Hello and welcome back to Autostraddle’s Pluribus recaps, where I dive deep on a particular theme, moment, idea, or question from the week’s episode rather than providing a scene-by-scene recap of everything that happens. This is your Pluribus episode 8 recap, so it contains spoilers for “Charm Offensive.” Join me in the comments to discuss the episode, even if it’s to tell me how much you disagree with me lol. I cut my teeth recapping for The AV Club; I’m very used to dissent.
As Manousos continues his journey north to link up with Carol so they can save the world, Carol continues her investigation into this new world by spending a lot of time with Zosia, who also seems to be trying to understand Carol on a deeper level. Carol is gathering intel on the hive, but the hive is also seemingly gathering intel on her, attempting to understand, perhaps, human experiences and feelings that are not really accessible to them — specific, individual feelings, feelings that are difficult to put into words.
As Zosia explains while getting a couples massage with Carol, the hive shares experiences in that they all know when something has happened to each other, but not everyone feels the exact feelings of each individual. The fact of the feeling is just known by all of them, like receiving a continuous report on the feelings of every individual. I wonder, too, how exactly the hive experiences the feelings and memories of individuals prior to the joining. Does everyone know and understand what it feels like to break a bone? To be betrayed by a loved one? To be rejected by a parent? When they “recall” those feelings someone once had, do they really feel the feelings or just process it like information in a report?
I’m not seeking literal answers to these questions. Carol needs to understand as much as possible about the hive in order to, hopefully, return humanity to itself, but as a viewer, I’m less inclined to logically work out all of the inner workings of the hive and how they experience things, because one thing feels ultimately true, which is that they have indeed lost their humanity. Downloading every human experience, feeling, thought, idea, and knowledge into one consciousness is not an evolution of humanity; it’s slop.
Carol and Zosia literally have sex in the episode, but to me, the most intimate part of the episode is not this act of physical intimacy nor the grand romantic gesture of the hive reconstructing the diner where Carol’s writing life began (more on that in a bit), but rather the quiet moment between Carol and Zosia on an overlook after hiking as they look down at a train. Carol remarks how much she loves the sound of trains, and Zosia is genuinely surprised, wants to know more. Carol, it turns out, never told anyone else about this love for train sounds, so there was no one to share this information during the joining. Carol thought the hive knew everything about her, but they only know what she externalized to others. They cannot read her mind, and they cannot access her private memories. There are experiences and feelings that are only hers, and this is what makes her human.
This is one of the universal facts of what it means to be human: that we can never be fully known or understood by anyone else, that we will always have parts of ourselves that will be our own, that we have interiority, thoughts and feelings that cannot be perceived outside of us. Even Helen, who likely knew Carol better than most, did not know this thing about trains. There’s beauty in that.
And even if there are qualities of the hive and how it functions that can be seen as good — the eradication of private property, the lack of crime and incarceration, the communal approach to living — it comes at the cost of losing these prickly, messy, complicated parts of what it means to be human and to have agency and selfhood.
The hive thinks they’ve done something Carol will love when they reconstruct the burned-down diner from her past, and for a second, Carol is swept up in the fantasy of nostalgia. She remembers what it felt like to be a struggling artist, working nights so she could write in the morning, writing longhand when she couldn’t afford a computer. It was before her commercial success but also before she’d become more jaded about the publishing industry. We watch as she cycles through this rollercoaster of emotions, and I think we can all relate to the power of nostalgia in this moment. I have my own versions of this diner; I think we all do.
But it is not real. And I think especially as a writer, Carol understands the importance of delineating between reality and fantasy, of honoring the confusing and sometimes frustrating parts of what it means to be human. She is not actually being taken back to that moment in her life; it’s just a memory-theater version of it. That kindness offered to her by the server Bri in keeping her coffee full, in letting her stay in the booth as long as she wanted, it is not kindness that can be authentically offered now. Hiveminded Bri is just going through the motions of it. Does it matter? I think it does, and Carol does, too. Capitalism and consumerism often rely on the power of nostalgia to trick us into buying things we do not need. Here, the hive presents Carol with what it thinks is a gift. The resources and labor required to make that gift? Beyond wasteful.
