Paradise’s second season tosses viewers a curveball with its penultimate episode. Beginning and ending inside the bunker’s environmental mainframe, the dramatic thriller opens up a can of worms that shifts the already mixed-genre series into unknown territory.
The episode is bookended with Cal, Samantha and Anders exploring the bunker’s multiple safeguards to ensure a lengthy future. While Samantha sees the redundancies as impenetrable, Cal can’t help but reflect on what history has taught him. Empire’s fall on their high horses.
In the present, Sam contends with the council that a system lockdown is their last resort in relation to the outsiders. They eventually agree, allowing her to meet with Link. All the demands are met: no weapons, apple pie, the whole nine yards. Sam and Link eventually meet on Air Force One to discuss his terms. At first, he requests one of their four nuclear reactors, but Sam sees through the bluff. He finally reveals his true intentions: he wants Alex. The other three subplots involve Gabi surprisingly getting the upper hand on Jane, Presley and Hadley joining forces and Jeremy, Anders and Robinson pursuing their plan to disrupt the bunker’s ecosystem.
In Atlanta, Teri and Xavier reunite with plans to join the caravan and venture to Colorado. But first, Teri must save Bean from Gary. Teri convinces Xavier that she can talk Gary down despite knowing that he killed Ennis. As expected, Gary complies with Teri ensuring he’ll survive without them. Husband and wife leave with Bean, grab Annie’s baby, and are westbound. Cameron Britton’s performance is amazingly nuanced, earning the audience’s empathy in spite of his actions.
All seems pretty normal until the final 15 minutes. Sam – changed by a revelation about Link’s identity – has a new lease on life. She’s romantic with her husband for the first time in years, and floats with a sense of optimistic calm. Her serene attitude is the polar opposite of the chaos erupting around her. The council activates the lockdown protocol just as Presley and Hadley hijack access to the underground prison. These two instances coincide with Jeremy, Robinson and Anders destroying the bunker’s manufactured safeguards. The acts counter each other, forcing the facility into an imminent nuclear meltdown.
All the while, Sam privately greets Alex.
While a very solid episode that opens up possibilities for the third season, the stretching viewers’ imaginations are having to do is uncomfortable. Early theories around Link’s identity had always been present. But none seem to touch that he could be the Redmond’s deceased son. Perhaps Sam is only hearing what she wants to believe.
Rating: 8/10