We NEED To Talk About Apple TV's Pluribus

Contains spoilers for "Pluribus"

They say misery loves company, except if you're Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), who wants the entire planet to stay away from her. Vince Gilligan's "Pluribus" has already cemented itself as one of the best TV shows of 2025 with virtually unanimous praise from critics – Looper's review of "Pluribus" gives it a perfect 10/10. But in case you missed something in the first couple of episodes, check out our explainer video above that breaks down what we know so far about this unique twist on the alien invasion genre. 

The first episode plays like a zombie outbreak where everyone gets affected by some unknown virus, but they don't die. They buffer for a while before coming back to their senses, only now they have their sights locked onto Carol, who was unaffected. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for her manager and romantic partner Helen (Miriam Shor), who dies during the takeover. Carol, understandably distraught, learns that this virus (or "psychic glue," as they call it) hails from lightyears away and seeks to assimilate planets. Carol and about a dozen others around the globe are the only ones not affected. 

The main thing to note about this hive mind is that it isn't actively malevolent, which is a change of pace from hive minds like the Borg in "Star Trek," who rank among the scariest sci-fi villains. In fact, in the first two episodes, everyone seems super nice toward Carol. That doesn't mean there isn't a ticking clock of doom, as the hive mind lets it be known that they're working on a way to assimilate Carol so that no one on the planet gets left out. 

To make matters worse, Carol fails to make a great impression on the other English-speaking individuals who weren't assimilated. While she wants to talk with them to try to figure out a way to beat this hive mind, no one else is on her side. The idea of being one collective consciousness doesn't sound too bad to them, which sounds absurd to Carol. It's clear the series will have a strong theme of individualism and whether it's worth sacrificing what makes us human for the sake of safety and peace. Humans suck sometimes (Carol herself didn't seem like the nicest person even before the conquest), but making mistakes and learning from them is kind of what humanity's all about.

So what hope does Carol have to stop all of this? All we know so far is that Carol does have the power to temporarily disrupt the hive mind's control over Earth's population by expressing overly negative emotions, which we see her do twice. The downside is that humans die when she does this, and she discovers that 11 million perished after one incident. She compares herself to a mass murderer, but that's nothing on the scale of what the hive mind did initially, killing over 886 million people during the takeover. That's nearly a billion humans dead so far, so even if the hive mind can go away, the planet's going to look very different after. 

Only two episodes are out so far, but it definitely seems like "Pluribus" is going to have fun with its plot. Don't expect any easy answers soon, and unlike Carol, hopefully you can enjoy the ride. Don't forget to check out our explainer video above to make sure you're up to speed on all things "Pluribus."