Xavier Collins is experiencing life outside of the bunker for the first time in years throughout the second season of Paradise on Hulu, and life as it was is truly no more.

Sterling K. Brown is returning to our television screens as Xavier, the dedicated Secret Service agent and former head of security for the late President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), and while the characters that were introduced in the first season of Paradise are trying to figure out a new normal in their not-so-perfect underground world, Brown’s character is on a mission to find his wife, whom he believes is still alive out there in the now fallen world.

His journey aligns with Paradise newcomer Shailene Woodley, who assumes the role of Annie, someone who is doing whatever it takes to survive what’s left of the world on the outside.

Reflections on destiny and fate

“Is it circumstantial that these people meet and have to choose one another, or is it fate, is it destiny?” is the question Woodley posed during the cast interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act.

“I’d like to think that it’s fate and destiny, and that there is an allowance when — I mean, this is me getting a little woo woo, I guess. But, when fate knocks on your door, I feel like there’s a natural instinct to lean in in an environment where maybe, otherwise, the instincts would say, ‘Danger. Red flag. Don’t go there.’ There’s more curiosity,” she continued. “I think the relationship that Annie and Xavier have is so beautiful because it’s pure. It’s love in its most stripped-down, unconditional, true essence and true form, without the masks, without the shoulds and without the coulds. It’s just an expression of love of two people showing up for one another despite all odds. And for me, that was really inspiring. And I do think it probably broadened my own mind and horizons when it comes to the way that we look at certain circumstances and immediately want to judge it or put it on a pedestal, or in a corner, and go, ‘Maybe, I don’t need to know why all of this [is happening]. I’m just going to trust the is of it all.’”

Generally, Brown doesn’t believe in coincidences, but he revealed that he does think that “there is a divine conspiracy for our success.”

Love is not weakness

The motives for Brown and Woodley’s characters are the same. It is all about love, point-blank period.

While people can view the emotion as a weakness, Brown suggested that this season of Paradise reveals the exact opposite.

“I think love can’t be anything but a strength,” he said. “I think cynics will say that it’s a weakness or whatever. Hold love. I think it’s this thing that the more that you experience it and feel it, the more of it that you have to feel. It becomes its own reservoir by leaning into it.”

Brown added, “It’s a [Dan] Fogelman show, sis. Love is going to be at the center of all of it. He does football shows, and it’s probably about love, you know what I’m saying? I think that it can’t help but ripple throughout what you’re going to see in Episode 208. It’s going to blow your mind.”

The first three episodes of Paradise now streaming on Hulu, and the following episodes will be released on Mondays, with the finale scheduled for March 30.

Shailene Woodley

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