This post contains spoilers for Pluribus‘ fourth episode. If you’re part of a hive mind, that probably doesn’t matter. One of you must have seen it by now. Otherwise…
The virus that turned into mankind into a collective hive mind on Pluribus is far more terrifying than it seems. The billions of people who all share a single genius brain are too dumb to understand why. And not one of the 13 remaining individuals on the planet have any scientific or medical training to do anything about humanity’s predicament. Yet, somehow, all hope is not lost. Pluribus‘ fourth episode revealed there is a way to reverse the process that enjoined everyone, also know as “The Joining.” The problem is that the collective will never tell Carol how.
In Pluribus‘ “Please, Carol,” our favorite angry novelist figured out something very important about the hive mind. The guileless collective cannot lie. It will happily answer most questions posed by Earth’s few remaining individuals. But when Carol asked a question that it did not want to answer—if there’s a way to reverse the joining—it got very quiet on Pluribus episode four. It wouldn’t answer. “We want so much to please you, Carol,” said the collective’s Zosia representative. “But we can’t answer questions like that.”
She might be blinded by rage, but Carol is still really smart. Her earlier conversation with “Larry” had shown her something. She knew what the hive mind/Zosia’s silence on Pluribus meant: that there was a way to reverse the joining. “Right, except your non-answer is my answer,” Carol said. “Cause I don’t think you can lie to me. I don’t think it’s something you can do. But you would definitely tell me if the answer was no.” Exactly.
The hive mind didn’t even know exactly how its alien virus worked a few days ago. Now, with the power of basically every brain on the planet, it already knows how to undo this mass enjoinment. The hive mind is just not smart enough to lie about it, even though that would be really smart since it has no interest in giving Carol the information she needs to reverse Pluribus‘ joining.
The hive mind loves its new existence. It’s not just a matter of being a “biological imperative.” It loves how being part of this collective feels. It remembers pain and suffering, but no longer feels those things. This shared existence is about peace, joy, and togetherness. It’s so wonderful, it’s worth sacrificing individuality, privacy, intimacy, and everything that makes us human. The hive mind desperately wants the same for Carol and the other survivors. If it can’t convince her to join them, though, it still won’t tell her how to ruin things for it.
Carol came up with a plan on how to get that key reversal information anyway. She’d previously asked Zosia if every member of the hive mind gets drunk if just one of them has too much alcohol. Zosia said that’s not how it works. Each individual body is still a biological being. Each member’s body is still vulnerable to things like alcohol and grenade shrapnel. And also powerful barbiturates.
Carol tested the medication on herself first. It, and not her decoy heroin, turned her into a rambling, brutally honest mess. She lost control of her inhibitions under the barbiturates’ influence. The same thing almost happened to Zosia. After Carol drugged her, Zosia was essentially cut off from the rest of the hive mind (which doesn’t do drugs). But she maintained her desire to please Carol. That clashed with her desire to keep the information the author so desperately wants and needs. But if Zosia’s body hadn’t flatlined, or if she’d been more isolated, she might have told Carol how to reverse the joining on Pluribus.
Carol’s plan failed. Worse, she might never get another shot to try it again. The hive mind now knows how Carol can potentially get vital information out of one of its many members. Pluribus‘ hive mind also knows what Carol is capable of and just how much she wants to ruin its blissful new existence by reversing the joining. Even a hive mind too dumb to lie can figure out what that means.
But no matter how seemingly impossible things might seem for Carol (and her equally angry counterpart in Paraguay), she now has something she didn’t before: hope.
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