But, on the other side… I’m still distrusting the others. So maybe the right thing to do is to work on “the cure”. I mean, the planet now is a better place but… what about the humans?
I trust the Others to be completely honest in what they say - but not to volunteer anything that may be harmful to them without very specific questioning. I suspect that, although they'd resist answering something vague like "how do I stop you?"
if Manousos asked them how to build a radio jammer for that frequency they'd tell him. They've been totally up-front about having an unbreakable compulsion to convert everybody, and never promised not to convert Carol, just not to take her stem cells without her consent.
Of course, they're very "exact words" about this - they're following their genetic imperatives, not any human concept of ethics
(Using Carol's frozen eggs without consent isn't exactly ethical!)
I see "The Others" as unwitting victims of whoever constructed and sent the original signal (the one reaching Earth might not have been the origin of the 'plague/blessing') just as much as the humans - which of course is a great setup for a morally challenging drama!
Which impacted me somewhat. We see one of the immunes before and after her voluntary joining. And to me, it looks terrifying the contrast between the two stages: first they are cooking her favorite meal, she’s enjoying the company of the animals, and the town is singing to her. Then, the moment she joins, everyone leaves in a cold attitude.
...but once joined they are supposedly part of a group mind and have wireless access to the thoughts and feelings of the entire population. If so they don't need to talk or physically interact - something vastly more intimate is going on invisibly.
What impacted me was the way they ignored the goat. Again, they're strictly rules-based - they can't directly mistreat animals, but they're happy to just throw open the cage doors and forget about them.
The interesting contrast is in their approaches. Manousos just uses violence and doesn't really achieve much beyond making Rick have a seizure. Carol (having tried the violent approach and being ashamed at trhe consequences) works on building a relationship with Zosia, shows an interest in her "original" and actually gets her back - conscious and not seizing - for a second. Unless, of course, that's all part of the act... Carol starts out as a thoroughly horrible character, but eventually starts to open herself up to some acceptance of the new situation, Manousos is stubbornly fixated and would wipe out what remains of humanity in order to save it. However, we'll have to see whether Carol would actually use her new possession.
