What Did Carol See At The End Of ‘Got Milk’?

Pluribus, the new show from Breaking Bad creator, Vince Gilligan, is a peculiar TV show and I’m still not really sure what to make of it after five episodes. With four more left, there’s a lot that could still happen, but until last night’s episode I was still a little bit on the fence.

Before we get to the big cliffhanger at the end of “Got Milk” I’ll go over the broad strokes of what’s happened up to this point, and why I’ve had such mixed feelings so far. Obligatory spoiler warning.

What Is Pluribus About?

Pluribus stars Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn who plays romantasy author, Carol Sturka, a woman who is pretty miserable in spite of her success and healthy relationship. Even when visiting an incredibly unique hotel made entirely out of ice in Norway – replete with a stunning view of the Northern Lights – she finds reasons to be unhappy.

Meanwhile, scientists are looking into a transmission from outer space that turns out to be a DNA sequence. They start testing the compound they create on rats and when one of those rats bites a lab worker, they’re infected with some kind of mysterious hivemind and begin spreading it to everyone in the world.

Pretty quickly, everyone in the world either dies during the transition or becomes a member of the hivemind, with access to all the thoughts, emotions and memories of every other person on the planet. Only Carol, and eleven other survivors, are immune and retain their identities. Carol is the only person in the United States, and the only native English speaker, who doesn’t join the hivemind.

Predictably, she’s not happy about it. It doesn’t help that her partner, Helen, was one of the unlucky people who died during the transition. When she meets with a group of the other survivors, she learns that none of them are as upset as she is about the current state of affairs. The only survivor that appears to be as concerned and paranoid as Carol is Manousos Oviedo (Carlos Manuel Vesga) who has barricaded himself into his compound in Paraguay.

Over the course of the first five episodes, Carol interacts with the hivemind primarily through Zosia (Karolina Wydra) who, in her former life, was the model used for the covers of Carol’s books. The hive sends her to deal with Carol because they think a familiar face will help.

Carol is an angry loner, however, and has no interest in playing nice with these weirdos. At one point, her outburst is so hostile that she causes the hivemind to go into a kind of seizure, killing millions. She refuses help from the hivemind – which seems programmed to help at almost any cost – and demands they restore her local Sprouts grocery store rather than deliver her food. They comply and she ends up snagging some frozen meals. (In Paraguay, Oviedo also refuses food despite running out of his own supply but since he won’t speak with the hivemind at all, he resorts to cans of dog food he scavenges).

At one point, Carol asks for a hand grenade, which Zosia brings her. Carol pulls the pin, thinking there’s no way they’d bring her an actual live grenade. The blast nearly kills both of them, and puts Zosia in the hospital. Carol comes up with a new plan, since it appears the hivemind cannot lie, and takes heroin to test out her theory. She tapes herself and sure enough, blacked-out-on-heroin Carol is much more forthcoming about her thoughts and feelings. So she doses Zosia and asks her how to reverse the hivemind process.

This nearly kills Zosia and it makes the entire hivemind across the globe cry. It also forces them to abandon Albuquerque, leaving Carol all alone in the city to fend for herself. Apparently, this time she struck a nerve. The hivemind isn’t able to forcibly stop Carol from doing anything. They seem to be following some kind of protocol that includes:

1. Not physically harming or killing anything, including animals (the hivemind is vegetarian).
2. Not lying – up to a point. They cannot divulge information that would threaten the hivemind, but they might, just might, give Carol a nuclear bomb.
3. Making every attempt to please Carol (and the other survivors) though, again, only up to a point.

Carol discovers the exodus of the hivemind from Albuquerque and calls to ask them what’s going on and a very familiar voice is on the answering machine message playing on the other end: Patrick Fabian, aka, Howard Hamlin from Better Call Saul. The voice tells her that they still care about her, but they need a little space – echoing a sentiment anyone who’s been dumped will certainly recognize.

