At long last, Paradise season 1 episode 7, “The Day” sheds light on the cataclysmic, extinction-level even that led our characters to take cover in their underground city. And I found a new fear to keep me awake at night.
It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine. There’s no need for me to compulsively Google “Antarctic volcano” during my next doomscrolling session.
Those Left Behind
Given the premise of the series, obviously a whole lot of people in the world died in the extinction-level event. Everyone in Paradise has lost. And not just someone. They all lost a lot of someones. In fact, they’ve lost more people than any that survived.
But there’s a difference in the theoretical and in the actual knowing. We know everyone lost…everyone. But in “The Day,” we get to see many of those who were left behind to die. Their fear, at seeing the coverage of the tsunami coming. Their desperation to save the ones they love the most. And the empty seats, left by those who were given a ticket to salvation.
I’ve always found that it’s not the big moments that get me in these types of shows. I don’t cry at the spectacle in Titanic, for example. I cry at the mother telling her children a bedtime story because she knows they won’t make it and wants to comfort them as long as she can.
In Paradise, it isn’t the loss of Melbourne or Manhattan. It’s the despair in a mother’s eyes when she begs Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) to find a way to save her medically fragile child. Her baby. (Yeah, that got me.) It’s President Bradford’s (James Marsden) face as he looks at the man sweeping the floor. Talking about seeing his granddaughter for her birthday the next day. Or talking to the chef who made him the best burgers he’s ever had. People he knows. Those who have worked for him and those he has never met. People he cares about. People he knows that even he can’t save.
A Chance to Say Goodbye
President Cal Bradford has been a complicated figure thoughout the show. At times, he’s been little more than a stuffed shirt and a good hairdo. At other times, he’s shown a kindness and a compassion that seem to speak to the genuine man behind the title.
“The Day” proved why Marsden was cast in what is ultimately a fairly minor role in the series. (Though it is unquestionably an important one.) He brings depth to the character in relatively short glimpses. This isn’t an easy decision for Bradford, even though he knew it was coming. He’s known all along that he would be President for “the end of the world.” But there’s a difference in knowing it and living it. And in these moments, when he’s living it, you can see how it weighs on him.
He sees the chaos, the desperation. The betrayal and fear. Xavier is a man who always tries to do the Right Thing, and so he’s faced with some hard choices. Bradford has always done what he’s been told…but there’s a fundamental core of decency to him, that leads him to tell the country the truth. Even though the lie would be safer. Because he wants to give everyone a chance to say goodbye.
Failed Promises
The episode is full of heartbreaking failed promises. Kind but brutal lies. Xavier promises to try to save Marsha’s (Amy Pietz) son. Even though he knows he can’t. He can’t bear to tell her the brutal truth. Especially knowing that his own children will be saved.
As he does every episode, Brown really shines in “The Day.” His character is a man of few words. Still, we can see his inner conflict in his interactions this episode – his determination to do his job. His desperation to save his family. His inner turmoil as he makes a promise to Marsha that he knows he won’t be able to keep. He’s a man who always tries to do the right thing, but in impossible situations, the right thing isn’t always easy to find.
The decision of who to save and who to leave behind has never been his. But you can still see the weight he carries when he looks around him – at friends, coworkers, and innocent bystanders. Knowing they will likely die while he is one of the few chosen to be saved.
And Xavier isn’t the only one telling “kind” lies this episode. The President initially tells the country a pre-filmed promise that they’ll make it through. Until he realizes he needs to tell them the truth. But he cannot give his friend, Xavier, the same mercy. He promises to send a plane to save Xavier’s wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma). But she doesn’t make it, and he later admits that he knew she wouldn’t. As soon as he heard she was in Atlanta, he knew how it would end.
We won’t talk even about Xavier’s and Teri’s heartwrenching goodbye. Her despair at knowing she was going to die was only matched by her hope that her children would survive. And we don’t want to cry.
The End of the World
All season, the question has loomed overhead: “What did Bradford do? What are he and Sinatra hiding?” It seemed like he would in some way be responsible for the extinction-level event, particularly given the suggestion that nuclear strikes were involved. However, this week we discovered that the situation was in many ways outside of Bradford’s control. It was a natural event – spurred on by humanity’s hubris – that caused the end of the world. (Well, that and a few nuclear strikes as countries scrambled to take control of whatever resources might survive the apocalypse.)
Even his failed promise to Xavier isn’t really his fault. He expected a warning before the volcano’s eruption, but the warning was barely minutes rather than days. Which doesn’t mean I don’t understand – or even sympathize with – Xavier’s anger and bitterness. He’s grieving, and grief is rarely logical.
But in this case…well, I won’t entirely say it was misplaced. (Again – many, many, many people died in Paradise season 1 episode 7, “The Day.”) Still, Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) has proof that Teri survived the apocalypse. She is – or was at some point after the eruption – alive, but who knows how precarious her continued survival may be.
As the episode comes to a close, Sinatra plays her hand with Xavier: he needs to let her go and let things go “back to normal” underground if he ever wants to see his wife or daughter Presley (Aliyah Mastin) again.
Yeah, yeah. I know. She’s a villain. I can’t help but love her a little, though.
