{"id":298307,"date":"2026-02-23T15:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/298307\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:46:07","slug":"paradise-season-2-premiere-recap-episodes-1-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/298307\/","title":{"rendered":"Paradise season 2 premiere recap: Episodes 1, 2, 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fair to say that, no matter the genre, creator Dan Fogelman\u2019s projects are a certain flavor of schmaltzy. Whether it\u2019s a full-of-potential sports drama (R.I.P., Pitch<\/a>), a sitcom featuring aliens<\/a>, or the musical fantasy Galavant<\/a>, he has a knack for heightening the emotional aspects of a story to reel you in. His longest-running series, NBC\u2019s This Is Us<\/a>, 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\u2019s soulful, twisty intergenerational journey, which was both beautifully told yet had a soap-opera quality to it. Hulu\u2019s 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\u2014and surprisingly moving\u2014ways. Your level of enjoyment this year depends on how much of that you can take.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The start of Paradise\u2018s second season<\/a> can frustrate viewers expecting immediate answers to questions about the fates of Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) and billionaire Sam \u201cSinatra\u201d 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\u2019s ideas and mysteries. It\u2019s always risky to open a new season in a way that fans might pause to check if they\u2019re watching the right TV show. It\u2019s like tuning into Lost and being shocked by Desmond Hume\u2019s routine before the reveal that he\u2019s inside the hatch, or pressing play on Dark\u2018s 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 and most moving of the three outings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGraceland\u201d moves at a strong pace, burns through plot to fill in the gaps, and introduces us to Annie Clay, who\u2019s 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\u2019s death when she was a teen. She doesn\u2019t open herself up to the possibilities of a fulfilling life, finding solace in the grand Memphis mansion of her and her mom\u2019s favorite artist. After dropping out of medical school, she takes up a job as a tour guide at Elvis Presley\u2019s 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 \u201cThe Day<\/a>,\u201d which was depicted in Paradise season one\u2019s chilling, relentless penultimate hour.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s freezing in the summer. Gayle doesn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A group of them, bikers led by the mysterious Link (Thomas Doherty), arrive at Graceland. All of us who\u2019ve 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\u2019re after Elvis\u2019 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\u2019ve been abandoned for a couple of years. It\u2019s an indication that this 25-year-old dude is a science wiz\u2014and 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\u2019 last night before they head out, the two give into their feelings in what is one of the most moving sex scenes I\u2019ve seen on TV in a while. It\u2019s 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\u2019s weeping and tight hugging before the making out kicks into high gear. Ultimately, Paradise\u2018s dystopian setting feels like a lesson on the value of human connection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite Link\u2019s 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 \u201ckill Alex.\u201d About eight months later, a heavily pregnant Annie (!) hears Xavier\u2019s plane crash into the Arkansas woods (dubbed a \u201cbad pocket\u201d by Link) nearby and rushes off on her horse to investigate. Episode two rewinds the clock to unpack Xavier\u2019s last few hours before she rescues him. In the present day in \u201cMayday,\u201d he\u2019s 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\u2019s enlightening to watch Xavier attempt to connect with them because they\u2019re 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s home, with Annie paying no attention to his agenda of finding his wife in Atlanta. \u201cYou\u2019re taking us to Colorado,\u201d she demands, hoping to give birth in a safe bunker instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But \u201cMayday\u201d has another trick up its sleeve.\u00a0 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\u2019t 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\u2019t want to let a \u201chot guy\u201d 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\u2014Link\/Annie and Xavier\/Teri\u2014in makes Paradise feel a lot more like This Is Us than it did before. The flashback doesn\u2019t add anything necessarily new to Xavier and Teri as a couple, but it\u2019s still a nice reminder of who they once were, especially since we\u2019ve never seen much of them together yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Episode three is when we finally go back to the bunker. Oh, how I missed the clinical homes and roads and mechanical 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. \u201cAnother Day In Paradise\u201d also has flashbacks to when Cal was first elected president, and by then, Sinatra\u2019s \u201cColorado project\u201d had already started. A big hurdle at the time was acquiring technology that \u201cthe fate of the world\u201d depended on, but the seller wasn\u2019t interested in giving it to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enter Billy Pace. Despite that terrible wig, it\u2019s 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\u00a0 doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s wife\u2014who is named Alex, by the way\u2014was on her deathbed and that he was willing to die, too. Billy didn\u2019t waste much time shooting him in the head, but not before Fischler\u2019s character gave one final monologue about how things happen for a reason. (\u201cDo you think you\u2019re here for a random happenstance or are you here because you\u2019re supposed to be here with Alex and me?\u201d) This guy also adds that he believes \u201cit worked.\u201d What did?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let me just say, I was scratching my head several times during these three episodes, but never more than during \u201cAnother Day In Paradise.\u201d Is this secret tech that Fischler\u2019s 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\u2019s because Link is actually a student of Fischler\u2019s professor, and they were working on what I\u2019m assuming is some sort of a machine together. Whatever it can do will fuel the rest of season two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stray observations\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s 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?\u00a0
\n\u2022 The show wants us to believe that nobody in Tennessee or anywhere else thought of popping into Elvis\u2019 home to raid it, hide inside, or anything else at least two years after a world-ending catastrophe.\u00a0
\n\u2022 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\u2019s so sweet!\u00a0
\n\u2022 We know Annie\u2019s backstory, but I was wondering why Gayle wasn\u2019t concerned about reaching out to her loved ones when she heard the news of the volcano.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Sterling K. Brown would do so well in a rom-com.
\n\u2022 For those keeping track, Jane not only kills President Baines, but also puts the blame on Cal\u2019s ex\/Xavier\u2019s only friend, Nicole (Krys Marshall).\u00a0
\n\u2022 I couldn\u2019t get to it in my recap, but I was a huge fan of how the friendship breakup between Torabi and Sinatra was executed. \u201cGood luck, kiddo.\u201d However, Torabi has another agenda for dumping her friend. She\u2019s left a mic inside the photo frame that now sits on Sinatra\u2019s desk so she can spy on her. Wise!\u00a0
\n\u2022Cal\u2019s son, Jeremy, is now leading the charge of revolutionaries who are fighting against the bunker government. He is specifically hoping to blow the bunker\u2019s door open.\u00a0
\n\u2022 \u201cMy son, whom we somehow just got elected president, is a moron.\u201d\u00a0
\n\u2022 \u201cLady, I sleep like shit no matter what.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club\u2018s TV critic.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s fair to say that, no matter the genre, creator Dan Fogelman\u2019s projects are a certain flavor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-298307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}