November 28, 2025 • 34 mins
Jason and Rosie recap and discuss latest mysteries and theories in this nutritious and delicious episode of Pluribus, speculate on what could be the answer to the big cliffhanger ending and then they discuss the list of films that inspired the show, posted Vince Gilligan posted on Letterboxd.
https://letterboxd.com/crew/list/films-that-influenced-vince-gilligans-pluribus/detail/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning. Today's episode contained spoilers for the fifth episode of Plurals,
Got Milk on Apple TV Plus. Hello Manny In, Jason
(00:24):
Steps and I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to xt
revision of the podcast weedow Deep into your favorite shows, movies,
comics and pop culture. Coming you from My Heart Podcast.
We're we're bringing you three episodes a week, bust news.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In today's episode, it is Pluribus one oh five Got Milk.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We're gonna be digging into it with a recap.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We're gonna be asking some big questions heading into the
rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
And before we jump in, guys, a quick production note.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The holiday season is here, so we will be sharing
some short to stocking stuff for episodes with you.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
They will include gift guides. They will include.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Extra thoughts on holiday things and TV and movies that
maybe we would not be able to cover with everything
coming out in the next few months. So we had
our first few episodes last week and keep an eye
out for more throughout December.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
But first, let's seven Plurals. Wow. Great episode. We open
in the hospital where Carol is hanging out waiting to
see how thoshit is. After Usha's interrogation induced heart attack.
Carol is, you know, just kind of waiting, squeezing her
(01:38):
stress stuck. We see a man drinking a carton of milk,
one of the little school cartons. Then the phone rings.
Carol picks it up at the front desk. It is Lakshmi,
and Lakshmi's pissed. She's like, you made my son cry?
What the fuck are you doing? And she's like, never
(02:01):
did it again, goodbye, hangs up. She's very angry. At
this point, you start to notice that all the Hive
Mind people seem kind of mad at Carol, like they're
very unhappy with her. They're giving her a there's definitely
a vibe. Yes, Harol like grabs one of the Hive
(02:22):
Mind people and like, don't let me call me again.
The guy's like whatever, Like definitely is like okay, But
then maybe there's an attitude one of them. When Carol asks, says,
so she's gonna be fine, but like in a really
annoyed right way. And then Carol lays down for a nap.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
This is not the Hive Mind to her, only there
to please Carol anymore us.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
And then we see like them just streaming.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Away from the hospital appears as if they are like
fleeing Carol, maybe fleeing the potential of a nightmare.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I was wondering, like, if she's angry and high dream
would that do something? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm very interested in that they board like coaches basically
to leave and time passes.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And I'm sure in the script it.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Said beat Carol wakes alone, and she does, and where
is Zosha?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's the biggest question. I think.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'm really scared at this point by the scope of
how quickly they can arrange and organize stuff, whether it's
rebuilding a sprouts or emptying a hospital. Carol tries to
make a call, but she is no longer priority number one,
and they do not pick up. There's only a message saying,
tell us what you need, Carol, We'll do our best
(03:39):
to provide it. The hide mine needs a little space
from her, and she climbs to a rooftop and sees
the entire population fleeing and says, good riddance. What a
way to wake up. Imagine pissing off the entire world?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
What a way. She goes home and she begins drafting
a script. Uh she and it gets made up for her,
you know, with her video camera setup that's still in
the living room. She puts a new and stick card
in the camera and then she, reading off her notes,
(04:12):
goes straight to camera and addressing her twelve other fellow survivors,
basically pitching like this greater mission to cure humanity. He
lays out how she knows everything that she knows about
about the Hive Mind people they can't lie that they
want to please them, but that there is a cure,
and that they basically confirmed to her by process of
(04:36):
elimination that there is a cure, and that it was
in pursuing this information that she and accidentally got everybody
to burst out into tears all around the world, and
she's like, sorry about that. He then calls the Hive Mind,
leaving a message and says, hey, I want this videotape
distributed with captions for those who don't speak English to
(04:59):
all the others. And she leaves it in a little
like padded envelope outside her house and a drone comes
because they don't want to approach her. A drone comes
in and carries it away. I will say that my
initial reaction to this video is this is not going
to get it.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I was gonna say, Jason, likelihood of my manifestos winning bad,
it's not. She's not winning anyone over, Like this is
not a well made manifesto.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
This is just Pete's stand at Carol, and I think
this is very This is part of the tension of
this show. That's so interesting is you know, like, nominally
I'm on Carol's side, but the fact that she is.
She's going about it in almost the same way that
the Hive's mind do their exactly I like and ask
(05:43):
for consent. They just they just assimilated everyone. Harold here
she makes a very kind of like bare gesture chords
like now, I know some of you might not agree
with me, but then she usually rolls over that and
is like, we must together to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
She's like, oh, now I care about curing the earth.
It's like, do you like you didn't seem to be.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That bothered about any of this before, Like she's not,
she's not selling it, but she's doing her best good
for Caro. And she tries to sleep but she can't,
which understandable because the whole world hates you.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
It's like my regular night terror.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
She sees a coyote hop the fence and eat her garbage.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Makes sense, It's Albuquerque.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So she sees a wolf and it begins to eat
her garbage, and she's like, go away, trashes the garden
as if you've ever had a raccoon or a coyote
or a wolf in your house, they are want to do.
