Every fan has that show, and Paradise is mine. It’s the show I can’t help bring up to people when we’re talking about great television. “Have you seen the first season of Paradise? It’s amazing. Season 2 is coming out soon…”
Yes, I am that person at parties.
At any rate, my favorite show is getting a second season. Not much is known about the plot of Paradise season 2, but that actually makes me more excited. This show is at its best when you don’t entirely see what’s coming. Still, it’s fun to speculate, right? With that in mind, I’ve created a wish list of things I want in the show’s sophomore season…and one thing I absolutely do not.
WANT:
1. Love’s Labour’s Found
I made no bones last season about the fact that I was totally shipping Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) and his presumed dead wife, Dr. Teri Collins (Enuka Okuma). Yeah, I’m still hard-core into them. I know we only saw them for, like, five minutes all-together. They were a memorable five minutes.
I can’t wait to see the reunion between these two. There’s no question it will be filled with joy and grief, relief and regret. And I want to see all of it. Of course, there was nothing Xavier could do to save her. We saw how hard he tried. But he’ll still carry the weight of having left her behind. And she’ll carry the scars from whatever she had to live through on the surface in the meantime. Which brings us to point #2.
2. New Faces, New Grievances
The first season of Paradise established that Teri isn’t the only survivor above-ground. We do know we’ll be seeing at least one new face, thanks to a sneak-peek of season two, screened at SDCC this year. Per Deadline, this sneak peek – purportedly the opening of the second season – introduces Shailene Woodley as a new addition to the show. Though we don’t know exactly what role her character will play.
Frankly, we don’t know a lot, as I said before. We don’t know how many survivors there are in total. And we don’t know how they survived for as long as they did. But we do know two things, at least:
One: They were abandoned – perhaps for good reason, but still – and left to die, and…
Two: The survivors chosen to take refuge in Paradise filled it to capacity. Now, there may be a little wiggle room there. As we saw, not everyone chose it made it to salvation in time. And we’ve had, you know, one or two deaths in the town since. That said, Dr. Torabi (Sarah Shahi) was pretty clear that the city was built with a maximum capacity that could be sustained. And they had more or less reached that capacity.
Which means however many surface dwellers there are, their survival is both a miracle and…well…potentially a threat. While some below-ground will certainly be glad to see more of the human race survived, there will undoubtedly be some who will fear what the impact these new additions may have on severely limited resources.
I really hope the show has the time to really explore the conflicting feelings new survivors would instill the Paradise residents. As well as their own feelings about having been left on the surface for so long.. There’s a very good chance things in Paradise turn ugly fast. Particularly if any other surface dwellers have friends or loved ones below, who abandoned them to their fate. Though if anyone even thinks about crossing Xavier and putting his wife at risk again? They don’t know what’s coming for them. (Though I’d certainly be up for seeing it.)
3. Luck Be a Lady
While I’m excited to see new characters and stories in Paradise season 2, I’m even more eager to reconnect with the characters I came to love in the first one. And that means, yes, Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson). Yes, yes. I know. She was, in many ways, a terrible person. But I still empathize with her motives, if not her actions. I wanted her downfall, but I still sympathized with her. And that really is the mark of a great character.
The end of the first season of Paradise left her down but not out. Sure, she’s been unmasked for the citizens of Paradise. She was even shot and left close to death’s door. But does anyone think that will be anything more than a slight setback for her? She’s smart, and she’s capable, and she’s determined. What does Sinatra do when backed into a corner? Will she find a way to climb her way back to the top? I don’t know, but I really want to see her try.
Also, there’s a good chance that a decent number of people will be on her side, once they know why she hid the existence of survivors above. Once it really sinks in with people that additional survivors might threaten their own safety, we might see more than a few coming around to Sinatra’s point of view.
I have no idea how Sinatra’s going to regain her power. But I also have no doubt she’ll find her way there. If anyone can do it, she can.
4. Untapped Potential
Of course, there were a lot of characters that I came to love last season. Many of them have potential that has only just begun to be explored. And while I’m sure the new season will have much to do – not least of which is to set up another mystery – I hope we get to see more of the characters we don’t know quite well enough.
There’s Dr. Torabi, who carried the responsibility (and the guilt) of choosing those who would live and those who would die. Agent Robinson (Krys Marshall), who gave us a glimpse of just how far she was willing to go to do what was necessary. (In one of the best episodes of television of the whole damn year, no less.)
There’s also Presley (Aliyah Mastin) and James (Percy Daggs IV). Yes, they’re kids. But with so few people remaining in the world, kids don’t have the luxury to just be kids anymore. Plus, they’re about to get their mom back. In who-knows-what state. They’re about to go through a lot, and that’s on top of everything Presley dealt with last season.
Which brings us to Jeremy Bradford (Charlie Evans). He blew the lid open on the truth that his father, Cal (James Marsden), had carried. In the end, Jeremy stepped up to try to be the leader his dad wanted to be. After unveiling the truth, he’ll undoubtedly having some people looking to him to guide them into the future. Just as surely as he’ll have some blaming him for a truth that could threaten them all. Any way you cut it, Jeremy has big shoes to fill. And not just because Marsden was such a presence in Paradise‘s first season that he’ll absolutely be missed.
Going through such an apocalyptic event at such a formative time would surely shape the younger generation in ways we can’t even conceive. I really hope we get to see them step into their own power next season. I’d love to see Jeremy become the leader his dad wanted to be. I’d love to see Presley’s strength and determination, after having been an unwitting pawn last season. In a very real, very concrete sense, these characters are the future for the world of Paradise. I’d love to begin to see what kind of future they plan to create.
5. Questions and Answers
In a strange sense, “who killed Cal Bradford” was actually the least interesting mystery to me, by the end of the show’s first season. Which isn’t to say that it wasn’t a good mystery, or that it wasn’t handled very well. But the show did such a good job of building mystery on top of mystery on top of mystery. There were enough twists and turns throughout the season that the “big mystery” was just one of many.
I have no idea what mystery – or mysteries – will be unveiled in Paradise season 2. Or how many surprises we’ll encounter along the way, as we search for answers. But every one of them was handled so well last season, giving all the characters involved such humanity. I can’t wait to see what the writers have in store. I have no doubt, whatever it is…I won’t see it coming.
I want another season with so many twists and turns that I forget once again to even try to solve the big mystery. Until the answer smacks me right in the face and I realize the crumbs leading to the solution were there all along. And if I could get at least one more episode that makes me curse in amazement, shock, stress, and awe like “The Day” last season? If any show can pull it off, it’s this one.
DON’T WANT:
Don’t Show Or Tell
Which brings me to the one thing I don’t want to see next season. While we will reportedly be getting an episode focused on her character and backstory, I don’t want any real insight at all into why Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom) is the way she is. I don’t want to see her tragic (or not) life before the tsunami. I don’t want to know if she was a monster born or made.
The thing that makes Driscoll so terrifying as a villain is that she’s so damn cold and ruthless, and she turns it on and off so easily. Her mystery is part of what makes her so effective for the audience. How could she kill Billy (Jon Beavers) so easily? She totally would have killed Presley, right? She really took Sinatra out for an X-Box? Are you kidding me???
Billy’s death was so poignant because we saw how he came to be a man who would do almost anything at Sinatra’s orders. Driscoll is such a potent threat because she’s such an enigma. We don’t know why she is who and what she is, and that means she can be (and do) anything. And that’s terrifying.
Driscoll is one mystery I hope the show doesn’t solve next season. As for everything else? Sign me up, show.
