If you thought an emergency appendectomy would stop Todd from solving a case, you don't know the man vying to be Portland's number-one private investigator.

While Todd finds himself stuck in a hospital bed, he still can't escape a murder mystery!

So Help Me Todd Season 3 Episode 4 was a vintage hour for the series, full of laughs, heart, and all the things that make the series so charming.

We got to jump on a Zoom call with Todd himself, Skylar Astin, to break down the episode, including working alongside Dean Winters and Dick's unconventional advice, as well as diving into some teases for the rest of the season.

Skylar was nothing short of fantastic to speak with and offered excellent insight into a fun hour and what's ahead. Enjoy, So Help Me Todd fanatics!

It's an interesting episode for Todd because after he gets ill, he ends up in the hospital and doesn't leave the bed for the rest of the episode. What is it like for Todd to be out of the thick of the action but still in investigation mode?

I think it's driving him crazy. If he could, he would get out of that hospital bed with all the tubes attached to him, get in the car, and start tailing people.

But Scott Prendergast's vision for this episode is based on Jimmy Stewart's character in Rear Window, where he's kind of operating everything from a seated position.

And so, it was really fun to play because I got to have a bunch of action go down in the hospital room, but then directing Margaret to do the things that Todd would normally do was also very fun to play out.

Yeah. And also, him getting away from electronics was interesting because that's definitely something that Todd uses in his investigation work.

Yes. Totally.

He also meets Dick, whom he gets to work beside him. What's it like for Todd to work with another PI, somebody whose work he admires?

I think this is his ticket to all the knowledge he's always been searching for. I mean, he listens to podcasts that Dick has been on and sees him as such a source of inspiration, especially as in [So Help Me Todd] Season 2, Todd is aiming to be Portland's greatest detective ever.

And so when he gets to pick this guy's brain and be a little bit surprised by who he really is as a human being, I think it sheds a lot of light on what it actually takes and is maybe a bit daunting to know that now in order to be a successful detective, you have to be a bit of a lone wolf.

This leads me to my next question because Dick had a lot of wisdom that he was bestowing upon Todd; some advice I think was welcomed, other advice probably not so much. But he was really heavy on being a lone wolf.

Do you think that he'll be taking some of that advice that he learned from Dick moving forward, specifically that role of being a lone wolf if you want to succeed?

I think so. I think that he really admires Dick, and I think that he takes a lot of those words to heart. So when it comes to being open to other people's help in certain cases, and more specifically, Heather Morris's character, Judy, there's no room for a love life.

There's no room for any sort of romance or relationship.

Todd is completely singularly focused on being a detective, and he's willing to make whatever compromises or sacrifices he needs to make in order to achieve that goal.

And touching on him wanting to be the best PI in Portland, and you're saying with the no relationships, everything like that, do you think that he's really willing to do anything it takes? Or do you think there's still some of that, and maybe it won't go that far?

I think where he starts is quite literally, "I must do everything this guy says. If this guy says howl, I need to howl." It is his own real mentor in the world of being a PI. And especially with this fresh start that Todd now has, he wants to go about things the right way.

So yeah, especially at the start, he takes it quite literally.

And, of course, life is going to have the pull in other directions, and we wouldn't be a TV show if we weren't going to show the ramifications of what it takes to be a lone wolf. But yeah, Todd is focused, and he is a howling wolf.

You guys get some great guest stars on your show that come in for the cases of the week and whatnot. What was it like working with Dean Winters? You guys had great banter and chemistry back and forth.

I am such a fan of Dean Winters as an actor and always have been. And now I'm even more of a fan of him as a person. His process is fantastic. It's very similar to mine.

We ran the lines in the trailer just beforehand to get comfy because we had so much to do together, and by the time we even hit rehearsal in front of the crew, the chemistry was bang on.

We even had an audience kind of to laugh at it when we were showing the crew, and it freed us up to make some fun choices within the scenes. It came to life instantly.

Actually, my parents were visiting on-set that episode and just eating it up. It was really fun. We're having him back quite a bit throughout Season 2 and beyond because he's just a great character in our world.

That's good news to hear. Margaret plays a big role in this case, but she and Todd are not working directly together, and there are some trust issues there, which we've seen between Todd and Margaret before, but ultimately, at the end of the day, they figure things out.

How important is it for you guys to make sure that you're balancing some of the issues that Todd and Margaret have around the love and respect that's there, too, when you are solving different cases together?

Yeah, we try to layer it in because it would become a little monotonous if we were just always at each other's throats. But then again, if everything was all hunky dory, I don't think that there would be a lot of excitement there.

So there is mutual love, respect, and warmth even underneath, but working with your best friend or your mother or anyone that you have some tumultuous history with, old habits are definitely bound to come back.

And I think that our natural banter has become one of those things where we do take the crap out of each other. This is one of those great episodes where we get to do a bit of a role reversal, and Margaret has to be her own private investigator.

And so instead of Todd having these crazy schemes that need to be doubted by Margaret, it's kind of the other way around.

Yeah. For sure. And it's also true to life. I mean, who doesn't bicker with their mom and dad, especially when you're trying to find a murderer or something?

I will say so many people, when they come up to me and express their love for the show, talk so much about that dynamic and how much they love it and how real it feels and how they watch it with their mother or father or daughter or son. And it's something that people love to watch together.

Yeah. I watch it with my mom, and I was like, "Can you imagine if we worked together?" And she's like, "No."

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

So now that Todd is aware of the firm's troubles at the end of the episode and, seeing how Todd likes to solve things, will he get more involved with some of the firm struggles, and will he help Margaret in that way?

Yeah, he does have to get involved in the firm's struggles because he has a more vested interest, not only because his mother is a partner but because he is now a member of that firm. He's a licensed detective who works at that firm and runs his own boutique agency within the firm.

So, in [So Help Me Todd Season 2] Episode 3, as it pertains to Belinda Tuttle, he really cared about the aesthetics of having someone like that be represented.

Then, in episode four, and where we end, her problems are his problems. And as we go deeper into that well of problems, it doesn't just become typical financial troubles.

It becomes other stuff that Todd has to be engaged in and absolutely get involved with.

As we move forward through Season 2 -- you just teased Dick will be back and working with the firm -- is there anything else you can tease for us? Something you haven't mentioned yet that we can look forward to in Season 2?

Yeah, we have the iconic Jennifer Lewis, who will be on our show, which I'm very excited about. There's an amazing episode with Todd and Lawrence where he kind of comes on a case, and it's his case.

So Todd is kind of employed by Lawrence, which I am so excited for audiences to see. It has literally a bit of everything in it. Episode seven is fantastic because Todd has to pose as somebody with quite a bit of a dialect.

And so Todd now is stuck in a voice for an entire episode, which was really fun and fun to play.

Currently, we're shooting a great episode with Tristen J. Winger and me, who plays Lyle. It's a very heavy Todd and Lyle episode. And so you get to see their spy versus spy mentality, how they do things differently, and how it affects each other.

And then there's, of course, a bit of a prank situation that will happen. It's a lot of fun. It's everything people have come to know and love about our show. We have these high-stakes cases and a little drama, but we also make people laugh along the way.

***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***

You can watch So Help Me Todd on Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.

Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.