She calls the Hive mine and she's like, hey, put
on these lights. The wolves are getting brave, like they
put them on. But the next day, Carol's like, I'm
gonna clean my yard, goes outside getting her little racon
(06:50):
and she calls the Hive mine and she's like, I
need my trash to be picked up now. I gotta
say I'm kind of liking the Hive Mind's response to
this because Carol, I don't feel like you're relying too
much on them for you're just calling them all the time.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
They do this for me, do that for me, but
like you could do it yourself. And that's basically what
they say, which I love.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
They're basically like, hey, here's a recording on how you
bag your own trash, Like great job.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, So the drones, so the drones can take each
individual bag away.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
And this is very interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Now we're starting to get some clues, and I feel
like this was very clear from the opening of this
episode that the milk would be a foreshadowing thing. And
she starts to notice in every trash cans just tons
of milk. So I'm like, hopefully they can be beaten
by lactose intolerance. That's kind of my dream outcome here.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
She goes to the dairy where the milk comes from,
the kind of like the bottling plant Duke's dairy, and
it does not seem to be operational at the moment,
and whatever they're producing there, it does not appear to
be milk. She finds like a storeroom where crows have
torn into a bag of like powdery stuff. She drags
(08:02):
the bag home and gets like some pH balanced stuff
in different very basic like chemical reagents to kind of
test what this stuff is. She never records a new
video update for the survivors. She's like, Hey, the hive
mind drink this weird liquid that's water mixed with this
white powder that I found. They all eat it. It's
(08:24):
like oily to the touch, like olive oil, but like
maybe a little thinner. It's probably the stuff. I'm thinking
that the hive mind. It's it's probably similar to what
that we saw the Hive mind making the lab in
episode one.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I think it's going to be.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
It's very interesting to me because we're already getting to
that kind of soilent green at esque like what's in
the bag?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Is that how they keep control of them?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Like I love this, I love this wrinkle, But again, Carol,
nobody cares.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Not like common persuading, not good at persuading.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You've got to be coming at this with a hey,
here's another clue, Like I'm gonna keep recording these just
for you know, society, so they know what happened or something.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I mean. I also think that Perrol, her only interest
in the other survivors is like, help me with.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
This, exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
She doesn't actually care about them, or their family or their.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Kids, anybody. You're not gonna get anybody to buy in
like that. You know, you're just not so even though
your message is one that I think everybody on some
level would agree with, You're just not gonna convince everybody
if you're if you only want them for their ability
(09:44):
to help you, and don't do the shit otherwise exactly,
which is true.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Also, I think a strong theme for the show is
probably where it's going, Like, hey, imagine if you were
an active part of your society.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So she's very frustrated, you know, with the fact that
the Thrivers don't seem to care. I think maybe realizing
this message is not like quite up to snuff. She
deletes it and records another one and then sends that.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
One off and that's the drone comes And this is
where this is where you're really getting some like this
ending sequence is so Vince Gilligan at his best and
craziest and bleakest, because Carol's drinking again, and honestly, in
that way, I don't blame her.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
It's a tough time. She's loving through the end of
the world.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But the wolves are back, and this time they don't
want her trash. They want her ex girlfriend and agent
slash publisher Helen.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
They are digging her up to eat her.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
There is a chase into the house and eventually end
with Carol basically having to drive a cop car through
them to scare them away through her backyard. Wakes up
in the car, decides that the only option is to
go and build a grave site kind of concrete over
(11:08):
poor very soap opera style over Helen's grave, and then
she ends up also making her a headstone and decides
she's going to get drunk. But I feel like again, Carol,
learn a lesson here. She knocks over the powder stuff
and notices a barcode. If you had just looked at
it closer before, wouldn't have had to get here. But
(11:30):
you know what, babe, do your best.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So she takes the bag with the barcode to the
local sprouts to scan it, but it doesn't come up incredible,
but she eventually locates that the bag comes from a
company called Agrijet, and she goes to Agrijet, which it's
like this big storage facility with a huge freezers and
(11:54):
huge refrigerated containers and inside there's like a lot of
produce for the sprouts. And then something she uncovers, something
like under a blanket and whatever it is, it absolutely
shocks her, leaving us with like a cliffhanger that I
almost I almost couldn't stand it.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I know, I like kick, I'm kicking, I'm kicking the TV.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I know, I'm like, tell me what's not get in there.
Let's take a quick break and come back and we'll
discuss all of this.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Okay. I really liked this episode, and I really like
the you know, I mean, I think that there is
something about the way we process maybe like politics too,
in this because there's a.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Lot of people I think so too.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There's a lot of figures, let's say, like out there
whose politics maybe I agree with, you know, but just
the way they carry themselves, I'm like, I can't, I don't.
I hate you.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
You need to be perssonable.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Bill Maher is a person who's who's politics. I ninety
five percent probably agree with them. The five percent I'm like,
you are a piece of shit, Like I need you.
But the way he like hawks to people and goes
about his whole thing is so bad that I'm like, man,
fuck this, fuck this guy. Leena Dunham is another one
(13:35):
of these where I'm like, you know, I agree with
all this, but I just am not with you the
way yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Of course, Carol is really having that same struggle right now.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yes, where it's like, Carol, could you act like you
care about these other people? Could you like ask so
what's going on with your how you guys up with you?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Any idea?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And instead of just like jumping immediately to a pretty
drastic ask, which is like, let's stave in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And we the only way we're doing this is communicating
this through the Hive mind.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Like the imagine if you there's gotta be up a way.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Imagine if you were like the other eleven survivors and
you were all coming up with a really sick, like
radical underground plan that you'd been communicating to each other,
and then someone just kept like dming the Hive Mind
and being like, hey guys, hey, Hive Mind group chat, Hey,
we should save the world.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Save the world, Like I would also be annoyed. Yeah,
I think this is another great episode. I think it
builds on what we got in the last episode in
a really exciting way. I also think that we are
at the space now where the milk and the Juke's
dairy of it all is the kind of hook that
we need. I think that they do need to start
(14:52):
delivering a few answers or we could end up in
a Yellow Jackets type situation. So Jason likelihood of the
Hive Mind powder oil milk being something that keeps the
Hive Mind connected, or that they need to drink to
keep control of them. What do you think or do
you think it's just maybe it's more of a body
(15:15):
anatomy type thing, the way that when you're a vampire
you don't really need to eat food anymore. Maybe once
the hive mind takes over, it's more of a kind
of last of Us brain infection. So maybe this is
a way to keep people sentient and not just like
eating each other. I'm very interested to know where it goes,
because Vince is an unexpected man.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah. I think that this is some sort of nutrient
concoction that gives them all they need to keep being alive,
but that also probably services their connection to the hive
mind in some way and maybe re ups it. Maybe
it's gout like some of the original DNA recipe. But
(15:58):
the fact that it's all that they and soon we
needs you to believe that it is necessary for them
to live. And then the question is like, what is it?
I mean, I don't think. I guess we're led to
believe that whatever she finds in the freezer is so
shot like dead bodies, dead animals, something, some sort of
(16:20):
soilent green thing that is so can't be that right.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
It can't because it's too obvious, Like they can't just
be eating the dead humans, like it's too obvious. I
know he's going to do something surprising, but I just
gotta know what it is.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Also, I guess I was what I was dying.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
It could be this would be very bleak, but it
could be like Helen is in the refrigerator and actually
they're keeping the bodies of the dead for whatever reason,
and they never buried her in her god like, like
they dug her up out of her garden or something.
