love getting another voice in here. 00:52:00.090 --> 00:52:01.789 Josh, you have any parting words for us before 00:52:01.789 --> 00:52:04.849 we bounce? Well, I just want to say, Carol, our 00:52:04.849 --> 00:52:07.190 feelings about you haven't changed, but we don't 00:52:07.190 --> 00:52:09.389 need our space over here. We would love for you 00:52:09.389 --> 00:52:12.289 to come join our Discord and chat some great 00:52:12.289 --> 00:52:14.489 theories and chat some stupid theories with us 00:52:14.489 --> 00:52:16.530 as well. But apart from that, if you guys would 00:52:16.530 --> 00:52:19.630 like to join us on our other podcast, Dad, You're 00:52:19.630 --> 00:52:22.750 Wrong, where a Gen X dad and a millennial son 00:52:22.750 --> 00:52:26.369 talk everything from horror, sci -fi, fantasy, 00:52:26.570 --> 00:52:29.289 and everything in between. We'll be having our 00:52:29.289 --> 00:52:31.489 end of the year episode, our top tens coming 00:52:31.489 --> 00:52:33.710 out before the end of the year, hopefully around 00:52:33.710 --> 00:52:36.789 Christmas time. And apart from that, we will 00:52:36.789 --> 00:52:39.909 be talking to you guys next week for episode 00:52:39.909 --> 00:52:42.389 eight of Pluribus. Thanks, Carol.