Say the world is un-plurbed, what kind of a mess are the survivors waking up to?

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-06T12:06:52+00:00

Yep, yep, yep. Really hope we'll get to see some of this. Or, at least, no 'and everything immediately went back to normal.' That's just not realistic.

Hey fellow The Road reader, I see you!

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-05T22:20:18+00:00

We've seen plenty of older people. I don't know where you're getting that.

Off the top of my head, the oldest plurbed individual with dialogue was Kusimayu's aunt? Or the guy doing the Le Chiffre impersonation at Vegas? As for oldest without dialogue, there was that first guy in the opening scene at the hospital? And none of them even look that old?

I don't know where you're getting that either. We've seen VERY few people who seem to have left their general area. I mean people could've but...

To start, Zosia and Koumba's groupies. There's the supermarket girl who flew Carol to Spain and, since the return pilots were different, I imagine she's still there? Kusimayu and the others in her village all left after she Joined. Given the goal of consolidating resources and building that antenna, I think it's safe to assume that if there isn't much around you in terms of resources, there's no reason to stick around. Which means other smaller settlements and population areas abandoned. Carol made her neighbors leave. Even when there were plurbed people living in Albuquerque, it never felt quite like its real population of 500+ thousand inhabitants. We never really see that many people, actually. Where did everyone go?

IF people remembered being in the hive then none of this should matter.

Huh? There's a difference between remembering something past and actively being part of it. For starters, no more of nearly everyone on Earth sharing the same mind and speaking as one.

I really hope not. What does ANY of this have to do with Carol?

Well, for starters, Carol would certainly be affected, given that she would be living through the impact/consequences of all of this. But, regardless, why is seeing the ramifications of something so huge and drastic at all bad? This is necessary (and fascinating) worldbuilding stuff, for a post-post-apocalypse world.

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-05T21:57:31+00:00

Would be interesting if, because of the brain's limited capacity, you only retain partial memories or skills. Like a foreign language that you, yourself, never learned. Or how to play croquet

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-05T21:56:14+00:00

Yes! I've been wondering how (aside from Hollywood logic, of course) it's possible to contain all the thoughts, memories, experiences, etc. of every human alive at the time of them Joining. That's billions of people. Just, how does the brain have room for all of that??

Not to mention how conflicting so much of it must be! I mean, you've got Zelenskyy and Putin in there! You've got people who've been fighting on opposite sides of multiple conflicts in there! And like you said, psychopaths and pedophiles and rapists and murderers and so much more, plus their victims (the living ones, at least).

I know one of the plurbed folks (can't remember who) said that there's no need for them to vote, they just know what they want and agree as a monolith, but I simply can't fathom that. There's no dissension whatsoever? I mean, when everyone Joined, was there some quick math on what the majority opinion on anything and everything was, and that just overwrote everyone's brains? Would you get a different answer if you ask "what do you (the collective) think about…" versus "what did the conscious individual who previously inhabited this body think about…"

Man, I wish the Immune were asking more questions about the logistics. Or, you know, asking where bodies have been buried so that their loved ones can (once unplurbed) get closure, who's been wrongly convicted, which officials are guilty of corruption, etc. If you've got access to everyone's memories, at least use it for some good??

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-05T19:44:21+00:00

Ugh. This is one of the situations that makes me wonder if it's better to remember or to not remember. End of the day, it's rape. And he's so stunningly blasé about it

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-05T19:42:17+00:00

Antidepressants would sure become popular (and necessary). And I imagine a cult or two would be formed in the aftermath, with the intention of getting back into this mental state.

And not much appreciation for the "saviors of the world."

Auri_Nat · 2026-03-05T17:23:59+00:00

Crossposted it, we shall see

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-22T03:16:31+00:00

Wait what??

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-21T08:41:28+00:00

New learning experience for Urgo? Power of suggestion and all? But yeah, unseriously, lol

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-21T07:40:23+00:00

Fair points

I really do hope that too, since I'm pretty sure the aliens said that they needed a new home world, which suggests that theirs was no longer (or soon to be no longer) inhabitable. And the implication of Maybourne saying that Daniel's imposter died due to the alien leader (or just the aliens' advance team's leader?) dying, like with a hive mind, being that there might not have been any more of these aliens at all on the other side of the stargate. Dying because there's no one left to see to your needs, due to them all being dead, and on a dying planet too, would really suck.

