Carol’s dependence becomes even more obvious when she chooses to go shopping rather than have a gourmet breakfast delivered to her front door. Given the more efficient (and probably more equitable) food distribution of humanity’s new setup, there’s no need to keep specialty organic markets like Sprouts open for affluent best-selling authors like Carol. In fact, delivering home-cooked meals arguably involves fewer brainwashed drones than stocking an entire grocery store with food that will undoubtedly spoil to preserve Carol’s illusion of independence.
And the irony of Carol choosing frozen meals prepared by others instead of fresh produce and other ingredients to cook for herself is lost on no one. Perhaps she thought that if she only visited Sprouts once to stock up with enough Lean Cuisine to last for months, she could live in denial that all of that food would be rotting on the shelf for her exclusive benefit. Whatever her reasoning, Carol’s inner conflict is clearly evident as she watches random Albuquerque residents stock the shelves. How can one of the last human individuals on Earth truly be free of hive mind assistance?
Perhaps the answer lies with another disgruntled immune person: the mysterious man from Paraguay. Zosia (Karolina Wydra) confesses that the collective didn’t even discover his presence until much later than the others like Carol, and that admission comes from those who successfully prioritized isolated humans like those on the International Space Station and in arctic research centers in the earliest part of their takeover. Might the Paraguay man have been off the grid, or could he perhaps at least have the skills to remain separate from this new unified version of humanity for extended periods of time?
We know from their broken phone conversation that Carol and the Paraguay man have one thing in common: their surliness. Because Carol used her final exchange with the mysterious stranger to curse him out, it’s possible that he’ll realize that he has found a kindred spirit in his American counterpart. It seems likely that he will be back in touch soon, and if he is, perhaps he could share the secret with Carol to being truly independent of interference so that the real work of saving humanity can begin.
But first, one more episode of Golden Girls…
