PLURIBUS Just Dropped One of the Funniest Cameos of the Year

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Be warned: this article reveals key plot points from episode six of Pluribus season one. Proceeding will spoil the episode for you, and some details won’t make sense if you haven’t seen it yet.

The core concept of Pluribus is genuinely frightening. Rhea Seehorn’s character, Carol, is understandably horrified by what’s become of humanity – they’ve become innocent and completely defenseless against a potential alien attack. However… if everyone on Earth was part of a single, unified consciousness focused solely on our happiness, we might be drawn to the same path as Koumba Diabaté. He’s enjoying himself immensely, living a life of luxury within the most elaborate game imaginable. Diabaté also realizes that a collective mind of seven billion people means he essentially knows everyone on the planet – everyone.

As a huge cinema fan, I have to say, John Cena absolutely made one of the funniest TV appearances of the year on Pluribus. Seriously, whether you’re looking for a tutorial on a sunset flip powerbomb, or you need someone to break down the bizarre plot of a hive mind devouring people on Pluribus, John Cena is the perfect person to deliver – he just nails it!

Carol was shocked to discover human remains at the food processing plant, but she was even more surprised to learn that Diabaté already knew about it. The collective intelligence, or ‘hive mind,’ had informed him and the other survivors about ‘Human Derived Protein’ – a necessary component for humanity’s survival. The group behind this is using the remains of deceased people in their calorie drink, packaged in milk cartons. The hive mind requires human remains because it refuses to harm any living creature, extending even to avoiding the harvesting of crops like wheat, fruits, and vegetables. This means that, without this source of protein, most of humanity will likely starve within ten years. It’s the discovery of this cannibalistic practice on Pluribus that unexpectedly leads to a cameo appearance by John Cena as himself.

A strange alien virus solved all of humanity’s problems – ending violence, inequality, and disease – but it created a new one: everyone is now malnourished. The virus causes people to only eat fruit that has fallen naturally from trees, which means the entire population will eventually starve. We learned all this from John Cena, who appeared on the show Pluribus to deliver the news. Interestingly, Cena plays a version of himself on Pluribus, but one connected to a larger collective intelligence known as the Hive Mind.

Diabaté acknowledges Carol has a point, but he’s open to the idea that this virus could have positive consequences, even for others. He explained that the ‘enjoined’ can’t force anyone to join their collective without permission, and he intends to withhold his. He’s enjoying the unique power and attention that comes with being an independent individual in this new world. He quickly grasped the potential of the ‘enjoined’ – a global network that essentially connects him to everyone and everything on Earth.

That’s incredible… and a little scary! The potential of this collective intelligence is limitless. That’s why he met with Carol aboard Air Force One. Diabaté even considered having John Cena give him wrestling lessons. And with Cena already there, his friendly and charismatic personality made him the ideal person to deliver some truly awful news to Carol on the Pluribus.

John Cena’s appearance was a brilliant, fitting cameo that perfectly captured the quirky spirit of the show Pluribus. This was made possible because John Cena is now part of a collective consciousness. It wasn’t simply due to the presence of the ‘enjoined’ – if John Cena remained an individual, Carol and Diabaté wouldn’t have been able to perceive him at all.

The time for that is now.

Mikey Walsh writes for TopMob and is a big fan of the A Song of Ice and Fire series – he’d love to see George R.R. Martin finish The Winds of Winter! You can find him on Bluesky at @burgermike, and he’s always participating in discussions about the Targaryen kings.

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2025-12-05 19:03