Damn it, Paradise. Why do you have to do this to me?
To be fair, as quickly as the season’s first episode grabbed me by the throat, I wasn’t really expecting its second episode to go easy on me. But paralleling the series’ second episode? The episode that both shattered my heart and made me a die-hard Paradise fan? Yeah, “Mayday,” You didn’t need to go THAT hard.
Also, if this episode convinced you to join me in shipping Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) and Teri (Enuka Okuma) hardcore? Welcome to the club. We have t-shirts.
MORE: Already watched the next episode? Read our review for Paradise Season 2 Episode 3 “Another Day in Paradise.”
Finding Heaven
The season’s first episode, “Graceland,” focused on newcomer Annie. But the second episode, “Mayday,” brought us back home to the star – and heart – of the show, Xavier. Now, I loved Xavier in the first season. I even fell for him and Teri in the tiny snippets of their history that the season gave us. (Yeah, their chemistry and the writing were that good.) But however much I loved them before is nothing compared to how I feel about them now.
But before I go gushing about these two…and, believe me, they are so worth it…I do need to talk a bit about the juxtaposition of “Mayday” to “Sinatra.” As I wrote above, “Sinatra” is really the episode that got me hooked on the series. It is also the episode that made me love the series’ antagonist more than a little. (Yes, I know she’s a bad person doing bad things. But my heart also breaks for her.)
Like “Sinatra,” “Mayday” spends a good deal of time in a hospital room. Only instead of showing a heart being shattered, “Mayday” shows us two hearts finding each other. If Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) recreated her son’s version of heaven underground, Xavier and Teri found their own slice of heaven in his tiny, daily acts of service to a virtual stranger. Quietly and methodically putting all of her belongings in exactly the right place, to give her a sense of security in her temporary darkness.
Yeah…I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait too long before I jumped into how much I love these two together. But the point is, Paradise is brilliant in making these parallels. Of course, given how much “Sinatra” destroyed me emotionally, I could have done without the reminder. But that doesn’t mean the reminder wasn’t brilliant.
Now, I’ve done my due diligence in discussing some technicalities. If I don’t get to gush about my new favorite ship soon, my heart is going to explode.
MORE: Need a reminder where Season 2 of Paradise started? Read our review for “Graceland” here.
Xeri?
Look, I’m really going to need show runners to keep ship name portmanteaus in mind when they go naming characters. I guess Xeri is going to have to be the name of this ship, because Tavier is just weird. (It’s also a little weird that the best ship I’ve seen on television in years comes from a show where one-half of the ship was long presumed dead in an apocalyptic event. I’m not complaining. I’m just acknowledging that it’s weird.)
If anyone could watch these two together and not fall instantly in love, I don’t even want to know you. I think we all had a sense from the first season that Teri was out of Xavier’s league. I mean, even Xavier knew Teri was out of his league. But “Mayday” cemented that she’s been out of his league from the very first second they met. They knew it. The nurse knew it. Everyone knew it. And I absolutely. Adore. Them.
I suppose if one might criticize anything about this ship on its surface, it would be that meeting Xavier seems to have derailed Teri’s plans a little. But I think that’s not entirely accurate. Yes, meeting Xavier clearly did change Teri’s plans. She hadn’t planned on marriage, and she hadn’t planned on kids. (Then again, after meeting Xavier, could you blame her for doing some reassessing?) And in a lesser show, the tale might begin and end with the protagonist’s love interest giving everything up for him.
Paradise isn’t a lesser show, though, and the story isn’t just about Teri changing because of Xavier. Xavier also changed because he met Teri. He’d planned to break records in training, and he put all of that on pause so he could be with her every morning. Helping to keep her from spiraling into fear and anxiety. Giving her a sense of security and hope. Just being with her.
And maybe that seems like a little sacrifice by comparison to all of Teri’s plans, but it isn’t about the records. It’s about how Xavier chooses Teri. Every time. All the time. He barely even knew her, and he chose her. She tried to push him away, and he chose her. (With a cocky little “hot guy” grin, no less.) After the end of the world, he’s still choosing her. And, even after choosing Xavier in turn, Teri still got to fly (as my mother would say). She got to live her dreams. Her dreams might have changed a little, but we saw last season that Xavier couldn’t convince her to do anything she didn’t want to do. Include staying behind.
I love Xavier and Teri this episode because…okay, yes, I love that Teri has Xavier on his toes from the very first moment. (Anyone else willing to bet that throwing Jell-O at him became a regular thing in their marriage?) I love his tiny, quiet acts of service that he does for her. Not expecting her to ever know about it. Certainly not expecting her to ever fall in love with him for it. But because he is offering her whatever tiny amount of peace he can. And, seeing that, can you blame Teri for falling for him?
This ship may not be the central focus of the show, but it has my entire heart. Because we see these two people choosing each other. We see why. And, honestly, after seeing Xavier light up around his future wife, we couldn’t imagine wanting to see him with anyone else.
I know Annie (Shailene Woodley) told Xavier at the end of the episode that they’re not going to go find his wife. But yes, they freaking are. Because I need to see the reunion between these two. My heart needs it.
Child’s Play
STERLING K. BROWN
“Mayday” didn’t just parallel “Sinatra” in its hospital scenes. In a way, they took the loss of “Sinatra” and flipped it on its head. In the earlier episode, we saw what happens to a mother after the loss of a child. In this episode, we see how children band together to survive after the loss of their parents.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Paradise has left me wondering more than once about how I would survive a similar apocalypse. If I were to survive a similar apocalypse. I have no particular grand illusions about my survivalist skills; I was a terrible Girl Scout. So I have my doubts. But I’m also a mother, so, yes, I’ve spent a little time pondering how I would ensure my daughter would survive. Even if I could not. And, of course, that’s a parent’s deepest wish: that their children will outlive them.
But, man. Outliving your parents might be the natural order of things, but “Mayday” reminds us that it doesn’t mean it’s not tragic. Especially outliving your parents that young. When Xavier learned that one of the children closes his eyes all the time because he’s imagining his parents’ faces, trying not to forget them? Gutted, I tell you. Gutted.
It’s a hard world, life on the surface. And the kids may be young, but that doesn’t mean they’re soft. They know enough to hide from other scavengers at the crash site. And they know to cover a dead body to cover their tracks. Somehow, they’ve survived on their own for years in a cold and desolate wasteland. So maybe, after leaving Xavier and taking all his supplies, they’ll find a way to be okay.
But looking in their eyes…they were still so young. I hope this isn’t the last we see of them. I hope Xavier finds them and is able to take them all to the bunker. They aren’t helpless, but my heart breaks at the thought of them being all alone. And yet, I also know in the world if Paradise…they aren’t. There are undoubtedly other packs of near-feral children roaming about the surface. Xavier can’t save them all.
Seeing the kind of man he is, though? I have no doubt he’s going to try. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens next. (Also, I can’t wait to find out how he knew Link (Thomas Doherty). Because he was imagining Link. And I’m really going to need the show to assure me that “Alex” isn’t Xavier’s middle name.)
The first three episodes of Paradise Season 2 are now available to stream on Hulu.
