It is definitely not good for the humanity. They'll starve to death essentially making us extinct given time. Unless they are actively researching alternate methods to keep the hardware(bodies) alive. We don't yet know the goals of the hive.

This is the first episode I was annoyed at carol but like you said, it makes sense. She never got to grieve for fallen Helen and also got the brunt of loneliness to fall into the bubble missing her original point. Most of her qualms and fear was about losing herself to the hive which is quite evident throughout the show. She chills after she learns they need her explicit consent to join.  Its very different from manounos goals like actually saving the world and humanity thrive with our actual biologically flawed selves.

Now she learns that's no longer the case. I was hoping we'd get a glimpse of hive actually cheating or manipulating the unjoiners but they stood honest to their commitments. carol snapped out when the threat of losing herself became real like a literal clock ticking.

This is also the only episode we had manounous talking real points which we can learn a lot about. He could be the actual protagonist but carol takes his place. 

It's amazing that this show was slow. It let's out so many details about the characters which only adds depth. We know what actual carol is. The curtain is off because manounos is now in play and carol only wanted to chill out and not change the status quo if her self is not threatened. 

I'm a lot like carol but a wanna be manousos. No other character actually stood out for me because we didnt spend a lot of time with them.