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Vince Gilligan never anticipated that Pluribus would turn into a cultural phenomenon. “I am so grateful to the audience,” he remarks. “It was unexpected the show being as passionately debated as it is, and it makes me deliriously happy.”

With the first season of the hit series reaching its finale—and Season 2 officially in the works—Gilligan and his team reflected on the viewer reception and whether it will impact the narrative path of Pluribus.

Regarding the Overwhelming Audience Reaction

Anyone might to get distracted by the widespread acclaim and audience predictions surrounding Pluribus. Gilligan, however, is striving to ignore the noise.

“It feels like constantly eating your favorite dessert and being in a state of bliss,” he describes. “It's wonderful, but I get wind of it from others, and that's by design. I have never looked myself up on the internet, nor do I ever intend to. Not because I don't care. It's a bottomless pit I know I would fall into and then I'd be living in squalor from Home Depot and I'd be stuck in my living room.”

In spite of trying to stay away, there’s no way to avoid the immensely favorable response to the series. The best he and his team can do is to acknowledge it humbly and try not to let it alter the course of the show.

“We make no attempt to change the plot,” says Alison Tatlock. “The narrative we craft is not impacted by online forums.”

“Better to keep our noses to the grindstone,” Gilligan concludes.

A Pressing Query: Does the showrunner Have a Plan for the Ending of Pluribus?

So if Gilligan and his team aren’t being guided by audience theories, can we assume they have already decided how Pluribus will reach its endpoint? Essentially yes… with some caveats.

“We've developed some potential directions about the ultimate destination,” Gilligan says. “but we are always ready to abandon a good idea for a more brilliant plan. That philosophy has guided us in excellent shape on Better Call Saul and on Breaking Bad even before that. We throw stuff out when we conceive of something superior and I expect we'll continue doing that.”

On the other hand, if plans fall through, director and writer Gordon Smith has a pretty funny idea to fall back on.

“My recurring proposal is that the entire story is inside a snow globe, and that we'll zoom out in the finale and that's where they've been all along,” Smith quips, “but nobody's taking me up on that.”

Then again, one could always use the legendary finales?

“I want Carol to open her eyes with Bob Newhart there,” he jokes.

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Pluribus is currently available on Apple TV.