Pluribus stars Rhea Seehorn as a writer who, for unknown reasons, is not instantly taken into the one consciousness or hive mind that affects the planet in this sci-fi drama. There are only about 12 people like her on earth.

Pluribus shows Carol’s (Rhea Seehorn) struggle to remain herself with her own thoughts in the face of a world blissed out on the peace and belonging of everyone being of one mind. The individual vs. the collective is a through line in the series.

You know the expression E pluribus unum (Out of many, one) from American currency. It means a nation formed of many diverse people. In Pluribus it means out of many there is now one mind, one consciousness, or the hive mind. Carol’s not having it.

The mind meld that came with a virus (or something unexplained) is called ‘the joining.’ We see time counted off both before and after the joining.

Before the joining, Carol was a best selling author. She was married to Helen (Miriam Shor). They were returning home to Albuquerque after a book tour when strange things began to happen. Helen didn’t survive whatever it was. Carol’s grief and mourning for Helen was overwhelming.

People with the new consciousness could not harm any living thing. They could not lie. They had to give you whatever you asked for whether it was a certain meal or a hand grenade. They really wanted everyone to belong to the hive mind with them. It was their calling. They wanted to bring everyone into the hive mind, “because we love you.”

Zosia (Karolina Wydra) was assigned to Carol as her chaperone. Carol had a temper. She drank too much. She raged. When she treated Zosia badly the entire world suffered a seizure and people died just like Helen had.

Zosia arranged anything Carol wanted. Carol wanted to meet the other nonaffected people who spoke English. Zosia made it happen. Some of them were Mr. Diabaté (Samba Schutte), who loved his new life with his every whim satisfied, Laxmi (Menik Gooneratne), who was angry with Carol for causing deaths, and Kusimayu (Darinka Arones), a young girl from Peru. Carol left the meeting unsatisfied that they would help her save the world.

When Carol treats Zosia badly, everyone leaves town. Her temper is too dangerous for them. Albuquerque is empty. Carol is completely alone for 40 days. The loneliness finally gets to Carol and she asks them to come back. She starts having sex with Zosia and feels Zosia is hers.

I wondered how that was supposed to work. Did everyone on the planet know what they were doing and feel whatever Zosia was feeling? Was Carol making love to the entire population of earth (minus the few holdouts)? Did she think she could somehow love Zosia as a individual? Did ‘the others’ even have sexual desire or sexuality? It felt like Zosia was performing lesbian for Carol as part of her task to get Carol to join the others. Carol asked Zosia many of these questions while they were getting massages – perhaps a metaphor for the questions I wanted her to ask about sex.

The one holdout Carol didn’t meet until the final episode of season 1 was Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga). He was even more opposed to the hive mind than Carol. He was pretty paranoid about it. His journey to New Mexico from Paraguay was a heroic immigration story. He learned English along the way. If Carol’s response to the threat to her individuality was filled with grief and anger, his response was filled with reason and science.

Manousos wanted to save the world, too, but not the same way she planned to do it. It looks like season 2 will be about what they do together. Maybe we’ll meet more of the other 12 people like Carol in season 2 as well.

In all this talk of story lines I’ve failed to point out that Pluribus is really good. It’s brilliant and fascinating. It’s full of wonderful performances and beautiful cinematography.

It was created by Vince Gilligan, who also created Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, both also filmed in Albuquerque.

I lived in Albuquerque for many years. I was there during the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul eras. I never watched either series. My husband was a chemistry teacher. I was a teacher – I just couldn’t get into the chemistry teacher selling meth idea no matter how good everyone said the show was or how they raved about all the locations in Albuquerque that were used. So I never became a Vince Gilligan fan.

Well, now I’m a Vince Gilligan fan. Pluribus convinced me. Plus, this time he’s using a woman lead character. Convincing. So yeah, now I’m loving the shots of the Sandias, the sights from the West Mesa, the Sprouts, the Sunport, and the various public buildings. Also, a shout out to Mayor Tim. You had my vote. Acting would be a nice move if you ever quit politics.

The women directors in season 1 were Melissa Bernstein, Zetna Fuentes, and Gandja Monteiro.

Every episode of season 1 is now available on Apple TV+. If you haven’t seen this one yet, I recommend it. If you have seen it, what did you think?

If you’ve seen the series and are curious about learning more, Apple TV+ put out a video called “From Every Angle.” It gives you a lot of info on the series in 23 minutes.