It’s fair to say that, no matter the genre, creator Dan Fogelman’s projects are a certain flavor of schmaltzy. Whether it’s a full-of-potential sports drama (R.I.P., Pitch), a sitcom featuring aliens, or the musical fantasy Galavant, he has a knack for heightening the emotional aspects of a story to reel you in. His longest-running series, NBC’s This Is Us, remains the epitome of this ability years after its end. I mean that as a compliment, considering how much I (mostly) enjoyed the Pearson clan’s soulful, twisty intergenerational journey, which was both beautifully told yet had a soap-opera quality to it. Hulu’s Paradise, a sly apocalyptic drama disguised as a whodunit, might appear to be different because it has a far more ambitious scope. And yet, watching it now feels like taking a sentimental trip similar to TIU, with disparate characters and their fates intertwining in surprising—and surprisingly moving—ways.
The start of Paradise‘s second season can frustrate viewers expecting immediate answers to questions about the fates of Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) and billionaire Sam “Sinatra” Redford (Julianne Nicholson). The intense three-part premiere provides answers as both go on respective adventures that set up the rest of the season. But before we catch up to them in episodes two and three, respectively, Fogelman (who co-wrote the season premiere with Eric Wen) invites us to view Paradise through a new lens, in turn expanding upon the show’s ideas and mysteries. It’s always risky to open a new season in a way that fans might pause to check if they’re watching the right TV show. It’s like tuning into Lost and being shocked by Desmond Hume’s routine before the reveal that he’s inside the hatch, or pressing play on Dark‘s second season to be met with two strangers in a cave in an unknown time period. A sudden departure from the well-established premise is jarring but rewarding if done well. Paradise slides into this camp by the end of episode one, the strongest of the three outings.
“Graceland” moves at a strong pace, burns through plot to fill in the gaps, and introduces us to Annie Clay, who’s played by a captivating Shailene Woodley. The episode makes us empathize and root for her long before revealing how she fits into the larger puzzle. A depressed, lonely Annie is fearful of everything after her mother’s death when she was a teen. She doesn’t open herself up to the possibilities of a fulfilling life, finding solace in the grand Memphis mansion of her and her mom’s favorite artist. After dropping out of medical school, she takes up a job as a tour guide at Elvis Presley’s Graceland, finding comfort in the routine of knowing exactly where to go and what to say. Her safe space becomes her hideout when all hell breaks loose on “The Day,” which was depicted in Paradise season one’s chilling, relentless penultimate hour.
During the horrifying supervolcano/tsunami/nuclear attack trifecta, Annie shelters in Graceland alongside her colleague, Gayle, the security guard who helped hire her. As they spend weeks together, Paradise unravels how shit went down on The Day and beyond, except it’s still from a narrow POV, so I hope future installments provide a detailed look into the chaos. Annie can only know so much by spying outside from a telescope on Graceland’s balcony. By day three, survivors have already started looting and shooting. By day 19, the ash clouds from the volcano eruption have blocked off the sunlight, so it’s freezing in the summer. Gayle doesn’t stay alive for much longer, having suffered an infection from a leg wound, leaving Annie all alone once again. A montage depicts her surviving in the vast home all by herself. On day 689, sunlight finally peeks through the window. After almost two years of a Tundra-like environment, the planet shows visible signs of healing, allowing those still above ground to try and heal as well. Annie smells the fresh air and grows her own vegetables. She also gets visitors.
A group of them, bikers led by the mysterious Link (Thomas Doherty), arrive at Graceland. All of us who’ve been trained by dystopian dramas like The Walking Dead and Revolution should be wary of their motives. No one needs to be, as Annie soon learns that they’re after Elvis’ decommissioned cars. (I cackled at the ease in which Link says as much.) Link and his pals are traveling around the country to turn off nuclear power plants before they meltdown since they’ve been abandoned for a couple of years. It’s an indication that this 25-year-old dude is a science wiz—and by the end of episode three, Paradise reveals more info about him. But first, Link and Annie slowly warm up to each other. On the guys’ last night before they head out, the two give into their feelings in what is one of the most moving sex scenes I’ve seen on TV in a while. It’s appropriately lust-driven, sure, but their desire is laced with a lot of rare tenderness. The surprising chemistry between Woodley and Doherty is not only off the charts, it also conveys just how much of a relief it is for their characters to experience this very human act again. There’s weeping and tight hugging before the making out kicks into high gear.