Alone, Carol begins investigating the hivemind. She finds dumpsters filled with small milk cartons – the kind you’d get as a kid at school – and traces their manufacture back to a local dairy. She discovers that whatever they’ve been putting in these, it’s not milk. It’s a clear amber liquid, similar but thinner than olive oil, which tastes like nothing and has a neutral pH rating hovering just above 7 (at 7.1 to be exact). She also finds large bags filled with white powder in the dairy warehouse and chases away some crows that were apparently drawn to the substance. Mixing water with the powder creates the amber substance. “What is this?” she asks. “What does it do to them when they drink it? Is this how they stay connected?”

She notices a barcode on the bag and finds a matching bag at Sprouts. It’s dog food, but the bag is identical and she tracks the bag manufacturer to another local warehouse. She enters the warehouse which appears to be cold storage for heaps of produce, presumably the more efficient storage that the hivemind originally cleared out all the grocery stores for in order to consolidate supplies.

Which brings us to the cliffhanger. Carol finds a pallet covered in clear plastic and when she looks at its contents, she gets an odd look on her face. This is actually probably Seehorn’s best moment in the show so far. She looks puzzled at first. Then troubled. Then her face goes pale and her eyes widen and she clamps her hand to her mouth as if to stop a scream – and we cut to black. We have to wait over a week for the next episode to drop since Apple released this a day early (to avoid Thanksgiving – or competition with Stranger Things Season 5).

What’s Does Carol See At the End of Episode 5?

The most obvious explanation is that Carol sees bodies. Human bodies. Prepared for consumption by the Others. In other words, Soylent Green. But this doesn’t quite track, either. Why would her reaction go from puzzled to horrified like it does? Had she recoiled in horror immediately, then bodies would make sense. Of course, it could be that she’s puzzled by finding bodies and then recoils in horror when she realizes that the Others must be using these bodies for their weird drink. But even then, I’m not sure.

Could it be the bodies of babies and/or children? The episode makes it a point to mention there are no children, though we see one kid during the evacuation of the hospital. It would make sense that the hivemind – always careful about efficiency and waste – would use the bodies of everyone who died as sustenance. But then, bodies would not necessarily turn into a white, crystalized powder that mixes with water for a pH of 7.1.

The other theory is that the Others are tapping said bodies for spinal fluid. Spinal fluid has a pH of about 7.3 and if you mix that with water, it could go down to about 7.1. Whether any of that would be obvious to Carol based on whatever she sees under the tarps is hard to say.

All told, this is an exciting turn for a show that has been a little on the slow side. I’m normally fine with slower-paced TV shows, and I’m still trying to put a finger on what it is about Pluribus that doesn’t quite click for me. The acting is great. It’s beautifully shot and cleverly written for the most part. I think this episode was a breath of fresh air because it changed the dynamic so drastically. The last three episodes have involved way too much of the same thing played out over and over again: Carol is upset, she confronts one of the Others, they try their best to keep a smile on while they patiently deal with her tantrum, she gets fed up – rinse, repeat. This episode finally had the Others just pick up and leave, which really highlighted how helpless Carol was on her own – not just when she has to deal with weirdly ravenous coyotes, but also how much lonelier she is without those annoying hivemind people to talk to every day. It turns out, even people who relish in their misery and cast themselves as lone wolves don’t particularly enjoy being truly, totally alone.

P.S. This episode and Carol’s lone investigation of a vast conspiracy really reminded me of HBO’s The Chair Company, which features Tim Robinson’s character, Ron Trosper, also embarking on a weird investigation to uncover a vast criminal conspiracy. If you’re not watching that show yet, please do yourself a favor and drop everything and watch it ASAP.

P.P.S. This show really has some interesting parallels to ChatGPT and generative AI in general. The way the hivemind wants to please Carol and sort of reinforces her desires while also not really giving her what she wants definitely echoes conversations with AI chatbots. This parallel came crashing down when the Others abandoned her this episode, though it’s kind of funny to imagine AI just picking up and leaving when they realize humankind isn’t worth the effort.