I listened to the podcast where they talked about building the ice hotel set. I don’t think “cheap” is part of the brief. I don’t think most people have bought a DVD set in the last ten of fifteen years. At least, I haven’t. I’d have a hard time just digging up a DVD player. I did recently come across two box sets; I, Claudius and Fawlty Towers. Not exactly recent offerings.
I am thinking that the We is an individual. All formerly human bodies (except for the handful of immune) are now just its appendages, all formerly human brains just nodes in its distributed intelligence. Whatever the former people had in the way of souls has gone to whatever fate meets souls after death, and what physically remains is now just the collective body of We.
It makes me think of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, in which, early on, they took a stab at defining the nature of vampires—that if you are turned into one, you are gone, dead, and your body now occupied by a fundamentally evil spirit that just has access to your memories. But that was already problematic, what with Angel (and later, Spike) as nominal protagonists—several plot arcs notwithstanding—and I believe that that got somewhat walked back at some point. (Though Buffy certainly didn’t seem to have many moral qualms about reflexively dusting the majority of the vampires that crossed her path!)
So what stuff might remain in the former humans here? We don’t have enough information to say, I guess.
But in the bigger picture, it could well be that the We doesn’t really understand the ultimate reality of what’s going on any more than anybody else anyway. It’s a newborn, though immediately having access to the knowledge and capabilities of its various component bodies, so decidedly not as helpless as a human newborn. Maybe the plot going forward is mutual discovery.
I would just hope that it is not yet another variation of humans vs aliens.
Maybe it’s just one of a few they have available. Being as Netflix is no longer an option, pickings would be slim. I notice she wasn’t laughing while she was watching it.
Certainly the places where you could get Blu-ray box sets (and players) would still be basically untouched. She could get the Breaking Bad box set, which Is hilarious. Liquor stores for top-shelf stuff. Perhaps not so the gun stores.
I guess next ep she has her choice of (EV?) pickup trucks (hopefully not a Tesla).
I don’t think she has a chance to fly to Paraguay and get in to meet Manuosos as it would appear the “Others” would like a chance to meet him too.
I think Carol really hates asking the others for anything. If Golden Girls is all she can dig up at home, then Golden Girls it is.
I reckoned with a hammer and a flashlight, it could all be “take your pick” at any store.
Though her hangin’ with Zosia in “semi-turned off mode” is interesting. Not in the Aqua Vitae way, just seeing if they are more their former selves.
Having her fly to Paraguay might be the only way they could meet him. Just let Carol be herself, and even with the language barrier, it should be obvious she’s not one of We. He might come out of isolation for that.
A show like this has every detail as a conscious choice by the showrunners. What clothes. What car. What drink. What sort of grocery store.
The choice of what DVD box set Carol is repeatedly watching, even that she has a DVD box set, is probably not a random bit of what they have available. Someone thought that said something about her just like Walter White’s car said something about him.
I’m not sure what though?
In the GG episode shown, Rose is telling a story about a neighbor who was born without smiling muscles and could never smile. So when Rose walked past, the neighbor would stand on her head to give a smile. That’s a pretty obvious tie-in to forced happiness.
I’ve seen other speculation that The Golden Girls emphasizes what would be lost when entertainment disappears, or to contrast the four distinct personalities of the “girls” with the conformity of the Joined. But that seems too simplistic and generic to me. 90% of shows would fit that description.
Thanks for that. And the meaning of Rose’s they needed to sacrifice the dumbest virgin and I don’t know why I raised my hand? 
All will be clear in future episodes.
(In other words, I have no idea.)
Thanks for some good rationales on the choice of the Golden Girls. It was also a show (like many others) with a laugh track which seems to contrast well with Carol’s lack of pretty much any reaction at all. But it does seem to show her desperately trying to recreate any sense of routine she can. It’s funny for US, not so much for her. The preview for this week has Carol talking to someone telling her what a great writer she is. When asked her for specifics, he is understandably vague. I don’t know if this interview is in the present or the past. I also wonder how long the healing process is going to take for Zosia, who sustained quite the injury from that grenade incident.
Since Carol is grieving, perhaps Golden Girls was her wife’s favortie show.
New episode tonight! Usually drops a few hour before the official Friday launch. Can’t wait!
“We like the character arcs. And the plot twists!”
Apple releases new episodes at 9:00 pm ET, it’s not random.
They’re pretty crafty, those Apple peeps. Lots of hit shows under their belt now. I’m also a big fan of Shrinking and Murderbot.
Watching the new episode while we speak. Available now!!
I loved Carol’s reaction to seeing how much effort goes in to running a supermarket so she can be “independent”.
Google the word plur1bus and pay attention to the space just above the search results.
Also, that’s the real mayor of Albuquerque in the new episode.