Full spoilers follow for Pluribus Episode 6, “HDP,” which is available now on Apple TV.
OK, most of us figured this out last week in “Got Milk” when Carol (Rhea Seehorn) was investigating what the Joined’s favorite drink actually was made of, culminating in that episode’s closing moment as she gasped like only someone who had just found a stockpile of frozen dead bodies could.
Yeah, a lot of us were off a bit in that it’s actually a stockpile of frozen dead body pieces that Carol unearthed, but all the same, the Joined are definitely pulling a Soylent Green and eating us. Only, because this is Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus, it’s not quite that simple. But it is darkly funny.
Of course – of course – instead of playing this revelation in a protracted, thriller-esque way, Gilligan and his team (this episode was written by Vera Blasi and directed by Gandja Monteiro) pull the rug out from under the viewer pretty quickly and squash their own big twist. “Yeah, no duh, HDP is people,” the show basically says. “You think we haven’t also watched the past 50 years of sci-fi movies!?”
And so enters John Cena. Not just John Cena, but a Joined John Cena. And he’s everything you could hope for. Charming, reasonable, informative… all while explaining the intricacies of why the Joined need “human derived protein,” or HDP – aka human flesh – for sustenance. And Koumba (Samba Schutte) cutting Carol off before she can even reveal her big news about the frozen bodies with a resigned “Is this about them eating people?” isn’t just funny; it’s also our first hint at how out of the loop Carol has been.
The dynamic between these two uninfected is interesting in that we can look at them as polar opposites, obviously: Carol the constant skeptic versus Koumba the willing dupe. But is it that simple? After all, it turns out that Koumba figured out the HDP thing before Carol did, and not just that but he and the other infected (sans Manousos in Paraguay of course) have been talking regularly about the situation, and in particular are concerned about the sudden, unexpected plight that the Joined are in (they’re going to starve eventually). It’s so easy to assume that the other uninfected are suckers just because they haven’t lashed out the way Carol has and because they’re so willing to go with the flow, but then it turns out that Carol in all her obstinance hasn’t really made any significant headway herself in any of this.
Koumba cutting Carol off before she can even reveal her big news with ‘Is this about them eating people?’ isn’t just funny; it also shows how out of the loop Carol has been.
And then there’s the fact that the uninfected have purposely kept Carol out of the loop, voting (if not unanimously!) to not include her in their meetings. Koumba has been getting her videos, as presumably all of the others have as well – “they were very dramatic” – but nobody’s responded to them or even acknowledged them before now. It’s hurtful, so much so that Carol needs to take a powder in the bathroom before apparently getting blitzed on champagne and passing out for the night. But the truly sad part comes the next morning when she tells Koumba that she’s going to grab a suite in the hotel, only to register the look on his face: He doesn’t want her there. He’s a nice guy, but he has a life to live with his “lovelies” and there’s no room for Carol at all. “How you say? Check in now and then.”
Meanwhile, what kind of survival instinct do the Joined have if they’re willing to starve rather than eat, like, corn? Their mandate to not even eat plant life is limiting, to say the least. But then again, perhaps it’s the ultimate method of population control. As the human race dies off from hunger, eventually the planet would hit some kind of equalization point where enough, well, fallen apples or what have you could feed the relatively small amount of people left. I guess?
And then there’s Carlos-Manuel Vesga’s Manousos, who – wouldn’t you know it – doesn’t just watch Carol’s first video, but is so moved by it as to finally leave his Omega Man bunker and head out to, presumably, find her. He doesn’t even know that there are 12 other uninfected until he watches the video. This leads to one of the creepiest scenes in Pluribus to date, as Manousos encounters his mother on the street as she emerges from the shadows in the dead of night. It’s not something Carol has had to deal with yet, encountering people she knew in the Before Times, let alone family members. We’ve already established that she’s estranged from her own mother. But then again, that might be something Manousos and Carol have in common as he tells the woman, “You’re not my mother. My mother’s a bitch” before driving into the night.
Questions and Notes From Kepler-22b
I like how Carol puts the video camera down and picks up the frozen, shrinkwrapped head to hold in front of the lens, rather than just aiming the camera at the head. This is way more gnarly, if unlikely.Seehorn’s reaction at the top of the episode is excellent as she runs out of the factory and tries to shake what she just saw out of herself, as if enough exertion will wipe the horrific image from her brain.Sooooo the Joined can’t convert the 13 uninfected without their express permission, eh?What’s with frequency 8.613.0 on Manousos’ radio?Koumba going full Casino Royale in Vegas is like the ultimate cosplay adventure, a holodeck without the holodeck (but more real than a holodeck too). Still, you’d think it would all get pretty boring, pretty fast. For one thing, the cards must be fixed, so where’s the fun in that? At least on the holodeck you always ran the risk of a malfunction! (But man, if the Joined aren’t committed in their performances, even if eye-patch guy screws up at the end.)Speaking of the holodeck, one can’t help but see avowed Star Trek fan Vince Gilligan getting to have some fun with the basic concept of that famed piece of Trek tech here, albeit in his own way here.But how sad and creepy is it when Koumba leaves the casino and the Joined all quietly start cleaning up, with even Koumba’s arch rival in cards bending over to pick up broken glass?By the way, the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, formerly known as the Las Vegas Hilton, was where Elvis Presley had his famed run of sold-out shows from 1969 to 1976. Hence the Elvis touches you might’ve spotted here. (It was also the site of the now-defunct Star Trek: The Experience!)Hell yeah, Joette gets to go in the hot tub too!