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
But that feels a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Too Carol ex Machina, like a little bit too on Carol, though,
I will say I've been enjoyed how many surprising kind
of connections we've had between like this and the Chair
Company and even it Welcome to Derry and the whole
Agrijet stuff was giving it was giving Chair Company.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I was like, yes, it really was really similar.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I think this notion of liminal spaces and the way
that everybody is living so online that sometimes you go
outside and you're like, oh, there's nobody here, Like where
is everybody playing? On these kind of ideas of like
places you expect people to be and they're not. Whether
it's an office building, like we're investigating in the Chair
(17:37):
Company or if it's this, I think there is something
really scary about that, and I think that a lot
of shows are really digging into that right now. And yeah,
the end of this, I was like, this is so
Chair Company coded, but I need to know what's in
the fridge because, like you said, it's too obvious, and
I don't think he would do a pull the punch.
(17:58):
It's not really a twist, you know. It also is
not just going to be like her favorite Booze or
whatever version. There's something in there, but it has to
be a situation of something so shocking that tells us
a new part of the story and what is going
on with it. So I'm very interested in a few
different things.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I think that there is something about the way that
just to participate in the world, you have to understand
like what company owns, what company owns what company? Like
even just to talk about you know what we talk about,
it's like, Okay, well this ip is owned by Disney,
but they got it from Fox and they got it.
And I think there is something there is that similarity
(18:42):
in Chair Company and this where it's like, Okay, you're
where does the bag come from? And where do they
make this? And who owns that? And where is this? Actually?
You know, it's like you're it's like this Russian nesting
doll of corporate structures that we all live inside, and
that the feeling is that when you're inside one of
(19:02):
these nesting structures, it's hard to understand, like what's two
layers beyond it? But the feeling is that if you
go enough layers beyond it, there's only one nesting doll,
like we're all in, you know what I mean, Like
it all leads back to one or two companies. And
I think that mystery is that feeling of confusion and
(19:26):
bewildernentment about being trapped in this kind of big maze
is something that really resonates.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Ian put a great question in how, which is what
are they doing when they're not with Carol? Like do
we have no idea? Everything is so focused around them?
They're working on something? Are they building something? Are they
programming something? Are certain segments of them just sitting asleep,
hundreds of them at a time, just like in sitting
like zoned out, Like that's I want to see that
(19:57):
Why to world Vince has done a really good job
of Carol being are in. But now I need to
know what happens next. And now the show's been you know,
I believe picked up for the second season.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I think we will. We're definitely going to get to
know that. Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Also another question ari hive mind stuff. Are the animals
in the hive mind?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Like were the wolves? No, you don't think so.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
You think that could also be a big part of
how they save the world if the animals are not.
If that was just the wolves naturally digging up a
dead body because they could smell it and they were
hunting down trash rather than some kind of hive mind
ghoulish behavior. To kind of explore Jason going into episode six,
(20:42):
what is the thing that you need them to explore
the most and give you answers on the most or
the character you most want to follow up with?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
You know, I think that finding out what they are doing,
like what they must be working towards someigger project. Clearly
they are doing that, and that the mission to service
the survivors with whatever they need is probably you know,
(21:13):
a miniscule part of their daily operating, you know, load
that whatever it is that they are doing spending the
majority of their time doing is probably one the production
of this nutrient juice that they need, and then two
(21:35):
whatever the bigger project is, which is something we don't
that's the thing that we don't know, Like, what is
the bigger project? This wasn't just to unite the world
in a hive mind type situation where we can all
drink the milk juice. They must be the planet has
been hijacked for a reason to do something. And I
(21:58):
think part of it again talked about it is in
the first episode they talked about how the power needed
to send this signal six hundred light years across space.
It must have required an antenna the size of Africa,
and I think that they're doing that. They're building a
part of it is building another huge antenna in order
(22:22):
to send this message to whatever inhabited planet in the
direction of some inhabited planet. The question I guess is
were they aiming at us? Did they know we were here?
Is it just to act get the Paraguay guy?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Guy? Is are there like pioneers that go out and
locate planets?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Mm?
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Hmmm? Are they sending out colonization ships?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Right? And then drop a pin and say, okay, aim
then and a hear that's the kind of thing that
I'm I can't wait to find out along with you know,
like what the fuck is under the blanket in the presearch.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Right, like we need to know what's head that.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, I'm really excited about as well is I'm loving
that our discord has been loving this and our listeners
have been loving this. And Vince has really kind of
expanded out some teasers with a recent letterbox list that
he said are the ten movies that he thinks most
influenced pluribus and this is really gonna give you some good.
(23:46):
This is some weird shit to talk about. Okay, So
this is a classic Vince Gilligan thing. So this movie
is called Afterlife. It's a movie about recently deceased people
who basically have to pick like one perfect memory that
they can just take and recreate for them in their afterlife.
But the best thing is Vince Gilligan has never watched
(24:07):
the movie. He says that in the description, but he says,
this idea of the joined being able to see all
of the different memories came from that movie. So you
can watch it and be ahead of Vince Gilligan, who
still apparently has not watched it. Another one Albert Brook's
classic Defending Your Life. Defending your Life, classic classic, and
(24:27):
that one, he says, is really like, that's a lot
of influence on Carol's personality and this kind of crankiness
and this kind of feeling of how depressing and cranky
can you be in real life? And could you change that?
The one that really in the one I think is
really interesting. He chose Invasion of the Body Snatches. Obviously,
(24:48):
he chose the nineteen fifty six version, which is our
original kind of well Spring version. But the quote from
this that I think is so interesting and tells us
a lot. He says, what if there was an argument
to be made in favor of losing your individuality and
joining the hive? I would argue that argument has not
fully been made yet in the show. So I'm really
(25:09):
excited to see the fact that he thinks that there
is this version where joining the hive would be better.
We also have some classic isolation movies. Omega, man, I
know we're both big. Richard Matheson Fancy wrote, I am
Legend the book it was based on, and this Vincent
Price movie is like so good, and I like that
(25:32):
this is kind of where he got a lot of
the isolation from. He says, you know, obviously Vincent Price
is like fighting vampires, but Carol is in the emptiness
of the sprout.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
She has to combine.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Sorry, yeah, it's it's it's I Am it's the Charlton
Heston in the Omega Man.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah. Such a good.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Movie, and obviously Carol does not have vampires killing her.