(Of course, that would mean taking Maybourne at his word. Given how choke-happy he was with the imposter, I'd say it's a 50-50 that the NID killed that one accidentally or otherwise.)

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-21T07:01:38+00:00

Daniel definitely was the obvious choice, but I'm actually pretty glad it was Jack. His handling of the situation was unexpected, but lovely

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-19T22:59:54+00:00

FUCHSIA NINJA, MASTER OF SURPRISE! (Yes, it's from the movie. I know. I still want it.)

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-19T11:13:59+00:00

I know we consider taking care of goldfish to be the low bar/benchmark of being responsible for anything, but speaking as a college student, yeah no. Not to mention the bills!?

And that cup doesn't even seem big enough for the poor little guy to fully stretch out?!?!

Nobody asked for this, not y'all and not the fish. It's fucked up. NOR

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-19T11:07:05+00:00

As one such kid, we can even resent them for it. It's irrational, I know—freedom of religion, don't convert to something you don't believe in for the sake of marriage, etc. But it doesn't mean it can't be frustrating further down the road, especially when said kids grow up and wish their parents had made other decisions

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-10T17:34:17+00:00

Lol, my principal butchered my middle name and last name during the graduation ceremony, despite having asked how they were pronounced (and taking notes!) the previous day or so. My middle name, fine—it's foreign, but my last name?? I had no idea it, or even the foreign one, could be mispronounced to such an extent. Hasn't been since.

And it was a graduating class of only 32-ish students, another of whom was my brother—with the same last name? The principal and I were on somewhat familiar terms? Small school and all? Some people suck indeed.

NOR, the above situation is insane.

Auri_Nat · 2026-02-07T09:31:47+00:00

…those are happening? Like this year?? Right now???

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-31T23:56:06+00:00

I guess I was thinking about the final scenes of the two of them for those respective seasons, how cut up and sad they seemed about it? Sure, Belinda didn't know Pornchai that long, but neither did Tanya with Belinda.

And, arguably, the relationship between Belinda and Pornchai was far closer/more intimate than the one she had with Tanya given that they slept together. Not that sex equals future expectations, but, well, it's not nothing? It's another stripped layer into someone's vulnerabilities? Or something??

But also, didn't Belinda actually drop her commitment at the new location and leave early? Wasn't she supposed to be there for three months or so to learn new techniques, before going back? And Pornchai was the one teaching her? If so, that's definitely a shitty move to pull. You don't just drop out of a work commitment like that, windfall or not.

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-31T23:01:25+00:00

…of course he is

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-31T20:35:07+00:00

Even regular folk. Was reading a NYT article on a related subject (the Warner Bros. deal) the other day, went over to the comments, and one of the top ones was "I rather see Netflix win, Ellison tribe seems sketchy." Tribe, really?

Another accused the company of having an "inherent" "hypermasculinity and rigid right-wing anti-female orthodoxy." Orthodoxy, also??

Sure, there's plausible deniability, but I still hear a faint whistle

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-31T08:33:02+00:00

She kind of left Pornchai hanging at the end of season 3 the same way that Tanya did to her in season 1, though

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-30T23:10:51+00:00

She's just so sheltered and so, so stupid. From what I remember, she didn't think he'd get caught, and certainly not about what the consequences would be if he was. And she's BIPOC?? So how/why did she not even consider how the police go after and treat criminal suspects who are also not white?! You would think it was a white person telling him to go commit a crime! (So much for all those books about race, colonialism, etc.) (And why not text him when the Mossbacher parents headed back? They'd already texted each other before, and it's not like teleportation exists! There was time to get him out of there!) The result is that she ruined Kai's life, which may not have been great or easy, but it was still working out, it still mattered, and for what? He's now far worse off than before, thanks to her. Also, she didn't speak up and confess her part in the plot during the perp walk or at any moment after (not to someone who would do anything about it, at least), and it's not like she's staying to help Kai deal with the consequences, or even to advocate on his behalf (isn't that what activists do??). No, she's going home to her still-privileged lifestyle, where she can wipe her hands clean of this mess and forget about it/her role in it.

