Pluribus 1.08
Dec. 19th, 2025 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which someone becomes Sheherazade, but is it Zosia or is it Carol?
Turns out that while Carol was sincerely starved for human contact, she also was employing this as part of her new strategy of how to get information from the Hive in order to reverse the Joining. Meanwhle, the Hive is stll practising their mixture of sincerity and stone cold manipulation (note they don't tell Carol that Manousos is on his way to her until he's close enough to be there within the day, and that's saying nothing of the diner scenario), but there is this intriguing moment where Zosia may or may not experience a part of her old self resurfacing instead of her voicing the Hive. Basically, both Carol and the Hive/Zosia are trying to work each other, while at the same time not faking what feels like genuiine affection - we already knew Carol is attracted to Zosia, and I don't think she's lying when she says to the Hive there is a lot about you people that I like" - but neither is she lying when she then goes on to call the Hive state of being a train wreck and compares it to a mental illness.
(BTW, this is of course the current big difference between Carol and Manousos - they both want to reverse the Joining, but she has come to see the Hive as non-malevolent victims of themselves, while he sees them as Zombies and avatars of an evil intelligence.)
Most importantly, though, Carol has not given up on her goals, and it makes sense that after not getting anywhere with her old methods and learning that Kumba and the others did get intel from the Hive she had to suss out by playing along and kindly asking she'd decide to switch methods. It does work, too, in that hanging out with Zosia on a couple of dates allows her to find out important information like how the Hive members communicate, that they're currently putting their resourches into giant antenna building so they can spread the virus message further to the rest of the galaxy (incidentally, this makes me think it didn't originate from Kepler 22B either), that they're all constantly aware of what happens to other Hive members but do not all feel what everyone else is feeling at the same time. I noticed Carol and we get this info before Zosia progresses from flirtation to point blank kissing her and Carol, after a moment of being taken aback, goes for it. The last time someone kissed her, it was the Hive assimilated doctor trying to infect her, plus unlike Kumba, she is very aware about the questionability of consent here. There's also the fact that Zosia was especially chosen because she looks like Raban and the Hive knew Carol would be attracted to her. But otoh, given the Hive's inability to lie: they have repeatedly told Carol they love her, and given they have the memories and feelings of all her fans plus Helen, this might very well be true. And on the none existing third hand, Zosia in the last-but-one scene doesn't appear to be faking it when she finally is able to say "I" again without stumbling and tells Carol about a personal memory of Zosia the individual. It's all intriguingly complicated!
Sidenote: the Hive being genuinely excited about Carol writing again and her sharing the first chapter with Zosia strikes me about more than the fiulfillment of a fannish fantasy (for them); not only do they have the knowledge of everyone in the current population who has read books, but they don't appear to be able to get creative themselves, despite the authors they absorbed, possibly because their primary biological directive is to spread so all current energy goes into the antenna building, but I suspect it's more than that. It might be a sci fi cliché, but it feels logical to me that uniminds are not able to create something new.
We also learn that Carol has at least one still living cousin she hasn't talked to in twenty years, and her comment here makes me believe he probably was of a mindset with her parents. Which in turn reminds me: among so many other things, you can call Carol's interaction with Zosia, both the sex and the subsequent writing of a Wycara novel where Raban is a woman, as her coming out to the whole world (because let's not forget, pre Joining she was closeted safe for Helen and maybe a select other few). Now the novel writing allows her to hide her other notes about what she's learning about the Hive, but at the same time, she doesn't appear to fake the sense of joy, the spark of inspiration when Zosia geeks out with her about how Raban's change of gender can be written in a Wycara-canonical way. Which makes me think Carol's unhappiness with her romantasy novels was probably connected to the fact she compromised right at the start by making Raban a man and thus the entire world of Wycara became part of the closet.
