What does anthropophagy mean? Pluribus Episode 6 reveal is even more horrifying

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The last scene of Pluribus Episode 5 ended with a mystery: what was hidden under the cover? Episode 6, titled ‘HDP’, confirms our fears – the show is now dealing with cannibalism – but the reveal also suggests an even more unsettling possibility is coming up.

Last week on the Apple TV show ‘Got Milk?’, the group decided they needed some time apart from Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn). She used this opportunity to look into the strange number of empty milk cartons overflowing from the city’s trash cans.

I was totally shocked to learn what The Others were up to! Apparently, they’ve been surviving on this weird, clear liquid they make themselves, and they’ve been putting it in milk cartons! It was insane. I finally managed to get inside one of their factories to see where it all came from.

Carol pulled back the tarp, looked puzzled, then horrified as she understood what she was seeing. The episode cut to black at that moment, but it strongly suggested – thanks to a classic sci-fi trope – that the objects were human bodies. Be warned: this contains spoilers for Episode 6!

What does anthropophagy mean in Pluribus Episode 6?

Cannibalism, or the act of humans eating other humans, is known as anthropophagy. In Pluribus Episode 6, we discover the hive mind has resorted to this practice, referring to human flesh and organs as “human derived protein,” or HDP, which they use as food.

The newest episode of Vince Gilligan’s show quickly confirms what viewers suspected: the covered objects are actually human body parts, sealed in plastic wrap – even heads. After a moment to process the discovery, Carol documents everything in a video that feels like something out of The Blair Witch Project.

Since she hasn’t heard back from anyone who isn’t infected, she decides to drive directly to the nearest person on her list: Koumba Diabate (Samba Schutte), who is currently enjoying life in Las Vegas.

She was surprised to learn he’d already discovered the secret. He showed her a short video revealing this week’s big celebrity guest: John Cena, playing a version of himself that’s been… combined with something else.

Hi Carol, this is John Cena. We’re here to answer any questions you might have about where our food comes from.

As we’ve seen in this series, The Others aren’t able to intentionally cause harm or death to any living thing – that’s why the zoo animals were released when the virus spread.

It’s wild to think about how limited these beings are! They apparently can’t touch anything living, which means no farming for them. They can’t grow wheat, corn, or rice, or even pick fruit. As Joined John Cena put it, they’ll happily eat a fallen apple, but they absolutely can’t pick one themselves – and honestly, that’s a pretty cool restriction!

We gather any fallen fruit we can find. Also, billions of farm animals – especially cows – still need to be milked. And there’s already a huge amount of food – millions of tons – that was made before the Joining happened.

Everything’s been going well so far, but there’s a challenge: with over 7.3 billion people on Earth, we’re struggling to produce enough food. To address this shortage, we’ve had to implement some new strategies.

He showed one of the food cartons Carol examined in Episode 5, explaining, “This is what we eat to stay alive. Just half a pint has 300 calories, so someone as big as John Cena would need to drink eight of these cartons each day to get enough calories – assuming they eat 2,400 calories total.”

He simply explained that the liquid is mainly made from stored food, especially items about to expire. But it also includes 8 to 12% of a substance called HDP, which comes from humans.

As you might expect, around 100,000 people die each day from natural causes and accidents. According to Cena, these remains, which would normally be discarded, are what we use to create HDP.

We remember and honor those who have passed and acknowledge their sacrifice. If we had a choice, we would not engage in the practice of eating people. Historically, most cultures have frowned upon cannibalism, though it hasn’t been universally condemned.

We don’t really like it either, but we don’t have many options. He also told Carol they would never make her drink HDP, trying to put her mind at ease.

This again demonstrates the unsettling reasoning of the hive mind. Its main objectives are to infect every susceptible creature, avoid causing any harm, and completely serve those outside the hive.

Even if the collective consciousness only inhabits the bodies of the deceased, treating people as mere resources raises serious ethical concerns. What’s particularly worrying is that Carol and Manousos appear to be the only ones who recognize and care about this issue.

This discovery highlights the troubling lack of ethical consideration within the collective consciousness, particularly regarding the justification of actions that harm or exploit human bodies – whether those bodies are living, deceased, or potential. This leads us to an even more unsettling possibility.

Stem cell reveal could mean Carol is in danger 

In Pluribus Episode 6, Koumba shares that The Others have discovered a method to make the virus affect even those with immunity. They’re doing this by customizing the virus to match each person’s stem cells, but they need to collect those stem cells directly from individuals.

The procedure requires inserting a large needle into the hip bone. It’s an invasive and painful process, and the group’s regulations prevent them from performing it without explicit permission. Carol immediately makes it clear that they do not have her consent.

If you recall the ice hotel scene from Episode 3, Carol told Helen she had frozen her eggs. This implies that her stem cells are currently stored in a lab, and those cells are what the hive mind requires to transform her.

While The Others avoid harming living creatures, they don’t show the same respect for things they don’t consider alive, such as preserved genetic material.

Considering their main goal is to infect as many people as possible, the fact that Carol’s eggs have been frozen becomes much more disturbing.

Because those eggs aren’t subject to the collective consciousness’s restrictions, and if they’re essential for the virus to affect her, The Others have no ethical reason to avoid taking them.

As a Pluribus fan, I immediately noticed something really interesting! Someone on Reddit pointed out that they’re planning to use Carol’s frozen eggs to get her stem cells, which is hilarious because the characters specifically promised they wouldn’t take anything from her! It’s a clever little detail that’s got everyone talking.

Someone warned Carol that because The Hive won’t collect stem cells from her body, especially since she has frozen eggs, she’s in serious danger.

Despite being more open to the idea of the hive mind than others, Koumba admits in Episode 6 that he doesn’t want to be infected himself – he prefers his current life. However, this is complicated by the fact that he’s been having sexual relationships with numerous infected women.

One Reddit user suggested Diabate is in greater immediate danger. They explained that because reproductive cells aren’t always flawless, many might be needed for success, and Diabate seems to be using any available opening to try.

Someone else commented, predicting that Diabate would eventually face trouble and Carol would then understand the risk to her eggs.

The seventh episode of Pluribus will be available on Apple TV on December 12th. Before then, you can check out theories about how the show might end, see why Breaking Bad fans are defending Carol after she was called a “Karen,” and discover other TV shows you can stream this month.

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2025-12-05 14:21