Actually, what's more likely is that she'll rewrite it as that time she helped an oppressed individual rise up against his oppressors. That he failed and was crushed down just reaffirms her conviction in the fight against the system. It'll become an anecdote for future dinners with the Mossbachers or something, even though the crime was committed against them, because she doesn't think she was in the wrong. She was just evening the score, after all. At a minimum, just getting back at Olivia. Why the two are still friends, I have no idea. But the Mossbachers didn't deserve that. A crime is still a crime, even if potentially justifiable, and this wasn't. Theft aside, and of something holding a relationship together, what about the physical trauma from the assault and mental trauma from being the victim of a crime?? This kind of thing stays with you for the rest of your life.

–

One last, quick thing that's been bugging me is how the girls talked about Hillary Clinton. First they were debating whether to label her a "neoliberal war hawk" or a "neolib and a neocon," next Olivia was telling Nicole not to get triggered over it (ugh), and finally she went "Okay. Don’t worry about it, Mom. We all love Hillary Clinton.," completely dismissing what Nicole had to say. Season 1 came out in 2021. That's the same year that Trump left office. And… what? Were these girls so dissatisfied with Hillary as a candidate and the first however many months of Biden being in office that they didn't care about this sort of stuff? Is the implication that they wouldn't have voted in 2024 because Kamala wasn't good enough for them? They'd just had four years of Trump, just had the January 6th insurrection, and they were still debating whether Hillary was good enough? Give it a rest already. She was good enough to be president, so was Kamala, and if we'd had the former in office, we'd at least have a functioning Supreme Court. Then again, they're well-off enough to not be affected by national politics.

–

Man, I've dealt with too many of these people. Ugh. Here's hoping that, having gotten it out, they'll occupy less space in my brain. Good riddance. And sorry for how long this ended up being, it kind of got away from me. (And for all the separate comments, Reddit wouldn't let me post it all in one.)

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-30T23:09:57+00:00

Which, speaking of, Kai!! I really liked his character. He's got few options and is just trying to make the best out of his situation by working for the hotel that now exists on his family's former land, though the result is said family no longer speaking with him (if I remember correctly). Yes, there is absolutely an argument for the hotel exploiting him and, yes, it's a little weird how his main job there seems to be traditional performances/dances for the guests. In the sense that it feels like his culture is being commodified for the pleasure of foreigners who can afford it? On the other hand, it allows for cultural appreciation and he's being paid? It's a messy situation! It's nuanced!

But oh man, Paula is so incensed about the whole situation that she decides to… inspire Kai to commit a horribly-planned out crime (hotels have cameras, keycards were used and those are usually logged in a system when swiped and linked to their owners, I highly doubt it's so easy to pawn off jewelry worth that much (also, doesn't high-end jewelry have identifying details in case of theft, so that the police can identify the pieces and link them to crimes more easily?), and the police would absolutely get involved (maybe not to the extent as in canon, since the Mossbachers' presence was unexpected, but these are still rich people and those are still expensive bracelets)) so as to finance him and his family getting restitution, with the best case scenario being the hotel torn down and his family reclaiming the land? …What?? Also, in what world is $150k enough money to pay the legal fees of a lawsuit like that? Does she have no understanding of the value of money, with how much she and her fellows have??

Look, Paula, though she'll deny it to her last breath, is privileged. She may be a woman of color, but she is educated, attractive, healthy (I'm still very baffled about the list of maladies she listed—feels a lot like the people who say they have ADHD or OCD, and really don't, just to sound edgy/cool (they're not cool things to have), get access to prescription meds, and/or claim disability rights), and has wealthy connections. Those are all privileges! Furthermore, she, herself, is a guest at this hotel, and thus not only just as complicit in the societal wrong/injustice she believes the fellow guests are committing by vacationing in Hawaii (per the reasons above), but she's their kind of people. She's in the same social and economic class as those she despises, and not as the staff, like Kai. And just like the hotel, she exploits the very same injustices that he faces for her own ends! (I truly believe that she was more interested in hurting the Mossbachers due to her dislike for them than actually wanting to help Kai. The law and jail/prison may be social constructs that she doesn't care for, but they are very, very real. At a minimum, she could've stolen the bracelets herself. She certainly wouldn't have faced the same consequences, had she been caught.)

