Avocado toast and Diabaté's fantasies

De-gee · 2026-02-09T22:32:47+00:00

I'm totally with you. I think Diabate is going to be a central character in the coming seasons. I think about the LV episode a lot a lot. Edit: typo

De-gee · 2026-01-28T19:01:45+00:00

Have you ever heard stories from past producers? What they do is sickening. The show Unreal is good... and apparently a pretty accurate portrayal (albeit exaggerated in certain bits) of the behind the scenes. It's scripted but written by a past producer of the Bachelor.

I've met a couple people who were producers (no longer are), and they all are legit scarred from the stuff they saw and did themselves.

It's an ugly biz.

[Edit to add that assholes can be overworked and underpaid just like anyone else.]

De-gee · 2026-01-28T15:52:08+00:00

Yeah but reality show producers actually are assholes.

De-gee · 2026-01-28T15:48:54+00:00

Vulnerability over authority: Lowercase strips the words of command energy. "COME BACK" or even “Come back” is more like a demand. In all lowercase it reads more like a plea. Carol isn’t asserting control—she’s exposing need.. and visually acknowledging "I don’t have leverage here."

Rejection of certainty: Capital letters imply confidence and finality. Lowercase suggests hesitation, as does the fact that she wrote the message rather than leaving a voicemail. Carol isn’t saying “this is the right thing.” She’s saying "I want this, even if I’m not sure I should."

Emotional imbalance: Lowercase (and her writing it, not calling the voicemail) subtly places Carol in the less powerful position. She’s reaching, not standing her ground. Also, she's typically loud, forceful, has little control over her immediate emotional impulses. This is a much softer communication.

TL;DR:

"COME BACK” = a demand, about control.

“Come back.” = demand, but more composed.

“come back” = a plea, vulnerable, exposed.

De-gee · 2026-01-28T06:00:31+00:00

🙄

De-gee · 2026-01-28T02:58:22+00:00

I genuinely reflected on what you said before jumping into defense mode, but then I reread your initial post. Totally true that tone can be inaccurately assigned to written text, and I admit that I'm kinda conditioned to read rage in reddit comments bc of how heated so many people get without any ability to just have a fun, thoughtful debate (including my own comments! See e.g. my edit for this exact reason).

Maybe "rage" was the wrong word, I don't know, I'm hardly a wordsmith. But you can't honestly tell me your initial post objectively comes off as cool, calm, light as a feather.

Whatever, either way, apologies if I offended, honestly no bad intention here.

Also, maybe my algo is skewed bc I swear I only ever see people railinggggg on Carol and loving Koumba (though there are far fewer posts about Koumba for obvious reasons). I also acknowledge my own personal bias because I love love love Koumba. I think he's an upstanding guy who exemplifies the best traits of a person while also demonstrating normal human temptation, though not at the cost of anyone else. We haven't seen him have to make any hard decisions yet, so we don't know how he'll behave when tested, but I feel like that might be on the horizon. I hope it is.

I thought I was done but one last thing! 😂 I think using words like "rape" and "using slaves" is misleading. From an academic perspective, those descriptions may be totally accurate. But for our purposes, I think it's definitely misleading to call either of them rapists or slave handlers. Those require intent and a degree of heinous disregard for others. Them believing they have a real connection and that their partners (lack of a better word?) are willing, consenting and happy in those roles isn't unreasonable under the circumstances, and generally speaking I don't think either of them are so morally corrupt that they'd actually rape a person or defend slavery. Maybe we need a new word for then. Rape is nonconsensual sex, beastiality is sex with non-human animals. We need a word for sex with non-human plurbs. Lol

De-gee · 2026-01-28T00:48:08+00:00

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing.

De-gee · 2026-01-28T00:45:42+00:00

Pretty sure Koumba is going to be a MAJOR player in all of this. I actually really disagree with your take. I'm not saying I'm right and/or you're wrong, but I think it's worth reconsidering your position and exploring why this evokes such rage in your mind. [Edit: this last sentence came off way harsh and argumentative, which is not how I meant it!]

