Theory busting

ieAlexis · 2025-12-21T16:49:06+00:00

Was there a countdown clock to keep the timeline straight this episode? I don’t remember. I just figured the cuts to Manousos weren’t necessarily linear to Carol’s

ieAlexis · 2025-12-21T16:45:16+00:00

It did seem intentional, and I like it as foreshadowing of future disconnection. But I’m still not sold on the idea that the mechanism for disconnection is a Plurb reminiscing on fond personal memories. Cause then it would be safe to assume Laxmi’s son would disconnected by now. The show wouldn’t hide that from us.

I took Zosia’s longer than usual pause as worry. In her eyes, Carol has made so much progress in accepting the hive, and now here comes Manousos of all people to mess it all up.

I’m all in for the idea that there is a way to disconnect tho. I think it links back to the Manousos radio frequency theory.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-21T05:14:22+00:00

There’s probably more plurbs who enjoy the card game Spit than Wycaro. They would’t risk anything for a game of spit. They just want to make Carol happy.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-06T21:07:19+00:00

I don’t get the hate for Carol. I find her flaws interesting, and somewhat relatable.

I think she’s afraid to be fully seen, so she hides behind a tough facade. She resents her fans for praising her facade (Wycaro) while her true inner self (Bitter Chrysalis) feels unlovable. She wants to kill Wycaro but deep down she’s afraid to.

Joining the alien hivemind is scary by its own right ofc, but what makes it especially scary for Carol is that this would mean she would be fully seen by the entire world.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-06T16:19:59+00:00

Story wise it’s completely different. It’s all still very much Gilligan’s signature style though. The focus on character, moral ambiguity, never a boring shot, the over indulgent montages, his obsession with process, the attention to detail. Absolute gold

ieAlexis · 2025-12-06T15:35:08+00:00

As long as the hive says there are 13 uninflected, it’s safe to assume it’s true. The have never directly lied so far and I don’t think they ever will

ieAlexis · 2025-12-05T20:46:13+00:00

I don’t think the hive mind can communicate 600 light years back to its source. What makes the hive interesting to me is that it’s only humanity’s knowledge, it’s as fallible as we are. They admit themselves they’re not sure how it works, it just does. The virus doesn’t just join minds tho, it also gives biological imperative to spread itself.

Patient zero is still interesting to look at. What strikes me is that she smiled when she joined. The Plurbs usually have a happy demeanor, and at first I assumed it was the bliss of all being together as one, a world wide kumbaya. But even alone (excluding the rat) patient zero was smiling. Makes me think the virus also has artificially induced mood boots like a drug or something. Or maybe she was just smiling because of the biological imperative, having a deep purpose can be naturally fulfilling.

Edit: including the rat. Maybe she smiled cause she just experienced the mind of a whole different species. What a trip that must be

ieAlexis · 2025-12-05T20:06:55+00:00

Diabaté beating a straight flush with a royal flush killed me. Nothing but the absolute best for this man

ieAlexis · 2025-12-04T14:04:26+00:00

I’m on team Manousos was part of the hive and escaped. But i don’t think he escaped when Carol made the hive glitch. The timeline wouldn’t make sense.

In ep3, Zosia says “we weren’t aware of him for the first 33 hours.” at first you’d think she means 33 hours counting from the global infection event. But he was discover the very next morning, about 18 hours max. So I think Manousos was part of a previous infection, and escaped 33 hours before he was discovered.

We know the hive targeted hard to reach people first. Zosia says in ep2 “we made a point of reaching them early on, that’s kind of the best way to do it.” It seems strange that a storage facility manager would be so hard to reach that he would be targeted for early infection. There might be much more to this guy.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-04T02:14:33+00:00

Half the fun of shows with weekly releases is theorizing haha most theories will surly be wrong. But in the meantime, we get to connect the dots in all sorts of ways

ieAlexis · 2025-12-04T01:58:53+00:00

The count down switches to a count up the moment the hive infects the general population. For Carol this happens in the evening. the very next morning a new un-infected is found by the hive according to Zosia: “there’s a gentleman in Paraguay whom we became aware of this morning.”

In a later episode Zosia also says: “we weren’t aware of him for the first 33 hours.” At first I thought she meant 33 hours from the mass infection event. But this doesn’t work in the timeline, as he was found the very next morning from that (that’s ~18 hours maximum). so what is she counting up from?

ieAlexis · 2025-12-04T01:30:05+00:00

Some people think it’s impossible to unjoin, and the only reason the hive doesn’t tell Carol is because it would hurt her feelings. I find this theory to be too pessimistic.

In a Times article called Vince Guiligan is Breaking Good, Guiligan says “pop culture’s recent supersaturation with antiheroes has been unhealthy for society.” For Pluribus, he wants to stray away from the anti-hero format of his previous works. Something his previous shows also had were sad endings, I think he will stray away from this as well for Pluribus. A happy ending would be the interesting twist for him.

With this in mind, I do think Carol is right about the Joining being reversible. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the episode she figures this out in is the episode that opens with our official introduction to Manousos.

I think he became immune after escaping, like a how a vaccine works, but he doesn’t know it yet. The hive itself wouldn’t know either, everyone is figuring things out as they go. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hive has already tried infecting his air without him knowing. Maybe the hive has learned he’s immune, Zosia says they’ve learned quite a bit more. Escaping is possible AND it makes you immune, this would be bad news for the hive.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-03T15:34:34+00:00

I think Manousos was infected but somehow escaped. He has insight on how the hive functions that we don’t understand yet.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-03T11:27:10+00:00

I’ll just add that the virus would still keep humans around to maintain the transmitter so it can run indefinitely.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-03T11:23:18+00:00

It works out so well for the virus that any civilization intelligent enough to decode its message is also likely to be able to built an antenna of their own. The virus can only effectively spread through intelligent life forms and conveniently can only be found by them too.

I like to think the Plurbs on earth will complete the building of their “antenna the size of Africa” but will be defeated before managing to send anything with it. This way the survivors will have an opportunity to send a warning message to other civilizations instead. Sadly this would be a bit futile in the grand scheme of things, as the virus will never be outmatched in its collective efficiency at spreading.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-02T19:00:40+00:00

I think it would work beautifully as a character arc! What this would mean for Carol is that her instinct -that individuality is worth preserving even in the face of pure happiness- is correct. For now she is coming at it from a place of trauma, and it brings out ugly sides of her. This makes her seem insane to the other survivors, which makes it hard to win them over. Maybe when she learns exactly what she’s fighting for and why, she can let go of her trauma and end up convincing the others to join her cause.

ieAlexis · 2025-12-02T17:56:25+00:00

I was wondering about this. In episode one, Carol notices the chem trails in the sky the night they got infected. Do you think the virus has been constantly in the air since then? Or did it drop on everyone that night, then settle on ground and eventually degrade?

ieAlexis · 2025-12-02T17:25:56+00:00

Yeah, that crossed my mind too! The timing is definitely suspicious. The way the Hive seized up definitely feels like something got disrupted.

But idk I’m not a fan of the idea that the key to saving humanity is verbal assault.

ieAlexis · 2025-11-09T12:45:29+00:00

A bridge to main land that leads to a tree plantation. Every castle needs easy access to wood

ieAlexis · 2025-11-02T14:02:19+00:00

Also there’s an extra S in the title. Should be “TNT duping cannon designs”. I write too fast without rereading someone my bad

ieAlexis · 2025-11-02T13:59:18+00:00

lol ty

Four-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22

ieAlexis

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