Paradise<\/a><\/p>\nMayday<\/p>\n
\n Season 2<\/p>\n
Episode 2\n <\/p>\n
\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n
3 stars<\/p>\n
***\n <\/p>\n
\n Xavier has a harrowing detour through the \u201cChildren of the Corn\u201d pockets of Arkansas.
\n Photo: Ser Baffo\/Disney\n <\/p>\n
In the previous episode, Link was quite clear that there are certain parts of Arkansas, especially right across the river from Memphis, that you want to avoid for your safety. Were you, like me, wondering exactly what he meant? Well, in \u201cMayday,\u201d our Secret Service Agent hero Xavier Collins gets a dose of Arkansas when his plane crashes in one of those pockets while on his way to track down Teri in Atlanta. What\u2019s going on in Arkansas? Mostly violence with a sprinkling of some Children of the Corn-esque freaky shit. Xavier might be wishing he stuck with the creepy mechanical ducks and cabal of billionaires after his detour into Arkansas.<\/p>\n
So, no, the second episode of Paradise does not have much to do with the bunker from season one, either. It does, however, wisely juggle the bleak story of Xavier in Arkansas with a much sweeter flashback to the first time Xavier met his wife, Teri. I welcome more time with Dr. Teri Rogers-Collins \u2014 we need it to really be invested in Xavier\u2019s journey in the long run, and Sterling K. Brown and Enuka Okuma are excellent on-screen together. Still, \u201cMayday\u201d as a whole worries me. Both the premiere and \u201cMayday\u201d are mostly there to get Xavier and Annie together for whatever is going to come next, and back-to-back episodes that feel like all set up when the season is only eight episodes long are frustrating. Brown\u2019s performance makes it easy enough to go along for the ride, but for how long, Paradise? I\u2019m here for character development, but season one had the mystery of Cal\u2019s murder that focused the story and kept it moving forward. There\u2019s no real propulsive element in season two yet.<\/p>\n
There is, perhaps, a bit of a mystery brewing in this episode, though. Not surprisingly, Xavier winds up severely injured after the plane crash, and multiple times when he goes in and out of consciousness, he has this vision of himself following some man down a sterile-looking hallway. The first time he has it, he\u2019s still flying the plane, and he reaches for his head in pain, and the same visual effect used during Link\u2019s headache in \u201cGraceland\u201d is used here. The vision repeats itself several times. The last time Xavier has it, the other man turns around \u2014 it\u2019s Link. Is this some kind of resurfaced memory and Xavier knows Link? Is something going on with Xavier\u2019s brain that we should be worried about? Let\u2019s keep an eye out.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, we have two Xavier timelines to follow. When Xavier crashes, he winds up dislocating his knee, among other various injuries. The guy is in bad shape. But the knee is priority and he knows how to pop that baby back in because he\u2019s had knee injuries before. This is what brings us back in time: In 2004, Xavier is crushing it in Secret Service boot camp, until he comes down hard on his knee during an obstacle course and needs his knee cap put back into place, as well as some additional surgery. While in the hospital, he meets his roommate, a woman waiting to have back surgery to treat her congenital scoliosis. She is studying for her doctorate, she has big plans for her future that will lead her to her dream job with the NIH, and she has no time for Xavier. Her name is Teri Rogers.<\/p>\n
Xavier is instantly in love. Teri would like to keep her bed curtain closed, please and thank you. She does not fall for his flirting, and she is very clear that marriage and kids really aren\u2019t anywhere on her radar. Xavier pretends he is in much more pain than he actually is so that he can stay at the hospital longer. It\u2019s honestly very cute. Things take a serious turn when Teri returns from her surgery, but there\u2019s been a complication, and she\u2019s lost her vision. It\u2019s supposed to be temporary, but she\u2019s terrified. At first, she doesn\u2019t want to talk, but eventually, she needs his help and he is eager to give it. He makes sure everything she needs is placed exactly where it\u2019s supposed to be on her tray so she can get to it. Even when he is discharged, he stays at the hospital in order to help her. She asks him to just start talking as a distraction. When she asks him his favorite book and he can\u2019t think of an answer, she teases him a bit because he could just make one up, just say anything. He tells her he would never lie to her. She asks him if he thinks her eyesight will come back. He answers softly, \u201cI know it will.\u201d Now if that isn\u2019t some top-notch swoony shit, I don\u2019t know what is. Get yours, Xavier! He continues to come back and her eyesight returns. They kiss and they may joke about it but it does make for one lovely meet-cute story.