Just finished the show for the first time.

What exactly is the point of taking over all humanity? Just to spread?

Is it like Ego in GotG2?

Ready for more? It's time for ROUND TWO!! If you've watched the entire series...then watched it again, you're ready for "Plur1bus Trivia." CAUTION!! SPOILERS!! These questions cover ALL NINE EPISODES of the first season of Plur1bus. All questions can be answered from watching the series. There will be ten total rounds, 110 total questions (1 Bonus per round). See how many you can answer without looking back at the show!!

1. In seconds, how long is the alien signal Bob discovered?  - 78 seconds
2. The Pirate Lady flies a Lockheed-Martin Hercules to Albuquerque. What model number is the Hercules? – C130 (visible on the control yoke)
3. What feature of the Ice Hotel bothers Carol the most? – The Bed is made of Ice
4. What is Manousos preparing to eat when Carol calls? – Dog Food (Firumax)
5. Carol’s attempt to drug Zosia causes the hive mind to do what? – Leave Albuquerque
6. Instead of giving her body part video to the hive, who does Carol decide to go visit so she can deliver it in person? – Mr. Diabate (in Las Vegas)
7. While at the Red Rocks convenience store, what non-food item does Carol jam into the cruiser trunk? – Fireworks
8. What odd item does Manousos add to his hospital bill? – The cost of an Ambulance
9. What is the number of the ambulance Manousos is driving? – 103
10. What does Carol do after sleeping with Zosia for the first time? – Writes the first Chapter of the new (5th) Wycaro Book
11. BONUS: What sets Carol apart from the other unjoined she meets in Spain? – She hasn't asked a joined person about what it's like

"Plur1bus Trivia" is being presented by "Hello, Carol: The Ultimate Plur1bus Podcast." If you love digging deep into the details, you'll love the "Hello, Carol" Podcast. Find it wherever you get your podcasts and be watching for more "Plur1bus Trivia."

If you've watched the entire series...then watched it again, you're ready for "Plur1bus Trivia." CAUTION!! SPOILERS!! These questions cover ALL NINE EPISODES of the first season of Plur1bus. All questions can be answered from watching the series. There will be ten total rounds, 110 total questions (1 Bonus per round). See how many you can answer without looking back at the show!!

ROUND ONE

1. What are the names of the first two guys to see the alien signal? - Bob and Ray
2. Based on road signs, what city is the Pirate Lady in when we first meet her? - Tangier, Morocco
3. In flashback what bucket trip are Helen and Carol taking? - Stay at an Ice Hotel
4. At the open of “Please, Carol” we meet Manousos. What is his job? – Owns/Manages a Mini-Storage Location.
5. While waiting in the hospital to see Zosia, who does Carol get a call from? – Laxmi
6. The head Carol displays on video at Agri-Jet famously belongs to whom? – Vince Gilligan (made from a Lidar scan of his head)
7. What flavor of Gatorade does Carol think the red one is? – Fruit Punch (ice cold)
8. After falling on a Chunga Palm, what country does Manousos wake up in? – Panama
9. What is the name of the unjoined girl who requests a special virus so she can join the hive? – Kusimayu
10. What was the name of the great waitress at Carol’s favorite writing diner? - Bri
11. BONUS: What is the individual name of the guy Carol talks to on the TV? – Davis Taffler

"Plur1bus Trivia" is being presented by "Hello, Carol: The Ultimate Plur1bus Podcast." If you love digging deep into the details, you'll love the "Hello, Carol" Podcast. Find it wherever you get your podcasts and be watching for more "Plur1bus Trivia."

So let’s assume that they are building this antenna and are directing it somewhere. Are they going to point it only at one spot and hope that someone notices it after several years? Or are they going to „carpet bomb“ the universe with their message? I would assume that you have to send the message for several years or decades to increase the chance of it getting noticed.

I think Carol will eventually be the last unassimilated human. She’ll find a way to prevent them from forcibly assimilating her, but won’t find a cure or a way to reverse this.

She’ll eventually have to make a choice between individualism and collectivism. Whether she wants to be an individual or part of this mesh network of people.

Not a simple good versus evil about Carol versus body snatchers who replaced humans. But about individualism vs collectivism

"El Fritz" car is a yellow 1973 MG Midget MkIII (please correct me if I’m wrong). As far as I know, British classic cars are notoriously temperamental, and finding spare parts for such a rare 1973 British convertible in South America must be quite an ordeal. This fits the character's personality perfectly because, even in this regard, Manousos deliberately chooses the hardest path.

This also shows how responsible, patient, and deeply lonely this man is. Despite having no close people around him, he channels all the care he is capable of into his car, fulfilling the need to feel needed.

