This post contains spoilers from Paradise season 1 episode 7 from this point forward.
If anyone has been calling Paradise their comfort show, that sentiment likely came to an abrupt end after watching the penultimate episode of the first season. There was nothing comforting about episode 7, which rewound the clock and took us back to the fateful day when the apparent end of the world began. It's a difficult watch for many reasons, particularly because it felt too realistic.
Paradise has been grappling with the murder of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) and uncovering who pulled the trigger and what led to his death. In order to get those answers, the series drives home the point that situations that happened in the past have cast a domineering shadow over the present. Choices, or even a lack thereof, has brought society to where it is.
In episode 6, Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) took matters into his own hands to push back against Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) and what he believes is a dangerous operation based on lies. He's right, but his agenda to expose Sinatra reaches an unexpected turn when she reveals that his wife, Teri, is still alive above ground outside of the bunker. There were survivors, and episode 7 shows us why that's shocking and how that's possible.
Paradise season 1 episode 7 recap and review
Each episode of Paradise has been impossible to look away from, the kind of show you watch and realize you were holding your breath during some scenes. Well, by the end of episode 7, a lot of us were probably gasping for air. It did not let up. This will be the episode Brown, Marsden, and the show overall will submit for Emmys consideration, and if they don't receive nominations for their performances in "The Day," that'll be a bigger mystery than Bradford's assassination.
"The Day" delivers gut punch after gut punch as the threat of a nuclear winter event encroaches closer and closer to the United States. We watch as whole countries are taken out by the tsunami caused by the explosion in Antarctica and other natural disasters, like a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles, began wiping out whole populations one by one. The emotion that goes into Xavier trying to get Teri home safe before entering the bunker is nausea-inducing.
I haven't seen a television show depict a situation like this with a remarkable level of realism, and that's both a compliment and a criticism. Maybe it was too realistic given where we're at? The episode was startlingly effective with its suspense and fear. It's still incredibly heightened for television, but watching the characters struggle internally as they fight to survive externally is the kind of visceral pathos that Dan Fogelman does best.
Leading up to the finale with new information about how the cataclysmic event happened, the stakes are unbelievably high. Xavier now knows that Teri's out there somewhere, and Sinatra's the only person who can help him find her. But Sinatra's also the person he distrusts the most. So, he's at a moral crossroads and still tasked with finding out who — from outside Paradise! — killed Bradford. Does he even want to know, especially now that we know why Xavier had bad blood with the president?
The most troubling part of "The Day" has to be understanding where both Bradford and Xavier are coming from. Xavier holds it against Bradford that he didn't speak up sooner about the inevitable world-ending event to give people time to grieve with their loved ones. In fact, Bradford doesn't even step up and share the reality with the nation until the very last minute. His first address to the nation didn't address anything. But he speaks honestly and it hits hard.
Once it's revealed that not everybody has been cleared for the "Versailles" list to be saved from the event and taken to the Paradise bunker, violence ensues. It becomes clear that Bradford has made a lot of enemies, which makes the idea that a survivor from the outside killed him all the more plausible. But how did they sneak into Paradise and get to him? And do they know he chose to run Code Blue, which disarmed other nuclear weapons and saved lives?
Sure, a last-ditch effort to save lives doesn't make up for anything else that happened, and it's unlikely to change anyone's minds, even Xavier's. That's the moral gray area of Paradise at play and what makes the show such an interesting, realistic, and thought-provoking watch. Now that the show has been renewed for season 2, the season 1 finale will surely answer as many questions as it poses. But we're heading into even murkier waters after this wildly entertaining episode.
Watch the Paradise season 1 finale on Tuesday, March 4 on Hulu.