Paradise Season 2, Episode 1 Review: This Season Is Off With a Bang

Paradise was the best new show of the year last year. (Don’t even try to argue with me because I’m right.) It’s been a long wait, anticipating the second season premiere. But if fans were concerned that the sophomore season couldn’t live up to its mind-blowing predecessor, Season 2, Episode 1″Graceland,” put any such fears to rest.

I admit, I sat on “Graceland” a little bit before jumping into it for this review. Not because I wasn’t excited. But Paradise has such short seasons. Only seven episodes, with the first three dropping all at once. On the one hand, I want all of them right now immediately. On the other hand, I want to draw them out a little. Mull them over in my mind. Savor them.

I wondered if the season premiere would feel somewhat the same. Would it ease us back into this post-apocalyptic world of underhanded (and underworld) shenanigans? Or would it throw us right in the deep end? Well, the show only has seven episodes to tell its story, and I have no doubt they’ll need every second of them. So it shouldn’t be surprising that “Graceland” grabs viewers by the throat from the jump and doesn’t let go until the end credits roll.

But I know what you’re thinking: “Who are you, Link and Annie? Enough foreplay! Get to the good stuff already!” All right, all right.

Polk Salad Annie

Using the same storytelling mechanic implemented last year, “Graceland” tells us the story from a new person’s perspective. This episode was about a newcomer to the show, Annie (Shailene Woodley). Annie was a bit…well…broken before the cataclysmic eruption that sent the “last” of humanity’s survivors underground. It shouldn’t be a surprise that two years barely scraping out an existence, completely on her own, did her mental health no favors.

But as it turns out, she isn’t on her own. She’s joined this episode by a gang of bikers, who are roaming the country to decommission abandoned nuclear power plants. You know, to avoid a meltdown that takes out whatever survivors surface-bound there are left.

Well, at least that’s what they say. Unsurprisingly, given the show in question, they actually have an ulterior purpose. More on that in a moment.

Woodley really carried the episode, even in scenes where she was solo. (Her loss of fellow survivor Gayle was particularly gutting. More than one would expect, given how little time we got to know the two before her friend succumbed to infection.) She may be broken and afraid. But she’s resourceful, and she’s smart. And she survived something few people in the world undoubtedly did. Outside of the obvious, I don’t know what new problems she’ll bring to Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) and the other characters in their underground comparative utopia. But I can’t wait to find out.

(Incidentally, when I looked up Elvis song titles for this review, I found this section’s title. Yes, that’s a real song, and yes, I have no doubt that’s where the character’s name came from. But “Polk Salad Annie?” Really? Really? Paraphrasing one of Presley’s (Aliyah Mastin) comments last season: “Maybe losing everything in the world wasn’t too bad.)

Such a Night

Woodley really shines this episode. In all her unkempt glory. I have to give kudos to the makeup and hair department. They really did try to make her look like someone who hadn’t seen the sun – let alone another person – in two years. No perfectly coiffed hair (until the dinner scene, when it’s intentionally done). No obviously lined eyes with perfectly extended eyelashes. And no razors in sight. It’s a post-apocalyptic world that feels post-apocalyptic when you look at the characters.

Well…okay. Maybe her clothes are a little too clean. (But she lives in Graceland and has been picking over the abandoned 70’s-era attire, so I’ll let that pass because I’m willing to believe there is plenty of attire to pick from.) And who knows how she’s been washing…any part of her, let alone her face. But still. They have someone who survived an apocalyptic event, and she doesn’t look like she just stepped off the set of an Herbal Essences shampoo ad. I appreciated the effort.

I also loved how the show handled the passage of time. The immediate aftermath is told in tiny snippets. Enough to get a sense of the horror and hopelessness of the first few days. And the isolation and pervasive cold of the days that came after. At a certain point, did it matter if it had been 20 days or 200? Every day seemed like it would be the same. Until finally the sun returned.

In a sense, “Graceland” reminded me of the 1982 TV movie All Summer In a Day, based on a Ray Bradbury story. I felt Annie’s disbelief and wonder at seeing the sun again after two years in the dark and cold. Sunshine wasn’t something ordinary, taken for granted. It was something miraculous. Almost impossible to believe, in fact, after such a long time. It truly was like the viewers were with Annie as she looked out the window to a new, unfamiliar world.

As much as I wanted her to join her newfound friends at the end of this episode, I could also understand why she stayed behind. She’d carved out a tiny sliver of peace in the aptly-named Graceland mansion. How could she walk away from that to see what remained of the rest of the world?

Would you be able to survive the end of the world? And, if by some miracle you did, would you be brave enough to leave the only sanctuary you’d really known? Frankly, I’m not sure I would.

Can’t Help Falling in Love

Not that she wasn’t tempted. And, man, I can’t say I blame her.

I’ve intentionally avoided as many spoilers as possible for this show. Paradise is a series that is best when you don’t see anything coming. So I really didn’t know what to expect from Link (Thomas Doherty) or his crew. (Imagine how thrilled I was to see Chef (Timothy Omundson)! I love him, and I’m so thrilled whenever I see him in things.)

Of course, as soon as he walked in looking realistically-yet-also-somehow-artistically disheveled, I knew his pants weren’t going to stay on all episode. No matter how much his bushy beard might be reminiscent of Charles Manson. I mean, come on. It had been two years. A gal’s got needs. Even if her definition of “foreplay” involves a concussion.

