Paradise Season 2, episodes 1- 3
Feb. 26th, 2026 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakLast year I marathoned the very well made series “Paradise” (Hulu in the US, Disney + for the rest of us), but was quite torn about whether or not I was happy regarding the announcement of a second season due to the show’s success. It seemed to me the first season told a mostly self contained story and the premise would lose its key ingredient in a second season. Also, there had been a couple of shows which were terrible when more than one season was greenlighted because they clearly hadn’t planned for it. Otoh: nitpicks aside, I did love Lost, which made a pretty radical premise change and pulled it off. And the first season of Paradise had been pretty perfect for what it was. So I watched. And based on the first three episodes now released (and there is a reason why the first three came together, more beneath the spoiler cut), I am happy to report that it looks like I was wrong in my fears. Those three eps are excellent.
Speaking of Lost: onoe of the ways it kept twisting and altering its premise was that it wasn’t afraid of, say, starting the third season introducing us to completely new characters and their perspective instead of picking pu where it had left off last season with the regular faves, and only connecting the storylines at the very end of the season opener. Paradise does something similar: instead of starting with Xavier, we meet new character Annie (and later some other new characters) around whom this episode is centred, get a quick introduction to her background and life until the apocalypse, then see from her pov how she survived through the next two years and only get back to Xavier in the very last moment of the episode when she finds him unconscious near his crashed plane.
Now all this would not work if Annie, as an adult played Shailene Wooley, didn’t come across as both endearing and interesting, but the writers haven’t lost their s1 skills of characterisation, and she so does. There is also the whimsical element (Annie survives because at the time it all went down, she was working as a tour guide in Graceland - as in, the Elvis Presley mansion -, had the quick wits to grab all the conserved food and drink she could get her hands on together with her friend and colleague Gail when Cal’s message was broadcast, and then barricaded herself with Gail in Elvis’ cellar/bunker. Annie living as a postapocalyptic hermit in Graceland of all the places (which sans electricity has to be lighted with Elvis candles) makes for some great visuals, and you understand why by the time she finally encounters human beings again, she’s paranoid to the max and first expects no good.
(Fortunately for Annie, though, she’s not in a zombie show and some humans actually justify Cal’s faith in humanity.)
There is also the way the introduction to Annie presents her as the daughter of a monther struggling with mental illness (not abusive, in another refreshing break from cliché), with the trauma and anxieties from that time later ensuring her first attempt at a career, studying medicine, doesn’t work out (but gives her some knowledge which later become useful), which otoh also highlights her resourcefulness (she was already the caretaker as a teenager) and ability to grasp and renemember details, making it believable she makes it through those two years almost on her own. (My only problem was that I don’t think the episode explained why Graceland had enough water for two years. But maybe there is a well there which all Americans know about?) Once she meets Link and his group, her first reactions are very believable for the situation she’s in (and her being genre wise), and Link is charming enough that their developing relationship also rings true, while she does notice all the things about him pointing to this season’s mystery (he’s not giving his real name which isn’t even on his ID card, she and the episode draw attention to his age which will matter in the third episode flashbacks), and of course there’s the conversation about “Alex”). I also like that for all the secrets, Link and the rest of his group really aren’t secretly evil but after what they say they want to do - saving the world.
(But then, so’s Sinatra.)
The second episode centres around Xavier and brings us not only up to speed with him but gives us flashbacks to his meet cute with Teri and how their relationship started. (A good thing, too, since it makes Teri more than the lost wife and quest causer; those flashbacks really deepen her as a person.) The present day story with Xavier, his encounter with a bunch of children who are essentially the lost boys and girls in a post apocalyptic world, had more than one moment where I, having watched and read too much, did think they’d be revealed as cannibals or Lord of the Flies level barbaric or something like this. But no. They’re believably traumatized and prioritizing their survival yet also able to appreciate Xavier is a decent man and hungering for more of those.
Since the second episode ends only briefly after where the first one ended (Annie has found Xavier and patched him up medically, yet also handcuffed him using Elvis’ golden handcuffs because Annie is nothing if not resourceful and still distrusting of strangers), it’s only in the third episode, centred around Sam(antha) aka Sinatra, that we get back to the bunker world underground in Colarado. And I was reminded again why I thought Sinatra in s1 was such a great antagonist/villain character. If she keeps it up, she might reach Ben Linus levels in my admiration. By which I don’t mean she didn’t do dreadful things (and will do more), but that not only is she sincerely convinced she’s doing them for the good of humanity but the narrative gives you enough information to show you not only why she thinks that but why she might (or might not) be even right. At the same time, her victims (well, most of them) are presented as so sympathetic and likeable (as opposed to disposable) that we never lose sight of the enormity of her crimes instead of being eager to dismiss them because she’s an impressive character.
