Minute 37 of Episode Two
Carol stands in front of the POTUS Seal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_president_of_the_United_States
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Stars missing. 4 of 13 are missing next to the head of the eagle. Only 9 of the 13 stars are present.
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There are 13 free people that the meeting is discussing.
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The eagle is facing the wrong way for the POTUS Seal. The claws of the olive branch and the arrows are swapped so the eagle still points to the peaceful olive branch.
The eagle being the wrong direction is intended to catch the audience eye. It takes a little more effort to count the 13 stars and find 4 are missing on closer examination.
REMINDER: This is a show that opens with smart scientists (at VLA New Mexico) in a media room trying to decode the symbols and meanings of a 78 second message. Over-thinking and analyzing media symbols is part of the very start of the show. Manousos Oviedo is also frequently shown to be analyzing messages / signal intelligence.
I'm not familiar with the show and any diagetic purpose, but this is common for TV. Federal regulations vaguely prohibit use of the official seals of government agencies, and while there should be first amendment justifications for the use, they typically revise the seals to not be identical to be safe.
The show is about star systems messaging each other. 4 stars missing from the POTUS Seal has very significant meaning to alien contact from other stars. Kepler-22 star system takes over our star system.
This is the ONLY place in the entire first season (9 episodes) of the show where the title of the show "Pluribus" appears in print / symbol / dialog.
Code breaking by the character Manousos Oviedo and the New Mexico NRAO VLA science team is core to the show story / message to audience.
This episode was the first released when the show went public. No message since Friday November 7, 2025 release of the episode has been made by the cast or crew that this is an error or unintentional change. There is also a loud and clear signal that "Piracy" is part of the show story. Ship piracy, air piracy, spaceship piracy, etc. "Pirate Lady" is the name of the episode with the doctored POTUS Seal. And the American woman defending the USA (Carol) is paranoid and demands that all recording devices be disabled on Air Force One and she blinds the windows.
Gotcha. Totally believable there is a purpose within the show too, just offering my Occam's Razor thought.
Carl Sagan's Contact book / film is also about signals from outer space stars received at the same New Mexico array as Pluribus story. Occam’s Razor is a core theme in plot and dialog of Contact. But there have been key declarations by Vince Gilligan in public interviews that make it pretty clear... we are dealing with intentional audience messaging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIa77tZaHJA
Happy New Year 2026!
The worst thing this show could do is turn into another LOST.