Rhea Seehorn in 'Pluribus.' Apple TV Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains spoilers from Pluribus season one, episode five, "Got Milk."] Matters have escalated since The Hollywood Reporter last caught up with Pluribus writer-director/executive producer Gordon Smith a couple weeks ago. In Smith's third episode, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) mishandled a live hand grenade, prompting her liaison, Zosia (Karolina Wydra), to quickly dispose of it and shield Carol from the nearby blast. Zosia ended up in the hospital for her injuries, but she and the rest of the Joined still gave Carol the benefit of the doubt after Zosia's then-total of three near-death experiences. Their hive mind was even willing to supply Carol with an atom bomb or a bazooka - despite the grenade mishap and two emotional outbursts that killed millions of other Joined people around the world. Related Stories TV 'Pluribus' Boss Gordon Smith Addresses Anti-AI Subtext, Says It's "Less Rich" to Spell Things Out TV Critics' Conversation: Heavyweights (and Horny Puppets) Pull Fall TV Back From the Brink Realizing that the collective will grant just about any wish and never tell a lie, Carol pushes the envelope in episode four, "Please, Carol." She drugs a still-recovering Zosia with sodium thiopental, hoping its truth serum-type properties will compel Zosia to reveal how to undo the Joining. Instead, Zosia and the Joined fall into a state of mass distress, resulting in Zosia's own cardiac arrest and fourth brush with death at the hands of Carol. (The woman who revived Zosia with an AED is former Better Call Saul healthy and safety supervisor, Rosa Estrada. She brought Bob Odenkirk back after his cardiac incident on Saul's final season.) Returning in short order, Smith directed this week's Ariel Levine-written fifth episode, "Got Milk," marking the first time he's helmed a script he didn't write himself. The Michigander was tasked with illustrating the fallout of Carol's dangerous scheme to save the human race. That meant depicting the Joined's mass exodus from Albuquerque with an ambitious panoramic shot of taillights on ABQ's freeway system. And instead of a live concierge to answer her requests by phone, Carol is now greeted with an automated voice recording. She's still able to ask for anything she needs, but the familiar voice also adds, "Our feelings for you haven't changed, Carol. But after everything that's happened, we just need a little space." If the sound of the Joined's voicemail greeter sounds like Better Call Saul star Patrick Fabian, your ears do not deceive you. It's a fitting choice in a couple ways. Firstly, Fabian has a knack for sugarcoating unwelcome news. And considering that Carol is now the most despised person on Earth, it makes sense for the Saul brain trust to cast the actor behind Howard Hamlin, who at one point was the most detested character on Better Call Saul. "We said, 'You know who would be perfect? Patrick.' He didn't really know what he was recording," Smith tells THR. "As a person and actor, Patrick has a darkness within him, but he has done a lot of work to present and understand the positive in life. We captured dozens of versions, any one of which would have been perfect." Smith and the rest of the Pluribus crew recorded the greeting ahead of filming Carol's introduction to it, so they decided to play a game with Seehorn on the day. They wanted to see if she would break character upon hearing the sound of her friend and former housemate during Saul. (Seehorn and Fabian shared a rental with Odenkirk throughout most of the series; Seehorn, along with her Saul hair stylist Trish Almeida, re-rented the place for Pluribus.) "We didn't give [Seehorn] the heads up. We wanted to see what she would do and if she would break," Smith admits. "But, of course, she's too good. She did the scene [without being fazed], and when we yelled 'cut,' she was like, 'Was that Patrick!? Excuse me, nobody said that was going to be Patrick.' Her reaction was very funny." Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Smith also discusses how Carol's morally questionable behavior challenges the traditional definition of a hero, before addressing episode five's ghastly cliffhanger. *** Episode five is the first time you've directed a script you didn't write. In this case, it belongs to Emmy collector Ariel Levine. Did you step in because someone else's availability changed? Yes, essentially. We had a turbulent schedule. We were anticipating starting shooting in June or July of 2023, and we obviously didn't because the strikes hit. They hit when we were maybe a month and a half away from finishing the breaking of the season. We had directors on the line who we wanted to work with, and when we emerged from the strikes, peopl