I wasn’t really looking to get hooked on Paradise. However, if the series premiere piqued my interest, Paradise Season 1, Episode 2 “Sinatra” got me hooked. You know, in the way that one gets when they both love a show and kinda want to punch everyone involved directly in the face.
You think you can give me a beautiful and compelling episode that just emotionally destroys me like that, show? How dare you!
Okay, apparently you can.
A Little Context
Paradise isn’t quite the show it appears at first glance. It’s sold as a show about a Secret Service agent. Hulu’s description adds a little more detail in explaining that the show is set in a community inhabited by some of the most powerful people in the world. However, this idyllic little hamlet is rocked by a shocking murder. (Cue the previously mentioned Secret Service agent.)
A high-stakes murder investigation in a small town? Sign me up. Heck, if you add a few more quaint British houses and the occasional brogue or two, you’re describing a good chunk of my television viewing choices.
But the premiere (“Wildcat is Down”) of Paradise established that there’s a little more going on under the hood for this new series. Yes, the show follows Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) as he investigates a murder. Given his profession, the identity of the murder victim in question – former president Cal “Widcat” Bradford (James Marsden) isn’t entirely a surprise. What’s slightly more surprising is that Collins kinda-sorta-and-probably-more-than-a-little-deservedly…you know…hates his protectee. And maybe wished him dead. More than a little.
Well, that’s going to throw a wrench in the investigation.
A lot of the story is told through flashbacks, so you get more of a sense that things are a little bit off before the series shows you. You don’t even get a picture of the (one-sided) animosity between Collins and Bradford at first. Heck, Collins takes a bullet for the president! (Yeah, it’s his job, but there seems to be a measure of respect – if somewhat begrudging, in light of Bradford’s clear personal flaws – in flashbacks.) So why does Collins seem to have a…weird attitude about his protectee?
It isn’t until the end of the first episode that the penny drops. Collins, Bradford, and everyone else in the series isn’t living in Any Quaint Town, USA. They live in a city built underground following an extinction-level event. We don’t know quite the nature of said event, but Bradford is clearly involved. If not responsible. And Collins will never forgive him for it.
All caught up? See, I act like I did this as a courtesy to the readers. In reality, I’m dragging my feet delving into “Sinatra” because…it hurts, folks. It’s beautiful. But it really, really hurts.
Persons of Interest
If it weren’t for the fact that Collins is the central figure in the show and we know how determined he is to uncover the person responsible for Bradford’s death, the Secret Service agent would be the most likely suspect in the former president’s death. His animosity toward his protectee is hidden under the most impressive veneer of professionalism I’ve ever seen. But it’s still clear to those around him.
Given his hatred of the other man, why is he so determined to get to the truth? At this point, it seems to be just because it’s the Right Thing to Do. And maybe because he takes some professional umbrage at so spectacularly failing at his job. If it’s the latter, I have to hand it to him: he’s got more dedication to his work than any other person on the planet. Seriously; I don’t even want to clock into my job on my day off, and he’s going to conduct a whole investigation into the murder of a man he hates for the sake of his.
Do you get vacation days when you live in an underground city with the only other 24,999 24,998 survivors of the human race? Because this man definitely deserves a vacation. But I digress.
At any rate, Collins is the most likely suspect. Which would rule him out as a suspect, even if we didn’t know he was innocent. We’ve all seen television shows before. We know how these things work. But if not Collins, then who? His boss, Agent Robinson (Krys Marshall), who was having an affair with the victim? (And should probably recuse herself for conflict of interest if the pool of potential disinterested parties with the power and knowledge for the task wasn’t so woefully small.) The ex-wife (Cassidy Freeman) who admittedly hated him? Or Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson), Bradford’s right-hand woman…whose role in this tight-knit community was explored in this episode.
