Pluribus: What exactly is the "hive mind"? Here's what the Apple TV show revealed about mankind's biggest horror

Pluribus gained popularity with its opening episodes, which began streaming on Apple TV. It is all about happiness, the kind of happiness that isn't really happiness. At the center is the protagonist Carol Sturka, whom Rhea Seehorn is playing, who is currently among 12 other individuals unaffected by this happiness-spreading virus.

In the first episode of the show, we saw a transmission coming to Earth, which some scientists decoded and found that it was kind of a recipe for something. That recipe turned out to be a virus that binds every human affected by it to each other, becoming a part of a hive mind.

This is a new kind of zombie era, it seems. The walking bodies share one big hive mind that contains all the emotions, memories, and whatever mental aspects there are in humans.

As of this writing, Pluribus has two episodes available to watch on Apple TV with a third coming in on November 14, 2025. It will reveal more about the story that will help you understand the mystery behind what's currently going on Earth.

Hive mind is basically one organism with every human inside it

Karolina Wydra plays Zosia in Pluribus. (Image via Apple TV)

See it this way: there were 8 billion people in the world, so that means 8 billion different people with different thoughts. Now, put all of these people in one giant human walking the Earth. This human is now an individual with all the knowledge and memories, and everything that was inside the minds of 8 billion people.

In Pluribus, there are no giant humanoids like Attack on Titan, but an invisible force that connects all the people of the Earth like this. If you want to put it that way, that 'giant human' again broke down into 8 billion pieces, who are now walking on Earth. Those pieces are not themselves.

However, there are still 13 people who aren't a part of these pieces and have their own consciousness. So, all in all, the Earth has boiled down to just 14 individuals in Pluribus, these 13 and the hive mind.

What is the weakness of the hive mind in Pluribus?

Rhea Seehorn plays Carol in Pluribus. (Image via Apple TV)

The hive mind is driven by one purpose: to provide happiness. To weaken it, one has to be mean to it. So, if any one of the other 13 individuals behaves in a mean way and makes any person connected with the hive mind sad by their actions, it is affected.

It is clear when we see Carol radiating her negative emotions on people affected with the virus in Pluribus, leading them into a state of seizure. Later, it is revealed that she killed 11 million people during one of her anger episodes. This number has probably increased by the end of the second episode, as she was mean to them again, which led them into a similar state of seizure once more.

There's still a mystery about the source of the original transmission that prompted the scientists to experiment, which led to the current situation. The thing is, we have to keep in mind that it is just Earth that received it, or are there other planets too, if there's life?