# 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:** 56
**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:** [January 15, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1101 "2026-01-15T20:21:03Z")
I suppose… But I bet the next season is already mostly written. So they probably already know. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1102 "2026-01-15T20:25:17Z")
The article below indicates that they are fairly early in the Season 2 process and we unfortunately may have to wait quite a while. I read elsewhere that VG envisioned this as a four season show. My speculation is that it won’t even be revealed in Season 2 because as evidenced here and on other fora, we love to debate about it. > **['Pluribus' season 2 isn’t happening for a while, says Vince Gilligan: 'We’re...](https://ew.com/pluribus-season-2-release-will-take-a-while-vince-gilligan-11873854)** > > When does 'Pluribus' season 2 come out? Vince Gilligan, creator of the Apple TV sci-fi series, says it will be a while: 'I would love to go faster if I could.' ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1103 "2026-01-15T23:57:53Z")
I heard Vince Gilligan speak a few times about how much he regretted introducing the machine gun at the start of the final season of Breaking Bad. [Vince Gilligan reflects on “the dumbest thing” he did while making Breaking Bad](https://www.avclub.com/vince-gilligan-reflects-on-the-dumbest-thing-he-did-w-1850909026) > The biggest single fear we had was what to do with that damn machine gun. At the beginning of the final run of 16 episodes, we had Walt buy a machine gun in the trunk of a Cadillac. That was the thing I remember freaking us out the most because we _did_ that, I _committed_ to that. One of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my career was committing to the idea of Walter White buying a machine gun when we did not know what he was going to do with it. We had no clue. There were literally months on end when I was completely freaked out. We’d be in the writers room’ for a full day, and I’d be slowly banging my head against the wall — not enough to hurt myself but just enough to jar the ideas loose. And everybody was kind of worried about me. I’d bet money that he learned his lesson about introducing something as big as an atomic bomb without having a pretty good idea for the payoff. I doubt it will pay off quickly, but I don’t think it’s completely in the air. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1104 "2026-01-16T00:14:11Z")
It’s a big ass box. He didn’t commit to a bomb. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2026, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1105 "2026-01-16T00:15:17Z")
Wild prediction - it is indeed a bomb, and Carol and/or the other guy will use it at some point to fake their own deaths. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1106 "2026-01-16T00:23:52Z")
I have no problem with thinking that she meant it metaphorically, that she figured out a way to hurt or even kill the hive and that it’s an extreme weapon of last resort, like an atom bomb, and not literally being one. I also have no problem with it literally being one either, since we know it can be. And given how Vince Gilligan and his writing staff often write themselves into corners, at this point no one knows what it is. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1107 "2026-01-16T00:37:06Z")
There’s really no way that’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1108 "2026-01-18T03:53:14Z")
I only just finished watching the first season and have not read 1000+ posts so if this has been asked my apologies and let me know where it was discussed: Since the Others (everyone but the 13) are dying and predicted to be extinct in 10 years why would the Others who seemingly care so much about life allow the extinction of a whole species? Extinction due to their possession. If that is an inevitable result of their “possession” shouldn’t they leave and put humans back the way they were? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1109 "2026-01-18T04:13:17Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Since the Others (everyone but the 13) are dying and predicted to be extinct in 10 years why would the Others who seemingly care so much about life allow the extinction of a whole species? I think they consider normal human existence to be so miserable that “putting humans back” would be an unthinkable crime too. However, my speculation (based on no particular evidence) is that some kind of factional split may take place in the hive mind in future seasons, so maybe some Others could turn out to be more (or less) sympathetic to the remaining humans later in the story. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2026, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1110 "2026-01-18T04:26:33Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I think they consider normal human existence to be so miserable that “putting humans back” would be an unthinkable crime too. It’s unthinkable because it’s a biological imperative. They can no more think or will their way out of the hive mind than you or I can think or will our way out of our sense of touch. Maybe a drug will do the trick (for you or me, that is). Maybe some other biological function will take over (like we could go unconscious for a multitude of reasons and lose all sense, of course). But “thoughts and prayers,” so to speak, won’t cut it. Not for you or me, not for them. Even if there _were_ some sort of quasi-voluntary way to do it (like, IDK, the equivalent of intense meditation) that might actually do it for you or me, the problem for them is that they all have essentially one mind. So they would lack the individual capacity necessary to _will_ something against the group to begin with. If I am wrong, I will like the show less and possibly stop watching, because it really cheapens the stakes. It’d be a jump the shark moment. The factions have to come from the remaining twelve, with Pluribus being caught in the middle like a child in a divorce, being weaponized by each faction against the other to the maximum extent possible within Pluribus’ hierarchy of imperatives. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1111 "2026-01-18T04:54:49Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Since the Others (everyone but the 13) are dying and predicted to be extinct in 10 years This is not what the show said. They said most would die, there’s an equilibrium w/ harvesting fallen food w/ some number of people \>0. The population would be reduced to that, not extinct. Regardless, I agree that there’s a tension between wanting to convert people with the resulting decrease in population. Seems like something that’ll be explored more. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1112 "2026-01-18T05:15:21Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > This is not what the show said. They said most would die, there’s an equilibrium w/ harvesting fallen food w/ some number of people \>0. The population would be reduced to that, not extinct. > > Regardless, I agree that there’s a tension between wanting to convert people with the resulting decrease in population. Seems like something that’ll be explored more. And to add to that, there’s no indication that they consider themselves multiple entities at this point. 90% of humanity dying off might be the equivalent of losing a lot of weight for you and me: nothing essential to my identity is lost. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1113 "2026-01-18T05:23:32Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > And to add to that, there’s no indication that they consider themselves multiple entities at this point. 90% of humanity dying off might be the equivalent of losing a lot of weight for you and me: nothing essential to my identity is lost. Yet they will not pick an apple off a tree. Why would you think they’d be happy to let billions die so a few million might live? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1114 "2026-01-18T05:25:37Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > This is not what the show said. Pretty sure they did. They can only eat people who die of natural causes.The math on that has them all dying. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1115 "2026-01-18T05:55:52Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Pretty sure they did. They literally didn’t; I just rewatched it. At least not in the conversation after the John Cena scene when the 10 year horizon is discussed. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > They can only eat people who die of natural causes.The math on that has them all dying. They eat everything that dies of natural causes, not just people. And they harvest milk. Regarding extinction though, do we know anything about them reproducing sexually? Or just via virus transmission? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1116 "2026-01-18T06:01:53Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Why would you think they’d be happy to let billions die so a few million might live? Because they aren’t billions - they are one. There are currently 13 functioning individuals on Earth since the Peruvian woman converted. 12 immunes and the one super-organism that has suppressed (but likely not erased) all the rest. As Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness noted those deaths likely are largely meaningless to the One, because from there viewpoint they represent only the unfortunate but necessary loss of labor capacity and nothing else. The entity continues, diminished in capacity but presumably still pretty functional, tending to its main biological imperative project - the super-transmitter that excess labor built before dying off from starvation. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2026, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1117 "2026-01-18T07:05:24Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > And they harvest milk. They “harvest” milk…but what do they feed to the animals? They don’t harvest grain. If their rules say they can’t pick fruit, then surely they can’t cut grass for hay. A lot of cows/goats/whatever are going to starve, too. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1118 "2026-01-18T09:29:09Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > They literally didn’t; I just rewatched it. They literally did too and I just re-watched it too. > The whole cannibalism thing is clearly not a permanent solution for the hive. As Mr. Diabaté (Samba Schutte) tells Carol, the way things are going, most of them — which total over 7 billion individuals — will starve to death within the next 10 years. - [SOURCE](https://www.theverge.com/streaming/838256/pluribus-episode-6-recap-discussion) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1119 "2026-01-18T11:44:36Z")
You said all. That says most. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/1120 "2026-01-18T12:08:40Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > They can only eat people who die of natural causes.The math on that has them all dying. I’m starting to wonder if we watched different shows. They don’t “only eat people who die of natural causes.” They eat all the stored food, and all the life that dies of natural causes. They eat apples that fall from the tree. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Why would you think they’d be happy to let billions die so a few million might live? First, who said billions? If you lose ten pounds of weight, how many people died? If something terrible happens and your right pinky is cut off, how many people died? You’re seeing Them through an individual’s eyes. They don’t and can’t. Second, who said happy? I endure shit that makes me unhappy all the time. If I knew I was going to have to live off an 800 calorie a day diet starting in a few years, and that I’d waste away to an emaciated version of myself, I’d be pretty unhappy about it, but I’d try to plan for that eventuality. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=55) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=57)