This article contains spoilers for Pluribus Season 1, Episode 4, “Please, Carol,” and mentions drug abuse.Apple TV’s Pluribus serves as Vince Gilligan’s first return to sci-fi since his X-Files days, allowing him to drip-feed lore into the story as it progresses — just as he’s done again in Episode 4, “Please, Carol.” Pluribus‘ world is a thing of pure intrigue and is only vaguely understood. While “Please, Carol” proves that those in the Joining know more than has previously been implied, it’s also clear that they don’t necessarily have all the answers. However, one specific mystery has been hovering over the show since its first episode. It hasn’t yet been completely solved, but “Please, Carol” does provide one of the biggest clues yet.
The Joining in Pluribus has extraterrestrial origins, although no one is quite sure where the encoded nucleotide sequence has been transmitted from. So far, showrunner Vince Gilligan seems satisfied to leave the phenomenon that caused the Joining as largely unaddressed, opting instead to focus on how it has transformed the world. Given that Gilligan’s most iconic project to date, the Breaking Bad franchise, is an incredibly character-driven affair, it makes sense that he hasn’t really prioritized Pluribus‘ sci-fi elements to the same extent as other writers might. Still, he has been folding Pluribus‘ bizarre central premise into the story and gradually unveiling more about the Joining as Season 1 progresses.
“Please, Carol” Builds Upon What the Others Do When Not Interacting With Unjoined Individuals
The planet-wide hivemind in Pluribus is more than a little creepy. The show’s writers have made world peace seem terrifying, which is a testament to the quality of the scripts so far. Those who are part of the Joining, known as Others, are now all essentially the same person following the event that resulted in a mass exchange of memories and an ongoing psychic connection. In short, if Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is speaking to one member of the Joining, she’s speaking to the entire hivemind. The concept of the Joining itself is relatively simple by sci-fi standards, but it comes with at least one big question: What do the Others do when they’re not with unjoined characters like Carol?
Pluribus‘ double-episode premiere revealed the Joining’s initial task: cleaning up the mess caused by the psychic phenomenon’s rapid spread, which was fatal to many. There have been occasional shots of Others clearing debris and laying to rest those who didn’t survive the transition into humanity’s hive mind. Although it’s an extensive task, it’s also a finite one. Soon, the world will surely be back in order again, if it isn’t already. Thankfully, “Please, Carol,” reveals something else that those in the Joining are keeping themselves busy with.
When Carol asks one of the Others for heroin, in an attempt to mask her true desire to acquire a “truth serum,” one of the hospital’s not-quite-doctors tries to warn Seehorn’s character against the use of the drug she’s not really trying to find. He tells Carol, “We have a whole wing of bodies here recovering from physical addiction. Some might not make it. Just food for thought.” So, certain individuals within the Joining are still experiencing physical side effects of substance abuse, and the Others who aren’t experiencing those symptoms are helping restore their bodies to health.
Recovery from physical addiction isn’t an overnight process, so the healthier members of the Joining will likely be helping the Others who need care for a long while yet. It’s also likely that the number of individuals needing care has increased, as more individuals have probably admitted themselves to various hospitals to recover from the addiction their bodies were experiencing. The Joining’s views on drug abuse are made clear in “Please, Carol,” so it would make sense if the Joining made a concerted effort to completely rid itself of dependence on narcotics on a planet-wide scale while the bodies that weren’t addicted watched over them.
‘Pluribus’ Physical Addiction Reveal Doesn’t Fully Explain What the Others Do Most of the Time
With the post-spread chaos presumably swept aside, it’s logical for Pluribus to give the Others something else to do to keep them busy. Otherwise, it’s unclear exactly what they’d be up to when they’re off-screen, not trying to win Carol over or make her happy. But that’s the thing: there can’t possibly be enough recovering addicts to occupy the time of the rest of Earth’s population. Sure, cleaning up the mess caused by the spread of the Joining probably took a lot of effort, but with so many hands working in tandem, it wouldn’t have taken very long either.
Most of the time when the Others are shown, they’re walking around in the background, waving to Carol from across the street, or doing what they can to make the other unjoined characters feel content and comfortable while they figure out what’s keeping them from connecting to the hive mind. With almost everyone being the same person now, it’s difficult to imagine what else the Others could generally be doing that’s interesting, rewarding, or fun. The same memories and experiences exist in almost every mind on Earth, so there doesn’t seem to be any motivation to live as people once did.
Furthermore, it’s even less clear what the plan is for the Joining if and when they can figure out a way for the hive mind to be truly universal. If Carol and the others are eventually made part of the Joining, there will be even less need for any kind of verbal communication, and no one to interact with who doesn’t already know everything the other person is about to say or is thinking. This isn’t to imply Pluribus has a gaping hole in its worldbuilding or anything, as Gilligan has probably woven this mystery into his show’s larger storyline, but it’s very tricky to guess what sort of other answers to this question could arise down the line. Pluribus is available to stream on Apple TV.
- Release Date
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November 6, 2025
- Network
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Apple TV
- Directors
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Adam Bernstein, Zetna Fuentes, Melissa Bernstein
- Writers
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Ariel Levine