this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025
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Pluribus
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Manousos, 'nothing, on this planet, is yours.'
Fuckin' epic. Loved that whole 'stolen' speech. Just before the hive offered to take his car with him I knew he was going to torch it. They didn't understand, it was his sacrifice. (One of many.)
The episode however, as a whole, really laid out the most egregious issue I still have with this show. It's slow. It drags. It's honestly just poorly paced. There's so much to explore, so many questions, yet only so much screen-time.
Some of it is art and artistry, but a lot of it just feels stretched rather than expressive and contemplative.
Here's an example:
+ Carol listening over and over to the same line on the phone, is an artistic choice that relays the feeling that leads to her suicidal lack of caring at the end. It had meaning. A repetition she's forced to endure. Albeit she could just ask for them to shorten it, she doesn't. She's choosing to listen to it. Even going about useless activities like the scratch'n'win during. That wasn't stretching screen-time. It was... depressing. And she was, depressed.
- Whereas, Manousos's montage of Paraguay could've been condensed. Beautiful location shots, don't get me wrong. But when I want to watch a nature documentary I vastly prefer Attenborough. It wasn't in service to the plot. We get it, red line, map, took a while.
The suicidal lack of moving at the end was good character development. And it's been headed this way for a bit, notably when she laughed off staying with Diabeté.
PS: As a Canadian seeing fireworks sold in convenience stores is weird. That shit's dangerous, yo.
I agree a lot, but disagree that Manousos's adventure was not in service of the plot. We're meant to see how determined he is.
Remember Carol was also fiercely independent... Until she drove to a grocery store and it was empty.
As we saw this episode, Carol broke. Manousos? He isn't going to break. Or if he does, its going to be Carol that breaks him. Or more likely, it's going to be Manousos that forces Carol "back" to being against the hive.
I think next episode Carol is going to fall in love with Zosia and the idea of the hive. She isn't going to join, but she's going to try and live a more normal life. As Carol grows to like the more, Manousos is going to dislike them more.
When they meet... who knows? But we know Manousos is strongly willed. We lived it. We felt it.
I think we could've gotten the same gist in 7-10 minutes for Manousos instead 15-20ish, without losing anything. And filling the saved minutes with something else, like what some of the others are doing, or, anything, really. I'd love some shots of what the hive is doing in general as a personal example. We some of that with Manousos' travels TBF but I'm curious about elsewhere.
I'm also curious how the Zosia reunion will play out as well. How manipulative the hive can be, particularly since they seem to have a method to en-hiven that requires consent. Did they use isolation (and a long phone message) to help steer Carol towards consenting on purpose?
And following that, is Manousos our actual "hero" of the story? (As opposed to protagonist, that being Carol.)
I think Carol is our hero, but she's going to go down some wrong paths.
I do agree that I want more story, because I have so many questions, but I don't think it's being held back for no reason. I think it's being held back because they aren't doing anything.
We know they're looking for a way to infect Carol and the others. And they're working on surviving. And their working on providing services to the uninfected. But that's it. We've seen it all.
I think Carol wants them to be "evil". (Less so after this episode, but otherwise this season.) I think Manousos wants them to be "evil". But they are not. They just are. But they also aren't human. I think that's one (at least) big question of the show. What is being human?
I welcome a show that isn't 45 minutes of green screen and asplosions. Crap has given viewers ADD and no one reads books any more. Good on Gilligan for ignoring these "slow pace" comments.
Were these real nature shots this episode? It’s gotten to where I can’t tell anymore if a show actually shoots on location.
As someone who spends about thrice their time reading as watching, lol. Mmmkay. I think viewers are a bit more nuanced than that take.