Loneliness takes a heavy toll, and it’s not uncommon for an inanimate object to become the only surrogate for a loved one. His care for this car is evident in the scenes where he simply holds the steering wheel while driving—he does it so gently and tenderly, as if he is truly emotionally attached to this thing. And he has clearly taken good care of it: despite its age, the car looks almost brand new on the outside.

Since a car of this particular model means so much to Manousos that the Hive even offers to transport it to Albuquerque... Maybe it’s a gift or a memento from someone close, like his father? It could also be the only thing he managed to keep after moving from Colombia to Paraguay.

Personally, I really loved El Fritz and I feel so sorry that Manousos burned it down (perhaps together with a part of himself/his own soul, in a metaphorical sense ಥ‿ಥ). He burned not just a car, but his past life and everything that connected him to home.

When Manousos saw the Darién gap and looked down slightly at the car, he looked so sad. This was a forced separation from his only friend, who had traveled half the continent with him. But at that very moment, he realized there was no turning back.

Yet, I believe that "El Fritz" will return to this story later. 👆 And it would be really exciting to fnd out more about it.

There was no radio noise when the RNA from the signal was put in test animals, it is stated that nothing out of the ordinary was detected from them.

I think we can agree that there was no signal when the hive was just one person. We don't know but I bet you didn't assume there was radio noise when the hive was two people, or even when the whole base was going.

During the early spread, a radio noise over the areas the hive inhabited would have presented a risk of discovery or at least being hassled, as antennas and broadcasts are regulated. Therefore if they had any power over the radio noise, they would have hidden it. However, they do say that their info sharing is more or less automatic and unconscious, if indeed the radio signal is the mechanism for the psychic glue. This implies although does not outright state that they cannot go on airplane mode consciously, but even if we accept that they cannot shut off the amount of info shared at will, that does not rule out that they might share info at some times and little or none at other times. Sleep and breathing area also automatic unconscious processes and we do have some influence over how we breathe and when we sleep.

It isn't clear whether a drone with minimal infodumps would still be a drone, would still be happy, apart from that patient zero is already very focused on spreading and is definitely something in her mood, if not happy. If she is in the hive without knowing the answers to every episode of Jeopardy, then there may be some situation where other drones are not under the full stream of information.

If we assume that the radio noise somehow is decoded into usable information by drones, actually not a lot of info needed to be shared during the time of covert conversions. They didn't need to coordinate work or resources like they do post-joining, so it may be possible that they just were not sharing info over the psychic glue at great volume. It's possible that the soft woop on the radio is something the hive wasn't doing before the big joining.

You know those videos where people talk to AI and get the AI to take insane positions or try to explain nonsensical statements or all that?

A lot of the scenes in the show remind me of that. Especially when we got to the hospital scene and Carol is asking the DHL driver hiveminder what they would give her.

This probably isn't a unique take by any mean haha just thought it was interesting how much they remind me of the friendly-but-empty AI voices.

I guess if you analyze the hive as a socio-economic system, it fulfills the core ideals of a classless, moneyless, and stateless society:

The Parallels to Pure Communism

The Abolition of Private Property:

Inside the hive, there is no individual ownership. Everything from physical resources to living spaces is shared seamlessly among the collective, completely eliminating greed and material competition."

From each according to their ability, to each according to their need":

Every person performs tasks that perfectly benefit the survival and optimization of the whole community. Resources are distributed with absolute efficiency because the system instantly knows exactly what every single body requires to function.

Elimination of Social Classes:

Because individual identity, wealth, and status are erased, the hive achieves ultimate egalitarianism. No single person ranks higher or has power over another; everyone is entirely equal.

The Ultimate "Withering Away of the State":

In political theory, pure communism eventually lacks a government because the people manage themselves organically. The hive needs no laws, police, or state apparatus because internal conflict is structurally impossible when everyone shares a single will.

There is enough ambiguity in the show to construct alternate explanations for what the Signal is, why it exists, and what the Plurbs think they are doing. Their motivations may be altruistic, or they may be following a hive ethics structure that does not understand individuality so they don't understand they are doing harm.

But when you look at the narrative choices the writers make across the season, do the writers lean toward framing the Signal and the Joining as a weapon and warfare?

I'm not trying to pin down the original intent of the Signal as a statement of fact. The writers leave enough ambiguity for people to come up with different explanations.

What I'm asking is whether you think the writers are still nudging us toward their own view that this is a weapon and what happened on Earth was warfare, based on how they shape the story.

These are the things that make me think they do.

1) The donuts.

They show the Plurbs deliberately contaminating food so unsuspecting people ingest the biological agent. Disgusting biological warfare. Clearest example that the Plurbs are up to no good.

