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SAVE $500: As of Nov. 7, the EF EcoFlow Delta 2 Max is on sale for $899 at Amazon. That's a 36% saving on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ecoflow EF EcoFlow Delta 2 Max $899 at Amazon
$1,399 Save $500   Get Deal

A portable power station is always good to have on hand, especially something as impressive as the EF EcoFlow Delta 2 Max. With a 2,048 wattage and the ability to power 99% of appliances, this model is something you'll never regret owning. And as of Nov. 7, this popular model is on sale for $899. That's a saving of $500 and its lowest-ever price on Amazon.

If you want a power station you can use with little warning, this is a great choice. It charges fast, reaching 80% in just 43 minutes when combining up to 1,000W solar input with AC, or in about an hour using AC alone. It’s built to last, made with a durable LFP battery that lasts up to 10 years, offering around 3,000 cycles before dropping to 80% capacity. According to EcoFlow, this is six times more than the industry average.

SEE ALSO: Keep everything charged up with the Bluetti Elite 30 v2 portable power station for its lowest price ever

The capacity is expandable from 2kWh to 6kWh by adding up to two extra batteries, so it's easy to customize for home backup or outdoor use. It comes with 15 outlets and up to 2,400W of power (or 3,400W using X-Boost), so it can handle almost any household device. And despite how powerful it is, you won't be disturbed as it runs quietly at around 30 dB.

Grab this power station deal from Amazon while the price is this low.

SAVE OVER $1,000: As of Nov. 7, the Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV has dropped to $899.99 at Best Buy as part of its Doorbuster deals ahead of Black Friday. This is $1,100 off its list price of $1,999.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 65-Inch Class S84F OLED 4K UHD Vision AI Smart Tizen TV (2025) $899.99 at Best Buy
$1,999.99 Save $1,100   Get Deal

For excited shoppers waiting for Black Friday deals to drop, the good news is there's already early discounts available. Best Buy's selection of Doorbuster deals are offering limited-time discounts (this batch is only available until Nov. 9) on a wide variety of items. In particular, if you're looking for a new TV for the holidays, this deal on the Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV is absolutely worth a look.

It's usually priced at $1,999.99, but the Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV has dropped to $899.99 at Best Buy. This makes for a whopping $1,100 in savings, but again, keep in mind the deal comes to an end on Nov. 9. Now's your chance to scoop it up at this great low price.

SEE ALSO: Target Black Friday ad: The best deals you can buy online early

If you're planning some movie nights or binge-watching TV shows over the holiday season, this 65-inch Samsung TV can set you up well with the help of 4K resolution and OLED display. Dolby Atmos will surround you in high-quality sound as well, so you can hear every action on screen as if you're right in the middle of it. It's also a smart TV, so if you're someone who loves to stream shows and movies, you can have your favorite apps gathered together for instant access.

There's a limited time to grab this deal, so don't miss out on $1,100 off this Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV at Best Buy. It's not the only early Black Friday deal Best Buy has right now. Check out our breakdown of Best Buy's Black Friday ad to see even more deals available at the retailer right now.

In no world do I want the events of Pluribus to become a reality.

An extraterrestrial virus that turns the world's population into a too-happy hive mind? No thank you, that sounds like it would be terrifying to experience. (It does, however, make for great TV.)

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' review: I can't tell you much about Vince Gilligan's sci-fi series, but what I can say is glowing

But there is one element of Pluribus that I would love to see come to life, and that is the series of books written by the world's most miserable woman, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn).

Carol writes a best-selling series called The Winds of Wycaro, which is described by a Barnes & Noble employee speaking over a PA system as "speculative historical romance literature." A more accurate term in 2025's book-selling landscape would probably be "romantasy," but for Carol, it's all just "mindless crap."

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' happiness virus, explained: Where did it come from?

Look, I haven't read any of the Winds of Wycaro series. I've only heard the quick snippet Carol reads from her new release Bloodsong of Wycaro, which the Barnes & Noble employee hilariously calls "the fourth book in her Winds of Wycaro trilogy." (Shout out to this unseen bookseller, comedic MVP of an otherwise very intense episode.) However, what I did hear about Winds of Wycaro sounded really fun.

Based on the snippets we get and the Bloodsong of Wycaro cover, it looks like the series is Brandon Sanderson mixed with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (To hammer that point home, Bloodsong is on the same shelf as the latter on bookshelves at the airport, and Carol's partner Helen (Miriam Shor) makes sure to shift them around so Bloodsong of Wycaro is more visible.) The series takes place on purple sand seas, where formidable heroine Lucasia crosses paths with the handsome corsair Raban. Just the sound of his name sends Carol's book tour audience into a frenzy, which means he'd do numbers on BookTok. Xaden from Fourth Wing, you're done.