Anyway: Sinatra ended the last season alive but shot down by Jane who revealed herself a ruthless sociapathic assassin who fooled everyone, up to and including Xavier with her harmless naive newbie agent facade. After showing Sinatra waking up and asking how many days she lost, we now find out what’s been happening since then. With Sinatra out of commission and Kane dead, former Vice President and now President Baines was the guy in charge, and was horrible at it, having no better idea to handle the tempestous situation we left Bunkerworld in (i.e. with Xavier having exposed several of Sinatra’s lies and some more deaths) than to go allTrump military dictator and ego driven populist. Baines isn’t happy to hear that a) Sinatra is awake and b) his newest idea how to win hearts and minds, by creating an artificial summer, turning the temperature up , isn’t feasable scientifically, not least because much of the energy is used another secret Sinatra proujejct. As with Xavier in the previous episode, this episode divides is time between showing us the present day and giving us flashbacks to a younger Sam becoming Sinatra after that fateful conference where she and Cal were the only ones attenting the scientific lecture revealing the impending end of the world. (When talking to the scientist some more, she finds out that even if you survive the initial fallout from the ecological catastrophe, there’s the long term aftermath which coupled with the greenhouse effect will turn the surface of Earth into the planet Venus, basically, only for her to be resolved to find a solution for that one as well. Later we see her for the first time giving the order to kill someone to acquire technology which she thinks might be able to prevent the Venus endgame, and the contrast between her initial scruples and shaky demeouner and the smooth, utterly self possessed way she orders a hit in the present shows you how much she has changed - and yet is clearly the same woman. That’s why she is such a great antagonist.
(Mind you, while the guy in the past whose death she orders is one of those very likeable and very human victims, the guy in the present is one of the rare exceptions. I think we’re all releaved Baines won’t be this season’s main antagonist, because seriously, no. We have enough dumb thin skinned egomaniacs in the present, thank you, Sinatra.)
I’m also intrigued how she will proceed with Jane, whom she now knows is incredibly dangerous and far from being her tool, wants to use Sinatra as hers. Presumably Jane knows Sinatra is lying when claiming not to remember anything from when she got shot, but otoh the two women nead each other. And the relationship with Gabriella got much more interesting as well (go, Gabriella, with that bugged photo). On the other side of things, there’s Nicole Robinson, now framed by Jane for Baines’ death; will she became a resistance leader? Or will Presley, now that Robinson got arrested and she’s without supervision? In short, episode three leaves us with all the female regulars from last season in a fascinating set up of relationships and causes. And I’m really curious about what Sinatra’s solution to preventing planet Earth becoming planet Venus actually is, because evacuating a few select thousand mostly though not exclusively rich people int an underground city is one thing, but the billions of remaining population can’t be evacuated (this is still a plot point), so if she is serious - and the narrative as I said definitely positions her as being serious about this - just what is the plan?
What ever it is, Link from episode 2.01 is revealed near the end of 2.03 as being the sole guy capable of understanding it (he’s the young assistant of the guy Sinatra had Billy kill in the flashbacks), and he seems set against it. (Presumably this is what he means when talking about “killing Alex” in 2.01 - Alex, I agree with other guesses, likely is a computer program or machine or something like that named after his old boss’ dying wife.) So the season has me hooked, and more than proves that it can move beyond the s1 twin mysteries of “who killed Cal?” And “what exactly happened to the world?” Onwards!
P.S. Speaking of Cal, it was neat to see him and the equally late and lamented Billy in flashbacks.
Speaking of Lost: onoe of the ways it kept twisting and altering its premise was that it wasn’t afraid of, say, starting the third season introducing us to completely new characters and their perspective instead of picking pu where it had left off last season with the regular faves, and only connecting the storylines at the very end of the season opener. Paradise does something similar: instead of starting with Xavier, we meet new character Annie (and later some other new characters) around whom this episode is centred, get a quick introduction to her background and life until the apocalypse, then see from her pov how she survived through the next two years and only get back to Xavier in the very last moment of the episode when she finds him unconscious near his crashed plane.
Now all this would not work if Annie, as an adult played Shailene Wooley, didn’t come across as both endearing and interesting, but the writers haven’t lost their s1 skills of characterisation, and she so does. There is also the whimsical element (Annie survives because at the time it all went down, she was working as a tour guide in Graceland - as in, the Elvis Presley mansion -, had the quick wits to grab all the conserved food and drink she could get her hands on together with her friend and colleague Gail when Cal’s message was broadcast, and then barricaded herself with Gail in Elvis’ cellar/bunker. Annie living as a postapocalyptic hermit in Graceland of all the places (which sans electricity has to be lighted with Elvis candles) makes for some great visuals, and you understand why by the time she finally encounters human beings again, she’s paranoid to the max and first expects no good.
(Fortunately for Annie, though, she’s not in a zombie show and some humans actually justify Cal’s faith in humanity.)
