Apple TV’s new sci-fi series, Pluribus, is not interested in slow teases or vague hints. Instead, it sets its central mystery on the table early, and the tension comes from understanding the world that follows.
What is Pluribus, Apple TV’s new Sci-fi mystery, about?
Pluribus, the new Apple TV series from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan, opens with very little mystery left to hide. Instead of teasing its premise for half a season, the show lays out the central event early: almost the entire human population has been drawn into something known as “The Joining.” And the most miserable person on earth Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) has to save the world from happiness.
What is The Joining and how it works
The show’s explanation points back to a signal found in deep space, roughly 600 light-years away, per Tech Radar. Astronomers pick it up months before the collapse of society. It is not a message in the usual sense. Instead, it carries a pattern. A kind of blueprint for RNA, the same molecule that plays a role in viruses and cell functions.
Scientists recreate the sequence in a controlled lab environment. Tests are done using a gas form. A rat bite breaks containment. The gas enters a researcher’s bloodstream. The tone of the show shifts very quickly from laboratory curiosity to a global event.
The infected do not turn violent. Instead, they become calm, cooperative, and purposeful. They move with one mind. And this is where Pluribus shifts: the danger is not aggression, but loss of agency.
Not everyone survives the transition. Carol’s partner, Helen, is among those who die during the process. We learn that hundreds of millions of others perish in accidents like car crashes, falls, as the hive mind took over. Episode 2 mentions a global death toll of nearly 900 million.
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Why is the Carol outside the hive mind
The lead, Carol Sturka, is one of just 13 people who did not become part of it. Everyone else, more than seven billion people, is linked together in what looks like a shared consciousness, a hive mind with no clear beginning or end.
Carol and the remaining unlinked humans are anomalies. The show does not explain why, at least not yet.
The questions are left open. How did the signal spread worldwide? What do the joined want? And why is Carol immune? All are expected to unfold across the season.
Pluribus episode 3 drops on November 14.
FAQs
Who created Pluribus?
Vince Gilligan is the creator of the show.
What role does Rhea Seehorn play in Pluribus?
She is one of the 13 people unlinked to The Joining.
When will the next episode of Pluribus be out?
The new episode will be released on November 14.
