Pluribus

Juvarisx

Florida
5,356
7,018
It's probably human corpses but I'm hoping for something more exotic like them creating some kind of alien eggs or something weird. Imagine walking into a walk-in freezer at your local dog food factory filled with random foodstuffs and

View attachment 610696

in the first episode when they showed Gaza or whatever they were loading the dead into trucks that said dairy or some such in Arabic
 
  • 1Mother of God
Reactions: 1 user

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
50,436
92,503
in the first episode when they showed Gaza or whatever they were loading the dead into trucks that said dairy or some such in Arabic
Yeah even before the most recent episode there were a lot of posts on the internet talking about how much "milk" is being shown. It's funny that the milk appears to be a total red herring, since I imagine there are many containers for transport of their soylent amber.
 

Sylas

<Gold Donor>
5,081
7,103
I'm glad they spent an episode having Carol discovery the surface level logistical problems of letting all the animals go free. I hope they go further into it but I doubt they will except to create a big answer like "we only needed like, 5 million humans" or "we lied" rather than some meticulous, math-backed explanation around their economics of creating soylent green.

The animal release instinct is way too big of a weakness for an alien race taking over a planet by turning its sentient species into slaves. We'll see how it turns out!
Like I said I think the wolves was just foreshadowing, scavenging the dead, for the fact that the hive was also scavenging the dead to make their soylent green.

Of the possible source of the hivemind im still on team mass effect 3; a species tasked an ai to end galatic wars and it did so by bioengineering a virus that is concerned only with infecting everyone and spreading, once everyone is infected they repropagate the signal to the next world..while their lack of self preservation or ability to cause harm leads to their extinction.

But its possible that the hive mind evolved naturally on some peaceful garden world and this is its natural state, its never encountered a death world before or one where the dominant intelligent life went to such extremes to increase their population past the point that can be naturally supported, requiring so much death to sustain it.

I agree that the rules its programmed to follow doesn't lend itself to a bioweapon engineered as a precursor to invasion, not at least for enslavement, perhaps only one concerned with resources. The hive infects everyone, calls home to let them know the planet is pacified, then they die off.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

velk

Trakanon Raider
2,827
1,414
but the "where did this come from and how did it get into that lab rat" is not even on the radar of what the show is trying to convey. Which is kind of odd.

Uh, they deliberately recreated the nucleotide sequence the aliens broadcast to them and injected rats with it to see what it did ? I though that was pretty clear from the first episode ?
 
  • 1Like
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 1 users

Grez

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,291
2,289
The animal release instinct is way too big of a weakness for an alien race taking over a planet by turning its sentient species into slaves. We'll see how it turns out!
they're probably planning to make walled cities to protect themselves from the wildlife
 
  • 1Like
  • 1ViaGralis
Reactions: 1 users

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
<Gold Donor>
34,255
61,989
im honestly not going to rewatch, but the radio shit was amatuer bands. he either has experience in vince's world or was quickly able to pick it up. the age / setup puts it more in line with a hobbyist already.

it was close enough to assume he was trying to communicate with any other human out there. this is basically the default that humans go back to in emergency situations when trying to communicate. HF waves. You do not need a lot of power to communicate across the world.


this individual would 100% fully understand the hivemind can listen to him. i believe the scene was to indicate to him, a non english speaker, there is another human out there trying to communicate with him.


he probably sees her as infected (not tranmissible)/trick/whatever.
I saw a theory that isn't immune he is just being very careful. That's why he isn't touching anything of theirs or eating their food. Not sure it's plausible with how infectious this thing was.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
21,385
15,294
Uh, they deliberately recreated the nucleotide sequence the aliens broadcast to them and injected rats with it to see what it did ? I though that was pretty clear from the first episode ?

Maybe you're right. Maybe the scene where the SETI @ home enthusiasts found some cryptic, far off communication and then had an "AH HA" moment that cut away to a military facility that, apparently is tied to these enthusiasts, was obvious.

Actually, probably, most people would agree that the small scenes they dedicated to that at the very beginning of the show made it obvious that they "recreated a nucleotide sequence". Yea, I definitely thought that now that you mention it. Fuckin hell... nucleotide sequences... duh!
 

Sylas

<Gold Donor>
5,081
7,103
I saw a theory that isn't immune he is just being very careful. That's why he isn't touching anything of theirs or eating their food. Not sure it's plausible with how infectious this thing was.
Not sure how that's plausible. How would he know he wasn't immune? Once the chem trails flew over it infected everyone and they all converted.

He was likely working at his storage unit company, saw everyone going catatonic, then locked himself in a unit thinking it was a zombie apocalypse or whatever. By the time the hive woke up, he was hidden which is why they didn't know about him initially and only discovered him later.

The point of mentioning him and then showing him reveals a few things: there are limits to the hives knowledge. Ie if nobody knew you were gonna go camp in the woods, the hive would not be aware of your location, it would have to assume you died or you are immune, assuming people really know you well. It sets up the potential to introduce new immunes who are shut in loners.