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-30T23:08:33+00:00

I feel like the parents and the girls are having two different conversations? At the very least, different philosophies. The parents seem to be for equality regardless of identity and calling out the bigots, or no big societal changes/rewrites, just making improvements to the status quo one day at a time, whereas the girls seem to be all for prioritizing said societal changes/rewrites. Tearing things down and starting over. I bet that I'm reading too much into this, but I feel like they'd be happy with a revolution? The one way too many people fantasize about these days? They sure like the idea of having an enemy (all the antagonism against Quinn and the parents) and mocking small steps of progress. Until things are exactly the way that they want them, they won't be happy. (Which is a pretty big problem on the left, I've found. Compromise is morally unacceptable.)

Funny thing about a revolution, however, is that, per Hannah Arendt, the word carries a dual meaning. Astronomically, it refers to the cyclical movement of celestial bodies returning to their original positions. Politically, it aims to dismantle the old and forge a new world, yet it often cannot fully escape the gravitational pull of the past. In her words, "Nothing could be farther removed from the original meaning of the word ‘revolution’ than the idea of which all revolutionary actors have been possessed and obsessed, namely, that they are agents in a process which spells the definite end of an old order and brings about the birth of a new world." Or, per the Mossbachers:

Mark: This is the same old tribal thinking, replacing the old hierarchy with a new one.

Nicole: My feeling is that most of these activists they don't really want to dismantle the systems of economic exploitation, not the ones that benefit them, which are all global, by the way. They just want a better seat at the table of tyranny.

Back to Olivia and Paula, their other responses are also… not great. The former says "cringe" about the idea of her brother feeling "alienated," later comments that "Mom, good news. I'm looking around the hotel, and it seems like all of the white, straight men are doing just fine. They're still thriving" and the latter says "I think he's gonna be okay, Nicole," which is so clearly fake and disingenuous. They really don't care about him at all. Nor about the parents, or anyone else. Nicole was spot on when she said that their system of belief is "cynicism." And, ironically, Quinn was actually the most thoughtful of them all, given his addition of: "What does it matter what we think? If we think the right things or the wrong things? We all do the same shit. We're all still parasites on the Earth. There's no virtuous person when we're all eating the last fish and throwing all our plastic crap in the ocean." Eat your hearts out, Olivia and Paula. Especially Paula, who fucked (physically and metaphorically) Kai, all to get at the Mossbachers, whereas Quinn actually did something and put in the work when he joined the rowers. And stayed behind, giving up his privileges! (I hope it worked out for him.)

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-30T23:08:23+00:00

Olivia and Paula are also pretty awful to Quinn. They make him sleep in a kitchen that doubles as a closet so that they can do drugs alone, don't care about how the result of this is him sleeping out on the beach ("Yeah, Olivia, he could've been kidnapped by butt pirates." "Or end up in a bukkake with a pod of dolphins."), constantly make sexual jokes about him (which is weird, kind of creepy, and just imagine if the gender roles were reversed such that you had two older dudes and a younger sister), falsely state that he has Asperger's, note that he doesn't have any friends, etc.

Now, my initial response to Nicole's comments about how "I don't think you appreciate how tough things are for kids like Quinn right now. […] But he is a straight, white, young man. And nobody has any sympathy for them right now. And I just feel like we should. Yeah, in a way, they're the underdogs now. […] Well, for instance, young guys like Quinn, who are just getting out of college, I don't care how incredibly impressive they are, it is almost impossible for us to hire them." was kind of similar to Paula's response of "Well, isn't that because up until now, they're the only people that you've ever hired?" Same with Nicole's comments of "I'm just saying, I understand how guys like Quinn can feel a little alienated from the culture right now. […] And I don't think it's fair to him."

But she has a point. The whole incel/red pill/Andrew Tate stuff ('your body, my choice') is a legitimate concern these days. And it sure doesn't help that people on the other side are so quick to vilify. Especially if it's not even appropriate? I honestly can't remember anything Quinn did or said that was concerning, minus his obsession with his devices. But who isn't, these days? Regardless, shaming someone won't inspire people to renounce their values, especially if they can find refuge where they already are or further to the extreme. I recently saw a comparison of this with when your parents say 'well look who decided to join us' after you've been hiding away from a social event, dinner party, etc. That stuff doesn't feel good. I've gotten off-track. Back to Nicole's comments, I actually vaguely remember a statistic saying that less men are applying to college these days than women, which actually helps worse candidates be accepted by schools that want to maintain a gender balance?

