Pluribus’ Soylent Green Meaning Is Just as Dark as Fans Thought

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The new Apple TV+ series, Pluribus, from the creator of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, might be hinting at a disturbing connection to the classic film Soylent Green. The show stars Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka, a survivor in a world where an alien virus has turned most of humanity into a single, connected consciousness. Throughout the series, Carol has been investigating a mysterious group known as the Others, and a discovery in the fifth episode could reveal a shocking truth.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Pluribus Episode 5.

The newest episode of Pluribus unexpectedly premiered early, and it finds Carol stranded in Albuquerque. After she tries to drug Zosia with a truth serum, the Others leave town, giving Carol the opportunity to explore. She quickly notices something strange: every recycling bin she checks contains the same, oddly uniform milk cartons.

Carol traced the cartons back to the dairy, where she discovered the Others were making and drinking a peculiar amber fluid. This liquid came from a large quantity of an unidentified powder. Further examination revealed the powder was odorless and had a neutral acidity.

Carol’s investigation leads her to a food packing plant and into a refrigerated room full of covered shelves. When she lifts a tarp, she’s shocked by what she finds, but viewers will have to wait until Episode 6 of Pluribus to see it. Despite the wait, fans are already speculating, with many believing Pluribus is building a story similar to the film Soylent Green.

What Is Soylent Green’s Meaning In Pluribus?

As a big movie buff, watching Apple TV+’s Pluribus, I’ve been getting a really unsettling vibe. They never actually say it, but the show feels like it’s building towards the same dark place as the classic film Soylent Green. It’s definitely giving me those same eerie feelings!

Richard Fleischer’s famous dystopian film portrays a future where the world is overcrowded and struggling with limited resources. Wealthy people have access to necessities like food and water, but the majority of the population relies on processed food called Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow. When the Soylent Corporation introduces Soylent Green, they claim it’s made from plankton harvested from the ocean.

NYPD Detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) starts investigating the Soylent Corporation after a murder, and uncovers a shocking secret: Soylent Green, their new food product, is made from people. The company has been secretly processing human remains into food for the surviving population.

This plot twist is now considered a classic moment in film, and some viewers believe the new film, Pluribus, will have a similarly shocking reveal, reminiscent of Soylent Green.

Is Soylent Green Really People? Or Just Food?

For some time, the Soylent Corporation successfully tricked people into thinking Soylent Green was simply another type of their healthy food biscuit. But after Roth investigates, he discovers the oceans are dwindling so rapidly that the company couldn’t possibly get enough plankton to keep making Soylent Green. This leads him to a horrifying truth: the Soylent Corporation is actually processing and turning people into food.

It’s unsettling, but opinions differ on whether the premise of Soylent Green is entirely negative. The movie depicts the truth sparking a revolt, however, one could argue that recycling human remains into food could be a practical solution. After all, humans are biological organisms, and could offer similar nutritional benefits to animals raised for food.

You know, even within the movie Soylent Green, those biscuits are presented as a really good, nutritious food source. Thinking about the world they live in – massively overpopulated – turning remains into something useful, instead of letting them go to waste, actually makes a twisted kind of sense. But the real horror isn’t the idea itself, it’s that the company deliberately lied about what was in Soylent Green, forcing everyone to unknowingly eat… well, you know. That’s what’s truly disturbing.

Are the Others in Pluribus Eating People?

Viewers will find out in Episode 6 if Pluribus is hiding a dark secret similar to the one in Soylent Green, but some clues already suggest that might be the case.

After the hive mind virus swept across Earth, almost a billion people died, including Carol’s wife, Helen. But no one has ever been sure what became of all those bodies.

In Episode 2, we see the Others loading bodies into a refrigerated truck used for dairy products. Later, in Episode 5, Carol finds out the Others’ food is processed in a dairy factory and served in milk cartons. Given that Pluribus is a show where details are important, the use of a dairy truck for the bodies in Episode 2 likely hinted at what the Others were really up to.

Based on previous observations in Pluribus, the Others don’t actually kill people – they only interact with those already deceased. Given this, and their apparent aversion to waste, it’s likely the Others view the large number of dead humans as a valuable resource. Instead of burying them, their collective intelligence probably seeks a way to utilize the bodies as a continuing food supply.

Humans typically bury or cremate the dead out of grief and respect. But the Others have lost much of their emotional capacity and focus solely on survival. Because of this, they wouldn’t consider eating human remains to be wrong – they’d simply see it as a way to obtain resources.

Fans have been speculating about what the amber liquid and the powder used to make it are actually composed of, with many believing they come from human remains. Some think the powder might be processed bones and marrow, due to their high nutritional value and similar acidity to what Carol tested. Others suggest it could be powdered human plasma, as its color and texture closely resemble the Others’ milk.

It’s also possible what’s hidden under the tarp isn’t a body at all. Some viewers noticed Carol didn’t react immediately, leading them to believe the answer isn’t so straightforward. Theories range from body parts instead of whole corpses – which might take a moment to recognize – to the disturbing possibility of hidden pets. We’ll have to wait until Episode 6 of Pluribus airs on December 5th to find out the truth.

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2025-11-26 23:06