Carol bashes on both the book and her adoring fans, but that doesn't deter me from wanting to give Winds of Wycaro a shot, if it were only real. I'm a sucker for a doorstopper fantasy novel, and it's not every day you get to read a trilogy that has four whole books in it!

So please, Apple TV, if you need ideas for Pluribus merch, I'm telling you to gift viewers Winds of Wycaro. After all, you put out not one, but two tie-in books for Severance, even turning Ricken's The You You Are into a reality. Surely a chapter or two of the Winds of Wycaro would be feasible. Or Vince Gilligan, if you're reading this, why not make give those fictional book fans what they want and make a real-life movie? Just be sure you get ILM to do the slipsand. Think about it! And keep the wind at your back.

Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

If the first two episodes of Pluribus left you feeling like Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) — namely, screaming, "What the fuck is happening?" into the void — then you've come to the right place.

The new sci-fi series from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan delivers a jaw-dropping premiere, one that sees (almost) the entire world infected by a virus that leaves the population peaceful and content. But where did the virus come from, and what happens now that it's on Earth? Let's break it down.

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' review: I can't tell you much about Vince Gilligan's sci-fi series, but what I can say is glowing Where did the virus in Pluribus come from?

Space! Well, kind of. At the start of Pluribus, astronomers pick up a signal coming from 600 light-years away. Who's transmitting it? Why are they transmitting it? And how long have they been sending out the signal? No one knows!

However, these unknown signalers aren't sending a message in an alien language. Instead, they're sending a molecular message. Each of the four tones of the signal corresponds to a nucleotide: guanine, uracil, adenine, and cytosine, which are the key building blocks of RNA.

SEE ALSO: What happens when you call the phone number in Pluribus?

Scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases manage to recreate the nucleotide sequence. They determine that it is a lysogenic virus, which means that the virus' genetic material gets incorporated into that of the host. And while months of animal testing didn't yield major results, as soon as the virus gets transferred to a human via rat bite, all hell breaks loose. The infected humans start spreading the virus through kissing, donut licking, and more, resulting in the most cheerful pandemic the world has ever seen. Now if it were up to me, I would simply never recreate an alien virus for fear of this exact scenario, but that's why I'm not a scientist!

Wait, so are the infected "we" in Pluribus aliens? Karolina Wydra in "Pluribus." Credit: Apple TV

No, they aren't. While Carol initially thinks she's living through an alien invasion — a mistake I think we'd all make in her shoes — the infected quickly set her straight. Speaking through United States Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Davis Taffler (Peter Bergman), the infected tell Carol that there are no aliens on Earth. Instead, they, or the new "we" of the world, are just "beneficiaries of extraterrestrial technology."

Still, the question of alien involvement looms large over these not-aliens. Who originally developed that RNA sequence, and why did they send it to Earth? Did they send it to other planets, too? Is this how they reproduce?

What does the virus in Pluribus do?

As Davis explains to Carol, the nucleotide sequence is like a virus, but it isn't exactly a virus. Instead, it's "kind of a psychic glue capable of binding us all together."

SEE ALSO: The 38 best Apple TV+ shows, ranked

That means all of humanity, excluding Carol and the other 11 unaffected members of the world, is now one big hive mind. Members can't read the minds of Carol and her compatriots, but they can access the thoughts and feelings of every single person within the collective. They can even do so for people who were briefly a part of the hive mind before passing away, like Carol's late partner Helen (Miriam Shor).

Why did the virus kill people?

Helen was one of 886 million who died during the Joining of the hive mind. As Carol's chaperone Zosha (Karolina Wydra) says in episode 2, the infected were originally passing the virus along stealthily. No one died during this more controlled process. However, once the military discovered them, they accelerated their spread, resulting in calamity for hundreds of millions. The deaths were not intentional, as Zosha reveals in episode 2 that the infected cannot kill, not even when it comes to food.

Why do Carol's emotions impact the infected? Rhea Seehorn in "Pluribus." Credit: Apple TV

The first Joining wasn't the only example of mass death within the hive mind. When Carol gets angry at Zosha in episode 2, Zosha begins to shake uncontrollably, just as everyone did when they were first infected by the virus. As Carol goes to get help for Zosha, she realizes that everyone else in Albuquerque is shaking, too. In fact, everyone in the world is undergoing a similar seizure, and 11 million of the infected wound up dying as a result. So what's happening?

