{"id":332685,"date":"2026-03-16T18:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/332685\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T18:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:48:07","slug":"season-2-episode-6-jane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/332685\/","title":{"rendered":"season 2, episode 6, “Jane”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the lore Paradise<\/a> could explore, getting to learn about Jane\u2019s (Nicole Brydon Bloom) history, particularly the origin of her Wii obsession, wasn\u2019t at the top of the list. But the show coolly unpacks what makes its resident assassin tick. It\u2019s not about the video-game console, of course, but who gave it to her, at what stage in her life, and what it represents for someone like Jane, who didn\u2019t stand a chance at a normal childhood. Her upbringing, as we learn in episode six, was marred by the fact that her mother wasn\u2019t up to the task. And that\u2019s before her mom was accosted in the hospital parking lot\u2014with a newborn Jane crying in her arms\u2014by a strange man yelling at her about how her kid was going to grow up to be a killer. (There will be more on that absolutely wild reveal in a minute.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a TV show heavily focused on the impact of loving parent-child bonds. (See also: Sinatra\u2019s motivation after her son\u2019s death, Teri and Xavier wanting to protect their kids, Cal\u2019s desire to be a good influence for his son, Annie\u2019s affecting storyline, the addition of Bean, etc.) So it\u2019s interesting to watch Paradise navigate the thornier aspects of this dynamic through its most evasive character yet. Jane has been a mystery so far. All we know is that she\u2019s devoid of emotions, considering the ease with which she killed her boyfriend in season one. She is great at faking feelings, though, successfully tricking Xavier, Billy, and Nicole (Krys Marshall) into believing she\u2019s just a naive woman. Only Sinatra knows her true abilities, and even she admits to being terrified of Jane in this episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Season two\u2019s pacing has been a bit frustrating, with this being only the second time we dig into the bunker\u2019s ongoing politics and crises. Thankfully, everything comes to a head pretty well by the end of \u201cJane.\u201d The Hulu series ties its big sci-fi reveals to Jane\u2019s backstory to try to make her slightly more sympathetic. (But you guys, she never even stood a chance!) Let\u2019s circle back to that delightfully head-scratching opening scene. In May 1997, a man named Don received bizarre emails and alerts that say, \u201cA killer will be born on June 6 at 12:01 a.m. She can be stopped when it matters if you deliver a message to her.\u201d Brace for immediate questions: Who sent this email? What\u2019s this warehouse-like office that Don\u2019s working out of? Is it an agency like Marvel\u2019s Time Variance Authority, where they monitor world events, or is it all just random? What does it have to do with Jane\u2019s life, the future of the bunker, Billy\u2019s death, and anything the show has done so far? Paradise blows up its entire existence in theory, reveling in the prospect of exploring what it all means and what it can lead to. Perhaps that\u2019s what the third (and final?)<\/a> season will be for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, we delve into Jane\u2019s ongoing mommy issues. As a teen, her mental health struggles were ignored by the only parent in her life, considering her mom reacted to Jane\u2019s destructive tendencies with frustration and anger instead of seeking help. As a grown-up, while training to be a CIA agent, Jane bonded with Agent Stacy Thomas (Brown\u2019s real-life wife, Ryan Michelle Bathe), who deemed her \u201cspecial.\u201d Instead of telling Jane to only develop combat skills, Stacy devoted time to connecting with her mentee and teaching her stuff like meditation to improve her skills and quiet her mind. And yes, the two played Wii together. Essentially, Stacy was the maternal figure Jane craved for, so she\u2019d do anything to impress her, including castrating (!) the male agent at The Farm who got a promotion over a well-deserving Stacy. So it\u2019s not that Jane is devoid of feelings; it\u2019s that she doesn\u2019t know how to process or act on them at all, opting for the worst possible way to show people she\u2019s, um, grateful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jane\u2019s unhealthy attachment issues are now aimed at Sinatra. The de facto leader (again) after POTUS Baines\u2019 murder places all her trust in Jane, sending her out to negotiate with Link and his crew outside the bunker because they\u2019re threatening to get violent. Here are the terms that Jane and a \u201csuper cute\u201d Link ultimately agree to: Accompanied by five of