Pluribus episode 8 sees a tentative reunion between Carol (Rhea Seehorn) and the Others, with our protagonist juggling her desire for semi-human contact with her urge to set the world back to the way it was.
Having the Others back does allow her to get some more information about them, though, as she wastes no time in asking Zosia (Karolina Wydra) as many questions as possible while they’re hanging out.
So what exactly does she learn, and what could it mean?
What does Carol learn about the Others?
All the new information Zosia lets slip to Carol is handily summed up on her “What I Know About Them” whiteboard list, which she adds a bunch of different things to this episode. Here’s the second part of the list, in full:
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They. Eat. People.
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Communal sleeping/cuddle puddle/body heat
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Communicate via body’s electric charge??
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Trains to transport food (ugh)
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Individuals feel, everyone knows
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Signal from Kepler-22b (640 lightyears from Earth)
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Building GIANT ANTENNA!!! Using up all power in world to send signal to space!
The last point follows on from a conversation she has with Zosia while she’s using a telescope to look at the planet – Kepler-22b – responsible for beaming out the signal that contained the virus.
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“We’ll probably never learn the first thing about them,” Zosia says. “They’re too far away. But we know we love them and we’re grateful to them. And we’ll pay it forward, however long that may take.”
When Carol asks what that means, Zosia’s response sheds light on what the Others are planning: “We have to share their gift with whoever else might be out there.”
What does it mean?
We already know that the Others’ main reason for existing seems to be to widen their supposedly utopian net, joining other beings to their own singular consciousness. The construction of a giant antenna to send the same signal that Earth received therefore isn’t too big of a surprise — but it does raise some other interesting questions.
For instance, where does the virus itself really originate from? Is it possible that the occupants of Kepler-22b didn’t create it, but were simply passing it along after being infected by it in the same way that the Others on Earth are now planning to do?
Also, what was the real motivate of the species that created the virus? Was it actually to instil happiness on as many beings as possible and make the universe a better place? Or was the thing created as a weapon intended to weaken other planets and make them vulnerable to potential invasion?
Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV+ with new episodes Friday.