Vince says, maybe that's a red herring yet, but I
like that he kind of sees that liminal aspect. A
New Zealand movie I actually haven't seen, called The Choiet
Earth also on his list. Basically, just every other human vanishes,
only three people left and they have to have this
(26:15):
conversation about what happened. Obviously, the ones that really surprised
me though, the Shining I think that is like so
tonally different from this show.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
But I love that for Vince Gilligan, he.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Says, basically, like, you know, it's the creepy neighbor kids
that came from the creepy Twin Girls. You get the
kind of acts that the Salamanca cousins have in Breaking
Bad that was inspired by the Shining this has been
something through his career. But really, for it's all about
the isolated writer who is drunk, who is unhappy, who
(26:52):
cannot find happiness. Obviously that is reflected in Carol then
other ones. The thing obviously ultimate powerier kind of story,
so makes a lot of sense. Also turns out Vince
Gilligan Great Great Taste has a lot of big Kurt.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Russell feelings and it meant a lot to him when Kurt.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Russell loved it. But the thing that is biggest here
is the monster's hiding among us. So there's kind of
these jewel themes of the isolation and the notion of
like not knowing the people who are around you. Truman
Show makes a lot of sense. Though again I also
think adds a very interesting wrinkle because he has never
ever watched The Truman Show. Vince Gilligan watch it, but
(27:34):
he said, you know, everyone brings it up on the
show all the time. It's one of the biggest influences
for the writing crew. So I'm interested in that they
live one of my all time favorite John Carpenter movies,
and that for him is like it's all about the action,
the overlords, that secret feeling of convincing people to wake
(27:59):
up and realize they are being subjugated, and that is
such a huge part of what he took. He says,
Pluribus actually owes a debt to that part of the
They Live and the final one, which you guys may
not have seen. I'm a big fan of this movie.
If you are an X Men fan, you have likely
been influenced by this movie without even knowing of it.
Village are the Damned, which is are you know, Midwich
(28:21):
Cuckoos fall sleep in England. When they wake up, they
start having babies, and all the babies are blonde.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
It's very Umbrella Academy coded.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
And suddenly the kids exhibit these crazy psychic powers and
start to be able to take over the adults. And
he says that's actually one of the things he thought
about the most while writing the pilot for Pluribus and
trying to hit like all the kind of time honor
tropes of this possession, you know, invasion of the body,
snatches stuff, and he says that one is like throughout
(28:52):
the show, just a recurring echo. So if you guys
want to check those out, that list is on letterbox.
And I just think that is such an eclectic list
that it tells me, I still don't know where I'm going.
I just still can't tell what's gonna happen in episode.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I think it's the one thing, the one theme that
I'm seeing. It was the kind of feeling that I'm
seeing that is that I'm definitely getting from this show
is the idea that, like, you know, this body Snatcher's
idea where everybody gets assimilated into a borglike mentality. But
(29:28):
you know, with Omega Man and then I Am Legend later,
the thing about the vampires is they were, or at
least in the original novelization, the legend was the hero
of the story Charlton Heston in the case of Omega Man,
and then Will Smith in the case of I Am Legend,
it was the legend was the vampires talking about this crazy,
(29:51):
terrible killer of their.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Kind who was just constantly coming out and killing them
and pulling.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And haunting them. And so the the idea is that
you know, these people have been assimilated, but they are
having their producing their own society and culture that the
hero of the story can't understand. And you do feel
that with Carol, like she whatever it is that the
hive Mind are doing They're doing something. And while I
(30:22):
agree with Carol that there is a definite lack of
consent in the way that this was achieved, they are
also there's also a consciousness and an agency that exists
there now that she's working against that she needs to
try and acknowledge on some level, like the fact that
everybody was pissed at her, Like, we need to unpack
(30:45):
this a little bit, because what we've seen is like
the hive Mind are generally cheerful, They're very eager to please.
If you ask them for something dangerous, they're going to
be they're going to feel weird about it. But we
never seen them really have a negative emotion. In fact,
we've seen them respond with paralysis to Carol's negative intense emotions.
(31:06):
So to see them be like kind of man at Carol, Yeah,
it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Like they're very interesting.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
They're upset.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, I'm intrigued by this because I talk about it
a lot, but I always bring up because it really
did stick with me. Years ago, I went to go
and see ABC's of Horror at fright Fest in London.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
It was ABC's of Horror.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Too, and there was a short film that was the
O segment. It's twenty five, twenty six different movies, each
one with a different letter of the alphabet, and the
O was called Alacrisy and it's about it's a segment
about a world where the zombie apocalypse has happened. Zombies
are now the sentient ruling class, and they are putting
all the humans on trial who killed zombies.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And I thought it was such.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
An interesting idea, and it's like a two and a
half minute movie. So I buy a gimi hata, and
I just I really love that element that he is
bringing here to that like okay, as you pointed out,
like yes, there was no consent, but now this is
the majority culture that is now living there and has
(32:08):
you know, a mind and allegedly a society. It's a
very interesting, complicated, sticky thing. And I think that's going
to make the next kind of half of the season
and hopefully continued into season two really.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Something to dig in.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, in a way, that's going to make it not
as simple as it seems.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
The other interesting implication is the wolves. I do not
think that they were sent to torment Carrol. I think
that they are reacting to a lack of food and
meaning that there's a lack of normal human garbage to scavenge. Yes,
and also whatever happened whatever happened to all the dead
(32:50):
bodies that died during the changeover, they're not they can't
get to them. So I think they're attracted to the
smell of Helen Corps because it's the only eagally available
food stuff, which I think you know, in and of itself,
raises a lot of questions about like, what happens to
(33:12):
all the resources around here?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Really good? That's really good?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Okay, Yes, so many questions and I am so glad
that this show is hitting for you guys because it
is like so fun for us to cover.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
On the next episode of Extra Vision, we're diving into
it Welcome to Dary episode six and previewing the twenty
twenty five Game Awards, and diving into the upside Down
with our Stranger Things season five coverage. That's it for
this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye. X ray Vision is
hosted by Jason Sepcion and Rosie Night and is a
(33:47):
production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kolefman.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Our producers are Common, Laurent, Dian Jonathan and Fey Wage.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Song is by Brian Vasquez with alternate theme songs by
Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and
Heidi our discord moderator
Warning. Today's episode contained spoilers for the fifth episode of Plurals,
Got Milk on Apple TV Plus. Hello Manny In, Jason
(00:24):
Steps and I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to xt
revision of the podcast weedow Deep into your favorite shows, movies,
comics and pop culture. Coming you from My Heart Podcast.