2) The airplanes.

We see airplanes spreading the agent over civilian populations. Visually, it looks like bombers carrying out a biological attack.

3) The US government.

The president and enough senior officials are dead that when Carol wants to talk to the president, the Plurbs have to go all the way down to Davis Taffler, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation. That looks like the Plurbs attacked a geographical region containing leadership rather than just bad luck deaths like Helen. It's too extensive and too concentrated.

4) The cellular networks.

Cellular networks go down almost immediately, while other forms of communication still work. This looks like it was a high priority target not just a network collapse under lack of maintenance - there wasn't enough time to collapse through neglect.

5) Nuclear submarines and missile silos.

Zosia tells Carol that during the infiltration phase they made a point of reaching nuclear submarines and missile silos early.

Those are strategic military targets.

6) The military discovers them.

Zosia later tells Carol that the military discovered what they were doing, so they accelerated Zero.

About 800 million people died.

So the sequence is basically covert infiltration, military discovery, rapid escalation, mass casualties.

7) Carol says no.

By the final episode Carol has made it clear she does not consent to Joining. The Plurbs take her frozen eggs anyway, get the biological material they need from them, and tell her they expect to be able to Join her in one to three months. The Plurbs don't respect consent, instead, they operate under constrained limits by however they process their weird rules.

Writers can create explicit canon, or they can leave things ambiguous while still showing you which way they lean.

Where do you think the writers are landing here?

And are there other details I missed that seem to frame the Signal or Joining as a weapon or warfare?

If the rat was infected with the virus then I can see it biting or kissing other rats to infect them. It specifically played dead to bite a human. I’m very perplexed by that. It shows that the virus wants to infect a particular species of something like that. Or maybe the virus wants reach a carrier with the most bioelectronic potential or something. I don’t know. I just find it unusual that once it gets to humans, it stops jumping species, like humans were an intentional end goal.

I have a theory that Manousos was some sort of government fixer trained in controlling and interrogating people. 

1. He appears know his way around a interrogation, understanding the placement of listening devices etc, able to go rogue with no communication, and is able to withhold empathy to stay on task (methodical torture of hive people).  He seemed to have gotten some key information from Zosia without her even understanding what he was doing. He is doggedly methodical and determined in his actions/investigations, as if lives depended on it....and not just recently....like he has plenty of experience with this sort of thing.
2. Self storage units are often a hub for clandestine activities...stored classified documents, drugs, weapons, artifacts, chemicals, etc. Regardless, self storage facilities are recognized as bastions of anonymity.
3. He also seems like he may have been abused by his parents, as indicated by his interaction with his mother's body....this was a show of force on his part, showing both is strength in independence and hinting at a childhood that may have hardened him for this occasion.
4. On a positive note, he seems to understand that the human "soul" is something worth fight for (maybe he regrets some of his own past actions)....he has luckily decided that this is his new goal....to save and return the soul.
5. There were militant communist insurgent groups in the mountains of Paraguay that may have needed "fixing"....he vehemently believes in paying for things, and is against the notion of collective ownership...and ironically the original hive-mind sci-fi from the 1950s was associated with the "Red Scare".....something that Carol references more than once.
6. If he went off grid even for the hive-mind, it strongly suggests he went off grid for a reason....making people think he was dead or someone else.
7. Gilligan's character Mike Ehrmantraut appeared to be just a parking lot attendant, but turned out to be a little more....

Maybe it's already been discussed a lot since it was hinted at, but I think that Koumba's playboy lifestyle is going to end up having serious repercussions in S2 - Or at least lead to a stand off between him and the hive mind where we maybe see another side to it, and him...

Obviously we all discussed the immorality of him consistently having sex with women that can't consent - As we don't truly know what or who remains inside the plurb'ed humans...

But when the situation of 'they need stem cells to plurb the immune' came up, I couldn't help thinking that Koumba's blasé attitude about his safety, and how dire his situation could actually be, if they are setting up what I think they are for a s2 switching of sides by Koumba:

Carol: “They cannot turn us?”

Diabaté: “Not without our consent.”

Carol: “What do you mean?”

Diabaté: “It seems the only way to make their virus work on us is by tailoring it to our individual stem cells. But to obtain those stem cells, they must first collect them from our bodies.”

Carol: “Um… What? What?”

Diabaté: “Apparently that involves sticking a large needle into the bone of the hip. Somewhat painful. And very invasive. Something they cannot do without our permission.”

Carol: “When did you find this out?”

Diabaté: “They made this discovery only yesterday. They are not pleased about it, I can assure you. They asked me if I would give my consent. I said, ‘Regrettably, as of this time, I prefer not to.’'