It also introduces a male who shares carols fears of the hive who has some competence. He's scanning airwaves and shit looking for survivors. Initially he thinks Carol is one of them but when she calls back and calls him a motherfucker he realizes she isnt. Now he has her name hes gotta Google her and make his way from wherever south America to New Mexico while avoiding the hive. He'll probably learn the whole "screaming at them disables them" along the way so I imagine there will be a few incidents that Carol notices that she didn't cause...then he'll show up
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: 1 users

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
50,436
92,503
He'll probably learn the whole "screaming at them disables them" along the way so I imagine there will be a few incidents that Carol notices that she didn't cause...then he'll show up
Yeah. It's interesting when a show primarily shows things from an isolated POV because it gives the opportunity to see things Carol and thus the audience, doesn't have enough info to understand.

Compare that to Battlestar Galactica where there were an abundance of scenes watching these two goober cylons wax philosophically.

1764434278109.png
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
20,911
17,803
Actually, probably, most people would agree that the small scenes they dedicated to that at the very beginning of the show made it obvious that they "recreated a nucleotide sequence". Yea, I definitely thought that now that you mention it. Fuckin hell... nucleotide sequences... duh!
I mean, this whole sequence is almost the entire point of the first episode. WTF did you think was the point of showing all the testing on the lab rats? Or all the conversations with the SETI dudes was for? How clearly do you need them to spell it out?
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
21,385
15,294
I mean, this whole sequence is almost the entire point of the first episode. WTF did you think was the point of showing all the testing on the lab rats? Or all the conversations with the SETI dudes was for? How clearly do you need them to spell it out?

Tuco said it perfectly above you

Yeah. It's interesting when a show primarily shows things from an isolated POV because it gives the opportunity to see things Carol and thus the audience, doesn't have enough info to understand.

That was the point I was making. There is very little perspective other than Carols which isolates what the viewer is subjected to. And "All the conversations" and "Showing them in a lab" would correlate but expanding to "obviously it was a nucleotide sequence" for the average viewer is kind of laughable and deserved to be slightly mocked.
 

Juvarisx

Florida
5,356
7,018
I saw a theory that isn't immune he is just being very careful. That's why he isn't touching anything of theirs or eating their food. Not sure it's plausible with how infectious this thing was.

In the first episode they showed one of the infected lick every doughnut and put a sign on them that said take one, yes they can infect food.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
20,911
17,803
That was the point I was making. There is very little perspective other than Carols which isolates what the viewer is subjected to. And "All the conversations" and "Showing them in a lab" would correlate but expanding to "obviously it was a nucleotide sequence" for the average viewer is kind of laughable and deserved to be slightly mocked.
I mean, I don't know what people expected here. The first episode gave us more than enough to grasp the whole DNA/RNA viral mechanic they're hinting at and I'm a fucking retard. If they had spent another twenty minutes spoon-feeding the audience a biology lecture, everyone would be whining that the show turned into a TED Talk. The way they handled it felt more natural. Enough information without breaking the narrative flow.

The only reason it feels under-explained right now is because we're not supposed to have the full picture yet. The show is deliberately withholding details. That's the mystery.
 

Juvarisx

Florida
5,356
7,018
I mean, I don't know what people expected here. The first episode gave us more than enough to grasp the whole DNA/RNA viral mechanic they're hinting at and I'm a fucking retard. If they had spent another twenty minutes spoon-feeding the audience a biology lecture, everyone would be whining that the show turned into a TED Talk. The way they handled it felt more natural. Enough information without breaking the narrative flow.

The only reason it feels under-explained right now is because we're not supposed to have the full picture yet. The show is deliberately withholding details. That's the mystery.

In some cases, the audience has more information then Carol.

The virus works cross species. Did that rat get absorbed into the human hive, or does each species have their own, or can the virus make mammals do things against their control. Theres no proving that it didnt work on all of the rats and as a hive came up with a plan to infect the human by playing dead.

The virus has to be activated, as it was done all at once to the planet when it realized its time was up before being discovered and allowing people to get into shelters it wouldn't be able to access, killing the US government. Does that mean it can be deactivated and it worried that leaving scientists alive could reverse it.*

*Note my friend thinks they were dispersing the virus airborne via those planes, I think it was the US Government trying to get to nuclear shelters unaware they were already infected and the joining caused the planes to crash as they have only shown transmission via saliva.

It not being able to lie may be a misdirect. It seems unlikely that it could get infected deep into restricted areas like nuclear subs across the planet without being duplicitous.

Have they shown any of the infected eating or drinking anything other the the "Milk" ? I thought about it this past episode and Id have to go back to when they had the meal outside with the other immune. If thats the case why pool the food supply if they are not going to use it and only use that drink.
 
Last edited:

Xevy

Log Wizard
9,280
4,447
The Indian ladies kid was eating a normal meal when she called Carol. Their chaperones also ate the meals prepared for them in the meet up of the 11.

