It's my biological imperative to never shut up about Abdul Kareem Alsharei, muezzin extraordinarie and cat guy from Aden in Yemen, so I made a mood board inspired by Hasten to Salvation. The image in the centre is the exact chapter in the Quran featured in the fic, and one that I always have a soft spot on precisely because I struggled to memorise it as a kid and somehow succeeded anyway and can still recite it from memory decades later.
No other show has made me reassess and consider my relationship with the faith I was raised in as much as Pluribus, all because of a character that has only been mentioned once in the whole series so far, and alhamdulillah for that.
"Sometimes we close our eyes and try to picture it... We'll probably never learn the first thing about them. They're too far away. But we know we love them. And we're grateful to them. And we'll pay it forward, however long that may take."
I think regularly about what Zosia tells Carol when they're out stargazing in "Charm Offensive", and how it heavily implies the spiritual/religious element of the hive mind. The religious angle is not something I see widely discussed, at least not as much as, say, the political angle—which, to be fair, doesn't surprise me considering the majority of the show's audience come from cultures and/or countries where religion has little significance. But it's clear that so much of the hive mind is akin to religion and spirituality, and Karolina Wydra has talked often about how she studied different spiritual and religious leaders as part of her preparation for the role of Zosia.
What Zosia says in the quote reminds me a lot of how many people approach religion. There's nothing physical to see—be it the concept of god or anything similar. At least with beliefs like Abrahamic religions and Buddhism it would be nigh on impossible to learn the first thing about the people who came up with those teachings beyond what's written in the scriptures and what adherents are conditioned to believe, with the origins dating back centuries. Nonetheless, these religious founders are revered by their adherents anyway, whether it's out of genuine faith and admiration or mere obligation, and a lot of them feel compelled to share their 'gift' and beliefs.
Recently, out of boredom I started re-reading some of my own writing, including Hasten to Salvation. For context, it's a fic I wrote about Abdul Kareem Alsharei, the muezzin (and cat guy!) from Aden, Yemen who is one of the people Immune to the Joining. I posted the fic on the second day of Eid-ul-Fitr which I really didn't have to do but alas I'm extra... and when I reread it my specific focus was on The Power 97:1-5, a particular chapter of the Quran that serves as a major theme in the fic.
The chapter itself is about what is known as the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr)—a significant and highly regarded period that takes place in the last 10 nights of Ramadan where mercy and blessings are believed to be abundant, and my fic is set during that period in the first Ramadan after the Joining. It also includes references to annotated interpretations of the chapter as seen in The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary, an English translation of the Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali which was completed in 1937, and in my opinion is the best English translation of the text. As I re-read the annotations, I couldn't help but observe even more detailed parallels with some interpretations of the Joining.
Much is constantly discussed about the Joining and the hive mind, mostly from Carol's point of view through her interactions with Zosia. Through Carol's eyes, the Joining has effectively erased agency, with her own being at constant risk—especially with how one can draw parallels between the hive mind and her own traumatic experience with conversion therapy when she was 16, as mentioned in "Please, Carol". As such, as we focus solely on Carol's perspective it's inevitable that we see the hive mind—as represented by Zosia—as manipulative, especially as shown in "La Chica o El Mundo" when Zosia reveals that the hive mind does have access to Carol's stem cells through her frozen eggs.
However, I think it's important to also look at the Joining and the hive mind from another angle, through which the new world is now free from ills such as violence and discrimination. In "Pirate Lady", Koumba says, "As we speak, no one is being robbed or murdered. No one is in prison. The color of one's skin, by all accounts, now meaningless." A very important aspect to consider is the fact that Abdul Kareem Alsharei as one of the Immune individuals is a war survivor, with what Yemen has experienced throughout its history. Aden, his hometown, has witnessed several notable atrocities, including the Gold Mohur Hotel and Mövenpick Hotel bombings in 1992—considered to be al-Qaeda's first attacks, and the city's Aidrus Mosque was severely damaged during the 1994 Yemeni civil war.
That brings us back to the following annotated interpretations from the aforementioned translation of the Quran:
"[The Night of Power] transcends Time: for it is Allah's Power dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance, by his Revelation, in every kind of affair."
"When the Night of spiritual darkness is dissipated by the glory of Allah, a wonderful Peace and a sense of Security arise in the soul. And this lasts on until this life closes, and the glorious Day of the new world dawns, when everything will be on a different plane, and the chequered nights and days of this world will be even less than a dream."