There is also the way the introduction to Annie presents her as the daughter of a monther struggling with mental illness (not abusive, in another refreshing break from cliché), with the trauma and anxieties from that time later ensuring her first attempt at a career, studying medicine, doesn’t work out (but gives her some knowledge which later become useful), which otoh also highlights her resourcefulness (she was already the caretaker as a teenager) and ability to grasp and renemember details, making it believable she makes it through those two years almost on her own. (My only problem was that I don’t think the episode explained why Graceland had enough water for two years. But maybe there is a well there which all Americans know about?) Once she meets Link and his group, her first reactions are very believable for the situation she’s in (and her being genre wise), and Link is charming enough that their developing relationship also rings true, while she does notice all the things about him pointing to this season’s mystery (he’s not giving his real name which isn’t even on his ID card, she and the episode draw attention to his age which will matter in the third episode flashbacks), and of course there’s the conversation about “Alex”). I also like that for all the secrets, Link and the rest of his group really aren’t secretly evil but after what they say they want to do - saving the world.
(But then, so’s Sinatra.)
The second episode centres around Xavier and brings us not only up to speed with him but gives us flashbacks to his meet cute with Teri and how their relationship started. (A good thing, too, since it makes Teri more than the lost wife and quest causer; those flashbacks really deepen her as a person.) The present day story with Xavier, his encounter with a bunch of children who are essentially the lost boys and girls in a post apocalyptic world, had more than one moment where I, having watched and read too much, did think they’d be revealed as cannibals or Lord of the Flies level barbaric or something like this. But no. They’re believably traumatized and prioritizing their survival yet also able to appreciate Xavier is a decent man and hungering for more of those.
Since the second episode ends only briefly after where the first one ended (Annie has found Xavier and patched him up medically, yet also handcuffed him using Elvis’ golden handcuffs because Annie is nothing if not resourceful and still distrusting of strangers), it’s only in the third episode, centred around Sam(antha) aka Sinatra, that we get back to the bunker world underground in Colarado. And I was reminded again why I thought Sinatra in s1 was such a great antagonist/villain character. If she keeps it up, she might reach Ben Linus levels in my admiration. By which I don’t mean she didn’t do dreadful things (and will do more), but that not only is she sincerely convinced she’s doing them for the good of humanity but the narrative gives you enough information to show you not only why she thinks that but why she might (or might not) be even right. At the same time, her victims (well, most of them) are presented as so sympathetic and likeable (as opposed to disposable) that we never lose sight of the enormity of her crimes instead of being eager to dismiss them because she’s an impressive character.
Anyway: Sinatra ended the last season alive but shot down by Jane who revealed herself a ruthless sociapathic assassin who fooled everyone, up to and including Xavier with her harmless naive newbie agent facade. After showing Sinatra waking up and asking how many days she lost, we now find out what’s been happening since then. With Sinatra out of commission and Kane dead, former Vice President and now President Baines was the guy in charge, and was horrible at it, having no better idea to handle the tempestous situation we left Bunkerworld in (i.e. with Xavier having exposed several of Sinatra’s lies and some more deaths) than to go all
(Mind you, while the guy in the past whose death she orders is one of those very likeable and very human victims, the guy in the present is one of the rare exceptions. I think we’re all releaved Baines won’t be this season’s main antagonist, because seriously, no. We have enough dumb thin skinned egomaniacs in the present, thank you, Sinatra.)
I’m also intrigued how she will proceed with Jane, whom she now knows is incredibly dangerous and far from being her tool, wants to use Sinatra as hers. Presumably Jane knows Sinatra is lying when claiming not to remember anything from when she got shot, but otoh the two women nead each other. And the relationship with Gabriella got much more interesting as well (go, Gabriella, with that bugged photo). On the other side of things, there’s Nicole Robinson, now framed by Jane for Baines’ death; will she became a resistance leader? Or will Presley, now that Robinson got arrested and she’s without supervision? In short, episode three leaves us with all the female regulars from last season in a fascinating set up of relationships and causes. And I’m really curious about what Sinatra’s solution to preventing planet Earth becoming planet Venus actually is, because evacuating a few select thousand mostly though not exclusively rich people int an underground city is one thing, but the billions of remaining population can’t be evacuated (this is still a plot point), so if she is serious - and the narrative as I said definitely positions her as being serious about this - just what is the plan?
What ever it is, Link from episode 2.01 is revealed near the end of 2.03 as being the sole guy capable of understanding it (he’s the young assistant of the guy Sinatra had Billy kill in the flashbacks), and he seems set against it. (Presumably this is what he means when talking about “killing Alex” in 2.01 - Alex, I agree with other guesses, likely is a computer program or machine or something like that named after his old boss’ dying wife.) So the season has me hooked, and more than proves that it can move beyond the s1 twin mysteries of “who killed Cal?” And “what exactly happened to the world?” Onwards!
P.S. Speaking of Cal, it was neat to see him and the equally late and lamented Billy in flashbacks.
