# 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:** 41
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/801 "2025-12-20T14:23:00Z")
That’s a really common design for diners dating from the 1960s, especially in Southern California, but also throughout the Southwest. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/802 "2025-12-20T16:20:45Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Zosia’s favorite memory seemed plausible enough that it was genuinely “hers”. And she did seem to have a slightly thoughtful - even nostalgic - expression after saying it. I am confident that the memory belonged to the individual that had inhabited that body, known as Zosia. The apparent personal emotional connection to the memory … that is the part that is the showrunners playing with us. They went through pains to have her explain during the massage that they are somewhat still all individuals not exclusively expressions of the pooled metamind; and here they are demonstrating her individual memory and emotional attachment to it, even as using the word “I” is a major challenge to her. They are making clear to us this is not a pooling of all into one exclusively but to some degree a glue that _might_ be dissolvable. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/803 "2025-12-20T16:24:13Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > They are making clear to us this is not a pooling of all into one exclusively but to some degree a glue that _might_ be dissolvable. Exactly and they made it clear in a previous episode that there is a way to undo the joining. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/804 "2025-12-20T16:32:50Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > I can’t seem to link to the Reddit thread but Google “Pluribus diner Mulholland Drive” for an answer to your question. Ohhh, that was very interesting. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/805 "2025-12-20T16:44:08Z")
Right. This better. Showing not telling. Is the desire, the kiss, the sex, a play acting like Bond, like the diner? Not a lie but a show. Or is it the hive actually having desire? Or is that Zosia? The individual? Where are the lines? They are purposefully playing with our not knowing that, making us wonder about it. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/806 "2025-12-20T16:49:59Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > They are purposefully playing with our not knowing that, making us wonder about it. And what happens if one of them is severed, does it disrupt everything? Does she still speak English, would she be happy or angry? Is severing someone from the collective ethical? Lots of ways this goes. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/807 "2025-12-20T16:57:46Z")
I don’t know about the sex, I can’t decide if their desire to please is a biological imperative or simply a defense mechanism not to trigger their physical response to the uninfected’s emotional outbursts. Their excitement at having something new to read did seem extremely genuine to me. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/808 "2025-12-20T18:42:44Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Pluribus diner Mulholland Drive Had I known it was the same diner, I’d have tried to prepare for a jump scene. Doesn’t matter - I’ve seen Mulholland Drive three or four times - and that creature out behind the dumpster is always a terror. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/809 "2025-12-20T18:59:56Z")
I don’t think the article was saying that it’s the same diner. Just a similar one with the scene set similarly. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/810 "2025-12-20T19:13:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Not a lot of knowledge can be crammed into a couple of hundred base pairs. I can’t recall all the instances where one of them (usually Zosia) has said something with some kind of insight, not instinct. The Plurbs know (from the Nerf astronomers) this latest gift-message-virus came from Kepler (once was a real star, long ago went supernova, and is not near Deneb or in Cygnus and is at least 20,000 light years away). For Zosia to say she “thinks it’s an ocean planet” for a star system 600 light-years away would have just as easily been known to the Nerf scientists, and they never even talked about a planet. The search & discovery of liquid water/oxygen / CO2 is what astronomers do. Yet 600 light-years is too far away to resolve the planet unless perhaps it was the size of Jupiter and further away. How such an information package could piggyback on nucleotides, I have no clue. Yet what animals are born with an almost religious belief not to harm others, and only accept “windfall” food? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/811 "2025-12-20T19:30:06Z")
[Kepler 22b](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-22b) is a real planet we know that information about in the real world. No hive mind magic. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/812 "2025-12-20T19:58:23Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > came from Kepler (once was a real star, long ago went supernova, and is not near Deneb or in Cygnus and is at least 20,000 light years away). No idea what star you have in mind, but in addition to SeniorBeef’s link to the real Kepler 22b, here are a couple of thousand more planets named Kepler: > **[List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exoplanets_discovered_by_the_Kepler_space_telescope)** > > The list of exoplanets detected by the Kepler space telescope contains bodies with a wide variety of properties, with significant ranges in orbital distances, masses, radii, composition, habitability, and host star type. As of June 16 2023, the Kepler space telescope and its follow-up observations have detected 2,778 planets, including hot Jupiters, super-Earths, circumbinary planets, and planets located in the circumstellar habitable zones of their host stars. Kepler has detected ove In additi... > All exoplanets discovered lie in one of the three [northern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_coordinates) [constellations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation) of [Cygnus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_(constellation)), [Lyra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyra_(constellation)) and [Draco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(constellation)), which belong to Kepler’s [photometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photometer)’s field of view. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/813 "2025-12-20T20:37:57Z")