We're we're bringing you three episodes a week, bust news.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In today's episode, it is Pluribus one oh five Got Milk.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We're gonna be digging into it with a recap.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We're gonna be asking some big questions heading into the
rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
And before we jump in, guys, a quick production note.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The holiday season is here, so we will be sharing
some short to stocking stuff for episodes with you.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
They will include gift guides. They will include.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Extra thoughts on holiday things and TV and movies that
maybe we would not be able to cover with everything
coming out in the next few months. So we had
our first few episodes last week and keep an eye
out for more throughout December.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
But first, let's seven Plurals. Wow. Great episode. We open
in the hospital where Carol is hanging out waiting to
see how thoshit is. After Usha's interrogation induced heart attack.
Carol is, you know, just kind of waiting, squeezing her
(01:38):
stress stuck. We see a man drinking a carton of milk,
one of the little school cartons. Then the phone rings.
Carol picks it up at the front desk. It is Lakshmi,
and Lakshmi's pissed. She's like, you made my son cry?
What the fuck are you doing? And she's like, never
(02:01):
did it again, goodbye, hangs up. She's very angry. At
this point, you start to notice that all the Hive
Mind people seem kind of mad at Carol, like they're
very unhappy with her. They're giving her a there's definitely
a vibe. Yes, Harol like grabs one of the Hive
(02:22):
Mind people and like, don't let me call me again.
The guy's like whatever, Like definitely is like okay, But
then maybe there's an attitude one of them. When Carol asks, says,
so she's gonna be fine, but like in a really
annoyed right way. And then Carol lays down for a nap.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
This is not the Hive Mind to her, only there
to please Carol anymore us.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
And then we see like them just streaming.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Away from the hospital appears as if they are like
fleeing Carol, maybe fleeing the potential of a nightmare.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I was wondering, like, if she's angry and high dream
would that do something? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm very interested in that they board like coaches basically
to leave and time passes.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And I'm sure in the script it.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Said beat Carol wakes alone, and she does, and where
is Zosha?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's the biggest question. I think.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'm really scared at this point by the scope of
how quickly they can arrange and organize stuff, whether it's
rebuilding a sprouts or emptying a hospital. Carol tries to
make a call, but she is no longer priority number one,
and they do not pick up. There's only a message saying,
tell us what you need, Carol, We'll do our best
(03:39):
to provide it. The hide mine needs a little space
from her, and she climbs to a rooftop and sees
the entire population fleeing and says, good riddance. What a
way to wake up. Imagine pissing off the entire world?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
What a way. She goes home and she begins drafting
a script. Uh she and it gets made up for her,
you know, with her video camera setup that's still in
the living room. She puts a new and stick card
in the camera and then she, reading off her notes,
(04:12):
goes straight to camera and addressing her twelve other fellow survivors,
basically pitching like this greater mission to cure humanity. He
lays out how she knows everything that she knows about
about the Hive Mind people they can't lie that they
want to please them, but that there is a cure,
and that they basically confirmed to her by process of
(04:36):
elimination that there is a cure, and that it was
in pursuing this information that she and accidentally got everybody
to burst out into tears all around the world, and
she's like, sorry about that. He then calls the Hive Mind,
leaving a message and says, hey, I want this videotape
distributed with captions for those who don't speak English to
(04:59):
all the others. And she leaves it in a little
like padded envelope outside her house and a drone comes
because they don't want to approach her. A drone comes
in and carries it away. I will say that my
initial reaction to this video is this is not going
to get it.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I was gonna say, Jason, likelihood of my manifestos winning bad,
it's not. She's not winning anyone over, Like this is
not a well made manifesto.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
This is just Pete's stand at Carol, and I think
this is very This is part of the tension of
this show. That's so interesting is you know, like, nominally
I'm on Carol's side, but the fact that she is.
She's going about it in almost the same way that
the Hive's mind do their exactly I like and ask
(05:43):
for consent. They just they just assimilated everyone. Harold here
she makes a very kind of like bare gesture chords
like now, I know some of you might not agree
with me, but then she usually rolls over that and
is like, we must together to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
She's like, oh, now I care about curing the earth.
It's like, do you like you didn't seem to be.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That bothered about any of this before, Like she's not,
she's not selling it, but she's doing her best good
for Caro. And she tries to sleep but she can't,
which understandable because the whole world hates you.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
It's like my regular night terror.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
She sees a coyote hop the fence and eat her garbage.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Makes sense, It's Albuquerque.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So she sees a wolf and it begins to eat
her garbage, and she's like, go away, trashes the garden
as if you've ever had a raccoon or a coyote
or a wolf in your house, they are want to do.
