The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Pluribus, which premiered Friday, November 7, on Apple TV.
In Pluribus, Rhea Seehorn plays a romance author named Carol who becomes the most miserable person on Earth after a virus connects nearly every being and makes them gleeful. Carol turns out to be one of the few people exempt from this weird life-altering event (there are 12 other people, to be exact), but that still doesn’t give her peace of mind. It actually becomes a disturbing wake-up call that her whole life has been a repression of her selfhood, and only when she can truly be herself she can’t share this relief with anyone else.
But no matter, says the hive-mind collection that occupies the mind of everyone on Earth except for the 13 immune individuals. Carol is one of the most unique people in the world now, and no one’s going to take that away from her. “Your life is your own,” the hive-mind reassures to a disoriented Carol at the end of the series premiere. But how true can that really be when the hive-mind is actively seeking to turn Carol into one of them? And is that not just a slap in the face to Carol, a woman who had never felt the social acceptance to really possess her own life? Pluribus questions whether this new world Carol has found herself in is either hell or a chance to start fresh. It’s too soon to tell what Carol will make of this strange sensation, but a character so used to wearing a mask can easily swing either way.
Pluribus Reckons With the Illusion of Freedom and Happiness
Carol and the other immune individuals on PluribusImage via Apple TV
“Your life is your own” isn’t a hard fact in Apple TV’s Pluribus. It is a comforting blanket statement to appeal to a confused woman, believing she’s broken from reality. But at the moment, it’s also not a lie. The temporary truth is that Carol is still free and independent of the binds of others — probably more free than she’s ever been before. Yet, the intention isn’t that it will last forever. With so little known about the hive-mind and what its biological imperative entails, it’s hard to determine if they’re capable of acting on an ulterior motive. Sure, they’re open to the fact that they’re trying to convert Carol and the 12 other individuals to their space of peace, but they’re not hiding it. It’s not a lie that the hive-mind is maliciously acting on.
The second episode of Pluribus asks if there’s a chance of happiness if freedom were sacrificed. The youngest member of the 13 immune individuals yearns to connect with the hive-mind to join her aunt and cousin. As Carol reminds her, this means taking away everything that makes her special. But the alternative is a life of loneliness and feeling like an outsider. Carol finds herself in that very situation among her fellow survivors, being the only one who’s not content with the world’s new agenda.
Human connection is obviously meant to bring happiness, but it requires a level of understanding and shared beliefs. Carol can’t achieve that through her fellow survivors, but she could if she gave in to the hive mind. At the same time, is happiness truly happiness if there is no other emotion left to feel? In other words, can you only be content if you control your own life?
Is ‘Your Life Is Your Own’ as Liberating as Carol Thinks?
Carol reading her book to an audience on PluribusImage via Apple TV
Pluribus deals with complicated feelings about self-liberation and control over one’s life. Part of why it is so mind-boggling is that the narrative is told through the eyes of a character who doesn’t really understand happiness and freedom herself. Telling Carol that her life is her own doesn’t mean anything to her because that’s not the default way she lives her life. Before the Joining, she was hiding her identity as a gay woman to write bad romance novels, changing her original female love interest to a typical heterosexual man. The show implies that her depression led to alcoholism, which only fueled the hatred she had for her life. Carol struggles with the new world because, unlike the other survivors, she does not know how to take advantage of her newfound privileges of being free.
This sci-fi world now runs without judgment; a person’s sexuality, gender or the color of their skin no longer sets people apart. There really is a certain kind of bliss in joining a group like that. But at the same time, sacrificing one’s individuality comes at the cost of doing things without real consent or willpower. So then maybe sticking by the old world’s order is the better alternative. The tricky thing is that there’s no right or wrong answer, although anyone who really values humanity might say Carol is more on the side of being right. But neither scenario is perfect, and that’s what makes every word that comes out of the hive-mind’s mouth is so powerful. They believe the Joining is the only real solution to peace and contentment. But maybe they’re just as confused as Carol is without even knowing it.
New episodes of Pluribus premiere every Friday on Apple TV.
Release Date
November 6, 2025
Network
Apple TV+
Writers
Ariel Levine