On the darker side: the Hive recreating the diner where she used to first write as a young beginner for Carol in much the same way they staged the James Bond fantasy for Kumba and the way what this means hit Carol when she sees even the waitress, Bri, who used to be kind to her in those days was a great example of subtly increasing emotional horror/gut punch. Without the Hive intending this. They're offering a real memory as a perfect fantasy - they way they do it with film scenarios for Kumba - and the fact that everyone in the diner is cosplaying like a puppet turns it from a joyful memory, a safe place, into a nightmare. When Carol points out after asking where Bri lived pre Joining (and hears it was Miami) that Bri the waitress had moved on with her life, lived her own existence, and now she's made to cosplay because that's what the Hive wants to make Carol happy, it encapsulates the unnatural awfulness of the entire situation. No wonder she snapped at this point and went back home.
Speculation for next week: other than yelling "traitor" at Carol when he finds out she's literally in bed with the Hive, if Manousos actually calms down enough to share information with her, I could see them conclude based on what the respective other knows that if they hijack this big antenna the Hive wants to use to spread the word, err, RNA sequences further, they might use it - and the frequency Manousos has discovered - to interrupt the infected communicating with each other and thus stop at least the effects of the Joining, and presumably Zosia will be the guinea pig on which this is tried out. Given there will be a second season, I doubt the Joining will be reversed for anyone else - or maybe just a few around the planet - before the Hive manages to stop whatever Manousos and Carol are doing, but Zosia will remain untethered from the Hive. And in all likelihood not happy with Carol at all. Shades of Janeway and early Seven of Nine? Gilligan did list the Borg as one of his inspirations.
(Given Manousos was in a hospital, I think it's possible the Hive used the time when he was passed out and they saved him to extract some DNA (he was unconscious anyway - no pain!), and the internet reminded me that Carol has some frozen eggs somewhere, so another thing that could happen in the finale's very last scene would be that once the Hive realises Zosia remains outside it and can't be reintigrated (if I'm right and we'll end the season with Zosia individualized), they use this to modify the virus enough so that either Manousos or Carol or both can be assimilated, and with that threat we leave the season.
Or I could be completely wrong! Either way, bring on next week!
Turns out that while Carol was sincerely starved for human contact, she also was employing this as part of her new strategy of how to get information from the Hive in order to reverse the Joining. Meanwhle, the Hive is stll practising their mixture of sincerity and stone cold manipulation (note they don't tell Carol that Manousos is on his way to her until he's close enough to be there within the day, and that's saying nothing of the diner scenario), but there is this intriguing moment where Zosia may or may not experience a part of her old self resurfacing instead of her voicing the Hive. Basically, both Carol and the Hive/Zosia are trying to work each other, while at the same time not faking what feels like genuiine affection - we already knew Carol is attracted to Zosia, and I don't think she's lying when she says to the Hive there is a lot about you people that I like" - but neither is she lying when she then goes on to call the Hive state of being a train wreck and compares it to a mental illness.
(BTW, this is of course the current big difference between Carol and Manousos - they both want to reverse the Joining, but she has come to see the Hive as non-malevolent victims of themselves, while he sees them as Zombies and avatars of an evil intelligence.)
Most importantly, though, Carol has not given up on her goals, and it makes sense that after not getting anywhere with her old methods and learning that Kumba and the others did get intel from the Hive she had to suss out by playing along and kindly asking she'd decide to switch methods. It does work, too, in that hanging out with Zosia on a couple of dates allows her to find out important information like how the Hive members communicate, that they're currently putting their resourches into giant antenna building so they can spread the virus message further to the rest of the galaxy (incidentally, this makes me think it didn't originate from Kepler 22B either), that they're all constantly aware of what happens to other Hive members but do not all feel what everyone else is feeling at the same time. I noticed Carol and we get this info before Zosia progresses from flirtation to point blank kissing her and Carol, after a moment of being taken aback, goes for it. The last time someone kissed her, it was the Hive assimilated doctor trying to infect her, plus unlike Kumba, she is very aware about the questionability of consent here. There's also the fact that Zosia was especially chosen because she looks like Raban and the Hive knew Carol would be attracted to her. But otoh, given the Hive's inability to lie: they have repeatedly told Carol they love her, and given they have the memories and feelings of all her fans plus Helen, this might very well be true. And on the none existing third hand, Zosia in the last-but-one scene doesn't appear to be faking it when she finally is able to say "I" again without stumbling and tells Carol about a personal memory of Zosia the individual. It's all intriguingly complicated!
