If it wasn’t clear to you how much of a sad person Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is, Episode 3 Pluribus Certainly makes that clear. It opens with a flashback, as Carol and her partner Helen (Miriam Shor) are on a dream vacation in an ice hotel in Norway, and she can only complain about how cold it is. When Carol sees a stunning Aurora Borealis, her only thought is “It looks like a screensaver.” But that skepticism may also be her superpower as she prepares to solve the mindless apocalypse looming on Earth.
In addition to really revealing how irritating Carol was before she became one of the only non-hive-minded humans on the planet, the episode also made it clear how difficult it would be for her to live independently of the Hive, as well as the lengths to which the Hive would go to make her happy. This also includes that if he asked, maybe he could be given nuclear weapons? Anyway, here are the things I’m thinking about.
Apparently being one of a dozen or so non-hive members is quite isolating. But things took a turn for the worse in Episode 2 when she tried to connect with the English-speaking survivors, and they had no interest in changing the world like before. But maybe there’s some hope: a man named Manausos (Carlos Manuel Vesga) living in Paraguay hates the Hive even more than Carol does. The problem is that he’s on the other side of the world and only speaks Spanish. Their first phone call ended with a lot of yelling. Still, Manousos seems to be Carol’s best hope of finding another human being who sees the perceived problem of global happiness the same way she does.
How will she live with the hive?
At the moment, Carol, the rest of the disaffected people, and Hive are all living on the same planet. That is, at least until both sides find a “cure.” But in the meantime, it’s causing some tension for Carol, who sees herself as an independent person, and yet is mostly dependent on the hive for herself. The issue became clear when she tried to get food at a grocery store and had to wait for the food to refill.
Can a hive say no to anything?
The flip side of that tension is that, it seems, the Hive is incapable of doing anything that might upset Carol. That means carrying out her requests, no matter how ridiculous they are, so the episode ends with a grenade exploding inside Carol’s house, injuring her guardian Zosia (Karolina Wydra). However, before that, Carol was able to prod the hive to see how far they would go. When she asks if they will give her nuclear weapons, he tells her, ,Carol, we would move heaven and earth to make you happy., ,would like You like nuclear bombs?” It’s very curious how she uses this to her advantage.