Ol’ Blue Eyes
As one might guess by the title, Paradise Season 1, Episode 2 “Sinatra” is all about Samantha Redmond, a.k.a. “Sinatra.” Why is she called Sinatra? Well, we’ll get into that. As for her role, she’s in many ways the mastermind behind this creation of the City that Saves Humanity. If not one of its primary funders.
As before, Paradise Season 1, Episode 2 makes no small use of flashbacks to tell its story. And to give us a sense of its characters. As for what it tells us about Sinatra the woman? Well, we see her first meeting with her husband. It’s strangely both endearing and a little awkward, given that she basically introduces herself by bragging that she’s about to become a billionaire. Which, honestly, in this day and age, would probably make one desperate to discover her to be the villain of the story. If it weren’t for everything else that’s revealed about her from flashbacks. But we’ll get to her grief in a moment.
Until we explore the ways that Sinatra is broken, she truly does seem somewhat untouchable. Unbreakable. As hard as steel. She’s not really, of course. Especially in flashbacks, such as one where the audience is shown her first meeting with her now-husband, Tim (Tuc Watkins). The two are so impossibly adorable from the very start, that it’s hard not to love them just a little. You want only good things for them both. And then… And then.
Love and Loss
Given the nature of the world of Paradise, it’s inevitable that every person in the show has undoubtedly faced their share of loss and grief. “Sinatra” explores the woman in question – and a little more of Collins, himself. At least, we see a glimpse of the moment that he lost his wife, even if we don’t know how or why. Or why she wasn’t on the list of people to be saved. We see the moment he arrives in the underground city with his children and faces the prospect of a future without their mother. We see how her loss haunts him.
But while the second episode gives us a glimpse into Collins’s grief, it really throws the audience into the deep end of Sinatra’s. As it turns out, she was broken long before people had to take cover underground. In fact, her grief is no doubt a driving force into why she took the promise of a looming threat seriously.
I’ve written before (for another show) about how powerful it can be when shows are unflinchingly honest in their depiction of grief. And Paradise is just that. In “Sinatra” we see how Samantha’s choices, borne from grief, led her to be a key architect in humanity’s salvation. (Her role in its destruction is still unknown.) We see how much grief changed her. How it broke her, as a person – and possibly her marriage with Tim. And how it’s honored in the world around them, even if nobody else knows it.
Money Can’t Buy Everything
Before I had my daughter, a friend told me, “Having a child is like holding your beating heart in the palm of your hand and knowing it will live outside your body for the rest of your life.” When I had my daughter, I came to see how true those words were.
For that reason, episodes that deal with a mother’s grief are hard to watch. Paradise Season 1, Episode 2 “Sinatra” left me in ugly tears, and before I delve into it further, I really have to commend Nicholson on the range of emotions she served this episode. From sunny optimism to grief to rage to an icy guardedness. She’s at times soft and tender and vulnerable. At times she’s filled with a rage that could burn down the Earth itself. If it weren’t for the fact she has another child to protect.
She’s been broken by her loss, and she’s not stronger for it. Just harder. She will never be whole again. Never be healed. And she doesn’t really want to be. She is honest about it in ways people aren’t usually allowed to be. She knows just how close she is to shattering completely, and that she’s far more vulnerable than she appears. But she keeps going anyway because she has no other choice.
One of my favorite moments in (almost) any Superman story is the moment when Superman discovers that, for all his powers, there are some people he cannot save. This is usually shown through the loss of his father, Jonathan, who typically dies of a heart attack. Superman can fly faster than a speeding bullet, but he can’t prevent a person’s body from just…breaking.
While perhaps not addressed as straightforwardly in this episode, Sinatra learns the same about money. She has more money than most people can conceive of. But it can’t save her son from the illness that takes him. And it will never bring him back.
A Mother’s Love
Sinatra’s grief is told primarily through flashbacks. We see how…soft she was when her son was alive. How warm and openly loving. It’s such a simple scene – grocery shopping with the family, with a pit stop to let her son Dylan (Peter Gorbis) ride a mechanical horse. And then everything changes. Her son collapses, and the next few flashbacks are of hospitals and trying desperately to hold on when everyone tells her it’s time to let go.
