Pluribus’ Soylent Green Connection, Decoded: What It Really Means

Pluribus just dropped an episode called 'Got Milk,' and suddenly everyone is whispering the same two words: 'Soylent Green.' It is not the first fan theory to pop up around Vince Gilligan's new show, but after this week, it might be the one that actually sticks.

So what kicked off the Soylent Green chatter?

The episode follows Carol, our lead, as she starts noticing something odd: recycling bins all over the city are stuffed with empty milk cartons. She initially figures the Others — that alien hive-mind presence running around — are literally guzzling milk. Close, but not quite. A little digging later, she realizes those little cartons are filled with some other liquid entirely. Not milk. Not anything you'd want with cereal.

By the end, Carol sneaks into a cold-storage facility and finds something that absolutely wrecks her. The reveal stops short — we do not see what's under the tarp yet — which means we are stuck waiting for the next episode to spell it out.

Why 'Soylent Green' is suddenly relevant

Quick refresher on the 1973 sci-fi classic: it is set in the grim future of 2022, where overpopulation has torched natural resources. People survive on processed food made by the Soylent Corporation — first Soylent Yellow and Soylent Red — and then a new, tastier product called Soylent Green that is supposedly made from plankton. After a company executive turns up murdered, Detective Robert Thorn starts poking around and discovers the gruesome twist: Soylent Green is actually manufactured from human remains.

The Pluribus parallels are getting hard to ignore

• In episode 2, we see the Others loading human corpses into a dairy truck. At the time, their endgame was unclear.
• This week, Carol clocks a pattern: trucks, an industrial facility, endless cartons, and cold-storage units all tied to that mystery liquid.
• She also finds bags of white powder that, when mixed with water, turn into that same strange drink being packed into the cartons.
• Put together, the working theory is bleak: the Others may be processing human remains into some kind of consumable — either for themselves or for distribution.

How dark could this get?

If the theory is right, Pluribus is steering into a much darker lane than the first half of the season suggested. It lines up with the show's breadcrumb trail — the dairy truck full of bodies, the industrial scale of the operation, the not-milk in the cartons — and it would be a very pointed nod to Soylent Green without copying it outright.

For now, the big question is still under that tarp in the storage vault. We find out next episode whether Carol really stumbled onto the worst-case scenario — and whether the Others' favorite drink is exactly what fans think it is.