Zosha reveals that everyone is impacted by Carol's emotions, especially the negative ones. "If they're directed right at us, they can be a little tough to take," she says. That sets in motion one of the core dilemmas of Pluribus. Carol is rightfully miserable and furious about what has happened to the world, yet if she expresses that too much, she risks wiping out more of humanity. It seems like she has as much power over the infected as they have over her, creating a fascinating stalemate.

Why is Carol immune from the virus?

Nobody knows, but the infected are working on researching why she and the other 11 remaining humans weren't impacted by the Joining. As Zosha says, them spreading is a "biological imperative." They need to spread to the others, just as much as we need to breathe. Once they do figure out a solution, you can bet they'll bring Carol into the fold of the hive mind.

However, that might conflict with their prior claims that Carol's life is her own and that she has agency. Does she really have agency if they're just going to force her to join them?

Can the virus be cured? Rhea Seehorn in "Pluribus." Credit: Apple TV

Carol certainly wants to know! However, it doesn't seem like there's a clear path forward for reversing the Joining — especially since none of the other survivors Carol met seem interested in collaborating with her. Still, given the twists and turns of these first two episodes alone, you can bet that Gilligan has more revelations up his sleeve for the remainder of the season.

Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

The first episode of Vince Gilligan's Pluribus is already one of the best, most gripping TV installments of the year.

Over the course of an hour, Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) crafts his own mini disaster movie, unfolding a tale of a virus that spreads across the globe and infects everyone with total happiness. The virus also acts as a kind of "psychic glue," binding the world's population together in a hive mind. Only 12 people are unaffected, and one of them is the deeply miserable Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn).

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' review: I can't tell you much about Vince Gilligan's sci-fi series, but what I can say is glowing

As Carol panics over the viral apocalypse and grieves the loss of her partner Helen (Miriam Shor), the infected reach out to explain the situation to her. They give her a direct line to an authority figure: Davis Taffler (Peter Bergman), the U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation. Given the hive mind of it all, he isn't really Davis anymore. He's part of a global collective. But since he was near the White House, fully healthy after the infection, and wearing an authoritative suit, the being that was once Davis became the best candidate to speak to Carol from the White House press room.

In order to get Carol to reach out to Davis, the infected plaster a phone number — (202) 808-3981 — on a C-SPAN broadcast of Davis in the press room, with news tickers begging her to call them. She does so, opening herself and viewers up to answers about what is happening.

But what happens if Pluribus' audience tries to call the phone number themselves? I tried, and I've got good news: Calling the number doesn't infect you with the happiness virus.

Instead, you get an unsettling voice message. "Hi, Carol," the message tells you. "We're so glad you called. We can't wait for you to join us."

Ominous! And basically a shortened version of Davis' speech to Carol, minus the explanation of the science behind the virus.

The message then tells callers to dial 0, saying they'll reach out to you via text. The call ends once you press 0, but the text message comes through soon after, reading, "Your life is your own, Carol. You have agency!"

Then, if you're so inclined, you can sign up for updates from Apple TV. So if you want to live your Carol Sturka fantasy, give the infected members of the world a quick ring. Or don't. After all, your life is your own.

Pluribus premieres Nov. 7 on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

The collapse of humanity is a lot to take in even in TV form, so we can only imagine how poor Carol (Rhea Seehorn) feels when it's happening all around her in Pluribus.

In episode 1 of Vince Gilligan's new Apple TV+ show, after finally making it back to her house, Carol watches C-SPAN on television. There's a man standing behind a podium in a suit, not moving or saying anything, as a number appears onscreen for Carol to call.

SEE ALSO: The 38 best Apple TV+ shows, ranked

While the man on the TV — a politician called Davis Taffler — explains to Carol that the vast majority of humanity has either died or been linked together as one by a virus, a stream of news tickers appear at the bottom of the screen.

In case you missed them, we've rounded them all up below:

"Carol, when you're ready you can reach us at this number. No pressure. We know you've got questions."

"You are safe."

"Your life is your own."

"Landlines only."

"Just dial zero, 24/7."

"We can't read minds."

"We're not aliens."

"Signal from space."

"Davis Taffler, U.S.D.A"

"We're one."

"Your life is your own."

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The show's repetition of that last line — "Your life is your own" — feels a bit ominous, particularly given that a) the people united by the virus are trying to discover why Carol is immune, and b) the virus seems to like nothing better than spreading itself.

Pluribus premieres Nov. 7 on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.