She calls the Hive mine and she's like, hey, put
on these lights. The wolves are getting brave, like they
put them on. But the next day, Carol's like, I'm
gonna clean my yard, goes outside getting her little racon
(06:50):
and she calls the Hive mine and she's like, I
need my trash to be picked up now. I gotta
say I'm kind of liking the Hive Mind's response to
this because Carol, I don't feel like you're relying too
much on them for you're just calling them all the time.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
They do this for me, do that for me, but
like you could do it yourself. And that's basically what
they say, which I love.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
They're basically like, hey, here's a recording on how you
bag your own trash, Like great job.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, So the drones, so the drones can take each
individual bag away.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
And this is very interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Now we're starting to get some clues, and I feel
like this was very clear from the opening of this
episode that the milk would be a foreshadowing thing. And
she starts to notice in every trash cans just tons
of milk. So I'm like, hopefully they can be beaten
by lactose intolerance. That's kind of my dream outcome here.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
She goes to the dairy where the milk comes from,
the kind of like the bottling plant Duke's dairy, and
it does not seem to be operational at the moment,
and whatever they're producing there, it does not appear to
be milk. She finds like a storeroom where crows have
torn into a bag of like powdery stuff. She drags
(08:02):
the bag home and gets like some pH balanced stuff
in different very basic like chemical reagents to kind of
test what this stuff is. She never records a new
video update for the survivors. She's like, Hey, the hive
mind drink this weird liquid that's water mixed with this
white powder that I found. They all eat it. It's
(08:24):
like oily to the touch, like olive oil, but like
maybe a little thinner. It's probably the stuff. I'm thinking
that the hive mind. It's it's probably similar to what
that we saw the Hive mind making the lab in
episode one.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I think it's going to be.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
It's very interesting to me because we're already getting to
that kind of soilent green at esque like what's in
the bag?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Is that how they keep control of them?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Like I love this, I love this wrinkle, But again, Carol,
nobody cares.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Not like common persuading, not good at persuading.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You've got to be coming at this with a hey,
here's another clue, Like I'm gonna keep recording these just
for you know, society, so they know what happened or something.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I mean. I also think that Perrol, her only interest
in the other survivors is like, help me with.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
This, exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
She doesn't actually care about them, or their family or their.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Kids, anybody. You're not gonna get anybody to buy in
like that. You know, you're just not so even though
your message is one that I think everybody on some
level would agree with, You're just not gonna convince everybody
if you're if you only want them for their ability
(09:44):
to help you, and don't do the shit otherwise exactly,
which is true.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Also, I think a strong theme for the show is
probably where it's going, Like, hey, imagine if you were
an active part of your society.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So she's very frustrated, you know, with the fact that
the Thrivers don't seem to care. I think maybe realizing
this message is not like quite up to snuff. She
deletes it and records another one and then sends that.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
One off and that's the drone comes And this is
where this is where you're really getting some like this
ending sequence is so Vince Gilligan at his best and
craziest and bleakest, because Carol's drinking again, and honestly, in
that way, I don't blame her.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
It's a tough time. She's loving through the end of
the world.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But the wolves are back, and this time they don't
want her trash. They want her ex girlfriend and agent
slash publisher Helen.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
They are digging her up to eat her.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
There is a chase into the house and eventually end
with Carol basically having to drive a cop car through
them to scare them away through her backyard. Wakes up
in the car, decides that the only option is to
go and build a grave site kind of concrete over
(11:08):
poor very soap opera style over Helen's grave, and then
she ends up also making her a headstone and decides
she's going to get drunk. But I feel like again, Carol,
learn a lesson here. She knocks over the powder stuff
and notices a barcode. If you had just looked at
it closer before, wouldn't have had to get here. But
(11:30):
you know what, babe, do your best.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So she takes the bag with the barcode to the
local sprouts to scan it, but it doesn't come up incredible,
but she eventually locates that the bag comes from a
company called Agrijet, and she goes to Agrijet, which it's
like this big storage facility with a huge freezers and
(11:54):
huge refrigerated containers and inside there's like a lot of
produce for the sprouts. And then something she uncovers, something
like under a blanket and whatever it is, it absolutely
shocks her, leaving us with like a cliffhanger that I
almost I almost couldn't stand it.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I know, I like kick, I'm kicking, I'm kicking the TV.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I know, I'm like, tell me what's not get in there.
Let's take a quick break and come back and we'll
discuss all of this.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Okay. I really liked this episode, and I really like
the you know, I mean, I think that there is
something about the way we process maybe like politics too,
in this because there's a.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Lot of people I think so too.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There's a lot of figures, let's say, like out there
whose politics maybe I agree with, you know, but just
the way they carry themselves, I'm like, I can't, I don't.
I hate you.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
You need to be perssonable.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Bill Maher is a person who's who's politics. I ninety
five percent probably agree with them. The five percent I'm like,
you are a piece of shit, Like I need you.
But the way he like hawks to people and goes
about his whole thing is so bad that I'm like, man,
fuck this, fuck this guy. Leena Dunham is another one
(13:35):
of these where I'm like, you know, I agree with
all this, but I just am not with you the
way yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Of course, Carol is really having that same struggle right now.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yes, where it's like, Carol, could you act like you
care about these other people? Could you like ask so
what's going on with your how you guys up with you?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Any idea?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And instead of just like jumping immediately to a pretty
drastic ask, which is like, let's stave in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And we the only way we're doing this is communicating
this through the Hive mind.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Like the imagine if you there's gotta be up a way.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Imagine if you were like the other eleven survivors and
you were all coming up with a really sick, like
radical underground plan that you'd been communicating to each other,
and then someone just kept like dming the Hive Mind
and being like, hey guys, hey, Hive Mind group chat, Hey,
we should save the world.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Save the world, Like I would also be annoyed. Yeah,
I think this is another great episode. I think it
builds on what we got in the last episode in
a really exciting way. I also think that we are
at the space now where the milk and the Juke's
dairy of it all is the kind of hook that
we need. I think that they do need to start
(14:52):
delivering a few answers or we could end up in
a Yellow Jackets type situation. So Jason likelihood of the
Hive Mind powder oil milk being something that keeps the
Hive Mind connected, or that they need to drink to
keep control of them. What do you think or do
you think it's just maybe it's more of a body
(15:15):
anatomy type thing, the way that when you're a vampire
you don't really need to eat food anymore. Maybe once
the hive mind takes over, it's more of a kind
of last of Us brain infection. So maybe this is
a way to keep people sentient and not just like
eating each other. I'm very interested to know where it goes,
because Vince is an unexpected man.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah. I think that this is some sort of nutrient
concoction that gives them all they need to keep being alive,
but that also probably services their connection to the hive
mind in some way and maybe re ups it. Maybe
it's gout like some of the original DNA recipe. But
(15:58):
the fact that it's all that they and soon we
needs you to believe that it is necessary for them
to live. And then the question is like, what is it?
I mean, I don't think. I guess we're led to
believe that whatever she finds in the freezer is so
shot like dead bodies, dead animals, something, some sort of
(16:20):
soilent green thing that is so can't be that right.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
It can't because it's too obvious, Like they can't just
be eating the dead humans, like it's too obvious. I
know he's going to do something surprising, but I just
gotta know what it is.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Also, I guess I was what I was dying.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
It could be this would be very bleak, but it
could be like Helen is in the refrigerator and actually
they're keeping the bodies of the dead for whatever reason,
and they never buried her in her god like, like
they dug her up out of her garden or something.
