They mentioned communicating by “EM radiation” or whatever, which makes me think Manousos may think of creating a Faraday cage.
Idea for the last episode of the season – Carol conspires with Manousos; first they find a suitable private underground location, then Carol distracts Zosia until Manousos builds the Faraday cage, and the last scene is Carol bringing Zosia into the cage (under false pretenses), and inside the cage the real Zosia wakes up screaming (fade to black). Or something like that.
The problem with that is the transmissions are just a way of communicating. It doesn’t “cure” anyone to block them, it just cuts them off. Zosia would be cut off from talking to the rest of the hive, don’t see how that makes her cured.
I don’t think we know that – in the first episode, the Taffler guy on TV says “it’s like a psychic glue that binds us all together”, or something like that. So maybe if the EM signals are the glue, then separating them in the cage severs the link. Maybe just temporarily (as long as she’s in the cage), but that’s still a step closer to fixing things.
Well we do know its a virus, and they transmitted it by bodily fluids at first and hilariously chem trails for mass infection. So whatever they do the virus should still be in them.
Right. But maybe with no connection, or with a broken connection, the individual comes back. Even temporarily. One mind couldn’t possibly hold onto the memories of the whole world. At the very least, putting Zosia in a Faraday cage ought to sever her connection to the rest of the Plurbs, and severing the connection could be interesting and useful to our heroes (and more importantly, to the storytelling, at least perhaps).
I think it’s very likely that in the show, Carol will figure out a way to break off a member of the Plurb and restore its individuality. And as our viewpoint Plurb member, it is probably going to be Zosia.
How is the re-individualized Zosia going to think about the Plurb offering up her body for sex, or specifically Carol’s evident willingness to take it up on that offer?
As I said earlier, I thought it would be interesting if the Joining was established to be unbreakable and the show was about the fourteen remaining inhabitants of the Earth—Carol, the other twelve unJoined, and the Plurb—trying to deal with one another. But it certainly looks like the ‘breaking people out of the Joining’ plot is going to carry the day.
Given the show’s insistent focus on character, it’s probably better to see the story as “Carol’s pursuit of ending the joining” than simply a sci-fi-first Plot with interchangeable/incidental protagonists. The superficial mechanics of how she achieves (or doesn’t achieve) that goal are not the priority, her evolution as a person is.
Case in point, “Carol sucks” seems to me to be the Plurb’s offbeat attempt to flirt with her, as they slowly figure out who she is and guess at her responses to different stimuli… and it basically works. This tells us a lot about her headspace.
I think this needs emphasis. I do not assume this story ends with our two plucky individualists successfully saving humanity. The show could end well with Carol joined, with the links broken and individuated humans actually horribly sad and angry now at Carol to be so … alone … again … or left hanging. The dysfunctional relationships, mostly between Carol and Them, but not only, and how they are evolving are the interest.
And will she be able to speak English if she is “severed” (whoops, wrong Apple show)? She would be disoriented and likely unable to communicate with Carol or the other guy. If everyone got severed unexpectedly it would be another high death toll incident with people suddenly not knowing how to fly the airplane or perform surgery.
But if that happens I am sure it won’t be this season.
Zosia’s childhood in Poland, not Morocco was a major WTF moment but it makes perfect sense. Zosia is a Polish women who just happened to be in Morocco, which is why she has a Polish name. I just got that now. I loved the scene with the dinner. It’s exactly what they’ve been doing with Diabate and probably the other Immune except for Manousos. It’s very easy to see how the Immune can get lost in the fantasy.
I quite enjoyed this episode. So far on the IMDB users rated it 7.9/10 but I would give it a 9.
Looks like the communal sleeping was a good call. I liked the recreated diner, and the croquet game. Carol is clearly the receiver of the charm offensive. What will Manousos make of the giant antenna?
ISTM that a character with a Polish first name, with an actress born in Poland, whose character has been portrayed in the show as unable to lie, is probably telling the truth when describing her childhood, and there’s another explanation for why she was in Morocco.
Writers sometimes deceive the audience, but good writers only do so for a good storytelling reason. What would be the purpose of making Zosia a Moroccan Berber with a Polish first name, for the story?
I didn’t know the Plurbs used their prior names, as I’d not heard the name Zosia before. Though Tafford, the undersecretary with a suit in the White House, knew who he “was”. We’ve only met the super-smiley guy who said, “This organism was …” (whomever). Otherwise, Zosia has been the Plurb actually interacted with. So they all seem to have some recollection of who they were (even if it’s just indexing into who everybody was).
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.
“An unforgettable conclusion to the season”. I’ll spoiler yet I have no inside info. I am glad to see it earlier this week.
I doubt Carol and Manusos will get over their differences fast enough to decide to build a Faraday cage and ask Zosia to check out their new clubhouse. Wouldn’t even a garden shed suffice? Perhaps the Plurbs are wary of entering such structures as entirely closed metal boxes. And if they do, a Plurb going “offline” might alert all of them?
Perhaps a hand-held HAM radio might jam or somehow temporarily “cure” Zosia, yet unless we skip past Manu’s arrival to 240 days, and he and Carol are the dynamic duo, and perhaps not as watched by the Plurb drones as they will be when he arrives, they can do some covert experimentation, yet probably leave Zosia out of it.
Finding out Zosia is pregnant isn’t really “unforgettable,” though they’d have to keep procreation low (Zosia can tap into births & death number. Don’t remember the numbers, yet it looks like we net lost about 500 in whatever timeframe she had. I need to watch that one again). The sustainable population has to be lowered, while some horticulture has to make a veggie or fruit that pops off the vine or out of the ground when ripe in abundance.
Perhaps we’ll get a wide shot of Earth and see they are well on their way to building an array of satellite dishes, yet I’ve always felt that is the “humanity lost” shot of the last episode.
I would think the best way to cure everyone is in the same way they were infected. Ground all the airplanes, call in the submarines, etc… The source being some extraterrestrial “fix” would seem unfair to Carol and Manu, who deserve to be the world savers (but not yet)
I just got that now. I loved the scene with the dinner. It’s exactly what they’ve been doing with Diabate and probably the other Immune except for Manousos. It’s very easy to see how the Immune can get lost in the fantasy.