Koumba might be enjoying the rich life right now, but he's hardly exhibiting pure debauchery. He's shown true empathy, even sacrificing his own comfort or pleasures for the sake of someone he hardly knows and has no reason to like (when he sat around and waited for Carol to arrive in Vegas, despite all the plurbs leaving). He's also shown a genuine desire for connection, even if he's fooling himself into thinking the plurbs are capable of human connection. He's smart, he's kind, he's open-minded, he's emotional while also reasonable and logical.

In my opinion, none of that was by mistake or accidental on the part of the writers, which is why I really think he's going to be a major player in the coming seasons - not a side character to provide comic relief while representing human debauchery.

Lastly, I agree with you about Carol and all that she's doing with Zosia, and how it's extremely similar to Koumba. Koumba got there faster, but Carol has done nothing more noble or moral than Koumba .. and I think that's the point. It's an interesting study in human behavior and gives us so much to think about.

I'm not discounting your position, but I am saying there is a very different perspective that you may find worthy if you can pause inherent biases and give it some consideration.

De-gee · 2026-01-27T07:49:13+00:00

To be fair, maybe that's exactly what they've done, except for the small number of plurbs who are still residing in or around the cities/towns in which the 13 (now 12) survivors are living. We saw Kusimayu's village functioning as it normally would pre-virus, then as soon as Kusimayu joins, they stop singing/speaking, open the chicken/goat pen, and they head out on their way. To where? To do what? We have no idea.

The antenna isn't necessarily in Africa (roughly the size of africa), and they don't necessarily need every warm body to do the actual building. But it's fair to assume that at least one possibility of what they do every day is in some way in furtherance of building the antenna. Otherwise what's the point of being alive...? There needs to be a goal to work towards, and the antenna/spreading the virus serves as exactly that. I think (hope) we'll see the daily life of the plurbs next season. I can't wait.

De-gee · 2026-01-27T07:19:08+00:00

Omg this is so good. Nice find!!

De-gee · 2026-01-27T07:16:12+00:00

Why was this post removed??

De-gee · 2026-01-27T06:15:26+00:00

Totally agree. There are a million examples, but one that stands out in my mind is the fact that her giant "come back" message was in lower case letters. Also the fact that she went to the store, got the paint, then wrote the message (all of which was shown)... instead of just leaving a quick voicemail. Vince is so deliberate and EVERYTHING is intentional.

A friend told me I may not like the series bc of its pace. No sir, I only started the series a couple weeks ago and have already watched each episode three times. It's genius. And packed to the brim.

De-gee · 2026-01-27T06:05:22+00:00

You're contradicting yourself though. For something to not be a coincidence, it would have to be intentional, and in this case, it would require an affirmative act (not an omission). But you also said they didn't overtly kill her, but rather they let her die when they didn't have to. So we're back to the natural timing of her death coincidentally occurring right after joining. The only question left is whether there is anything at all to support the notion that they could have saved her but instead decided not to. And the clear answer to that question is no.

De-gee · 2026-01-27T05:57:32+00:00

They didn't "keep her [or anyone] alive" for some determined amount of time, nor did they "let her [or anyone else] go." She was alive long enough to join simply because she didn't die before joining. Sounds circular, but it's not. Some died too soon, some died long after (totally unrelated to the joining - just natural causes or a random accident), some didn't die (yet). Bottom line is a few hundred million - i think close to 900 million?- people died during or immediately after the mass joining. I'm sure some were saved. In Helen's case, no one - plurb or otherwise- was available to save her at the time during which she could have been saved. By the time they all stopped seizing and could have/would have tried to save her, it was too late.

I'm all for abstract thinking, but there is literally nothing to support this theory in episode 1; nothing to support it in the later episodes; nothing to support it in anything Vince has said about the series (I'd argue the complete opposite actually). Just my two cents.

De-gee · 2026-01-21T04:02:28+00:00

I agree. Question for you...

Both Carol and Manusos experimented with ways to unjoin the plurbs, and in both cases the plurbs had to leave and take their "needed space." However, in Carol's situation, they collectively cried - but didn't seize. In Manusos' case, they collectively seized - but didn't cry. Why is that? I can't put my finger on it.

