Technically, episode 6 of Pluribus had two endings: one was about Carol explicitly stating that she didn’t consent to the hivemind trying to take stem cells from her body, and the other was about Manousos finally leaving home to meet Carol. So, how did things come to that? Well, in the case of Carol, her investigation into what the hivemind was consuming for sustenance led her to the discovery that human body parts were a part of their diet. Carol wasn’t sure if the hive was sending her analytical videos about the hivemind to the rest of the survivors. Hence, she decided to personally hand-deliver her latest video to the closest survivor, Diabate, who was in Las Vegas. She did so under the assumption that all the survivors were being ignorant, while she was the only one who was actually learning new things about the hivemind. However, little did she know that she was in for a rude awakening. As for Manousos, he was hellbent on analyzing the radio spectrum with his ham radio until he starved to death. That said, when he received Carol’s first video, he realized that isolating himself and checking radio frequencies won’t work; he had to join hands with Carol in order to fix the world. On that note, allow me to analyze these developments in Carol and Manousos’ lives and speculate about what they might do next.
Spoiler Alert
Carol Marked Herself Safe From The Hive
As mentioned before, Carol found out that the Agri Jet outlet in Albuquerque was full of frozen and vacuum-sealed human body parts, which were being processed and turned into the liquid that those who belonged to the hive consumed on a daily basis. When Carol went to Vegas and conveyed this information to Diabate, he said that, with the exception of Carol and Manousos, all the survivors already knew about that (great John Cena cameo over there). They understood that the hive had to resort to these means because their self-imposed rules disallowed them from plucking fruits from trees, pulling vegetables out from the ground, or killing animals for meat. And although the concept of HDP (Human Derived Protein) was puke-inducing, the survivors were okay with it, because at least the hive wasn’t killing people to turn them into that soup; they were deriving protein from those humans who had died of natural causes or accidents. On top of that, the survivors had moved on to the topic of finding a way to ensure that the 7 billion-plus people that were part of the hive didn’t die within the next decade because of scarcity of food.
That seemed absurd to Carol because, in her opinion, the best way of solving this accelerated form of world hunger was obliterating the hive mind, turning people into humans again, sending them back to the farms, and extending humanity’s lifespan. Furthermore, she pointed out to Diabate the fact that once the hive figured out how to include the survivors in the hivemind, they’d starve to death with the rest of the world. That’s when Diabate revealed that those who had survived the conversion could only be inducted into the hive by extracting their stem cells, tailoring the virus to that individual’s DNA, and then infecting them. Since the procedure for obtaining one’s stem cells was invasive in nature, it could only be done with the person’s consent. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. The frightening aspect of this revelation is that the hive has finally figured out how to convert those who were seemingly immune to “The Kiss.” The positive aspect is that the survivors won’t be converted unless they are willing participants. Now, while the rest of the survivors, with the exception of Manousos, of course, were debating giving the hive their consent, Carol immediately told the hive that she doesn’t consent and she’ll never consent to giving them her stem cells.
The Hive Could Be Bluffing
When the hive acknowledged Carol’s decision to never give up her stem cells, she left Vegas to return to Albuquerque in order to map out the next steps of her plan. Diabate saw how lonely Carol was, and he tried to get her to understand that, by distancing herself from the survivors and the hive, she was about to push herself towards a depressive phase that’d end on a sour note. But Carol was confident that nothing in the world was going to shake her resolve to fix the world, especially because she didn’t have to think about being covertly integrated into the hive anymore. That said, what is the worth of the hive’s word? It’s not like Carol’s no-consent statement is in some legally binding document that’s been signed by a representative of the hive mind. And it’s over 7 billion people versus 1 person. How long until the hive realizes that they can enforce majoritarianism? Abandoning Carol after entertaining all her whims was a big move. They rationalized including human protein in their diet by saying, “Well, we are only eating dead people whose flesh would have gone to waste.”
The hive has the minds of fascists in its “cloud.” Hence, what’s really stopping them from defying the virtually non-existent agreement with Carol? Nothing; absolutely nothing. And given the pace at which the hive’s ideas are evolving, I don’t think Carol has the luxury to slowly and steadily plan out her next mission. She does have some clarity. She knows that it’s pointless to try to convince the other survivors because they think she is “disruptive.” So, she can stop putting all that effort into communicating with them via videos and really focus on reversing the hive mind conversion. How, though? Well, that’s where Manousos comes in. Approximately 3 days prior to Carol’s meeting with Diabate, Manousos received the first video that Carol had made, where he learned that there was a way to undo what the hive had done. What was that way? Well, that was still a mystery. However, the fact that the hive knew that there was a procedure to destroy them and restore the sentience and individuality of the humans meant that Manousos could join hands with Carol and work towards that goal. The only hurdle here was time. The hive was using the brainpower of over 7 billion minds, and if Manousos worked with Carol, that’d be just two minds working against them.
