After this latest episode, I'm going to be doubly disappointed if this virus isn't the first step of an alien invasion, or at least a precursor to a second, more aggressively-minded virus.
If that's not what's going on here, this hive mind makes no sense from an evolutionary perspective. It's so passive, it essentially has to sit around, waiting for food to fall out of the sky? That's not a functioning hive. That's the worker drone half of the hive that builds infrastructure and tends to the nest. Where are the aggressive warrior drones who can harvest food and protect the passive workers from outside threats?
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't seem to track, at least with what we know so far.
For example, I don't understand how "can't take a life" translates to "can't pick an apple." The tree
wants you to eat the apples. That's the whole point of the apple - they're part of the tree's reproductive system! Eating a tree would be taking a life, but eating its fruit isn't. Same goes for most fruits and vegetables. And during that conversation we also learn that they are okay with consuming milk, which is kinda same-same.
That's just one example, but one that I found perplexing.
(also, they are okay with eating fruit that has fallen, but that fruit is full of microbes that they are also consuming. So apparently at some level killing to survive is okay).***
I am also very confused by how little concern the majority of the Twelve are showing for the situation. I dunno, I just find it hard to believe that most folks would be pretty much okay with all of humanity, including their loved ones, being subsumed into a hive mind, even supportive of it. I don't buy it at all. I think the vast majority of folks would be very much on Carol's side. The show hasn't done enough to make me understand what makes her such an outlier.
I'm liking it overall because the performances are great, production values are amazing, and the plot is novel and fun. But I sure hope some of these fundamental story issues are addressed.
***Now I think on it, they sort of addressed this with their regret that sometimes taking insect life by accident, i.e. stepping on them, is sad but necessary. Except...it isn't. Apparently they are willing to starve rather than take any life (even though they are definitely taking microbial life all the time), so why not just sit still and starve sooner, sparing all those inadevertent insect deaths? And if taking life because it is necessary in some situations is okay (accidentally crushing insects, killing and consuming bacteria), then where is the line? Like, why not
eat insects, since it is okay, if regrettable, to step on them?