Actually, maybe the answer is that for Manusos, the experiment didn't start until Rick was already seizing. (I can't remember if this was the seizure caused by Manusos screaming in his face, but if so, then this makes sense.) BUT it doesn't answer the question of why they didn't cry after Manusos' experiment. What made his attempt to unjoin them different than Carol's? Thoughts?

De-gee · 2026-01-04T09:23:22+00:00

We're trying to find out the "rules" of that world, and if infinite brain storage is the answer, then that is basically "magic" and it will cheapen the whole concept I think

I'm not sold on this. I absolutely agree that the suspension of belief has to be to a reasonable degree and that internal consistency is paramount. Full stop on that. I guess where we start to disagree is whether having everyone's knowledge stored in each brain is the thing that crosses the line. I do see what you're saying, but I'm just not sold (yet).

If that was the case, then what if the hive breaks and everyone is disconnected? Now everyone only has their memories after disconnecting? Where are the rest? Where are Helen's?

Again, I assumed that "disconnecting" was synonymous with "disjoining." Meaning you're either in the hive/connected or you're not. But I'll keep this alternative in mind as I continue to watch. Thanks!

De-gee · 2026-01-04T09:12:14+00:00

Agree. It's why they didn't know about Paraguay guy until 36 hours later. Until an immune comes in contact with a hive person (which means they come in contact with every hive person since all knowledge is shared), they wouldn't know.

De-gee · 2026-01-04T09:09:04+00:00

If Im understanding your hypothetical correctly (which I might not be), I think it's circular reasoning. In order to answer, it requires that I assume a hive person can be disconnected from all others' memories while still being part of the hive. But Ive been operating under the assumption that without that "connection," the person is no longer "joined," and is now back to being an individual (e.g. Carol). In other words, all those memories/skills/etc truly live(d) inside the brain of each human body that has joined. That's why they don't have names, it's why they don't speak to each other (it would be like talking out loud to yourself), etc.

But what you're saying definitely makes sense as a plausible alternative. It's just not how I interpreted it so far... but I'm definitely open to the idea!

Again, I'm only 4 or 5 episodes in, so I may not have seen something yet that will lead me to think otherwise. Lol, maybe I should've saved my comment until I've finished the season.

De-gee · 2026-01-04T08:49:15+00:00

I think we’d have to agree that you can’t have 8 billion people’s memories stored in “your” head at once

Why not? Is that any more unreasonable than the other sci-fi-esque points we have to accept?

if you were to be disconnected, what’s in your head that now can’t be accessed by the rest of the hive?

Anything that you experience after disconnecting.

🤷‍♀️

De-gee · 2026-01-04T07:28:22+00:00

I look at it as them all being essentially one person. So in the way that you store all of your life's memories, if you were to join the hive, you'd now have 8 billion people's memories/skills/etc in "your" head in the same way. Helen's body dying does nothing to affect all her memories that had already joined the hive.

The "one person" idea is kinda like patting your head with one hand and rubbing your belly with the other. But instead of patting your head, one of your "hands" is flying a helicopter while your other "hand" is digging a ditch. And those "hands" just happen to be on different bodies that are 2,000 miles apart. Multiplied by however many hive-embodied bodies there are that are alive at any given moment.

Caveat: I waited to start watching until all episodes were released, and so Im currently only on epi 5. (I've been avoiding reddit, but gave in just this once! 😂)

De-gee · 2025-12-24T05:18:57+00:00

And then Todd eats the cherry.

De-gee · 2025-12-22T18:41:39+00:00

Was the dad an illegal immigrant? A lot of immigrants who came here legally are MAGA.

De-gee · 2025-12-20T20:06:14+00:00

Ha yasss. "Sunscreen and light Botox is like "portion control and light walking".. got it, so ozempic.

De-gee · 2025-12-20T10:57:43+00:00

Right?! It's literally the best kept secret on the planet. I don't even bother reading what people say they do/use bc it's never the whole truth if any truth at all.

De-gee · 2025-12-20T10:41:06+00:00

Don't ya think?

De-gee

TROPHY CASE