A Big Pluribus Cliffhanger Seemingly Just Rebooted A Grisly Sci-Fi Concept
But this time, the twist is in the middle.
Some science fiction movies rely greatly on the final moments to reveal a massive twist that changes the context of everything you’ve seen. Whether it’s the ending of the original Planet of the Apes revealing the nature of the titular planet, or the ending of The Sixth Sense, in which a certain ghost is explained, genre fiction would be nowhere without the twist ending. One classic science fiction movie, 1973’s Soylent Green, is practically defined by this narrative device. And now, 52 years after its release, Vince Gilligan’s new sci-fi hit, Pluribus, has apparently, maybe, taken that twist — but smartly put it in the middle.
Here’s how the cliffhanger of Pluribus, Episode 5, “Got Milk,” seems to take the twist ending of Soylent Green, but changes not just the vibe, but the deeper nature of the twist.
Spoilers ahead.
Pluribus Episode 5 is unique in the series for several reasons, but one of the most interesting developments is the fact that all the humans who live near Carol (Rhea Seehorn) in Albuquerque head out of town following the grenade incident in the previous episode. The collective hive mind tells Carol that everybody needs their space. While this is horrifying in many ways, and Carol trades one creepy status quo for another, but it does give her time alone to become a detective.
Carol investigates. Is the milk people?
Carol’s latest quest? To figure out why all of the Others who are part of the Joining drink very specific cartons of milk. Carol soon determines that the milk being consumed by the Others is not milk at all, but some kind of other substance that seems to be sustaining them. But because the Others can only use materials found on Earth, that means the faux-milk must be made of things from our planet.
This leads Carol on a complicated, solo journey, which ends in a warehouse in which she seems to discover a horrifying truth about what this mysterious substance is made from. In the final moments, Carol gasps, and though the episode doesn’t confirm it outright, it feels like the final moments of Soylent Green in which Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) screams, “Soylent Green is people!” revealing that the substance everyone has been consuming in the future is, in fact, a kind of cannibalism.
Now, to be clear, Pluribus hasn’t made this exact connection, but it feels almost impossible that this isn’t the twist. The question is, if Pluribus does pull a Soylent Green, could that be the thing that changes the direction of the show? In the original Harry Harrison novel, Make Room! Make Room! upon which Soylent Green was based, the entire sci-fi premise was connected to overpopulation.
This movie poster is kind of a spoiler, to be honest.
Today, sci-fi stories like Pluribus aren’t really thinking about overpopulation, because that’s not really a thing anymore, and on top of that, the hive mind nature of the show changes the basic setup. Yes, like Thorn in Soylent Green, Carol knows something that we didn’t know before.
But because the Others are so honest in the Joining, could they possibly keep secrets? In the previous episode, the honesty of everyone was made crystal clear. So if the milk is made from humans, and the Others don’t lie about it, then what will Carol do next? Even with an old sci-fi trope, Pluribus is once again keeping us guessing.