I'm fully aware that this might be a reach, but I see the parallels with the Joining, especially how the hive mind's concept of perpetual happiness and serenity transcends time. Hence, it's not always tangible, as Zosia says in "Charm Offensive", "Sometimes we close our eyes and try to picture it... They're too far away." From the hive mind's perspective, the darkness of ignorance caused by human-made conflict and violence that resulted in so much suffering has indeed been dissipated; whether the fact that it comes with the price of what could be argued as cultural erasure, forced assimilation, and the elimination of individual desires and agency can be justified as simply collateral damage is up for debate.
I do think it's unlikely that we'll see in canon how Abdul Kareem himself views the hive mind (he's only been mentioned once throughout the show, after all *shrugs*), but I keep wondering how he might feel seeing how decades of violence have finally come to an end, and at last there's something that at least resembles peace and a sense of security—though not without a hefty cost, especially with his profession being closely tied to his faith and culture. Everything is indeed on a different plane in the new world post-Joining, and chequered nights and days with unpredictable events and a mix of joy and sorrow are no longer a thing—at least from the hive mind's perspective, and I'm on the opinion that it's not too far fetched to imagine that someone who was born and grew up in a war zone and so accustomed to witnessing violence and unrest like Abdul Kareem might be inclined to agree.
I’ve gone kind of spiraling down the idea of how the plurbs deal with discomfort
Because you can tell based on Zosia’s facial expression in the hospital scene that hdp is obviously unpleasant to drink, but at the same time you’d assume there has to be some kind of flavoring out there, like the stuff they use to flavor liquid medicine, and that’s not even an essential resource to worry about conserving so why not just use it?
Do they just not really care? Even if discomfort is not really pain you would assume the hive in general tries to avoid trivial feelings, but I don’t know. They seemed to not care all too much about the guy who impaled himself, just if he pierced anything vital. They shrugged it off so easily. And yet, I imagine that guy himself was really going through it, however that works, if your consciousness is collective but your body feels its own sensations… how would you feel emotionally about that? Who ends up feeling the “pain” in the end as I imagine a great part of that is mental. But it’s the same with pleasure, and Zosia was able to feel the massage, so… I don’t know
And that makes me wonder about what other things they just kinda brush off or choose not to do anything about. Like zosia hospital angst. Did they even put her under when they were taking care of her grenade wounds? In this case I mean in the sedation sense, and I’m inclined to say no, because if her emotions and consciousness are really melded with everyone else’s, and if she’s really so happy all the time, she would not feel distress worthy enough of needing sedation. So was she just WATCHING them do it? IS SHE GOING TO REMEMBER THAT ONCE SHES OUT?? And I guess if you once again consider how they seem more concerned about survival than anything you can wonder if they even numbed her at all… what’s in the iv bag? Is she on pain meds or is it just fluids? She looks like she’s hurting as she moves around in the bed! And DHL Guy never specified that she wasn’t feeling any pain, just explained her injuries in that same kind of clinical cold way they described the impaled guy’s
At the end of the day the hive overall does not seem to express much remorse for those that they lose or those that are going through some kind of suffering. They basically say it’s something isolated and contained to the individual’s body that overall has no bearing on the hive’s collective feelings as a whole, so why should they really care…
Sometimes it really does feel like the vessels are just merely vessels. Like even though the hive loves everyone, at the same time, it sees itself as generally disposable for the greater good. I really do think that if zosia no longer became useful to carol they would be willing to toss her around as blackmail and feel indifferent to it
Edit: Upon further analysis of Zosia IV bag, I learned that quite frequently pain medication and fluids are in separate bags, depending on the type of pain medication it is. Zosia only has one bag. And yes, the rest of the time it is normal to have just one bag for fluid and pain medication, but when this happens, it has a big prescription label on it.
There’s no label on the bag. It’s just a standard fluid bag
There’s a high chance she is in fact rawdogging this and is not currently numbed
damn i just remembered some of yall are not privy to the chair discourse so long story short i counted the chairs in the sturstead house bc my joke about helen having a cuck chair in every room went too far and apparently there are at least 34 confirmed chairs at 1208 cielo rosado court plus 4 benches and 3 couches. these women are sick
the meaning of life as stated in hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy (1979) is 42, which adjusted for inflation in 2026 ends up making the meaning of life 67
Carol Sturka I love you Carol Sturka I like you Carol Sturka you are in fact likeable Carol Sturka I would be your friend Carol Sturka I would learn to play Settlers of Catan for you that's how likeable you are
watching pluribus and the whole carol losing her temper thing is such an interesting metaphor. this insane stuff is happening so she rightfully gets angry which makes bad things happen to everyone, and everyone blames it on her. instead of the thing that's making this happen. they're like no matter what you need to remain calm, pacified. 800m killed by the pluribus that's ok it's collateral. but 11m killed by carol without her even knowing or intending it, so in fact they were also killed by pluribus, and everyone's mad at her.
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