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s it for the nice stuff. The rest of the episode is bleak as hell. Just as a weary and broken Xavier is about to fix his knee \u2014 aware of how much it\u2019s going to hurt \u2014 a small hand reaches out from the darkness and covers his mouth. It\u2019s a kid who looks like he\u2019s been through some shit. He shushes Xavier. Now is not the time to scream. He points to two men approaching with torches. He is clearly very scared. Hobbling, Xavier follows the kid out of sight from the men. The kid still hasn\u2019t spoken a word, but he leads Xavier to a boat that must have crashed onto the railroad tracks during the tsunami \u2014 this is where the kid is staying. But he isn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n
You know what\u2019s creepier than one kid covered in dirt who doesn\u2019t speak? Five kids covered in dirt who don\u2019t speak. I\u2019m very torn because I do want to make fun of these freaky ass kids, but as Xavier discovers a few hours into this harrowing ordeal, they are this way because those kids have seen some things. The leader of the group, who does eventually speak, tells Xavier that they were on the same baseball tournament team and traveling the day that the world ended. Their other teammates, their parents, coaches, everyone is gone. That means these kids have been on their own \u2014 or losing people along the way \u2014 for the past three years. They\u2019ve been trying to survive in unimaginable conditions for three years. That\u2019s why when the one kid whispers to Daniel that he wants Xavier\u2019s coat when Xavier is dead, we can\u2019t blame him too much. But we can make that horrified look Xavier has on his face when he hears this.<\/p>\n
The kids mostly want the food in Xavier\u2019s bags, but they go through all of it. They do give him water when he needs it and Daniel shrewdly has Xavier wait to pop his knee in until there\u2019s a thunder clap so that the men with torches don\u2019t hear his scream. When most of the kids are asleep, Xavier reads some of James and the Giant Peach (why he packed that to go find his wife, we\u2019ll never know) to Daniel because he is just a kid after all.<\/p>\n
As quiet as everyone is, one of the men with a torch comes upon the boat. This ding-dong probably thought he had it made going after a group of kids and a man injured in a plane crash, but he didn\u2019t realize that man is a super secret service agent. As torn up as Xavier is, he\u2019s pretty skilled at hand-to-hand combat. The two men tussle, but Xavier gets the upper hand and shoves that guy\u2019s face into a puddle of mud until he suffocates. The kids watch this grisly scene and then as soon as the man is dead, they cover him with mud, push him further into the puddle and cover him with leaves in a way that says that this is not their first time burying a dead body. So, yes, everything is very fine and very cool outside of the bunker. Maybe Samantha Redmond had a point. Just kidding, she sucks.<\/p>\n
While the bad man is disposed of, it turns out Xavier took a knife to the abdomen during that fight and is losing blood quickly. When he finally comes to, he is back on the boat and the kids have tried to patch up his wound, but they have also taken off with all his belongings aside from one picture of Presley and James. This is a dark moment for ol\u2019 Xavier. He hobbles back to the site of the plane crash, where he promptly collapses again, and this time when he wakes up, Annie is there and she gets him back to Graceland.<\/p>\n
This should be a relief, right? Xavier has been saved. Annie can help him heal. Maybe he loves Elvis. Alas, the moment Xavier starts talking about coming from a secret bunker in Colorado, the mood shifts. Xavier is desperate to get up and get back on his way to Atlanta but Annie informs him that\u2019s not going to happen. Once he has healed, he is taking her to that bunker \u2014 I guess imminent solo childbirth is scarier than leaving her safe place \u2014 and just to be sure he takes her seriously, she has her gun out for him to see and he\u2019s handcuffed to the couch. Xavier isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n
Sign Up for the Vulture Newsletter<\/p>\n
Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Notice<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paradise Mayday Season 2 Episode 2 Editor\u2019s Rating 3 stars *** Xavier has a harrowing detour through the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,6622,85,46,8930,112954,3169,411,8929],"class_list":["post-306598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-hulu","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-overnights","tag-paradise","tag-recaps","tag-tv","tag-tv-recaps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/53da7d1925b184984ab4bd95c31a8f40d4-paradise-2.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n