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Spoilers<\/strong> for episodes 1-2 of “Pluribus” follow.<\/em><\/p>\n Vince Gilligan’s “Pluribus” has debuted with a knock-out two episode premiere. While “Better Call Saul” star Rhea Seehorn gets top billing as Carol Sturka, we only meet her about 20 minutes into the first episode, “We Is Us.” Before that, the show depicts various scientists investigating a signal transmitted from space (specifically planet Kepler 22b<\/a>).<\/p>\n Carol is not one of these scientists; she’s a romance author from Albuquerque (where “Better Call Saul” and parent show “Breaking Bad” were also set)<\/a>. Why are we following her? Because she’s one of the few people in the world immune to the results of the signal: a virus that links people together into a hive mind of blissful, overly considerate drones. The hive treats Carol with only kindness and respect, but she’s not having it, especially since the hive never conceals that they want Carol to join them.<\/p>\n When talking to other remaining individuals in episode 2, “Pirate Lady,” Carol calls the hive “Pod People.” That phrase is “Pluribus” nodding to one of its big influences: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” First told as a 1955 novel, “The Body Snatchers” by Jack Finney, the story has been adapted to film\u00a0four<\/em> times. The movies all tell the story of alien invaders duplicating and replacing human beings. In the original story, the body snatchers are plant-based lifeforms grown from enormous pods, hence “Pod People.”<\/a><\/p>\n A Pod Person retains the original’s memories but feels no emotion, and with that the original personality fades away. In 1956’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the Pod People sell the transformation like this: “Reborn into an untroubled world […] Love, desire, ambition, faith, without them life’s so simple.” Protagonist Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) counters that it’s a world where everyone’s the same.<\/p>\n