Manousos’ Study Of Radio Waves Will Defeat The Hive
Sure, despite being a novelist, Carol had transformed herself into an investigative journalist with a decent understanding of chemistry and biology. Meanwhile, Manousos had also trained himself to be a detective and a survivor even though he was just an owner of a self-storage facility. However, that wasn’t enough to defeat over 7 billion minds, some of which were those of scientific geniuses. Or was it? You see, the biggest reason why the hive was progressing and evolving so quickly was because it was collecting information from every available mind instantaneously. The hive wasn’t connected to the cloud. They didn’t use technology. They seemingly communicated with each other telepathically. But I don’t think they were using literal telepathy; they were supposedly using High Frequency (HF) radio waves. This hasn’t been confirmed by Pluribus yet, so take this theory with a grain of salt. Okay, so, ever since the hive took over the world, Manousos had isolated himself in his house and used a ham radio to analyze every frequency in existence. The only frequency that stood out to him was 8613.0. I’m no expert, but the sound that Manousos heard had a rhythm to it (something that we’ve seen during the title sequence to the show).
I don’t know if that’s Morse code, but it does sound like some encrypted form of communication. If Manousos and Clark can disrupt that, they can stall the hive. If the hive can’t communicate with each other, they can’t evolve. If they can’t evolve, then Carol and Manousos will have more time to figure out the method to unmake the “psychic glue.” Yes, the trip from Asunción, Paraguay, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, is long and perilous. A number of things could happen to Manousos that could prevent him from ever meeting Carol. But, optimistically speaking, I am assuming that Manousos will reach Carol’s doorstep (he has her address) without any hitches, because that’s the easy part of this battle. The hard part is Carol using her amateur Spanish to communicate with Manousos, understanding what Manousos is saying, and then coming up with a sound formula to disrupt the hive mind without committing yet another (accidental) genocide. I think it’s doable, but I don’t expect that to happen until episode 9. In fact, I don’t think we’ll see Manousos meeting Carol until episode 8 because I have a hunch that episode 7 will focus entirely on Manousos’ trip to New Mexico, interspersed with details about the life he lived prior to the rise of the hive.
Manousos and His Worldview
In the ending of Pluribus episode 6, we got a hint about the dynamic that Manousos had with his mother. Most of the survivors have chosen to keep their family close to them because they had a good relationship with them, despite knowing that their family members are just the hive’s flesh puppets. Carol doesn’t have any family, and yet, she is trying to fix the world because she thinks that a hive mind controlling everything isn’t right. Meanwhile, Manousos was staying away from his mother’s vessel because their bond wasn’t amicable at all. To be honest, I thought that the main reason why Manousos was keeping his mother at bay was because he was disgusted by the fact that an alien entity was puppeteering the person he loved most. Now it’s apparent that he used to hate her, and, after her conversion, he hates looking at her even more. Maybe the knowledge that his mother is truly gone, and all that’s left of her is her physical vessel, has freed Manousos. He thought that he was the only person in the world who was of the opinion that the hive takeover was wrong, and he was battling this entity all on his own.
After knowing that there was someone else fighting the same fight, he finally found the motivation to go out and strive to make the world normal again. Sure, that’d probably mean that Manousos’ mother will return to her old ways instead of being this benevolent and helpful being. But I guess Manousos prefers that version over whatever’s standing before him in that dark alley. And yes, I can say that Carol and Manousos’ idea of what the world should be like is “normal,” because the hive’s reality is extremely flawed. They are about to starve and die in the next 10 years. Pre-hive invasion, the world was flawed, and world hunger was a major issue. However, at least people weren’t living with the fear that all food would gradually disappear within a decade. I wasn’t on the hive’s side anyway, and I am glad that Carol won’t have to fight the hive on her own; she’ll have Manousos by her side. I just hope they work fast because the hive is working faster than them to find a loophole in that stem cell no-consent agreement. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the ending of this episode. If you have opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