Zosia and the hive are confused by Carol’s rejection of the diner fantasy. It’s clear they thought this would win her over or please her. After all, they say that’s all they want, to make her happy. But they cannot, not with these gestures that only further highlight how different they are from her. All this information about humanity and human experience at their disposal and they still can’t really understand what it means to be human. They can use their collective knowledge to beat Carol at croquet and board games, but they cannot use it to actually understand her or to relate to her, and without that relational capacity, no real relationship can be formed. Carol might no longer be in literal isolation, but she’s still alone.
More things to discuss in the comments:
- I won’t belabor the point as I already expressed where I stand in the comments last week, but just because there are dudebro fans of this show saying sexist and homophobic things about Carol Sturka does not mean any critical analysis of Carol and acknowledgement of her (very human, very personally relatable in some cases!) flaws amounts to sexism and homophobia. What makes her interesting as a protagonist to me is that she is a complicated person and was quite cynical about humanity leading up to the end of the world. If your takeaway from these recaps is that I HATE her…I don’t! I literally love this character lmao and recognize so many parts of her.
- Obviously Carol having sex with Zosia is a bit complicated! I think she almost just has to turn off the logical part of her brain in that moment, but hey, sometimes the pull of sex does do that. I mostly can’t stop thinking about some of the logistical stakes to it, like the fact that Zosia would have the knowledge of every lover Carol has had before…
- Omg SPIT!!!! I also grew up playing spit with my cousins. Great card game, wow that scene made me, well, nostalgic.
- I don’t think Manousos will be thrilled if he finds Carol playing house when he arrives…
- I like that we finally get somewhat of an answer as to how pets function now.
- The details the hive put into making that diner experience feel as real as possible…down to the other customers and the cars passing by outside…that’s a lot of effort for a species at risk of mass starvation lol.
- Of course Carol and Helen were board game gays.
- Zosia’s mango ice cream story almost makes you forget Zosia isn’t an individual anymore. This is such a difficult performance to give, and Karolina Wydra is crushing it.
Comments
Hi,
I always thoroughly enjoy your recaps.
I’m beginning to think Zosias really likes Carol, and is at moments letting her individual humanity take over (she might have done this when having sex with Carol?). Also, it was interesting to me that Zosias kissed Carol without asking for permission, could this be her individually taking over again?
I’m with you regarding the game SPIT, I grew up playing it too!
I’m looking forward to Manousos and Carol meeting. I think it will take some time, but he will ultimately see the advantage to playing nice with the hive, similarly as Carol learned from Diabate. Hopefully he sticks around long enough. Part of the struggle will be the language barrier.
I hope they bring back Diabate, maybe it will be in season 2. I think he still knows things about the hive which Carol has yet to discover or thought to ask. Can always learn more from multiple people.
It’s such an interesting observation that Zosia/The Hive doesn’t ask Carol’s permission for the kiss, when even to take a grenade from her they ask permission.
I saw it as a tactical move, but now I’m less sure.
THEY FUGGED??? How could they let that happen yes Zosia is a woman but Carol fucked the hivemind i don’t like this ride get off manoubos c block em
Gosh I loved this episode so much! So much happening emotionally. I loved the way Rhea Seehorn played Carol’s emotions–investigating with her secret agenda but also finding herself connecting against her will to this strange organism/collective.
I was struck by how much more “normal” the hive felt this episode–less stilted in its conversation, teasing Carol with “you suck” on the scoreboard, etc. I vacillate between thinking of the hive as one alien organism and a lot of infected bodies, and maybe that one organism is learning/evolving? I wonder if they learned the “technique” or got the idea from their Vegas casino pretend scene.
I found myself wondering through the episode if separating Zosia from the group physically and asking her to recount her specific memories was weakening her connection with the hive at all. There’s the moment after she shares the mango ice cream story where she looks a little off and then shakes it and comes back to normal.
I was talking about the show with my boss today (who is two episodes behind), and he was saying that he didn’t notice the AI connection until he read something about it, but the way he was interpreting it was as collectivism and individualism being taken to their (negative) extremes. He’s hoping they find something in the middle rather than Carol being the good guy and the hive being all bad.