Nicholson is flawless in every stage of her portrayal of grief. From denial to anger to devastation. When she talks about the double-sided nature of time, it’s raw and unflinching. Time is supposed to heal all wounds but it actually makes things worse because every day that passes is a day that separates her further and further from the son she lost. One day, she will be a “mother who lost her son” for longer than she was a “mother who had a living son.” Can anyone fault her for her rage?
But she also knows rage is one luxury she can’t afford. She has another child. That child needs her. And so she needs to find a way to move forward.
Past and Future
It’s when she’s in the midst of her grief over the past that she gets her first glimpse into the future. It’s almost by chance she hears her first “end of the world” prediction. That prediction lights the spark that will one day lead to the creation of the city that eventually saves her daughter. And the rest of humanity, of course.
While this flashback does give us a glimpse into how Sinatra came to be part of the project, we also see a glimpse into her relationship with Bradford. We see just a little bit why people might have been drawn to him – enough to elect him president, at least. He is the first person who acknowledges Sinatra’s grief head-on. And he doesn’t dance around the issue of her dead son. He doesn’t refer to her child obliquely.
It is undoubtedly painful for Sinatra to be reminded of the child he was, before the hospitals and doctors. The loss of anyone – let alone a child – is such a painful subject, that people don’t know how to broach it. And so they often don’t. But as a mother, I can’t imagine a moment passes when Sinatra “forgets” her child long enough to need reminding. So while it is undoubtedly painful for Sinatra to relive a precious memory, there is also comfort in hearing that Dylan was more than the child she lost. He is remembered – and mourned – by others.
Bradford may be a bit of a jerk with a self-destruction complex, but there’s compassion in his unapologetic reminiscence over Dylan. In his open acknowledgment of how hard the passage of time has been for the grieving mother. Bradford wasn’t a perfect person. Maybe he’s even responsible for humanity’s near-extinction. But there’s something likable about him, too. And not just the fact that Marsden is impossible to not like at least a little in every role he plays.
And Bradford, as it turns out, is responsible for Sinatra’s nickname. His relationship with his father was seemingly acrimonious. He was never able to live up to his father’s expectations. But if Bradford was Peter Lawford, who shouldn’t even be a part of the band, Samantha Redmond is Frank Sinatra. The clear leader of the Rat Pack. Feared a little. Loved a little. But never, ever crossed.
Heaven On – Or Under – Earth
Paradise Season 1, Episode 2 “Sinatra” leaves Collins suspicious of Sinatra and determined to bring her down. I personally hope he’s wrong about her because I was left with a strong urge to protect this character who is far more fragile than she appears. But Sinatra’s role in humanity’s near-extinction and Bradford’s death wasn’t the only question left unanswered. Did the numbers written on Bradford’s cigarette refer to a plane that (presumably) carried some survivors to the city? What is on this all-important tablet? Who killed the former president and why? We’re left with all these questions and more.
But the last few minutes of the episode are also achingly beautiful, even down to the song choice. Sinatra built the underground city to save her daughter. But in building the city, she honored her son. During her son’s last days, he asked his mom about Heaven. Upon being told that Heaven could be whatever you wanted it to be, Dylan confessed he wanted Heaven to be similar to life on Earth. Only with more horse rides. And so Sinatra filled humanity’s salvation, their Paradise, with electronic horses to ride. Because she may have lost her son, but she still carries him with her. Every day. With every choice she makes. In every beat of her heart.
And now, If you’ll excuse me…I’m crying again. How dare you, show? How dare you?
This review leans too heavy into the emotional mother parts and leaves out so much other stuff. I had to read other reviews to find out about the rest of what happened in the episode. Ex: the interrogation, the library scene, the therapist “say yes” & the planes.