“Paradise” is back but the first season had enough twists and turns for a refresher before diving back in.
The Hulu hit follows a large group of Americans – including the President of the United States – living in a community shelter/bunker built into a Colorado mountain following what many thought was an extinction-level event. The first season followed Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) looking into the murder of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) and in the process starts to uncover more than a few secrets that Paradise is hiding.
Here is everything you need to remember about “Paradise” Season 1 before jumping into the second season.
Xavier Heads Topside For His Wife
Xavier learned two major truths at the end of Season 1 – that the topside world was livable for humans and that his wife Teri might still be alive. In the tumult surrounding the seeming end of the world in Season 1’s flashback episode, Cal chose to fire a powerful EMP rather than the U.S. nuclear warheads, which managed to neutralize many of the already-fired missiles. While this cut off easy communication with people around the country – and Xavier and Teri were separated – it also saved lives.
Xavier learns about this and manages to sneak out of Paradise and grab one of the planes they flew in on before the attack took place. He leaves Paradise and his children behind in hopes he can go out and find his wife after Sinatra showed him a recording she found weeks ago of her sending out radio messages for him.
Cal’s Murderer is Revealed
The through-line mystery of “Paradise” Season 1 was who was responsible for Cal’s murder. The finale finally revealed the killer was right in front of us all along, but not who we thought.
While it seemed like it would be someone already in some form of power looking to rise higher, it turned out to be Paradise’s librarian Trent. In actuality, Trent was a construction worker who helped build Paradise and managed to sneak in when all hell broke loose. He turned on Cal for building the bunker for a select few despite knowing what was going to happen outside. Unfortunately, Cal was killed as he was preparing to blow the whistle on the fact that the topside was much more livable than people like Sinatra were leading people to believe.
Cal’s murder also triggers his son Jeremy to pick up his father’s cause after drifting from him during the time spent in Paradise.
Sinatra’s Downfall and a New Threat’s Rise
Sinatra spends the bulk of Season 1 working to keep the fact that the outside world is livable a secret. In doing so, she tasks Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom) with killing Billy Pace to keep that secret intact. She later tasks Jane to kidnap Xavier’s children to use as blackmail to get him to help Sinatra.
In the finale, Sinatra believes Jane went rogue and killed Xavier’s kids, and tells him that, which leads him to nearly killing her. Before that happens, Jane shows up and shoots her herself and tells Xavier his kids are alive. He leaves to find them and Jane tells Sinatra that she’s no longer working as her grunt and although Sinatra remained alive, Jane looks to hold much more chaotic power going into Season 2.
