Am I the only one that thinks the virus analogy is being taken too seriously by some viewers? There is a similarity to viruses in the way people were infected, but the similarities stop there. Science is the mechanism, but the outcome is ideological.
What do you mean by “ideologically”?
FWIW I doubt that the writers are thinking about the science very much or have experts in how viruses spread on payroll. This isn’t hard sci fi. Or close with technobabble.
But ideologically it seems like a Raptured trying to save the Left Behind scenario in which they still share the same plane from the POV of a Left Behind. And the Raptured wanting to spread the Rapture to other worlds. Just trying to avoid presenting it in overtly religious terms. And that is less interesting to me.
It’s hard for me to frame the motives of those that sent the signal as anything but religious. It’s not perpetuating a species; it’s perpetuating an ethos and supernatural abilities.
The only alternative I can think of is if the group mind can span light years and this is a way to create a galactic collective.The Earth collective apparently hasn’t joined the galactic collective yet, but maybe that is limited by the speed of light. The imposed ethos is a way to make sure the new collectives don’t destroy themselves before they are joined with the larger collective.
(My head hurts)
It’s an invasion!
What are the odds that a DNA or RNA sequence developed for an alien species would have the same effect on us? Even if DNA turns out to be a very common way to produce complex life, the details of the genes would be very different.
No, they tailored this to us.
Which means they’re close to us. We’re told that the signal came from 600 light years away, but that’s only because the nerds weren’t thinking in terms of UFOs, alien invasions and all that. They stuck a relay in a position to make it look like the signal was coming from far away, and we fell for it!
They make us passive, so that we won’t fight back when they land. Hell, looking at how far the hive mind will go to try to make Carol happy, and they’re now a near-perfect slave species.
I’m not sure the Hive mind has any idea what it’s like to be a human being. The way it acts is more like an alien entity that gained the memories of all humans, and is trying to figure out what to make of them. It knows of the concept of sarcasm, but has no idea how to recognize it. It’s reacting to Carol’s discomfort, but seems to have no capability of predicting what might make Carol uncomfortable such as talking about having her watched by military spy drones, having a dialogue from the White House press room via TV, speaking as a choir, or sharing memories about Helen. It’s only after it observes Carol being uncomfortable that it adjusts it’s behavior.
That’s probably not a plot point but something you are supposed to ignore to make the story work, like how all aliens speak English.
I don’t think that’s quite what happened. They said they were quite sure it was sarcasm, but did not want to take the risk. They understood the sarcasm, they are just so utterly terrified of pissing Carol off that they were forced to take her seriously even though they knew she very likely did not mean it. I’m sure the calculations were something like “the damage of one grenade pales in comparison to the damage of an angry Carol so in the 1% chance we might be wrong let’s give her a grenade anyways”.
Hence my early reference to Clarke’s Childhood’s End and The Overmind
That’s not how the scene played out. Zosia shows up on the door and says “Sorry it took so long” and hands her the grenade. She says “We thought you were probably being sarcastic but we didn’t want to take the chance.” Then she asks “Were you being sarcastic?” and looks genuinely puzzled and questioning as if they are not sure. Clare just stares at her for a few seconds, then Zosia sounds a little embarrassed saying “Right… Of course you were.” It’s clear that they were not certain that it was sarcasm.
That’s basically what I said, they thought it was sarcasm but did not want to take the chance it wasn’t. It’s the whole mind meld thing, with someone on the outside they lack that complete and utter certainty of meaning that they take for granted. They can never be SURE of what she means even thought the entirety of the human experience is telling them it is sarcasm. And i took the questioning and look at the end as her being worried that they had pissed her off again.
I wouldn’t put it past Vince Gilligan to consult an expert on viruses. On the official podcast, he said he’s been thinking about this project for 8-10 years.
Somehow all of the behavioral psychologists in the world hit their heads in the shower during their exposure.
I sorta saw episode 3 as an allegory for addiction represented by the grenade. Handing over a dangerous weapon just to cater to her sarcastic whim, on the off chance she was being serious, just to make her happy had lead to unexpected harm. Carol assumed, wrongly, that it was fake with no intentions to harm herself or Zosia. Carol felt bad and guilty that she potentially killed her only possible friend in this new world, blames the collective rather than herself or her actions. Instead of internalizing how the collective are extremely literal and adjust her own language/actions she instead escalates to hypotheticals of giving her more dangerous weapons.
“You’d give me another grenade after what just happened?”
I’m most certainly overthinking it and searching for the meta commentary the story really wants to tell. Is it about the horrors of AI? How much individuals rely on a society? Analogous of COVID? Surely Gilligan has something up his sleeve other than ‘what if you could have everything you wanted and everyone felt compelled to do it for you’.
Perhaps, but he also likes to take artistic license with the science as he did with Breaking Bad. Specifically, they disproved the mercury fulminate and acid-melting-a-body properties on Myrhbusters.
I don’t agree with your distinction. I see empathy and sympathetic reactions as fundamental to human morality. “Seeing you in pain hurts me, and knowing I caused it hurts me even more” is as much a biological imperative for a healthy (non-psychopathic) human as breathing.
Morality is not just some academic exercise that we have been engaged in for hundreds of thousands of years. Its underpinnings are ingrained in our DNA as a social species that has adapted and evolved through cooperation within complex societies.
We can of course go on at length about moral conundrums and optimal moral decision-making the same as we can write dissertations about the mechanics of breathing and air quality, but at the end of the day, it’s grounded in biology.
Not necessarily. If, in the universe (or at least galaxy) of the series, panspermia is in fact the origin of life on Earth, it could be assumed that certain elements would be common to life on many planets throughout the galaxy.
Perhaps.
ETA: But you know, I’m going to push back on that just a little bit, especially when taken alongside your idea that this is “tailored” to us. Because it seems to me that, if there is an intent to make humans collectively subservient to a moral agent, then the end result is very fragile indeed. Why, for example, would an alien species design it—tailored to us, as you argue—so that the entire species glitches just because their master throws a temper tantrum? Such a reaction speaks not to intelligent design, but to evolution, where “just good enough to reproduce” will suffice. Perfection not required.
Honestly, I think the second grenade would actually be a step up, since this time, Carol wouldn’t just assume it was a fake like the first time, and wouldn’t just casually pull the pin while not holding the spoon firmly enough.
Yes, that why I said DNA might be common, but to re-wire our brains this extensively, they’d need to know our genome pretty well. And it wasn’t even a generic “re-wire brains” thing, since we know other large mammals weren’t affected, like the lions they let out of the zoos who mauled a few people. There isn’t even any suggestion that other primates were affected. It’s pretty specifically tailored to us.
Well, every great invasion plan has one major flaw in it! Look at Utah Beach. 
Of course his inspiration may have not been a virus but the same ant zombie fungus, Ophiocordyceps, that inspired The Girl With All the Gifts and The Last of Us. Just again applying it to the organism humanity. But fungal DNA is complicated and a virus fits the story better. I admit I have that life cycle stuck in my head as the default.
Well the entire interaction of the collective and Carol, maybe and all the immune, is a bit of dysfunctional enabling relationships writ very big … recapitulating her relationship with Helen, happy joy and wonder Helen, who clearly enabled Carol’s alcohol issues. Enablers do lots of stupid and harmful shit to avoid upsetting their partners. And it often does not work so well.
Perhaps the wake up call she needs to take responsibility for her own destructive behavior.
Well said!
My vote is for the Unity episode of Rick and Morty (which someone already linked to above).