Hulu's hit series, Paradise, caught the world by storm in the winter of 2025. After its debut, the show prompted a great deal of fan response and theories.
The first season started with an intriguing premise. The President of the United States had been killed and his top Secret Service agent had to solve it. That alone is an interesting enough premise, but Paradise had plenty of twists and turns.
By the end of eight episodes, we learned about the bunker. We saw a flashback to how the world came undone. We solved the murder of the President. And our hero, Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), learned there was a world that lived outside the bunker, and his wife might still be alive.
So, as the season ended, Xavier headed out into that world. As we launch into the second season, it’s fair to wonder what happened for those not chosen to start the world over again. Seems the creators had the same idea in mind. The Paradise season 2 premiere, “Graceland,” is a bit like a bottle episode. We’ve left the bunker and our core characters behind to explore the rest of the world.
Meet Annie Clay
As we open, it’s years before the end of the world. A young girl named Annie Clay (Alora Johnson) is enjoying a tour of Graceland, former home of Elvis Presley. It’s clear this isn’t her first trip to the iconic location, nor is it her first time learning about Elvis. Still, she feels at home here, drinking it all in. That makes sense when she leaves.
Annie visits a relative who is homebound. It’s a brief exchange that doesn’t offer much hope. Then she heads to see her mother, finding her dead. Annie is a young girl alone in a world that feels cold and hard to understand.
We flash-forward a few years, and Annie (Shailene Woodley) is a third-year medical student. But a new patient causes her to think back on her troubled childhood. She’s visibly shaken. As much as she’d like, this isn’t her place. So, she quits school.
And we’re back at Graceland. Annie is parked out front, crying and trying to figure out what to do with her life. A security guard, Gail (Angela Lakota Moore), tells her she can’t park there. She sees Annie is shaken and listens to Annie’s story. After it all, she asks Annie if she ever considered being a tour guide.
A place to belong
We jump ahead again, and Annie is working at Graceland as a tour guide. She even falls back on a classic joke she heard on her many tours as a youth. She is at her post, working alongside Gail, when the world ends. In a snap decision, she gives Gail instructions on collecting supplies. They’re going to ride it out in the basement at Graceland, which is secure. But on the way down, Gail falls down the stairs and breaks her leg.
Annie uses her medical training to set the wound, but there’s still infection. After three days, they pop onto the roof and see the survivors in something of a world gone mad. They decide to bunker down and hide from the craziness. A few days later, as the ash blocks the sky, it gets cold. It’s really cold, and it stays cold. And as it does, Gail gets worse. Now 45 days after the incident, the infection has set, and Gail dies.
That leaves Annie alone again. We jump ahead to Day 689—nearly two years living in isolation. Annie has made Graceland her home and she sees that, finally, the sun has emerged. That creates a new, more peaceful hope for the future. That’s when a group arrives.
At first, Annie is scared, but this isn’t a group there to harm her. They are looking for a place to rest and gather supplies. Annie warms up to them, especially a younger man named Link (Thomas Doherty). They are a group on a mission, which he later explains is to find a bunker in Colorado and save the world.
On the night before they leave, Annie and Link have a moment. After a few days of growing closer, romance blooms. Link asks Annie to leave with them and go on their journey to Colorado. She finds that she can’t leave Graceland, which has become like a refuge and a home she never had. They leave, but Link promises to return.
We flash-forward again, and it’s clear Annie is pregnant. Her night with Link has left a lasting impression. She hears a plane fly overhead and crash. The next day, she heads to the site, possibly hoping it is Link. Instead, she finds Xavier Collins, passed out on the ground.
Thoughts on the Paradise season 2 premiere
It’s a bold stroke to do essentially a bottle episode to kick off a season, but Paradise has always been unconventional with its use of twists and flashbacks. This is a unique way to introduce us to the larger world and provide a glimpse at how people survived.
It’s clear that Annie will be a factor in this second season. Since this is the first of a three-episode premier drop, it makes more sense. If this has been the only episode released, it might have been a tougher approach. It’s a big swing and a good episode, albeit not what we would have expected.
New episodes of Paradise season 2 will stream Mondays on Hulu. You can watch the second and third episodes now. They were also released on Monday, Feb. 23.