Sidenote: the Hive being genuinely excited about Carol writing again and her sharing the first chapter with Zosia strikes me about more than the fiulfillment of a fannish fantasy (for them); not only do they have the knowledge of everyone in the current population who has read books, but they don't appear to be able to get creative themselves, despite the authors they absorbed, possibly because their primary biological directive is to spread so all current energy goes into the antenna building, but I suspect it's more than that. It might be a sci fi cliché, but it feels logical to me that uniminds are not able to create something new.
We also learn that Carol has at least one still living cousin she hasn't talked to in twenty years, and her comment here makes me believe he probably was of a mindset with her parents. Which in turn reminds me: among so many other things, you can call Carol's interaction with Zosia, both the sex and the subsequent writing of a Wycara novel where Raban is a woman, as her coming out to the whole world (because let's not forget, pre Joining she was closeted safe for Helen and maybe a select other few). Now the novel writing allows her to hide her other notes about what she's learning about the Hive, but at the same time, she doesn't appear to fake the sense of joy, the spark of inspiration when Zosia geeks out with her about how Raban's change of gender can be written in a Wycara-canonical way. Which makes me think Carol's unhappiness with her romantasy novels was probably connected to the fact she compromised right at the start by making Raban a man and thus the entire world of Wycara became part of the closet.
On the darker side: the Hive recreating the diner where she used to first write as a young beginner for Carol in much the same way they staged the James Bond fantasy for Kumba and the way what this means hit Carol when she sees even the waitress, Bri, who used to be kind to her in those days was a great example of subtly increasing emotional horror/gut punch. Without the Hive intending this. They're offering a real memory as a perfect fantasy - they way they do it with film scenarios for Kumba - and the fact that everyone in the diner is cosplaying like a puppet turns it from a joyful memory, a safe place, into a nightmare. When Carol points out after asking where Bri lived pre Joining (and hears it was Miami) that Bri the waitress had moved on with her life, lived her own existence, and now she's made to cosplay because that's what the Hive wants to make Carol happy, it encapsulates the unnatural awfulness of the entire situation. No wonder she snapped at this point and went back home.
Speculation for next week: other than yelling "traitor" at Carol when he finds out she's literally in bed with the Hive, if Manousos actually calms down enough to share information with her, I could see them conclude based on what the respective other knows that if they hijack this big antenna the Hive wants to use to spread the word, err, RNA sequences further, they might use it - and the frequency Manousos has discovered - to interrupt the infected communicating with each other and thus stop at least the effects of the Joining, and presumably Zosia will be the guinea pig on which this is tried out. Given there will be a second season, I doubt the Joining will be reversed for anyone else - or maybe just a few around the planet - before the Hive manages to stop whatever Manousos and Carol are doing, but Zosia will remain untethered from the Hive. And in all likelihood not happy with Carol at all. Shades of Janeway and early Seven of Nine? Gilligan did list the Borg as one of his inspirations.
(Given Manousos was in a hospital, I think it's possible the Hive used the time when he was passed out and they saved him to extract some DNA (he was unconscious anyway - no pain!), and the internet reminded me that Carol has some frozen eggs somewhere, so another thing that could happen in the finale's very last scene would be that once the Hive realises Zosia remains outside it and can't be reintigrated (if I'm right and we'll end the season with Zosia individualized), they use this to modify the virus enough so that either Manousos or Carol or both can be assimilated, and with that threat we leave the season.
Or I could be completely wrong! Either way, bring on next week!
no subject
Date: 2025-12-20 08:49 pm (UTC)You might already know the last episode's being broadcast a couple days early, but I'll tell you just to make sure.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-22 08:22 am (UTC)Re: cars - they also stop driving the moment Carol storms out of the diner, which added to the creepiness. It's really amazing how the show manages these horror moments that have nothing to do with gore.