I just finished Pluribus and *scream*. The continual cycles of abuse in this show! The pod people forcing Carol into solitary confinement for over a month in order to break her, and leaving en masse every time she changed locations. The continual aggressiveness masked as self-care every time Carol has to call for help, with a message reminding her that it’s her fault that they left, while they continue to constantly surveil her. Zosia manipulating her into a romantic intimacy she clearly doesn’t feel while the pod people secretly harvested Carol’s eggs to forcibly assimilate her. And Carol knew that she was being played, but is once again victimised, because it’s a cycle she’s familiar with!
She called Zosia out on recreating a burned out diner from her memories and puppeting a poor former newlywed across the country just to convince her to write for their amusement by nostalgia-bombing her. But she was so fucking lonely and suicidal (and still grieving!) that she tried to convince herself that Zosia was different, could be different. The absolute chill I felt when Zosia told Carol that they were going to destroy her identity, her personhood, because they ‘love’ her. That she’d be happier by not being herself. Again, the recreation of her former failed conversion, only this time by her lover and hivemind honeypot. Carol is shown over and over again that she’s completely alone. The other humans dislike her and purposefully exclude her, except for Manousos, who she can’t trust because they’re too alike. Laxmi only calls her to tell her to go fuck herself (which, to be fair, is hilarious).
And more chills- Carol’s automatic fear towards Manousos once he arrives in her neighbourhood. Her rage is justified, but she considers this brown Latino man a danger because he’s alone, and not well off, and not able to make her comfortable. I winced, it felt like every white woman who clutched their purse or crossed the street when I walked near them. The fact that she, yet again, didn’t ask him anything about his life or journey, that she protected the pod people instead of him. Again she showed her hypocrisy, the same thing Laxmi called her out on. It took her life being in imminent danger for her to finally join up with the man who risked everything to answer her call to save the world.
Diabaté doing exactly what I said he was going to do, using women as living sex dolls (and using other pod people) to live out his James Bond, wealthy Americana fantasies. He learns about the pod people’s Soylent Green tendencies and accepts it, not because he’s fine with it (he finds the cannibalism disturbing), but because his comfort and pleasure matters more. This French Mauritian man is desperate to hold on to his American Dream, these now meaningless status symbols he’s amassing. Like Carol, he allows himself to be played because the alternative- absolute isolation, is too terrifying. And the pod people know that! They know everything about how to break people. And the way this show uses silence so effectively! Once Diabaté tells the pod people he’s done with his Rat Pack cosplay and leaves them alone, their cheerful conversations and sophisticated partying instantly stop. They shuffle around cleaning up in absolute silence.
Kusimayu, the Peruvian woman convinced to assimilate by her small ‘community’. This scene freaked me out so much. The pod people sing what is clearly a culturally significant song as they assimilate her, but as she spasms on the ground, there is no attempt at human connection- no one holds her hand or comforts her. They simply sing a stolen song that holds no true meaning for them, as they destroy the last Indigenous person with cultural and historical knowledge that mattered to them. As soon as she turns, they lapse into silence and leave the village behind to rot, the reason Kusimayu turned in the first place. She is now without community, without a people, without a land or history.
I really, unexpectedly, loved this show.
prguitarman
dededos
theartofmadeline
germansingergirl
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
discoholicmusic
kianamaiart
2087
snowghoul
