[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Paradise Season 1 Episode 1, “Wildcat Is Down.”]
In a surprise turn of events, Hulu launched its new drama Paradise a couple of days early, debuting the premiere episode on January 26 at 9/8c and offering fans a glimpse into Sterling K. Brown and Dan Fogelman‘s latest team-up since This Is Us.
If you have yet to tune into the episode or series, we’re going to advise that you stop reading now because, in true Dan Fogelman fashion, Paradise delivered one of the most jaw-dropping twists on TV in quite some time. Think This Is Us premiere-level twist! For those who have tuned in, feel free to carry on reading as we delve into the premiere episode’s set-up.
As viewers will realize, Paradise isn’t exactly the murder mystery thriller that was teased prior to launch; there’s so much more going on as is revealed in the premiere episode’s final moments. In the show, Sterling K. Brown plays Xavier Collins, an agent tasked with protecting the president, Cal Bradford (James Marsden).
Disney / Brian Roedel
The first tip-off that things aren’t usual is Cal’s housing as he’s not occupying the White House when Xavier arrives to work and enters the residence. Realizing he hasn’t exited his bedroom and it’s quite late in the morning, Xavier steps into the president’s bedroom to find him dead on the ground with wounds on his head, surrounded by a pool of blood.
But who could have possibly killed Cal? It’s a question that will loom large over this political thriller, but it turns out that Xavier could very well be a prime suspect. As he takes in the scene and begins to organize, he finds out as many details as he can before the death is officially called in. It turns out that Xavier was the last person to see Cal alive.
Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Xavier had previously saved Cal from an assassination attempt, taking a bullet for the president and earning a large amount of trust. In exchange for that gesture, Cal offers to let Xavier in on a major national security secret, informing him that a project was underway as they prepared for a massive catastrophe that could cause an extinction-level threat to humanity in the near future.
It seems that the catastrophe must have occurred because that project happens to be the underground city where Xavier is currently residing with his two children, and the same city Cal has been killed in. In another flashback scene, Cal gets candid as he asks Xavier if he’ll ever forgive him, the implication being that Xavier’s wife was lost as a result of this catastrophe.
Xavier tells Cal that he’ll forgive him when he can sleep again and that won’t be until he’s dead. When Xavier makes his way home from the president’s home, further implications of the underground city are revealed as children pay for ice cream with automated wristbands, a worker tends to the fake ducks on a faux waterway, and a digital poster alerts residents that dawn is being delayed by two hours for maintenance.
While many questions swirl, particularly about who killed Cal, we can’t help but wonder what predicament led everyone to seek solace underground and how exactly that process was figured out. Either way, this underground post-apocalyptic twist is one we didn’t see coming, which leads us to wonder, what did you think of the twist?
Let us know in the reader poll, below, and sound off in the comments section.
Paradise, Airing Mondays, 10/9c, ABC (Streaming now on Hulu)
