Everyone lost something in order to get to the bliss in Hulu’s new thriller Paradise, but what does the term mean to them?

For lead actor Sterling K. Brown’s character Special Agent Xavier Collins, the driving force may be his family. For James Marsden’s character President Cal Bradford, it may be the luxury that comes with retiring from the role of the nation’s leader. The notion varies depending on the character.

“Paradise is an interesting show to describe,” actor Sarah Shahi told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “It’s a mystery thriller set in this very tranquil world, but you quickly realize nothing about it is serene. I’m the therapist, and all of the characters go through me, and I’m sort of handed the task of discovering whether or not [Collins], who is the main suspect in the killing of the president, which we see very early on, whether or not he did it or not. I think the show, for my character, Gabriela — she’s the optimist. I think she sees the good in everybody, even in the people that are not so good. So yeah … I think she represents hope and light.”

“For Samantha, the world that they live in, at least at the start of the show, what she loves about it is it feels safe,” Julianne Nicholson, who portrays the character, said. (Samantha is also referred to as “Sinatra” on the show.) “It feels like something she can control. It feels like she knows what’s going on everywhere, and there are people around and certain rules, like no guns. There are certain things that make her feel safe, more like she can protect her family. And as Sarah mentions, all that flies out of the window, and nothing is as it seems.”

What shapes Gabriela’s fate by the end?

As a self-proclaimed architect of social well-being, Gabriela’s focus on others tends to lead her to overlook her own needs, which Shahi said she can relate to in parts of her waking life.

“We don’t really explore too much of Gabriela’s backstory,” Shahi said. “In the first season, you learned that her parents have passed. I think, similar to myself, Gabriela comes across as a bit of a people pleaser. So I think naturally when you have a personality like that, you don’t, maybe, speak your truth as much, or you learn to quiet that in order to fix everything going on up here (pointing to her head). I don’t know. Maybe Gabriela could use a good therapist in Season 2, and we’ll see what happens with that.”

Sinatra’s motivation

Rooted in the grief of the loss of her son, Nicholson’s Sinatra forms a relationship with her therapist, which in turn leads to them building the underground bunker that the characters in Paradise are navigating.

Again, in a show where everything is not as it seems, Nicholson discusses how a child’s absence leads her character to make decisions that will raise eyebrows among viewers.

“I think that the loss of her son, that grief, alters her DNA,” Nicholson explained. “It hits so deep, and she just can’t move past it. There is no healing. As she says, she moves forward because she still has the family, husband, and daughter at home, but that is her motivation for everything.”

The Blonde actor continued, “First of all, something’s been altered by the loss, but she will not recover from it. It’s about keeping what’s precious to her safe. She wasn’t able to save her son, and now she will do anything, quite literally, to keep these people safe and alive.”

The Season 1 finale of Paradise airs March 4 on Hulu.

Sarah Shahi

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