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
But that feels a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Too Carol ex Machina, like a little bit too on Carol, though,
I will say I've been enjoyed how many surprising kind
of connections we've had between like this and the Chair
Company and even it Welcome to Derry and the whole
Agrijet stuff was giving it was giving Chair Company.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I was like, yes, it really was really similar.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I think this notion of liminal spaces and the way
that everybody is living so online that sometimes you go
outside and you're like, oh, there's nobody here, Like where
is everybody playing? On these kind of ideas of like
places you expect people to be and they're not. Whether
it's an office building, like we're investigating in the Chair
(17:37):
Company or if it's this, I think there is something
really scary about that, and I think that a lot
of shows are really digging into that right now. And yeah,
the end of this, I was like, this is so
Chair Company coded, but I need to know what's in
the fridge because, like you said, it's too obvious, and
I don't think he would do a pull the punch.
(17:58):
It's not really a twist, you know. It also is
not just going to be like her favorite Booze or
whatever version. There's something in there, but it has to
be a situation of something so shocking that tells us
a new part of the story and what is going
on with it. So I'm very interested in a few
different things.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I think that there is something about the way that
just to participate in the world, you have to understand
like what company owns, what company owns what company? Like
even just to talk about you know what we talk about,
it's like, Okay, well this ip is owned by Disney,
but they got it from Fox and they got it.
And I think there is something there is that similarity
(18:42):
in Chair Company and this where it's like, Okay, you're
where does the bag come from? And where do they
make this? And who owns that? And where is this? Actually?
You know, it's like you're it's like this Russian nesting
doll of corporate structures that we all live inside, and
that the feeling is that when you're inside one of
(19:02):
these nesting structures, it's hard to understand, like what's two
layers beyond it? But the feeling is that if you
go enough layers beyond it, there's only one nesting doll,
like we're all in, you know what I mean, Like
it all leads back to one or two companies. And
I think that mystery is that feeling of confusion and
(19:26):
bewildernentment about being trapped in this kind of big maze
is something that really resonates.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Ian put a great question in how, which is what
are they doing when they're not with Carol? Like do
we have no idea? Everything is so focused around them?
They're working on something? Are they building something? Are they
programming something? Are certain segments of them just sitting asleep,
hundreds of them at a time, just like in sitting
like zoned out, Like that's I want to see that
(19:57):
Why to world Vince has done a really good job
of Carol being are in. But now I need to
know what happens next. And now the show's been you know,
I believe picked up for the second season.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I think we will. We're definitely going to get to
know that. Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Also another question ari hive mind stuff. Are the animals
in the hive mind?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Like were the wolves? No, you don't think so.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
You think that could also be a big part of
how they save the world if the animals are not.
If that was just the wolves naturally digging up a
dead body because they could smell it and they were
hunting down trash rather than some kind of hive mind
ghoulish behavior. To kind of explore Jason going into episode six,
(20:42):
what is the thing that you need them to explore
the most and give you answers on the most or
the character you most want to follow up with?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
You know, I think that finding out what they are doing,
like what they must be working towards someigger project. Clearly
they are doing that, and that the mission to service
the survivors with whatever they need is probably you know,
(21:13):
a miniscule part of their daily operating, you know, load
that whatever it is that they are doing spending the
majority of their time doing is probably one the production
of this nutrient juice that they need, and then two
(21:35):
whatever the bigger project is, which is something we don't
that's the thing that we don't know, Like, what is
the bigger project? This wasn't just to unite the world
in a hive mind type situation where we can all
drink the milk juice. They must be the planet has
been hijacked for a reason to do something. And I
(21:58):
think part of it again talked about it is in
the first episode they talked about how the power needed
to send this signal six hundred light years across space.
It must have required an antenna the size of Africa,
and I think that they're doing that. They're building a
part of it is building another huge antenna in order
(22:22):
to send this message to whatever inhabited planet in the
direction of some inhabited planet. The question I guess is
were they aiming at us? Did they know we were here?
Is it just to act get the Paraguay guy?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Guy? Is are there like pioneers that go out and
locate planets?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Mm?
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Hmmm? Are they sending out colonization ships?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Right? And then drop a pin and say, okay, aim
then and a hear that's the kind of thing that
I'm I can't wait to find out along with you know,
like what the fuck is under the blanket in the presearch.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Right, like we need to know what's head that.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, I'm really excited about as well is I'm loving
that our discord has been loving this and our listeners
have been loving this. And Vince has really kind of
expanded out some teasers with a recent letterbox list that
he said are the ten movies that he thinks most
influenced pluribus and this is really gonna give you some good.
(23:46):
This is some weird shit to talk about. Okay, So
this is a classic Vince Gilligan thing. So this movie
is called Afterlife. It's a movie about recently deceased people
who basically have to pick like one perfect memory that
they can just take and recreate for them in their afterlife.
But the best thing is Vince Gilligan has never watched
(24:07):
the movie. He says that in the description, but he says,
this idea of the joined being able to see all
of the different memories came from that movie. So you
can watch it and be ahead of Vince Gilligan, who
still apparently has not watched it. Another one Albert Brook's
classic Defending Your Life. Defending your Life, classic classic, and
(24:27):
that one, he says, is really like, that's a lot
of influence on Carol's personality and this kind of crankiness
and this kind of feeling of how depressing and cranky
can you be in real life? And could you change that?
The one that really in the one I think is
really interesting. He chose Invasion of the Body Snatches. Obviously,
(24:48):
he chose the nineteen fifty six version, which is our
original kind of well Spring version. But the quote from
this that I think is so interesting and tells us
a lot. He says, what if there was an argument
to be made in favor of losing your individuality and
joining the hive? I would argue that argument has not
fully been made yet in the show. So I'm really
(25:09):
excited to see the fact that he thinks that there
is this version where joining the hive would be better.
We also have some classic isolation movies. Omega, man, I
know we're both big. Richard Matheson Fancy wrote, I am
Legend the book it was based on, and this Vincent
Price movie is like so good, and I like that
(25:32):
this is kind of where he got a lot of
the isolation from. He says, you know, obviously Vincent Price
is like fighting vampires, but Carol is in the emptiness
of the sprout.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
She has to combine.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Sorry, yeah, it's it's it's I Am it's the Charlton
Heston in the Omega Man.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah. Such a good.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Movie, and obviously Carol does not have vampires killing her.
