Sony and Apple thought that "Pluribus" had a dull ending, which led to a special delivery, and a promotional effort using Tim Cook's social media came under fire over an erroneous assumption about AI.

The Vince Gilligan comedy-drama "Pluribus" concluded its first season on Apple TV on Christmas Eve. It ended with a bang thanks to Apple's studio note. Pun intended.

At the end of the last episode of the season finale, main protagonist "Carol," played by Rhea Seehorn, discovers a large crate has been placed on her doorstep by The Others.' The crate contains an atom bomb, seemingly in reference to an earlier episode when Carol asked the Others if they would hand over a bomb if she asked for one.

Interestingly, the bomb wasn't originally planned to be in the ending for the first season. According to Gordon Smith, a screenwriter, executive producer, and director for the episode speaking to The Ringer, there was something less explosive planned for the episode.

"We had a much subtler ending," admits Smith. Originally, it was meant to have something "like a secret handshake" between Carol and another character, "Manousos," agreeing to work together.

However, executives at Apple TV and Sony provided notes to creator Gilligan that the ending wasn't quite right for such an ambitious show. Gilligan even offers that it was "a great note," albeit one with great expense.

That included landing a helicopter in the cul-de-sac, specially built for the production.

The admission that the bomb was dropped via studio notes goes against the general narrative of advice from studios to producers. Apple has previously been accused of meddling with production, such as with "The Problem with Jon Stewart," indicating a need to avoid specific topics of discussion, like AI.

In the case of "The Studio," Apple provided notes in pre-production, skeptical about the number of ambitious cameos the show required. The production, however, managed to get almost all the cameos it wanted.

The show was also produced to frequently use "oners," or long and uninterrupted shots for minutes at a time, without cuts. The technique also effectively nullified any feedback offered after the recording of the sequences, due to the difficulty of changing lines or making edits.

Cook's AI Ad issue

At the same time as the discussion of the thermo-nuclear plot device, Apple CEO Tim Cook was doing his bit to promote the show on social media.

Using his X account, Cook tweeted an image of a seemingly AI-generated painted image of milk and cookies in front of a Christmas tree. Cook's message read "Merry Christmas Eve, Carol. Be sure to leave some milk out for Santa."

The image contained cookies with smiley faces, following the main happiness plot line of the show. The milk carton also has some typical AI-alike mistakes, such as declaring to have "Whole Milk" and "Lowfat Milk on the label, as well as an unsolvable maze on the carton.

There is also a distinct and fairly obvious overlay signature in the corner for "K Thomson." This is confirmed by the Apple TV X account, reposting Cook's tweet and saying it is a festive artwork by Thomson "made on MacBook Pro."

Thomson confirmed to AppleInsider that he did work on the social media artwork, but declined to provide further details.

Social media posters, as usual, took the posting pretty poorly, with many respondents complaining about the seeming use of an AI-generated image, outside of the artist's confirmation that it is his work.

This is not the first time Internet users have complained about Pluribus' marketing efforts. Earlier in December, a static image on a smart fridge was framed by Internet denizens as being an example of smart home surveillance and personalized advertising.

There were claims that a woman was sent to a psychiatric hospital over the ad. However, that was debunked as a lie.