Despite Link’s pleas for her to join them, Annie is too afraid to leave with him the next morning. So Link takes off with his crew, revealing that he knows about the Colorado bunker and is headed there next to “kill Alex.” About eight months later, a heavily pregnant Annie (!) hears Xavier’s plane crash into the Arkansas woods (dubbed a “bad pocket” by Link) nearby and rushes off on her horse to investigate. Episode two rewinds the clock to unpack Xavier’s last few hours before she rescues him. In the present day in “Mayday,” he’s first discovered at night by a 12-year-old boy, who looks dejected but helps Xavier by taking him to a secret hideout on a boat where he lives alongside other kids. It’s enlightening to watch Xavier attempt to connect with them because they’re roughly the same age as his own kids. His bonding method includes attempting to read (what else?) James And The Giant Peach out loud. In response, one of the kids asks if he can borrow Xavier’s jacket when he dies. This highlights how unaware Xavier is of the outside world, one without the safety of a well-stocked underground city. He has no idea what it takes for people to survive anymore. He finds out when, ultimately, the kids rob his backpack and leave him with nothing but a photo of his children. It’s a good thing Annie is the one who finds him after he crawls back to the plane, huh? He wakes up handcuffed to a couch in Elvis Presley’s home, with Annie paying no attention to his agenda of finding his wife in Atlanta. “You’re taking us to Colorado,” she demands, hoping to give birth in a safe bunker instead.
But “Mayday” has another trick up its sleeve. A 2004-set flashback unpacks the hospital meet-cute between Xavier and Teri (Enuka Okuma). They were on neighboring beds while getting their respective treatments (he was injured during his training; she was getting surgery for congenital scoliosis), and the rest was history. Teri didn’t make it easy for Xavier, clarifying that her focus is on getting her PhD, a WHO-sponsored Brazil internship, and working at the U.N. and National Institute Of Health. She didn’t want to let a “hot guy” derail her plans, but Xavier stood by her side even when she was temporarily blind after her surgery, and the two fell in love. The construction of both romances—Link/Annie and Xavier/Teri—in makes Paradise feel a lot more like This Is Us than it did before.
Episode three is when we finally go back to the bunker. Oh, how I missed the clinical homes and roads and fake ducks of this Stars Hollow-esque faux city. Sinatra wakes up from her monthlong coma to realize her hired assassin, Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), is on top of the Secret Service chain in Xavier’s absence and is in charge of the security for cartoonishly evil new POTUS Henry Baines (Matt Malloy). Sinatra is also under suspicion for secretly pilfering the bunker’s energy sources for a confidential project, although she refuses to admit it while being interrogated by her former BFF/therapist, Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi). It’s the least surprising update that Sinatra is up to no good, or that she instructs Jane to get rid of Baines to regain her power, which Jane does. “Another Day In Paradise” also has flashbacks to when Cal was first elected president, and by then, Sinatra’s “Colorado project” had already started. A big hurdle at the time was acquiring technology that “the fate of the world” depended on, but the seller wasn’t interested in giving it to her.
Enter Billy Pace. Despite that terrible wig, it’s lovely to see Jon Beavers in this role again. Sinatra hired him to get this person to sign off the tech to her, or kill him if he doesn’t comply. Billy pretended to befriend this unnamed man, a professor of quantum entanglements, at the bar before revealing his true intentions. This mystery man, played by an excellent Patrick Fischler, turned the tables on Billy and invited him to his home in Pasadena instead. When Billy went there the next day, he saw that this guy’s wife—who is named Alex, by the way—was on her deathbed and that he was willing to die, too. Billy didn’t waste much time shooting him in the head, but not before Fischler’s character gave one final monologue about how things happen for a reason. (“Do you think you’re here for a random happenstance or are you here because you’re supposed to be here with Alex and me?”) This guy also adds that he believes “it worked.” What did?
Let me just say, I was scratching my head several times during these three episodes, but never more than during “Another Day In Paradise.” Is this secret tech that Fischler’s character was working on (something he clearly named after his wife) the thing that Sinatra continues to pilfer energy for? Why does Link, of all people, now want to get inside the bunker to gut it? That’s because Link is actually a student of Fischler’s professor, and they were working on what I’m assuming is a machine together. Whatever it can do will fuel the rest of season two.
Stray observations
- • It’s important to note that Link gets a nosebleed in episode one, Xavier does when his plane is crashing, and so does Billy just before bumping into Link after killing his mentor. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
- • The show wants us to believe that nobody in Tennessee or anywhere else thought of popping into Elvis’ home to raid it, hide inside, or anything else at least two years after a world-ending catastrophe.
- • Annie makes a strong connection with the horses at Graceland, setting them free so they can save themselves once the tsunami hits. And a couple of years later, one of them returns straight back to her. It’s so sweet!
- • We know Annie’s backstory, but I was wondering why Gayle wasn’t concerned about reaching out to her loved ones when she heard the news of the volcano.
- • Sterling K. Brown would do so well in a rom-com.
- • For those keeping track, Jane not only kills President Baines, but also puts the blame on Cal’s ex/Xavier’s only friend, Nicole (Krys Marshall).
- • I couldn’t get to it in my recap, but I was a huge fan of how the friendship breakup between Torabi and Sinatra was executed. “Good luck, kiddo.” However, Torabi has another agenda for dumping her friend. She’s left a mic inside the photo frame that now sits on Sinatra’s desk so she can spy on her. Wise!
- • “My son, whom we somehow just got elected president, is a moron.”
- • “Lady, I sleep like shit no matter what.”
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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