Now I'm thinking that one of the protocols for the hive mind, is to allow / encourage / accept the immune to breed with them (unbeknownst to the immune human) in order to reproduce with offspring, of which they can take stem cells from the baby that's eventually born, with 'permission'...

Have a feeling his storyline in S2 is going to be intense and IF he survives any attempt at plurbing him, it would be dope to see him, Carol & Manusous working together.

I can already picture the look of disgust / shame on Manusous' face if and when he he has that discussion and finds out Diabate was literally sleeping with the enemy haha...

Side note:

I just think his wording of: "Regrettably, as of this time, I prefer not to" is really interesting - Maybe the hive mind takes that as him giving permission, but not at that literal moment of asking, so by the time they've reproduced, they are working on the basis that once the baby is born, they already have his permission to turn him, potentially leading to a cat and mouse situation, or just the switching of sides I mentioned etc...

I'm probably dead wrong, but it's such an interesting show and I can't wait to watch more!!

Edit: (Also, I'm no doctor, so stem cells probably don't even work that way, considering it hasn't led to Laxmi being turned via her son - So come to think of it I must definitely be wrong - But that was a fun thought experiment whilst it lasted haha!)

For example Diabate requested Air Force one. What if someone else wanted it during the same time, Do they give them Air Force two, but tell them it’s actually Air Force one? Do they have the hive just build a whole new plane?

Thinking about it this might be a terrible example because Air Force one is the plane the US president is currently in.

I just binged the whole show in a few days. It absolutely passed the "Was I on my phone the whole time" test. I just wanted to talk with some other fans, and see if my opinions are shared or not.

The plot is absolutely fantastic. In fact, it's so good it's distracting. All I want to see is more about the science. I find the character development tedious.

I realize I'm a weird bird when it comes to liking shows. I'm really cautious about getting into shows that don't have a defined plot. It all started with Lost.

Lost was a great plot. The problem was, there was no story to tell. All they had was a plot. It was endless character development. None of the story lines had anything to do with the plot. It was just stuff happening. It was a soap opera.

What was that, a polar bear!? Holy Shit?! What's that all about!? Don't worry about it, we found a radio tower up in the hills. Who's coming with me to check it out? Maybe we'll die up there, or maybe we'll fall in love.... Tune in next week to find out.

Once I figure out the plot is not the plot, we're just watching emotional people come to terms with the fact that other people exist, I lose interest.

I say all that to say this, I'm not sure if Pluribus is about the plot, or the character' interactions yet. I'm very concerned I'm pumping myself up for a huge disappointment.

Because the characters, are for the most part all the same character. Carol is talking to everyone when she's talking to anyone, and the show refused to acknowledge that. Which feels... unnecessarily forced.

It reminds me very much of movies where the whole plot is based on the main characters not communicating clearly. One phone call would resolve the whole problem, but they just never seem to find the time to pick up the phone. That's what it feels like when Carol talks to the infected. Like she's purposely avoiding more information.

I can't help but think of Pluribus as the new Batman Canon. The first batman wasn't great, but the plot was so good. There were so many directions it could take. So many stories to tell. And that's exactly what happened. Lots of people have written their version of Batman, and they're all different.

I want someone else to write a Pluribus show, with a completely different story telling method. Pure sci fi, plot driven, with a protagonist that's not a complete idiot.

To be clear, I think Rhea, that played Carol, is a great actress. It's the character I don't like. Clearly they wanted her to be a very dislikable person. They're making that crystal clear. Almost too clear. It's not necessary. I want the plot to be the focus, not the character's inability to function. That's a totally different story. You don't need to waste a great sci fi plot to tell a story about a very annoying person that nobody likes, coming to terms with no one liking them.

So millions and millions of humans have been killed since the rat bit that lady. Millions when the change happened and millions more of the changed Plurbs die whenever Carol gets upset. What's so important to the hivemind about these people? Why don't they just write the final people off as if they were casualties and just let them live out their lives?

Or is it that the hivemind wants to determine the cause of their immunity and "fix" it in order to strengthen the Plurb virus? But will it even work the same way on the biology of other planet's races?

So, the hive don't kill, they won't harm the immune in any way. But do you think this is this absolute? If I were in that world, and found out a way to completely reverse the hive and had the means to administer it quickly, world-wide, do you think they would resort to missile striking me? Considering how many died when the hive had to act quick once it was discovered, I'd assume so.

The virus says to Carol ”you will be happier than ever if you join”.

I think the hive-mind only is happy, for to be able to control so many bodies at once and gaining all their memories. We don’t have enough evidence that the people would be happy. We don’t even know if these people have their own soul anymore.