by: Hayley Strahs

Editor-in-Chief

From Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, new series Pluribus hit Apple TV+ at the end of 2025. The show follows Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) after the rest of the world forms a hivemind, leaving her as one of 13 unjoined individuals on Earth. I initially disregarded Pluribus; I’m not a sci-fi fan. But the show is much more reminiscent of the eerie Severance than of the post-apocalyptic The Last of Us. As a speculative fiction nerd, I adored Pluribus and would recommend it to all readers of El Gato.

The show’s pilot, We Is Us, might be my favorite episode of television ever, with the exception of The We We Are, Severance’s Season 1 finale. While I acknowledge that there’s an obvious pattern in the type of episodes I enjoy, We Is Us strays far from any drama television norms. Unlike most shows of the genre, Pluribus hired a choreographer who coordinated the hive mind’s movements beginning with the synchronized swabbing of petri dishes. The petri dish scene is simultaneously haunting and exciting, keeping the audience on their toes while the focus shifts to Carol, a romance-fantasy writer from Albuquerque with a dry sense of humor and a distaste for her own books. Carol appears wry and careless at first, but Seehorn’s performance captures the grief, mistrust, and love that contribute to her character. Seehorn is especially excellent when it comes to fear; it’s no spoiler that Carol is scared when the hive mind merges the rest of the world’s consciousness. Though far from the main plot of the show, Carol’s relationship with her wife, Helen (Miriam Shor), is often what grounds Carol during the hive’s takeover. Without spoiling the show, Seehorn’s portrayal of romantic love alone is enough to cement Pluribus as one of my all-time favorites, despite romance barely qualifying as a subplot.

While slow-paced, Pluribus is captivating. Details about the hive mind’s purpose, abilities, and motivations are carefully unraveled throughout the nine episodes, allowing the audience to theorize but always question each incoming scene. It’s been weeks since I finished the show, and I still don’t know what to make of the season one finale, La Chica o El Mundo. Pluribus plays with truth: what it is, what it isn’t, and what it means to both Carol and the hive mind. In my mind, Pluribus is reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, a speculative fiction exploration of the value of human life and individuality. Like Never Let Me Go, Pluribus isn’t fast-paced, but what it lacks in action, it makes up for in suspense.

Apple has already renewed Pluribus for a second season, and I expect Gilligan’s proposed Seasons 3 and 4 to follow. Pluribus is a fascinating take on individuality and humanity, and I can’t wait for what the series brings to the table next.