Search Party reveals Dory's disciples in new season 5 photos

Alia Shawkat's Dory is set to develop quite the following in Search Party's final season — and EW has an exclusive look.

Picking up in the wake of Dory's near-death experience, season 5 of the HBO Max comedy finds her feeling oddly at peace with herself and wanting to share that feeling with the world. As seen in the photos below, Dory gains some disciples along the way.

"She starts to see the world clearly in her mind and realizes it's all about love and helping other people, and has these premonitions as well of the world ending," Shawkat tells EW. "So she decides to take it upon herself that she's a healer and she must get out there to spread the word of love."

Search Party co-creator Sarah-Violet Bliss adds, "She has a feeling of, 'I am one with everyone, and I also have a mission to help save everyone.'"

Dory ends up catching the eye of Tunnel Quinn (Jeff Goldblum), a flamboyant billionaire who wants to take her enlightenment and turn it into a business. As part of this new venture, Dory receives a team of social media influencers to spread her message: Elodie Revlon (Angela Trimbur), Pepper Southerland (Grace Kuhlenschmidt), Leonora Hamsdale (Greta Titelman), Marty Plushfeld (Joe Castle Baker), Ritchie Thinky (Larry Owens), and Winnie Miranda (Michelle Badillo).

"She ends up using them as her students, essentially, who are there to learn from her and to publicize her new point of view," says co-creator Charles Rogers, who adds that the six actors brought a new energy to the show. "And of course in Search Party fashion, [the disciples are] completely flawed and frustrating, shallow people."

If this is starting sound a bit culty, that's because it basically is. "That's what we're playing with in this world," Bliss says, "and that she suddenly has this power over people that is centered around sort of a self-help world [and an] idea that is attractive to flawed psychosis."

"I think cult would probably be the interpretation of these things from outside perspectives," Shawkat adds. "I don't think anyone who's starting a cult is like, 'Yeah, it's a cult.' They're like, 'It's not a cult, we're a family.' So I think from the outside it definitely is a cult, but from her perspective she's changing the world. And she really believes that to save everyone, that everyone should get on board and it's something that will really help people. So I don't think she sees it as cult, but it definitely begins to look more and more like one."

On top of Tunnel and the disciples, Dory's friends Elliott (John Early), Portia (Meredith Hagner), and Drew (John Reynolds) also get involved in this new venture, which complicates their already messy friendship even more.

"The friends' relationship to Dory has become more confusing than ever this season because Dory can't prove to them that she isn't enlightened," Rogers says. "And because of the nature of trauma bonding, they all really wrestle in their own ways with how much they believe her. But at the end of the day, it feels so real to them that they just have to believe her. And so they get roped up into it because it feels so real to them. And the series continues to play with that push-pull that they all have with her, where for better or worse they just can't escape her journey."

All 10 episodes of Search Party season 5 will arrive Jan. 7 on HBO Max.

Related content:

• Jeff Goldblum joins Search Party season 5 as Dory's new business partner
• Search Party bosses break down Dory's finale fate: 'There's still story to tell'
• Search Party breaks out the evidence board to find Dory in new season 4 trailer