Pluribus – Please, Carol Review

The word of the week on Pluribus is “agency.” As in, does Carol have the agency – which was promised to her by the Hive – to decide whether or not she wants to join them? And, on the flip side, does the Hive have the agency to determine that they want to remain as they are despite there apparently being a way to set the world back the way it once was? Those are two very interesting questions that get to heart of the motivations of both Carol and the Hive. Let’s break them down – while also touching on some key plot points (and the appearance of a new, but previously mentioned, character this week).

So much of this series is built on the idea that humans have an innate drive for individuality despite a competing need for community. Even Carol needed Helen by her side and is shattered at her loss. But the Hive, at least as they tell it – and we learned, though a wonderful sequence with Somebody, Somewhere’s Emmy-winning star Jeff Hiller as Larry*, that the Hive cannot lie – are content to live in their group consciousness. So, it seems we are at an impasse here. Carol is going to cling to her individuality with a rabid fervor while the Hive are going to keep working toward a way to make the remaining thirteen people left on Earth just like them.

*If you’re feeling a bit bummed out by Pluribus and are looking for something a bit more on the really lovely and celebratory side of things, might I suggest Somebody Somewhere? It truly is one of the best shows of the last decade and such a joy to watch.

For the folks who were wondering what happened to Carol’s family, well, we got that question answered as well – after being shipped off to conversion therapy camp (something that has been outlawed in many states, but something that the US Supreme Court is almost certainly going to say should be legal despite the horrific and traumatic abuses it deals out to kids), Carol never forgave her mother for the immense toll it took on her. And you know what? I’m willing to bet that experiencing something that traumatic at such a formative age went a long way to turning Carol into the woman she is today – distrustful of the world at large and assuming the worst of everyone around her. Knowing this, it’s amazing Helen managed to break through her tough exterior – it also lets us know just how resilient both Helen and Carol are. I’d be angry at the world too if that all had happened to me before I even hit adulthood.

All of that is to say, Carol is not about to let anyone tell her who she can and cannot be. She’s fought against that most of her life and she’s not about to give in now. But Zosia’s point about the Hive is also sharp – how is what Carol wants to do to them any different? And to argue that one out, we have to decide whether or not the Hive should have agency. Should we treat them like a single individual when they are made up of such a large collection of former individuals? The kneejerk reaction is to say no – the Hive stripped people of their agency when it took everyone into their single consciousness. It didn’t ask each person if they wanted to join, they just took away people’s agency and made them. I would bet most of those folks now within the Hive – who claim it is great (which, again, might just be a single consciousness claiming it for the masses) – didn’t want this. Would have chosen to remain like Carol. Or like Manousos in Paraguay, holed up in his storage facility and refusing to accept anything the Hive brings him. I wonder just what his story is and why he is so distrustful. Who wants to bet there’s some parental trauma there as well?

Which brings us to the ending of the episode. Carol made a choice for Zosia and the Hive. She dosed Zosia with truth serum (after she tested it on herself and discovered that she does, in fact, think Zosia is fuckable – let’s put a pin in that one) and asked Zosia to tell her how to reverse the Hive. And Zosia’s refusal to answer sent her into cardiac arrest. Once again, Carol’s actions end up putting someone in extreme peril – although it’s just one piece of the larger hive, so there’s a whole host of questions about how losing one piece of billions really impacts the Hive. It certainly will mess Carol up, that’s for sure.

Last week, Carol got a pass for not thinking the grenade was real – after all, why would they give her actual weapons that could harm her? But this week, oh that was all Carol. For someone who is, at their heart, a good (but broken) person, Carol’s actions this week are the most troubling of them all. She clings to her agency, clings to her individuality, and pressed the Hive to remember that they, too, were once made up of individuals with free will. But is she any better than the Hive in trying to force someone to go against their nature? What does it mean to have agency and is it possible to not want to have that precious gift? I suspect Pluribus will be kicking those questions around for quite some time. Because as with so much in our messy individual lives, there isn’t an easy answer.