My favourite way of looking at Pluribus is that the two most miserable people on earth have to save humanity from the most polite zombie apocalypse imaginable.
Now, I know what you're thinking. They're not zombies, obviously. They're not the shambling undead, moaning and dead-eyed and decayed with bits falling off. This is not a Zombie apocalypse show. Alien invasion, maybe. Zombie apocalypse? Absolutely not.
BUT that is exactly what they WANT you to think.
What are zombies, exactly? Aside from dead people who still move around. Remove that part, and you have a few core tenants of zombiedom:
The Zombie horde (a hivemind that allows zombies to swarm and attack their pre)
Propagation through infection (the Zombie bite, scratch or other transfer of fluids to turn others)
Consumption of human flesh (braaaiiinnnsss)
And in Pluribus? We have... yeah, all three. They make a pretty big deal out of that last one, got John Cena to show up and everything.
Not to mention, one of the chief functions of the Zombie genre is to turn a mirror back to humanity and examine what makes us human through showing what we are not. The Zombie is humanity with something fundamental missing. Life, a soul, the spark that makes us intelligent, lets us talk and form connections and reason.
As zombies, we are nothing but bodies and mouths looking for food, infecting others and eating until there is nothing else left.
The Hivemind in Pluribus goes the other way. Instead of a mindless horde, they are all mind. What they lack, instead of reason, logic and intelligence, is individuality. Personality, opinion and free will.
In many ways, it makes them so much more terrifying than the shambling zombie horde could ever be.
Think about the classic scene in so many zombie movies. The characters loved one has just been bitten, is turning and it is up to them to kill them. They know that isnt the person they love anymore, is just a monster wearing their body, but this is an impossible choice all the same.
In Pluribus, the characters look at Carol like she's insane for even suggesting their family members step out of the room. Try shooting your family member in the head when theyre politely asking you not to do that, and calmly explaing their reasons for world domination. They have a point, I guess? I mean, it seems chill so lets just... I dont know, accept it?
Are they eating people? Yes. But, yknow, sometimes it be like that. Sure it's a shocking reveal when you stumble into their warehouse of body parts but when you watch the marketing video they put together it starts to make sense.
If only the zombies had access to such good PR.
Pluribus is a Zombie apocalypse for the modern age. Instead of blood thirsty monsters ripping your face off, the end of humanity is coming at the hands of smiling, attractive people who really just want whats best for you. They would never hurt anyone!
Sure, individual cultures and traditions are disappearing around the world and humanity will slowly starve to death within the next decade while they dedicate all their time and resources into figuring out how to turn the last handful of individuals without their consent.
And yes, they will let that happen despite having the capacity to prevent the death of humanity, eventually they will run out of corpses to eat and animals and fruit that have just conveniently dropped in front of them. So that will be it for humanity and the world I guess. Not because of a monster with blood in its mouth or exploding bombs going off around the world, but because of polite, smiling people who sat around and all decided to do nothing while the world died together.
After all, the best zombie fiction always reflects the culture of the time it was created in.
