The Paradise season 2 premiere was an interesting exploration of the world outside the bunker, but it didn’t answer many questions about what comes next in the story of our heroes.
In fact, it posed more questions as we closed the episode with Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) passed out in the woods. Paradise season 2 episode 2, “Mayday,” puts the focus squarely on his journey since he left the bunker.
An ill-fated flight
As we closed season 1, Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) got out of her jam with Xavier by dangling something in front of him. Not only is the world outside the bunker livable, but many people actually survived. That includes his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), who was left behind in Atlanta. He’s even played a message from Teri showing she’s alive and in the area. So, he’s given a small plane to go and get her and get some answers along the way.
That flight runs afoul of some rough weather. A storm, including hail, wreaks havoc on Xavier’s flight. He gets a crack in the windshield and loses an engine, forcing him to crash. He doesn’t know where, but he survives the initial crash. Still, he’s a little worse for the wear. His knee is injured, and as he falls out of the plane to the ground, we get one of the show’s famous flashbacks.
This time we’re taken to 2004, where Xavier is in training for the Secret Service. He is running the course when he hurts the same knee. In addition to surgery, he has a dislocated kneecap. We see the doctor running him through how to correct that. In the present, it’s clear Xavier knows what’s wrong and how to pop it back into place.
Before he can get it done, Daniel (Alexander Gumpert) arrives. He’s just a boy and he roots through Xavier’s bag. When Xavier protests, Daniel warns him to be quiet. It isn’t long before some men appear on the horizon.
In the premiere, we learned that Arkansas wasn’t a safe place. Unfortunately, that’s where Xavier has crash-landed. Daniel helps him get away, finding refuge with other kids in an old RV.
A history of Teri
Our flashback to 2004 isn’t just about Xavier’s knee. As we go back again, we learn it was through that experience he met Teri. They bonded while being in the hospital for treatment. The flashbacks throughout the episode reveal their love story.
Back in the present, Xavier spots a mysterious man outside the RV. He’s a raider who has been trailing the kids. Xavier is able to best him, but not before getting a knife to the side. When he comes to, the kids have moved him inside and patched up the wound. They’ve left with his bag and his jacket. Xavier is all alone in the woods.
So, Xavier makes his way back to the site of the crash. His knee is still hurting and he’s losing blood from an open wound. But he’s determined to get to Teri. It’s at the crash site where he passes out, again. That’s where Annie (Shailene Woodley) comes upon him in a return to where we left off in the pilot.
Back to Graceland
As Xavier comes to again, he’s in Graceland getting medical attention. Annie helped him but is weary of who he might be. She begins peppering him with questions, first about his kids. When he says they weren’t on the plane, but rather safe with other survivors in a bunker in Colorado, it sparks something. Annie has been waiting on Link (Thomas Doherty), who was also bound for Colorado.
Xavier explains that he was on his way to Atlanta. He has to find his wife, Teri. But Annie has no intention of taking him to Atlanta, nor of letting him leave. She holds all the cards—and the gun—as Xavier finds himself handcuffed. She tells him they’re bound for Colorado because she needs to find the father of her child before it’s too late.
Paradise season 2 episode review
It makes sense, seeing these episodes play out, that we have a three-episode debut drop. The pilot was about our new characters and catching up with the world outside the bunker.
The second episode was squarely focused on Xavier, his mission, and how he came to land in the woods in Arkansas. No doubt the final episode of the group will catch up with the bunker.
Overall, it’s a great way to drop back into the series, the story, these characters, and the stakes of where we’re headed in season 2.
New episodes of Paradise stream Mondays on Hulu. You can watch the first three episodes of the season now.