Vince says, maybe that's a red herring yet, but I
like that he kind of sees that liminal aspect. A
New Zealand movie I actually haven't seen, called The Choiet
Earth also on his list. Basically, just every other human vanishes,
only three people left and they have to have this
(26:15):
conversation about what happened. Obviously, the ones that really surprised
me though, the Shining I think that is like so
tonally different from this show.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
But I love that for Vince Gilligan, he.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Says, basically, like, you know, it's the creepy neighbor kids
that came from the creepy Twin Girls. You get the
kind of acts that the Salamanca cousins have in Breaking
Bad that was inspired by the Shining this has been
something through his career. But really, for it's all about
the isolated writer who is drunk, who is unhappy, who
(26:52):
cannot find happiness. Obviously that is reflected in Carol then
other ones. The thing obviously ultimate powerier kind of story,
so makes a lot of sense. Also turns out Vince
Gilligan Great Great Taste has a lot of big Kurt.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Russell feelings and it meant a lot to him when Kurt.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Russell loved it. But the thing that is biggest here
is the monster's hiding among us. So there's kind of
these jewel themes of the isolation and the notion of
like not knowing the people who are around you. Truman
Show makes a lot of sense. Though again I also
think adds a very interesting wrinkle because he has never
ever watched The Truman Show. Vince Gilligan watch it, but
(27:34):
he said, you know, everyone brings it up on the
show all the time. It's one of the biggest influences
for the writing crew. So I'm interested in that they
live one of my all time favorite John Carpenter movies,
and that for him is like it's all about the action,
the overlords, that secret feeling of convincing people to wake
(27:59):
up and realize they are being subjugated, and that is
such a huge part of what he took. He says,
Pluribus actually owes a debt to that part of the
They Live and the final one, which you guys may
not have seen. I'm a big fan of this movie.
If you are an X Men fan, you have likely
been influenced by this movie without even knowing of it.
Village are the Damned, which is are you know, Midwich
(28:21):
Cuckoos fall sleep in England. When they wake up, they
start having babies, and all the babies are blonde.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
It's very Umbrella Academy coded.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
And suddenly the kids exhibit these crazy psychic powers and
start to be able to take over the adults. And
he says that's actually one of the things he thought
about the most while writing the pilot for Pluribus and
trying to hit like all the kind of time honor
tropes of this possession, you know, invasion of the body,
snatches stuff, and he says that one is like throughout
(28:52):
the show, just a recurring echo. So if you guys
want to check those out, that list is on letterbox.
And I just think that is such an eclectic list
that it tells me, I still don't know where I'm going.
I just still can't tell what's gonna happen in episode.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I think it's the one thing, the one theme that
I'm seeing. It was the kind of feeling that I'm
seeing that is that I'm definitely getting from this show
is the idea that, like, you know, this body Snatcher's
idea where everybody gets assimilated into a borglike mentality. But
(29:28):
you know, with Omega Man and then I Am Legend later,
the thing about the vampires is they were, or at
least in the original novelization, the legend was the hero
of the story Charlton Heston in the case of Omega Man,
and then Will Smith in the case of I Am Legend,
it was the legend was the vampires talking about this crazy,
(29:51):
terrible killer of their.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Kind who was just constantly coming out and killing them
and pulling.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And haunting them. And so the the idea is that
you know, these people have been assimilated, but they are
having their producing their own society and culture that the
hero of the story can't understand. And you do feel
that with Carol, like she whatever it is that the
hive Mind are doing They're doing something. And while I
(30:22):
agree with Carol that there is a definite lack of
consent in the way that this was achieved, they are
also there's also a consciousness and an agency that exists
there now that she's working against that she needs to
try and acknowledge on some level, like the fact that
everybody was pissed at her, Like, we need to unpack
(30:45):
this a little bit, because what we've seen is like
the hive Mind are generally cheerful, They're very eager to please.
If you ask them for something dangerous, they're going to
be they're going to feel weird about it. But we
never seen them really have a negative emotion. In fact,
we've seen them respond with paralysis to Carol's negative intense emotions.
(31:06):
So to see them be like kind of man at Carol, Yeah,
it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Like they're very interesting.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
They're upset.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, I'm intrigued by this because I talk about it
a lot, but I always bring up because it really
did stick with me. Years ago, I went to go
and see ABC's of Horror at fright Fest in London.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
It was ABC's of Horror.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Too, and there was a short film that was the
O segment. It's twenty five, twenty six different movies, each
one with a different letter of the alphabet, and the
O was called Alacrisy and it's about it's a segment
about a world where the zombie apocalypse has happened. Zombies
are now the sentient ruling class, and they are putting
all the humans on trial who killed zombies.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And I thought it was such.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
An interesting idea, and it's like a two and a
half minute movie. So I buy a gimi hata, and
I just I really love that element that he is
bringing here to that like okay, as you pointed out,
like yes, there was no consent, but now this is
the majority culture that is now living there and has
(32:08):
you know, a mind and allegedly a society. It's a
very interesting, complicated, sticky thing. And I think that's going
to make the next kind of half of the season
and hopefully continued into season two really.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Something to dig in.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, in a way, that's going to make it not
as simple as it seems.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
The other interesting implication is the wolves. I do not
think that they were sent to torment Carrol. I think
that they are reacting to a lack of food and
meaning that there's a lack of normal human garbage to scavenge. Yes,
and also whatever happened whatever happened to all the dead
(32:50):
bodies that died during the changeover, they're not they can't
get to them. So I think they're attracted to the
smell of Helen Corps because it's the only eagally available
food stuff, which I think you know, in and of itself,
raises a lot of questions about like, what happens to
(33:12):
all the resources around here?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Really good? That's really good?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Okay, Yes, so many questions and I am so glad
that this show is hitting for you guys because it
is like so fun for us to cover.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
On the next episode of Extra Vision, we're diving into
it Welcome to Dary episode six and previewing the twenty
twenty five Game Awards, and diving into the upside Down
with our Stranger Things season five coverage. That's it for
this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye. X ray Vision is
hosted by Jason Sepcion and Rosie Night and is a
(33:47):
production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kolefman.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Our producers are Common, Laurent, Dian Jonathan and Fey Wage.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Song is by Brian Vasquez with alternate theme songs by
Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and
Heidi our discord moderator
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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