I was thinking about Zosia asking Carol about her happiest day writing and then listening as Carol described sitting in the diner writing on legal pads. The Joined all have similar memories of happy occasions but seem unable to take pleasure in them. Perhaps it’s sort of how a parent takes pleasure in how their child is having fun? ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/814 "2025-12-20T21:00:40Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > No idea what star you have in mind I was referring to what is known now as “Kepler’s Star” not because he discovered it in 1604 yet did describe it. It’s the last naked-eye observable supernova. It was named such before the current naming system for supernova, which would have called it SN-1604. Back then, it would only have looked like a bright pinpoint of light; now it is surrounded by a shell of its remnants, if there’s anything like a brown dwarf or even a black hole to be surrounded by. So to correct myself, because the Kepler Telescope’s 22nd find with a planet system in line with Earth, it transits its parent star and thus can be studied for its makeup with a spectrometer. It is likely to be an ocean world about 2 times the size of Earth, and in the habitable zone. Astronomers do not have telescopes yet that could resolve a planet this small so close to the star. So every astronomer knows this, and thus every Plurb knows this. I thought Zosia was saying she was _envisioning_ it as an ocean planet. Maybe there’s some land, yet there is definitely (in the show) some form of life that has advanced to radio Astronomy (and perhaps another that sent Kepler 22b the message and so forth). I know some Plurbs have stated things that could only be explained by some kind of piggybacked messaging. Unfortunately, I did not make a whiteboard list. Yet, how to explain their instinctual behavior in such a short message? "Do not harm living things, "Only eat windfall (Carol’s word) food. How long is the string of DNA/RNA that tells Koala Bears “Eat Eucalyptus leaves”? ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/815 "2025-12-20T21:51:08Z")
The exoplanet Kepler-22b would certainly be an interesting one to visit. Even more interesting might be Kepler 452-b, nicknamed “Earth’s Cousin”. So, once we can visit Kepler-22b at 640 light-years, it should be no problem getting to 452-b at 1,400 light-years. Incidentally, the “-b” means it’s believed there is a planet orbiting closer to the star that is affecting orbits or something because of its gravity. I’m assuming Kepler is first looking at “Sun-like” stars as they’d be much more likely to have existed long enough for intelligent life to have evolved. If other planets are known or surmised, they can go to -c (which Earth would be from afar), -d, -e, -f… I will probably do a rewatch once all nine are done and note what seems unusual knowledge. To try and answer my own question, it may be that the government(s) know things they’ve not made public, and that would explain my “how could they know that?” query. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/816 "2025-12-20T22:06:01Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I’m assuming Kepler is first looking at “Sun-like” stars as they’d be much more likely to have existed long enough for intelligent life to have evolved. Kepler stared at the same small patch of sky for years. > Of the approximately half-million stars in Kepler’s field of view, around 150,000 stars were selected for observation. More than 90,000 are G-type stars on, or near, the [main sequence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_sequence). Thus, Kepler was designed to be sensitive to wavelengths of 400–865 nm where brightness of those stars peaks. Most of the stars observed by Kepler have apparent visual magnitude between 14 and 16 but the brightest observed stars have apparent visual magnitude of 8 or lower. Most of the planet candidates were initially not expected to be confirmed due to being too faint for follow-up observations.[[85]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_space_telescope#cite_note-arXiv-1001.0349v1-87) All the selected stars are observed simultaneously, with the spacecraft measuring variations in their brightness every thirty minutes. This provides a better chance for seeing a transit. The mission was designed to maximize the probability of detecting planets orbiting other stars. > **[Kepler space telescope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_space_telescope)** > > The Kepler space telescope is an inactive space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope's reaction control system fuel was depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018. > Designed to survey a portion of Earth's re... ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/817 "2025-12-20T22:23:33Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Carol is clearly the receiver of the charm offensive. I agree with an earlier suggestion that there is (pretty much always) a double \*meaning in this guy’s works. Yes, they are charming Carol. But then, she is charming them by letting them charm her. They are learning about her, and she is learning about them. > [@DSeid](#): > > The apparent personal emotional connection to the memory … that is the part that is the showrunners playing with us. Doubly so as they had her suddenly stop, mid-memory, as if maybe the _real_ Zosia was about to break through with the power of it… but no. It’s just a harbinger that Manuousos is almost (finally) here. A coincidence weeks (from Plurb’s perspective) in the making. \*For example, the episode of Better Call Saul entitled _Breaking Bad_. Not only does it flash us back to the episode of Breaking Bad entitled _Better Call Saul_ from Saul’s perspective. It also shows how it was in fact Saul’s own Breaking Bad moment, when he went over the edge. _Wolves_ and _sheep_. Or, as he said in an episode just before about the tax swindling couple, wolves _and_ sheep. Walter and forgettable sidekick guy were wolves to some, but sheep to him. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/818 "2025-12-20T22:56:08Z")
I am guessing that the season finale ends within fifteen minutes of Sturka meeting Manousos. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/819 "2025-12-20T22:58:04Z")
Indeed. [![](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/98/kepler.jpg) ](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/98/kepler.jpg) ---
**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:** [December 20, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/820 "2025-12-20T22:59:30Z")
I hope Manuosos gets a police motorcycle escort. If they didn’t mess with him since Panama, why not follow? Zosia will be out of there for a while. He and Carol have a whiteboard to translate. And I hope she remembers the initial delay in counting him. Then off to the HAM’s Я us store! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=42)