The thing about the rat that is interesting is if this is a "psychic glue" and afaik the rat was the only infected mammal at that time before it bit the biologist, how did it know to do so? Is this some deep latent instinct the virus provides? After all this did this rat wind up on the group-think? It's the only mammal they've shown infected by the virus because it was genetically spliced with the DNA sequence, so does this rat know how to drive a car? Operate a computer? I'm sure it'll never be dealt with, but the forethought to go into a fake coma to then be able to bite a human is pretty advanced so does the "glue" also increase cognition? Are there people with Down Syndrome out there that can operate 747's no problem now?

A bunch of interesting questions that I'd wish we'd get answers to, but I'm sure we won't.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
50,436
92,503
The Indian ladies kid was eating a normal meal when she called Carol. Their chaperones also ate the meals prepared for them in the meet up of the 11.

The thing about the rat that is interesting is if this is a "psychic glue" and afaik the rat was the only infected mammal at that time before it bit the biologist, how did it know to do so? Is this some deep latent instinct the virus provides? After all this did this rat wind up on the group-think? It's the only mammal they've shown infected by the virus because it was genetically spliced with the DNA sequence, so does this rat know how to drive a car? Operate a computer? I'm sure it'll never be dealt with, but the forethought to go into a fake coma to then be able to bite a human is pretty advanced so does the "glue" also increase cognition? Are there people with Down Syndrome out there that can operate 747's no problem now?

A bunch of interesting questions that I'd wish we'd get answers to, but I'm sure we won't.
Or the rat was just feeling super sick and bit the lab tech as a defensive response.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
21,385
15,294
I mean, I don't know what people expected here. The first episode gave us more than enough to grasp the whole DNA/RNA viral mechanic they're hinting at and I'm a fucking retard. If they had spent another twenty minutes spoon-feeding the audience a biology lecture, everyone would be whining that the show turned into a TED Talk. The way they handled it felt more natural. Enough information without breaking the narrative flow.

The only reason it feels under-explained right now is because we're not supposed to have the full picture yet. The show is deliberately withholding details. That's the mystery.

Im not talking about spoon feeding, I'm talking about perspective. The show is almost entirely from Carol's perspective, which is just kind of odd.

The show is good, and interesting but it pays almost no attention to the antagonist at all other than from Carol's perspective. That was my original comment. And the "duh nucleotides" comment was just kind of comical and stupid because it's not obvious at all whats going on.

Im pretty sure Gilligan is not a hack based on his track record but if this was a JJ Abrams show it would end up that it was shitty billionaires pretending to be aliens from a bunker in the mountains so they could control everyone or some dumb shit.
 

Burns

Avatar of War Slayer
8,744
16,871
In some cases, the audience has more information then Carol.

The virus works cross species. Did that rat get absorbed into the human hive, or does each species have their own, or can the virus make mammals do things against their control. Theres no proving that it didnt work on all of the rats and as a hive came up with a plan to infect the human by playing dead.

The virus has to be activated, as it was done all at once to the planet when it realized its time was up before being discovered and allowing people to get into shelters it wouldn't be able to access, killing the US government. Does that mean it can be deactivated and it worried that leaving scientists alive could reverse it.*

*Note my friend thinks they were dispersing the virus airborne via those planes, I think it was the US Government trying to get to nuclear shelters unaware they were already infected and the joining caused the planes to crash as they have only shown transmission via saliva.
)It not being able to lie may be a misdirect. It seems unlikely that it could get infected deep into restricted areas like nuclear subs across the planet without being duplicitous.

Have they shown any of the infected eating or drinking anything other the the "Milk" ? I thought about it this past episode and Id have to go back to when they had the meal outside with the other immune. If thats the case why pool the food supply if they are not going to use it and only use that drink.
I didn't see anything that led me to believe the ET Virus had to be activated. In the first episode everyone starts acting under the virus's control as soon as they are infected and then they show the aircraft seemingly doing global aerosol dispersion.

In the subsequent episodes, the only additional info I saw was that they had to fast track the program when uninfected US Mil personnel discovered them. Which was when asked about how many died, to infer that they were not done testing the virus for fatality rate.

That speaks nothing to how far they had already gone in taking over the various world governments. They could have been in partial control of the US Gov/Mil already, but missing some key individuals that would buy them more time (risk vs reward). I would assume discovering how they executed the plan effectively will be part of the show.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Sylas

<Gold Donor>
5,081
7,103
Yeah not sure where "activation" comes from, seems pretty straight forward they were globally dispersing via chem trails in response to mil discovering them despite it not being fully op checked hence the high mortality rate.

I think the rat was just catatonic from the joining, like all the rats were hive minded up and he was the last to awaken. He's still just a rat though so he woke up in unfamiliar situation (being carried out of his cage) and defended himself by biting. I dont think the virus is cordyceps style transmission cross species like that where it does one thing to one kind of species just so it can by transmitted to the actual target species, but I also dont think it really matters this bit of minutiae is kinda in the weeds