# Pluribus (New Vince Gilligan show on AppleTV) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, apple\ **Created:** [November 7, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659 "2025-11-07T12:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/281 "2025-11-23T16:14:44Z")
“Dead men don’t write sequels…” ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/282 "2025-11-23T16:20:10Z")
I should think there’s an antiquarian or two among them that would beg to differ. If they want to uncover new books, all they have to do is dig… ---
**Author:** ![Meatwater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meatwater/32/20074_2.png) [@Meatwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatwater)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/283 "2025-11-23T16:46:29Z")
I can imagine that after absorbing all human knowledge that they could feel that all other fiction has been dissected to the point of no longer enjoying it. While Carol is an ever present wildcard to them, that could in fact write more. Also in the fiction of this collective, who’s to say they can’t inherit dead knowledge from ancestors? My only speculation being that they don’t seem to care about historical artifacts, like when offering up Shakespeare’s original works. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/284 "2025-11-23T16:52:41Z")
Carol’s the only living author who can get honest, unexpurgated reviews of her books, including those that gave up and perhaps just read the last pages. I’d think the Others are putting some extra effort info finding more immune. If everyone in submarines and those in deep mines1 weren’t resistant, the roof of a storage facility didn’t protect Manuosos. I’m still of a mind that the Others cannot assimilate these 13. They of course don’t really need to, despite Carol’s actions which in this case were an attempt to directly discover a “cure”. If we can buy this stuff she injected is “truth serum” that clearly is at odds with even revealing there is a way to reverse things, let alone saying how. I couldn’t tell if the Others we saw in Ep4 were just looting what was left that can be used in whatever domicile they live in without power, or moving in. Perhaps just to this grid to give Carol some neighbors. I can see the end of ep 18 being an aerial view of rows of giant Arecibo-sized radio dishes broadcasting this virus to the world. If the Others can be cured, shut it off. If an antidote can be coded, broadcast that instead. 1 - of course someone could have “licked the donuts” in all of those places 13 / 9 billion aren’t real good odds for being immune ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/285 "2025-11-23T17:02:55Z")
I don’t think the submarines and other remote sites were infected through the air - I think submarines were recalled to port (by the normal authorities already infected), special missions were arranged for remote facilities, etc. All before the airborne chemtrail event. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/286 "2025-11-23T17:33:29Z")
I can’t decide if Carol really wanted honest opinions on her work or was testing whether they could lie to please her or not. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/287 "2025-11-23T18:10:16Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > was testing whether they could lie to please her or not. 100% this. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/288 "2025-11-23T18:13:50Z")
Yes, they made very clear (explicitly) that they infected those sorts of places early on, and this was a months-long \*conspiracy. Submarines still require logistics support. They need to restock on food every few months, for example. Get the SSBNs while they’re in port either before they leave on patrol or right after they come back. Get the SSNs and SSGNs either in their home ports or during a port visit. Get the whole crew at once, either by putting it in the water or with an aerosol through the ventilation system. Or, heck, have a member of the squadron staff just walk aboard and french kiss a sentry. If time is an issue (eg: a submarine left early on, just before they had a chance to get it), they could have simply infected appropriate senior officers or civilian officials and then arranged to give orders for an unplanned port visit or vertrep to take on supplies or a rider. So many ways to do it, it borders on the trivial as long as you take care to do them before word gets out. Once word gets out to higher echelons, they will of course be given strict orders to maintain radio silence (but even then, frankly, to what end? At some point, infection or death becomes as inevitable as the ending to _On the Beach_). \*Technically, I suppose it’s not a conspiracy, because a conspiracy requires, as an element, an agreement to commit a crime, and “agreement” necessarily requires two or more parties. Here, arguably, there is only one party (“We”), and thus no conspiracy. ETA: > [@DigitalC](#): > > I can’t decide if Carol really wanted honest opinions on her work or was testing whether they could lie to please her or not. I figured it was pretty obvious she was testing their capacity for mendacity because she figured if they only wanted to please her, with no constraints, they would have no compunction about lying, as telling the truth would likely not please her as much from their perspective. Of course she already knew (and they knew she knew, through Helen) that her popular works were utter garbage. But even _she_ didn’t know that Helen thought her years-long endeavor at creating high art was middling at best (as Helen had, in episode one, urged her to publish it and insisted it was ready). She already had it on the whiteboard written up, but with a question mark, and when she got the middling review of her magnum opus, she erased the question mark. Answering that question, as she did, was _the_ purpose of that interrogation. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/289 "2025-11-23T18:49:54Z")
