Paradise Season 1 Finale Packs Emotional Punch, Setting Up a Different Season 2
If you’ve followed my coverage at TV Fanatic over the last decade, you know I like post-apocalyptic dramas that force characters into intense situations as they vie for survival.
From Fallout to The Last of Us to The Walking Dead franchise, there are always shows about the more human aspects of surviving in a decimated world.
But none of them hold a candle to showcasing the human aspect quite as well as Paradise has done across its eight-episode first season.
The final two episodes of the season finally aired on ABC this evening and showcased the day the Earth was changed forever, and confirmed who brutally murdered President Cal Bradford.
Paradise Showcased the End of the World to Perfection
Seeing the White House in such a state of disarray as media coverage spread like wildfire that a tsunami was wiping out countries around the world was both unnerving and fascinating.
The fascination stems from the fact that we got a front-row seat to it and how the United States of America reacted.
Xavier wasn’t operating at full capacity because Teri was in Atlanta, so he took extreme measures to secure her safety.
He’s been struggling with the gravity of her loss for so long, and felt he never did enough to save her, so seeing his plight to get her to safety was heartbreaking.
He knew his children were safe being close to the president’s son, so he had to keep people calm in the White House and find a safe passage for Teri to Colorado.
On paper, it sounded simple, but when there are billions of people in the world freaking out because tidal waves were overrunning countries, it was a much trickier endeavor.
Xavier’s life changed forever on the day he thought Teri died because everything about it was so final. He watched on the screen as the nuclear bomb apparently hit Atlanta and took the call dropping as a sign that her life was over.
There was a sense of finality to it, so hearing that his wife could still be alive felt like a last-ditch effort from Sinatra to save her skin and what remains of her city in the mountain.
Unless Sinatra got crafty and used some superhuman tech to make up that message from Teri, there’s a good chance that Xavier’s wife is really outside somewhere, desperate to be reunited with her family.
But this is Sinatra we’re talking about here. Sinatra has proven to pull every string inside Paradise, and it’s a rarity that she hasn’t thought of everything that could go wrong.
Sinatra Always Has a Plan of Attack
So, I won’t believe Teri is truly out there in the land of the living until she and Xavier cross paths again. Sinatra is too unpredictable and crafty to believe anything that comes out of her mouth is rooted in reality.
Xavier’s plan to leave the compound on a plane to find his wife is risky, but why did no one else accompany him on this mission?
He’s been so driven by this feeling that he could have done more, that he’s going out into the unknown in a world that very well could be worse than we’ve been led to believe.
There’s a part of him that knows there are many risks associated with his decision, but for him, the ends justify the means, and there’s no way he won’t move mountains to make it happen.
Sterling K. Brown delivered the performance of his career throughout the final two episodes. He played Xavier perfectly and worked hard to showcase every facet of this man’s personality.
There was a moment when I toyed with the idea that Paradise would kill off its leading man to raise the stakes for Season 2. Maybe it would be a little too Game of Thrones.
Given how the show has gone so far, it would be par for the course, but I’m glad that he got Presley out of Sinatra’s clutches and the chance to find his wife.
But the big question here is, where will he go after that? Sinatra won’t allow him back inside the cave because she’d feel like the rest of the compound would be at risk from other survivors in the outside world.
Look at it this way: The cave had plenty of resources, and people lived relatively worry-free, so there would be a great deal of resentment from the outside world.
Plus, we haven’t established how many resources the Paradise has left. Sinatra won’t be open to sharing anything because she created this safe haven in her late son’s memory.
Whatever happens next, Sinatra will face a great deal of adversity in the form of Jeremy, who is fast at work in creating an uprising of people from the inside to tell the truth to.
Cal May Not Have Been Able to Take Down Sinatra, But Jeremy Can
It’s fitting that Cal wanted so desperately to clue people up on the truth about Paradise’s biggest mysteries, and that now his son is the one to bring all of this to fruition.
It’s a shame that it took Cal dying for Jeremy to realize how much he and his father were alike.
There was a disconnect between them, and a large part of it was driven by Jeremy feeling like his father was never straight-up with him about anything.
The reality is that the end of the world hung over Cal, and he didn’t have as much power as anyone perceived him to have.
I think we’re supposed to assume that there will always be someone behind these world leaders who are really pulling the strings.
Cal was just a face in the end, and he wasn’t the big villain that many thought he was.
Right up until the end, he strived to be more open and honest about the state of the world, so it’s a shame that he was killed while still trying to get the truth out there.
The most stunning reveal from the finale has got to be Trent being unmasked as his killer, but the series did a masterful job of showcasing Trent’s history and how he managed to get into the compound undetected.
The character had so much more potential, so it’s a shame that Trent felt the only way forward to show people the truth was for him to blitz through the fake sky, lie in a puddle of blood on the roof of one of the houses inside the compound.
Trent was a flawed and complicated person, but there was a method to his madness.
He was an instrumental force in bringing the place the 25,000 call home to fruition, but he was discarded when he brought up the fact that materials could kill his men.
If anything, it’s stupid that Sinatra didn’t have him handled in some capacity because she thinks analytically about everything, down to the letter.
Krys Marshall Needs to Be a Series Regular on Season 2
One of the most surprising things to come out of the finale was the bond between Nicole and Xavier. They’ve been so at odds throughout Paradise Season 1, and even in the past, Nicole felt that Xavier wasn’t doing his job as he should be.
Yet somehow, Xavier has left her to look after his two children as he ventures into the unknown.
It suggests we’ll have far more of Krys Marshall on Paradise Season 2, which is always a good thing. Nicole is a stellar character brimming with potential, so my biggest hope is that we delve further into who she is in the second season.
What are your thoughts on the big finish, Paradise Fanatics?
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Paradise Season 1 Finale Packs Emotional Punch, Setting Up a Different Season 2
Paradise wraps up Season 1 with two stellar episodes that deliver answers, and set the stage for a thrilling Season 2.
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