I really love how Paradise takes the occasional moment to linger on what has been lost from the world. I’m not talking about the dinnertime “what do you miss, what do you not miss” quiz. Although I couldn’t help but wonder what I would answer. But, really, I found the moment that Link sat at the piano to be even more poignant.

It’s not hard to imagine that the old, out-of-tune instrument was probably the first piano Link had seen since the tsunami hit. His fingers weren’t entirely certain on the keys, hitting at least one wrong note. But those few seconds of playing were a reminder – to him, of the life that he lived before; to the viewers, of the beauty in the world that had since been lost.

Are there piano players in Paradise? If you were choosing the last 25,000 humans on Earth, would you choose musicians? What would we lose as a species if you did not?

Lonesome Tonight

So, yes, Link and Annie’s one night of passion seemed pretty much inevitable from the start. Not that I’m complaining. Link seems like a good guy. I say seems because the episode also established he’s never seen Jaws and knows no Elvis Presley songs. Okay, Elvis is a bit below his time, but still. I’m not entirely convinced he’s not an alien from another planet, infiltrating humanity for his own reasons. Though why they’d pick this precise moment in human history is unclear.

That said, Paradise doesn’t really do things for no reason. These glimpses into the pop culture he references – and that which he doesn’t – probably hint at some deep, dark secret about his past and who he was before. He references 80’s to 90’s pop-culture and video games that at least originated in that period. So, he was…kept in an underground bunker? In a coma for the last couple of decades? I’m working on a theory, here!

Whatever kept him so out of the loop culturally, he has more obvious secrets. Like his hypertension (which I imagine is the cause of his “attack” at the end of the episode) And who exactly Alex is, and why Link wants her (him?) killed.

Was I the only one who started desperately racking my brain, trying to think of who Alex might be? It seems like it’ll be too obvious if it’s someone new. But, then again, maybe the “who” won’t be the question this season so much as the “why.” Why would Link hate someone so much that he’d want to hunt them down to kill them, when everyday existence seemed already like something of a lost cause?

I have to confess to a certain level of respect for holding a beef, even after the end of the world. The opening to Love Actually would have you believe that, in our darkest hours, humans choose love. I have a little respect for people who go, “You know? The world is ending in 10 minutes and/or has kinda already ended, and I still say fuck that guy. This beef will survive the apocalypse.”

Link is my kind of people.

As for the pregnancy at the end? Yeah, Xavier’s going to have a pretty large problem on his hands. In the not-too-distant future, by the looks of it. I can only imagine the quandary he’ll find himself in next episode. “On the one hand, I really want to find my wife. Right this freaking minute. On the other hand…what was that sound? She’s not having the baby right this freaking minute, is she? Oh, hell no. We’re going back to the bunker to find someone with medical training. Immediately.”

All Most joking aside, my initial thought was that it’s pretty darn (in)convenient that Annie would get pregnant after only one night. Then again, she has survived the apparent end of the world – or close to it. I’m not a biologist or anything, but I imagine if anything would cause your hormones to hit the roof and ovulation to kick in 24/7, it would be the apocalypse. Nothing says “biological imperative” like being one of the last of your species.

If that’s the case…Well, I hope there’s more than one OBGYN underground, because they’re going to be needed.

But this time, I really do mean “all joking aside” when I say that I really do love how Paradise handled the lead-up to the lovemaking. Woodley and Doherty had fantastic chemistry, but I’ve rarely seen a show so succinctly convey the intimacy in a simple, non-sexual touch. Of course, Annie had been without physical touch from another person for years, so her reaction was completely understandable. But between the acting and the directing, the whole scene in The Jungle Room felt more intimate than the lovemaking that came after.

On the subject of lovemaking, however, I couldn’t help but compare the sex scene in “Graceland” to the one between Xavier and Dr. Torabi (Sarah Shahi) in the first season. If anything juxtaposed the difference between Xavier’s and Annie’s post-apocalyptic experiences, it would be that.

Xavier and Gabriela made love in the shower; it felt very much like a typical TV lovemaking scene. Paradise may be underground, but for the people living there, life more or less has carried on as usual. For Annie and Link, however, it was very much a comparison of battle scars and the wounds – physical and mental – they carry from surviving on the surface. Link’s broken hand and bruises. An unexplained scar along the line of his spine. Annie has comparatively unmarred skin, but her inability to escape her place of mental strength and security. Even though part of her really, really wanted to.

Anyone who knows me knows I came into Paradise‘s second season premiere, “Graceland,” wanting to know all about Xavier’s search for his wife. But as the episode aired, I actually forgot for a while what show I was watching and that there were characters I was already invested in. To the point where I genuinely was surprised to see Xavier at the end of the episode. “Annie, don’t go out there! You don’t know what…wait, who is that? … OH! RIGHT! Xavier! The star of the show!”

It’s a really, really good show that gets you so invested in new characters that you temporarily forget that you showed up to see the ones you already love. And Paradise? Paradise is one of the best.

What did you think of Paradise Season 2, Episode 1, “Graceland?” Sound off in the comments below!

The first 3 episodes of Paradise Season 2 are now available to stream on Hulu.