Definitely the latter. But it could easily be both. And authors are prickly beasts and might be genuinely interested in thoughts in their work - particularly from a partner - and genuinely miffed they were not always positive. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/290 "2025-11-23T19:01:34Z")
That seemed to be the vibe I was getting. She seemed to be more concerned about Helen’s opinion of her work than the “experiment”. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/291 "2025-11-23T21:41:00Z")
> [@Meatwater](#): > > I can imagine that after absorbing all human knowledge that they could feel that all other fiction has been dissected to the point of no longer enjoying it. While Carol is an ever present wildcard to them, that could in fact write more. On this subject, I was wondering what the hive mind does for fun. They’ve seen all the movies that have ever been made, watched all the TV, listened to all the music, read all the books, etc. (I’m sure there are some books out there that no one alive at the time of the joining had ever read, but they’re probably not the best, you know?). They can’t play any games against each other involving strategy. They could play games of chance but that gets boring fast. And while it’s possible that they can have sex with each other, given that the hive mind doesn’t register the physical feelings of individual members (I’m inferring this based on comments they’ve made about when a joined member gets drunk, and the pain that Zosia is in doesn’t seem to impact everyone) – then there’s really no point to that either. I know they’re probably working on something that we’re unaware of – but even so, that probably doesn’t count as “fun.” It seems to me that the only diversion they have is trying to please Carol and the other 12 unjoined. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/292 "2025-11-23T21:56:48Z")
> [@Mr.Duality](#): > > Did no one other than myself notice that when Zosia was dying, none of the spectators had the standard self-satisfied happy grin? They were actually rather grim-faced. I have a feeling Zosia is going to end up being broken off from the hive as a result of this. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/293 "2025-11-23T22:35:41Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > I know they’re probably working on something that we’re unaware of – but even so, that probably doesn’t count as “fun.” I’m telling you, they’re going for high score on CIV II. > [@DWMarch](#): > > I have a feeling Zosia is going to end up being broken off from the hive as a result of this. I don’t see it myself. If she’s not dead, I see no reason why she should be cut off. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/294 "2025-11-23T22:43:11Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > I was wondering what the hive mind does for fun. Orgasms 24/7/365. I think the grim faces portend a major change in behavior of the hive mind. ---
**Author:** ![Meatwater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meatwater/32/20074_2.png) [@Meatwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatwater)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/295 "2025-11-24T00:05:49Z")
I can imagine a scenario of their version of fun, just being probability. Cut to a scene of an individual flipping a quarter the exact same, waiting for the rare 10 heads in a row chance. But how would physical sports work in a hivemind for fun. Could they do a game of soccer? Perhaps maybe just remix the Olympics, which individual organism possesses the fastest running speed? OTOH what if them attempting to have fun, is like when a person tries to tickle themselves. Where it just isn’t happening.. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/296 "2025-11-24T00:08:26Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > I don’t see it myself. If she’s not dead, I see no reason why she should be cut off. She would lose her connection to the hive if/when her heart stops and she is considered “dead”. She could theoretically be re-joined but she’ll have agency and should be able to choose what she wants. Or it could be that once a person dies they simply can’t rejoin because they have immunity to the virus. ---
**Author:** ![Meatwater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meatwater/32/20074_2.png) [@Meatwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatwater)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/297 "2025-11-24T00:12:39Z")
Why would the hive cut her off though? I mean maybe the drug did something to isolate the individual. But I don’t know why they would cut her specifically off, after the fact. It’d be like cutting off a limb. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/298 "2025-11-24T00:40:07Z")
He wrote what he heard, English “Carol Sturka” sounds basically the same as Spanish “Carol es turca”. But, “Yo es turca” doesn’t mean anything, it would be “Yo _soy_ turca”. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/299 "2025-11-24T00:45:27Z")
> [@Meatwater](#): > > But I don’t know why they would cut her specifically off, after the fact. It’d be like cutting off a limb. I don’t mean that the collective cut her off, I mean that physical death of the body breaks the connection. The virus doesn’t account for the idea that a human body can die and then come back to life. This will put Carol closer to a solution if she can figure out how to put the whole world into cardiac arrest simultaneously and then shock everyone back to life a minute later. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/300 "2025-11-24T02:01:01Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Four seasons? I believe Apple has only ordered two seasons. As for Vince Gilligan series, I don’t know if AMC ordered any number of seasons of “Breaking Bad” yet I seem to recall it was always going to be six for “Better Call Saul”. Apple’s order two so far, Vince says he thinks it will take 3 to 4 to tell the story. There’s no reason to think Apple won’t renew it for as many as it takes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=16)