John Cena’s Most Important Episode 6 Cameo Explained

This article contains spoilers for episode 6 of “More”.

As an effervescent nanny once sang, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delicious way.” It’s an adage that everyone, “Mary Poppins” fans or not, tries to live by when delivering bad news. For Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) in Apple TV’s “Pluribus,” life has been one piece of bad news after another since a mysterious alien virus transformed the majority of Earth’s inhabitants into a single hive mind. Carol already has a personal grudge against these Others, as their membership process was instrumental in the death of Carol’s manager and partner, Helen (Miriam Shor). While the Others swear that this death and others like it were unintentional and inevitable, Carol was not so quick to take the hive at its word. Not only has she racked her brains to come up with ways to try to fight and reverse the virus, but she also hopes to prove that the Others are not as harmless as they seem.

In episode 6, Carol finally found her smoking gun, and it’s crazy: people in the hive mind are literally consuming corpses, turning them into consumable juice. Based on the series’ approach thus far, this revelation is nuanced and multifaceted. For Carol, it’s proof positive that the Others are unethical and inhumane monsters who must be stopped, while for other human survivors like Diabaté (Samba Schutte), it’s an uncomfortable truth that is not so easily condemned, given the food shortages that arise due to the Others’ refusal to eat anything living. Whether the worst news is the shortage or the solution of the Others’ juice, “Pluribus” gives this shocking information to an actor whose appearance is very surprising, soothing and darkly hilarious: John Cena.

Thanks to the dramatic heights and emotional depths reached by “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” showrunner Vince Gilligan is generally considered an expert in serialized dramas. While this is undoubtedly true, his reputation based on those two masterful series has changed from what it was when he began working on “Breaking Bad.” At that time, he was best known as one of the writers of “The X-Files,” and his work on that series tended toward dark comedy. Episodes like “Bad Blood,” “Christmas Carol” and “Small Potatoes,” which he wrote or co-wrote, stood out from the usual “monster of the week” and “mythology” pack. Through this, he co-created the more comedic (and short-lived) spinoff series, “The Lone Gunmen.” His film scripts, such as “Home Fries” and “Hancock,” also all had a humorous nature.

This is why when “Breaking Bad” was a new series in its first season, the series was not marketed as a gritty crime drama like it later became, but rather as a screwball comedy. The main image of its marketing was not Bryan Cranston as the brooding Heisenberg, but rather as a stunned Walter White in his underwear. As such, John Cena’s appearance in “HDP” feels like a return to Gilligan’s comedic roots. The episode, written by Vera Blasi, is certainly not the first example of dark comedy in “Pluribus” so far. After all, Carol casually asking the Others if she could get a nuclear bomb definitely counts, at least. Still, the cameo is notable for its darkly comic juxtaposition of Cena’s affable chatter with the harsh explanation of what the others are doing with all those human remains.

“HDP’s” choice to use John Cena, of all possible celebrities, is a wise choice. This is the latest example of what a natural Cena is in comedy. The actor is able to take his natural charm, good looks and gentlemanly politeness and twist them just right to make them both wholesome and wicked. His delivery isn’t deadpan per se, but he understands how playing dark material as straight as possible allows the contrast to stand out to the fullest. Additionally, his natural rhythms as an actor mesh very well with the Others’ generally upbeat and cheerful attitude. So while it’s shocking to see Cena show up, it immediately feels right to see him take over as well.

It’s this aspect of Cena playing “himself” that gives the cameo its extra bite. With the exception of the real Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller appearing as himself in the fourth episode (and that hidden “Better Call Saul” prank), Cena is the first major celebrity to appear on the show, and the fact that he’s not only one of the most recognizable actors but also one of the most pleasant actors working today gives the appearance extra weight. It’s not only a connection between the series and our real world, but its uncanny valley element makes the series even stranger and uncomfortable. Carol may indeed be a character we may not want to root for, given her volatility, and yet the distressing strangeness of the world she finds herself in, combined with decades of alien invasion tales in our culture, only makes her cause more understandable. For now, we’ll just have to see what shows up in the rest of the first season of “Pluribus.”