A thread to discuss the Apple TV show Plur1bus
Since the show’s first seasons concluded two weeks ago, there WILL be spoilers, but there’ll be a BOLD WARNING to help people skip.
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An extraordinary show. I wake up thinking about the questions it raises and am looking forward to any discussion. Part of me is still mulling over that initial gathering of the English-speakers and their general embrace of what on one level appears to be world peace.
And I adore Carol in all her messy humanity.
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Thanks for starting the thread. Are we supposed to do something to hide or alert to spoilers? There are some big ones, ha.
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We live in Santa Fe (only an hour from Albuquerque) so the settings are super interesting for us. I read that her house and neighborhood are built for the show, but it all looks very authentic to the area. Really amused when she lifted a Georgia O’Keefe painting from the museum here in Santa Fe.
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I’m not sure about the logistics of spoilers, since all of season 1 has been broadcast. Perhaps let’s assume Episodes 1&2 are fair game and have Spoilers Ep3, Spoilers Ep4, etc through Ep9???
But there will necessarily be discussion of the whole show, so not sure. Let’s play it by ear.
Yes, it was great to see her go to the museum as a way to fill her days .. then just lift a painting.
Because, really, why not?
Its value is no longer monetary, it’s in being viewed, seen, enjoyed.
She can actually enjoy it and no one else will. Oddly that collective part of human existence -the need for a common good, the reasons there is a place for art open to all- is gone.
I don’t know if the we-virus can enjoy a painting unless directed to it. They try to be efficient, they avoid waste, they get things done… But they don’t “enjoy” anything. It’s a weird happiness that doesn’t “enjoy” it seems.
Or perhaps enjoying art is individual and they’ve lost access to that.
?
That got us the scene where she tries to justify, very badly, taking that painting, as if normal rules still apply and as if she needs to justify anything to the hive, then the we-virus being very clearly nonplussed (?), accepting the weak excuse and going with it (protecting the Georgia OKeefe museum against potential roaming bisons ready to rub against a painting 
)
ETA … I think this ^ is evidence we can’t have a spoiler warning ..
I read that they built a set for the house etc, but they had scouts looking all over for the neighborhood to have that exact view. I wonder how they filmed.
Whoever finds an article first post it here 
The house looks much bigger inside than outside imho 
Total AI story. All the “I Robot” rules apply plus those that are incorporated into AI. The idea that a NEW story or creative work sparked such interest among the hive was interesting. Can new ideas (writing a new novel) and original thinking come about from a hive mind?
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I listened to the official podcast after each episode (features Vince Gilligan and other folks involved with the show) and I picked up a couple interesting things about Episode 4. I’m assuming anyone reading this far has seen the whole season, and they’re not really spoilers, but scroll past if you want to go in totally fresh :
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the “mayor” working on Carol’s yard cleanup is the actual current mayor of Albuquerque.
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the individual using the AED on (I’ll omit the character name) is the EMT who worked on saving Bob Odenkirk after his heart attack on the set of Better Call Saul. (Per Google AI: “The show’s medical officer, Rosa Estrada, assessed the situation and continued life-saving measures, using a defibrillator to shock his heart back into rhythm before he was transported to the hospital.”)
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And here’s an aerial view of the Albuquerque cul-de-sac they built for the show in the middle of nowhere.
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Thank you!
I knew they’d scouted the location for a long time because they wanted a specific view but didn’t know they’d built ALL SEVEN houses!! (I thought they had the outside of Carol’s house, a couple sets for the inside, and CGI façades 
)
Set discussed around 9:50.
It’s fun to see them react to the actual title of the show since they have shot it without knowing. Also fun that Karolyna thinks her character has a soul and Carlos Manuel Vesga aka Manousos is vehemently certain the others cannot have a soul, including Zosia.
If anyone’s unsure whether to open the article, it’s definitely not a spoiler if you’ve finished season 1. If you’re still working your way through it, wait till you’ve seen episode 7.
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No war, no crime, no racism.
But no art, no culture, no cooking, no festivals/celebrations, no cultures (as we see with Kusimayu, the minute she passes into the Hive they all stop going about their tasks, I think it was all just pretend/manipulative play acting to maintain the normalcy she wanted! And just like that all the unique colors and activities that formed that community are…gone), no caring (the baby goat! All confused. Left to be eaten.)
How do we know they’re happy? What if it too is a lie?
That initial gathering of the English speakers was difficult and I’m still thinking about it.
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At the beginning of Ep1, the scientists enter the lab and tell the guard theyve figured out it’s a lysogenic virus but can’t figure it out, zero reaction from rats, macaques…
Who has enough science knowledge to explain this (Wikipedia):
Lysogeny is characterized by integration of the bacteriophage nucleic acid into the host bacterium’s genome or formation of a circular replicon in the bacterial cytoplasm. In this condition the bacterium continues to live and reproduce normally, while the bacteriophage lies in a dormant state in the host cell. The genetic material of the bacteriophage, called a prophage, can be transmitted to daughter cells at each subsequent cell division, and later events (such as UV radiation or the presence of certain chemicals) can release it, causing proliferation of new phages via the lytic cycle.
Superficially it sounds “right”, in that the we-virus was lying dormant, integrated the genetic material, then proliferated (???)
Also, it means either that animals are contaminated too but we just don’t know… Or are immune because they don’t speak? Or is it for another reason? That dog in the gym, was he immune like Carol, or was he a normal dog?
And one more question: Zosia tells Carol they have all the memories of the formerly living but Helen has DIED. That’s why she didn’t get infected by the virus and didn’t “resurrect” as a we-virus-exemplar.
So, did they piece together “Helen stories” for Carol from others who lived/joined and knew them? Or did they collect her memories and experiences before she died?
Zosia tells Carol that Helen joined before she died. She’s one of the 800 million for whom the stress of the Joining (and I mean, Helen had head trauma from the way she fell when the Joining began) was too hard on the body to survive.
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