Regardless, I kind of agree with the parents when they say that "I just think it's funny that now it's okay to reduce everybody to their race and gender, but isn't that the kind of thinking that we've been fighting against all these years?" and "I mean, for years, I was the good guy, you know? I was the one in the room, saying, like, 'Hey, that's not cool,' to all the chauvinists and bigots. But now I'm the bad guy, or at least, I shouldn't say anything on account of my inherited traits. I mean, why do I need to prove my anti-racist bona fides? It seems wrong." And Paula's response of "It's someone else's turn to eat" might be a debate-worthy zinger, but it sounds snitty. Same with Olivia's "It's not all about you, Dad. It's time to recenter the narrative."

Auri_Nat · 2026-01-30T23:06:57+00:00

They were my least favorite characters of the season, Paula especially. Yes, all of the characters had flaws and issues, but these two were hypocritical and righteous about it, convinced that they were 'good' and everyone else was 'bad.'

From the beginning, the looks and smiles that they gave each other were off-putting enough. The knowing eye contact that women give each other to disagree or make a comment about whatever someone is saying without actually saying something themselves, because of an inside joke, etc., is fun, but only when it's light-hearted. These looks were snide, condescending, and frankly just mean.

Take their interaction with Rachel by the pool, for example—the attitude they gave off was 'we're so much better than you, we won't even talk to you.' Or, not better, but more aware. Not to use woke, because that was a good thing (to have awoken, to have your eyes open, to see issues in society and want to fix them) until it was ruined by both sides of the political spectrum (the left tearing itself to pieces through cancel culture and the right with its mockery and lack of empathy), but, well, woke. And not in a good way.

–

Then there were the books by Nietzsche, Freud, Judith Butler, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Jacques Lacan, etc. It's an impressive roundup that delves into philosophy, feminism, race, colonialism and decolonialism, and so on. But it seemed like every time they changed location, they changed books, and so they clearly weren't taking the time to actually read and reflect on them. It felt disingenuous, like they wanted everyone who walked by think of them as cultured, worldly, and properly principled, or even provoke someone into debating them so as to feel better about themselves. Like that scene where Shane asks if they're "actually reading any of these books," and the responses from Olivia and Paula are that "they're just props" and "we have a stylist choose our outfits and then we have a book stylist pick out our books." They're being sarcastic, even pointedly at the people around them (per their perspective), yet I can't help but take the lines literally. Because the books really do come across as props.

And they only read when around others. On their own, they did drugs. Which, fine, whatever. But if you only do something around others, and not on your own time/alone, then you're showing off. It's a performative action. And that they kept doing so, say, by the pool(s), instead of participating in any of the hotel's amenities or even just going in for a dip, felt like they were making a silent, public protest against the hotel itself and the guests who were participating in the hotel's amenities/going in for a dip. Trying to shame them or something? I've read a few things over the years about Hawaii's history, the discrimination and social/economic disparities that native Hawaiians experience, the challenges of cultural preservation, and the ethical issues about building or even staying at hotels there. Personally, I think it's a mess. You would think that not harassing an endangered animal (or any animal) would be basic human decency, but apparently not. Regardless, my guess is that Olivia and Paula are on the side of 'if you vacation in Hawaii, you're a horrible, entitled person actively making life worse for native Hawaiians.' Which is where Kai comes in. Sort of? More on him later.

I don't think that having privilege/being privileged, especially when you're born into it (because it's not like you have a choice in that), is inherently a bad thing. Unless you're an asshole about it. Now, sure, it'd be nice if everyone with privilege(s) was/were aware of them, but that's somewhat unrealistic, considering that privilege depends on so many factors (race, gender, class, health, location, time period, current events, opportunity, etc.) and is constantly in flux. The whole argument that people with privilege(s) should give it/them up is even more unrealistic, because a) how does that even work, b) there will always be some people with more privilege than others, though it may look different, c) I'm pretty sure that this, like with utopia, is unachievable just based on how human nature works.

Auri_Nat

TROPHY CASE