his men, unarmed, he\u2019ll meet with Sinatra, as long as he gets a slice of apple pie. Jane\u2019s skills please Sinatra, who gifts her a Nintendo as a reward. Uh oh. The praises in turn fuel Jane\u2019s lunacy\u2014so much so that I\u2019m afraid Jane will start looking at Sinatra\u2019s teen daughter as some sort of competition. She also makes a new enemy out of Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi), who confronts Jane after Nicole makes her realize that Sinatra isn\u2019t the only threat in the bunker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe that Torabi (a therapist who was in charge of selecting who would move to the underground city, presumably because she has the ability to zero in on people\u2019s emotions) directly defies Jane. Wouldn\u2019t she keep her knowledge secret, or at least not openly tell Jane that she\u2019s going after Sinatra and knows that Jane is evil? It feels like, because of its expanding scope, Paradise doesn\u2019t know what to do with Torabi, so she\u2019s gotten a flimsy arc in season two. She\u2019s just kind of there. The same can be said for Agent Nicole, who is currently in the underground prison of the bunker along with Cal\u2019s son, Jeremy. Try as she might not to get involved in Jeremy\u2019s attempts to break out, she relents and helps him out because of her love for Cal. Again, their scenes in prison just feel like an afterthought for now, except for Torabi and Nicole\u2019s conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This weaker part of \u201cJane\u201d is also balanced out by the weightiness of the Atlanta stuff. After planning to detonate a bomb and cause a distraction next to the train where Teri is allegedly being held captive, Xavier plans to run in and rescue her, with Gary being his lookout. However, Gary unsurprisingly betrays Xavier and rigs the bomb to go off early. Thankfully, our guy is a well-trained Secret Service agent and runs off in time. In the ensuing blast, the train folks come running out, and among them is\u2014dun, dun, dun\u2014Xavier\u2019s wife! The proper emotional reunion is left for next week, but I\u2019m impressed that Paradise has picked up the pace with both its settings (inside and outside) in time for what I can only hope will be two more action-packed installments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stray observations\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 I have never been more irritated than when Don screamed everything except the message he was supposed to give Jane\u2019s mom. Do your job, Don! It might have stopped her from turning into a killer. When do you think we\u2019ll learn what the message was?
\n\u2022Shout out to Nicole Byrdon Bloom, who clearly reveled in the chance to explore Jane\u2019s psyche. I especially appreciated how she acted like a giddy teen all over again when Sinatra handed her that Nintendo.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Am I supposed to believe Sinatra saw every episode of Jeopardy! and still thought his name was ALEC Trebek, not Alex? I\u2019ve suspended logic with you, Paradise, but there are limits.
\n\u2022 The person who emails Don is called Alex Q. Let\u2019s brush up on the many Alex mentions so far: The quantum entanglement professor\u2019s wife (from episode three) is named that, as is the mysterious project\/machine that Sinatra is working on that requires the bunker\u2019s resources. Is that the same \u201cAlex\u201d that Link wants to kill? I\u2019m entertained but so confused.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u2022 Jeremy and Nicole escape with the help of the scientist whom Baines threw in jail in episode three<\/a>. He gives them what I think is crucial information: The bunker doors, while built like a fortress, open up automatically if the oxygen supply is shut off inside. Uh oh.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Everyone around Sinatra in the boardroom reacted pretty casually to her reveal that the outside world is habitable again and that Link\u2019s crew is on their doorstep.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Presley speaks to Sinatra\u2019s daughter, asking her to look into her mother\u2019s real mission. I suspect a new friend duo is forming.\u00a0
\n\u2022 \u201cActually, Doc, I ain\u2019t gotta do shit but stay Black and die.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cWhat up, Shawshank? I see you\u2019re as obvious as ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club\u2018s TV critic.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the lore Paradise could explore, getting to learn about Jane\u2019s (Nicole Brydon Bloom) history, particularly the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-332685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332685","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=332685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}