I was excited when she looked off after telling her personal story. I thought, finally, she’s connecting with herself! But then she says Manousos is approaching. The same thing happened with the people who were with Diabaté and told him Carol was visiting. What got me about that moment, though, is that they’re visibly concerned about Manousos. Their constant happy faces vanished.
I too was excited by that look off and then disappointed when she said Manousos was approaching. I feel like there was another moment in this episode though when she spoke differently for just a few sentences, in a way that sounded less Hivey and more like an individual person, speaking. I think maybe it was on the hike?
I am hoping to they find something in the middle too, I still feel like the hive is not all bad. Would be great if people could be given a choice whether to join or stay in the hive. Maybe could be good for the hive where they can get back experiencing things for the first time.
But thinking about this again, it probably would not work, for example what if you have a pre hive serial killer who decides to leave the hive and start back up right where he left off?
I was confused by Zosia’s behaviour in this episode. I watched it, then read your review, and watched it again, still not fully seeing when the Hive tries to gather intel from her.
And then I remembered this part of your review:
“This is one of the universal facts of what it means to be human: that we can never be fully known or understood by anyone else.”
Which is the same as saying that we can never fully know or understand anything or anyone. There will always be something more to know. There will always be confusion, misinterpretations. There will always be wonder. That is one of the most human traits, and one of the most human obsessions – inspiration for the likes of Borges and The Aleph, the desire to have access to everything at once.
I felt like Zosia, and the other billions of people who have joined the Hive, are genuinely hungry for something new – a craving that may suggest that humanity has not been entirely left behind? It is one of the saddest things to have read every book in the world. They will never get the joy of experiencing a great book for the first time. Or almost anything for the first time.
Zosia doesn’t get to learn croquet; she doesn’t get the joy she would have fooling around with Carol on a real date. I thought she was genuinely excited to read Carol’s new chapter, to hear an unknown fact about her, and that she wasn’t necessarily “working” her. But it could be both things – I’m not discarding the possibility that they were looking for Carol’s Achilles’ heel. Maybe I am too eager to look for theirs.
*In the diner scene, I kept thinking about how everything nowadays is sold as an experience, and how the Hive was doing exactly that, selling an experience to Carol. I like how the Hive shares elements with both communism and capitalism; how it makes both us and Carol doubt what we think about them.
I agree with you! I had that same thought when they expressed excitement to Carol about her writing–they’ve read every book and seen every film in the world, so I actually believe that they’d be happy to read a new Wycaro novel. (That doesn’t mean I don’t also agree with Carol that they’re trying to distract/placate her)
I think about it a lot in relation to their silence. They move around without speaking because they already know all of each other’s thoughts. Nothing to ever talk about. To me that’s the saddest part.
I hadn’t thought about the silence. I was stuck with the idea of a supposedly peaceful, zen existence, but yeah, a world without conversation is one of the saddest parts
I think more then the mango memory, Carol’s insistence on Zosia using “I” is having a bigger effect then it initially seems. The way the individual Hive members express themselves has always stood out to me, and Zosia individualizing herself could be having an impact. There are studies that show smiling makes you happier, because the brain figures if you are smiling you must be happy. I think it could be kind of like that.
Spit is an amazing card game and I love it being shown here. Perfect shot of nostalgia. Brb gotta teach my nephew Spit.
I read a ton of George RR Martin’s short stories and he uses collective consciousness frequently. I’m kind of getting the same kind of divine horror vibes the more the series goes on. There is no division, but people are being operated like meat sacs. I do not like it!
But also I am on the Yuribus and I can’t wait to see where it goes! Only one more episode, but I’m hoping we can trust Vince Gilligan with a reasonable turnaround time for the next season and not YEARS.
Also, I can’t help but say I CALLED IT! GIANT SATELLITE BABY. Had to pause the episode for a victory lap at that reveal.
You left out the most important bit of the episode – canon confirmation that Raban is trans! Us in the Wycaroverse have been saying this for years 🦜