Pluribus’ Sci-Fi Threat Is An Uncanny Update On A Terrifying Star Trek Villain

Spoilers for “Pluribus” episodes 1-2 follow.

The premise for Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn’s new sci-fi series “Pluribus” was staring us right in the face. Early synopses for the series promised a viral spread of happiness, leaving the mysteriously immune Carol Sturka (Seehorn) to save the world. The “how” of that infection is right there in the title: “Pluribus.” That’s a Latin word meaning “of many,” because the alien virus connects almost everyone on Earth into a hive mind.

As I watched “Pluribus,” I couldn’t help but think of the most (in)famous humanoid hive mind in science-fiction: the Borg Collective, from “Star Trek.” The Borg “assimilate” individuals into their collective, connecting their minds to the larger whole and defacing their bodies with cybernetics. Few sci-fi villains have chilled me to my bone like the Borg do. Through assimilation, they murder and enslave you. It’s the most horrifying slavery imaginable, where you can’t even hope to resist or escape from it. The worst part is that, somewhere deep inside, you are still there but drowned out by billions more voices.

“Family,” the second episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” has Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) break down describing his brief assimilation:

“They took everything I was. They used me to kill and to destroy, and I couldn’t stop them. I should have been able to stop them! I tried. I tried so hard, but I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t good enough.”

In “Pluribus,” this hive too wants to make everyone of a part of itself. Episode 1, “We Is Us,” closes with “them” reassuring Carol they’re working on “fixing” her immunity. One of the most terrifying parts of this brave new world is that only Carol even wants to resist this assimilation.

Now, the Borg and the “Pluribus” hive mind is not a perfect comparison. Most obviously, “they” in “Pluribus” aren’t cyborgs. Everyone who’s been joined looks the same, which only makes it more eerie for Carol.

The Borg are famously brusque, when they communicate verbally at all. “Resistance is futile” or “x is irrelevant” are their go-to responses whenever challenged or questioned. The hive mind in “Pluribus” is exceedingly happy and polite. As Carol learns by “Pluribus” episode 2, “Pirate Lady,” negative emotions literally paralyze them. Members of the hive spread the infection to others through kissing; it’s an act of love. Like the Borg, the “Pluribus” hive believe themselves to be harmonious perfection. Why wouldn’t someone want to join that?

Carol doesn’t, but to her horror, she’s apparently the lone dissenting voice on planet Earth. There are a handful of individuals left who, like Carol, are immune to the virus. When she meets them, though, they aren’t so eager to put things back the way they were. The merging of minds has erased all conflict and inequality, and with that loss almost all pain has left the world.

In this way, the “Pluribus” hive isn’t so much an imperious force like the Borg, but closer to Human Instrumentality from the anime “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” (Minus everyone’s bodies dissolving for them to ascend and join the collective.) The only way to achieve peace on Earth is to bring all the invisible walls between us tumbling down. Compare that with the anime “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood,” where human souls held together in a Philosopher’s Stone compare that unity to “a vortex of anguish.” Whether or not the hive is truly benevolent, the peace its brought may not be worth the cost. 

“Pluribus” hasn’t elaborated too much on the mechanics of the hive so far. Zosia (Karolina Wydra), the collective’s emissary to Carol, claims that being part of the whole is a blissful experience, which might be why the hive is so happy all the time. Yet from what we saw of the infection spreading in “We Is Us,” no-one consented to joining it.

Can the individual parts of the hive choose to sever their link to it, or vice versa? Can people supposedly wanting to remain part of the hive be trusted, the same way someone’s judgment goes slack when they’re high? Does hearing everyone’s unfiltered thoughts really sound that blissful? That’s basically what social media is and it hasn’t made us love each other more!

Is the hive a singular consciousness puppeteering bodies, i.e. a gestalt that supplanted the originals, or is it more like different individuals wired together? So far it seems closer to the former. One of the other “survivors,” Lakshmi (Menik Gooneratne) treats her son like he’s still her son, but Carol isn’t convinced.

The show hasn’t made such a comparison yet, but I tried to wrap my mind around this by thinking of the hive like a chorus. It’s made up of many voices, but the individual voices still exist and have agency inside that greater sound. A chorus only exists because the individuals agree to be part of it and act as such.

It seems inevitable “Pluribus” will eventually introduce a character separated from the hive mind, à la an ex-Borg on “Star Trek” like Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Only if/when that comes can deliver firsthand explanations of what being one really feels like.

“Pluribus” is streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes dropping Fridays.