For many Episode 6 is wild. Carol (Ray Seehorn) is deeply disturbed by what she discovers. the collective mind is eating that she doesn't trust them to pass on information to other survivors and decides to share her revelation in person – and ends up learning even more about the Others. “HDP” gives more insight into the limitations the hivemind is subject to when it comes to joining Carol and the other survivors. This makes Carol feel relieved at first, but I think she's actually in more danger of changing than ever before.
[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Pluribus episode 6.]
When Carol goes to Las Vegas to tell Kumba Diabate (Samba Schutte) that the Others eat people, she is shocked to learn that he already knows. In a video recorded for Carol, John Cena powerfully defends the consumption of “human derived protein,” or HDP, as a way to avoid wasting the 886 million corpses created by the original unification and everyone who has died since. As Zosia (Karolina Otter) mentions in episode two, the hivemind “prefers to eat vegetarian food,” but their limits on harming other living things are so great that they don't even harvest plants. Even with DPN, most of the world's population will die of hunger within the next decade.
When Carol presses him on how he can be so calm despite this information (mentioning that he will starve along with the rest of the hivemind once they find a way to force the survivors to join), he reveals how much he has learned by spending time talking to the Others instead of driving them away. The connection was caused by a virus to which the 12 survivors are immune. To infect them, the Others would need to create a special version of the virus, requiring the collection of stem cells, a highly invasive procedure that they would not do without consent.
Carol is excited by this news and immediately calls the Others to confirm Kumba's report. She tells them straight up that she doesn't agree, and they admit, “We hear you, Carol. You disagree. No stem cells will be taken from your body. Your wishes will be respected.” She feels visibly relieved and returns home to Albuquerque.
However, Carol has a big problem, which was revealed through a joke in the flashback scene of the third episode when she visited the ice hotel with her partner Helen (Miriam Shor). Helen was delighted with the experience, but the ever-grumpy Carol joked: “I could save $100,000 and freeze my eggs right here.” These eggs will also contain Carol's stem cells. Although the Others would need to surgically extract Kumba's stem cells from his bone marrow, they would not need to touch Carol to obtain the genetic material needed to create a special virus for her DNA.
Others do not know how to lie, but can be evasive in their answers. When asked if they were vegetarians, they said they would prefer to be. It's an answer that satisfied the survivors, but didn't reveal the disturbing truth about what they were actually eating. When Carol said she did not agree to stem cell extraction, they replied, “No stem cells will be taken from your body.” But this still leaves open the possibility of extracting them from outside her body. The Others have Helen's memories, so they will know about the eggs and where to find them.
After working around the clock on how to bring survivors to the hive, the Others only learned yesterday how to create a special virus. They are unhappy that this method contradicts their inability to cause harm, but they find it easy to deal with Carol, the person who has caused them the most pain. You can be sure that they are rushing to adapt the virus to her, respecting only the letter of her wishes and not her true desires as part of their biological imperative to make her happy.
