Nothing is as it seems in Paradise.
The hit Hulu thriller, which reunites This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and lead Sterling K. Brown, is the reunion the world didn’t know it needed. Since its Jan. 28 premiere, the series has kept audiences at the edge of their seats.
Previously, Brown explained that paradise for his character looks like his family together, which is no longer the case after losing his wife to get to the underground bunker.
Julianne Nicholson, the actor who portrays Sinatra, told Blavity’s Shadow and Act that her character’s end-all and be-all is also her family — keeping the ones left safe and out of harm’s way by any means possible. But who suffers as a result?
The Paradise finale answers many questions but leaves room for the ultimate mystery to be solved: Is Xavier (Brown)’s wife alive? If so, will he find her? Here’s a breakdown of the final episode of Season 1 and what to expect now that it has been announced that there will be a second installment of the newly beloved show.
Who killed President Cal Bradford?
Episode 8 opens in true Fogelman fashion with a flashback to the workers who helped build the bunker that became home to the characters in Paradise.
We quickly learn that not only did people lose their lives trying to get to the underground world, but some lost it as a result of building the city. We meet the bunker project manager (aka the librarian), who is later revealed as Cal (James Marsden)’s killer and the same man who made a failed attempt to assassinate him, as shown in an earlier episode. Killing the real Trent the Librarian and his wife, this unnamed man (Ian Merrigan) snuck in the bunker and assumed Trent’s identity. He also found a woman who was reconciling with the upcoming apocalypse and took her to the bunker. This unnamed woman assumed the identity of Trent’s wife, Maggie (Michelle Meredith).
This episode also reveals, thanks to the investigative work of Agent Robinson and Gabriela, that the waitress who’s constantly downing the cheese fries at the bunker diner is not who she says she is. She was a pawn used by Cal’s killer to sneak into the bunker!
Does Xavier get his daughter back?
The end of Episode 7 leaves audiences with a cliffhanger after Jane manages to take Xavier’s daughter, Presley (Aliyah Mastin), with her under the order of Sinatra, who’s completely losing her mind following his overtaking the system and warning the citizens of their precious oasis of Sinatra’s sinister ways.
In the standoff between Sinatra and Xavier, she demands that he lets her people go and work to find Cal’s real killer — it’s during this time that she also plays a recording that suggests that Xavier’s wife, Teri, is still alive and searching to find him and their two children.
At one point during the finale, there is also a shift in power dynamics between Sinatra and Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), who viewers know is responsible for killing Agent Billy (Jon Beavers). Yet, Xavier is still not privy to this information. When ordered to stand down until she comes up with a solution for what to do with Presley, Jane plays with Sinatra’s head, sending her a text that the situation has been resolved.
When Sinatra breaks the news to Xavier that his daughter may be gone, it isn’t long before he loses his s**t, killing one of her guards and threatening to shoot her before Jane comes in and fires a shot that leaves her boss (Sinatra) down.
Jane’s move furthers Xavier’s trust in her, thus leaving him never to suspect that she’s helped Sinatra execute wicked things in their underground land.
Also, Jane’s obsession with the Wii game resurfaces. Still, there’s no exact answer to what this activity represents for her character.
Is Teri Collins alive?
Although the recording played by Sinatra suggests that Teri (Enuka Okuma) is alive and looking for her husband and children, we don’t yet have concrete proof that she’s in what’s left of America since the catastrophic tsunami is believed to have completely wiped out the world.
Things to look out for in Season 2
In the sixth and seventh episodes, the last days of Cal Bradford are revealed, and a big part of it includes a mixtape left to his son, Jeremy.
That same recording is what leads Xavier to discover that the librarian is responsible for killing the president, and thanks to the tape, Bradford’s right-hand man has clear instructions for how to get out of the bunker to investigate further those who were left behind at the world’s ending.
Viewers learn a bulk of the clues that he left behind before his murder, including the numbers on the cigarette, left in the pack marked with a bloody X, signifying which plane can lead him out of the bunker.
We also discover a father who knew he would soon depart the world before reconciling with his son. Although Xavier listens to the mixtape left for Jeremy first, the end of the episode gives Jeremy clear directions to make the world a better place than what his father left it.
The final three minutes of the finale to Paradise‘s inaugural season shows us Sinatra’s husband and daughter watching her as she’s fighting for her life, one which Jane was adamant about preserving, as she mentions needing the woman alive to carry out whatever she has planned next.
Another scene shows that Jane got her hands on the president’s Wii console, but we’ll have to keep watching to figure out why the game is so important to her.
Additionally, another layer to Xavier is revealed as he sits in the pilot seat of a plane, opening the portal to lead him out of the underground bunker (if you recall, in an earlier episode, Presley told Jeremy about missing her father speak about his love of planes; plus, we learned of his father playing an integral role in the history of Black pilots in America).
The last bit of dialogue uttered before the credits roll comes from Xavier, who says, “I’m coming, baby,” as he prepares for takeoff out of the bunker, bringing the nugget that Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden shared with Blavity’s Shadow and Act before the show’s premiere full-circle. We’re left with a different character than we were introduced to in the first episode.
