‘Paradise’ Season 2, Episode 4 “A Holy Charge” Review: Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

It wouldn’t be a season of Paradise if it didn’t make me ugly sob at least once. Paradise Season 2, Episode 4 “A Holy Charge” heard that challenge and said, “Hold my beer.” I am not okay. This show makes me not okay. But this episode also gave me a message I didn’t even know I needed at the exact moment I needed it. So I guess I can’t be mad about it.

Before I jump into the review, I’m going to give a quick warning that I’m going to discuss some fan speculation about the season at the end of this review. There won’t be spoilers for things yet to come, just speculation. But if you want to avoid speculation for some reason, you’ll want to skip that portion of this review.

A Much-Needed Message

On its face, the titular message Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) gives Annie (Shailene Woodley) is…well…a little silly. But Brown is able to convey the message with just the right amount of sincerity – and maybe just a little tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment at the end that it could be a little cheesy. Honestly, the message resonated with me.

I think anyone who’s aware of…well, almost anything going on in the world today would find it hard not to relate to Annie’s cynicism and fear. It can be a terrifying world. When she spoke about bringing her child into a world of storms and pain, rather than “living life out loud,” I sympathized with her fear. I’ve felt her fear.

But Xavier is right. We have to still believe that there is good in the world. Even when it seems like we’re stuck in the darkness. We have to believe in the capacity for people to love, for people to change. Guarding yourself against evil doesn’t mean denying the potential for good.

It was a beautiful message. Delivered in a beautiful scene. At the exact moment, I think a lot of people could stand to hear it. Honestly, that brief interaction between Xavier and Annie may well end up being one of my favorites in the series.

Love Lost and Found

This whole season has showcased the juxtaposition of life on the surface versus life in the bunker. Unsurprisingly, the season’s fourth episode did the same. This time, we got to see two new lives coming into the world. The baby born on the surface lost its mother. The baby born in the bunker had access to the best healthcare. Since it was in a flashback, it was even born with the assistance of the former President Bradford (James Marsden).

As an aside, I was skeptical about Cal remaining on the show this season. Obviously, flashbacks are a big part of the show, so keeping him on the cast wasn’t impossible. But sometimes, attachment to a “gimmick” can reduce story quality. I feared that the show would be so attached to flashbacks just to keep Marsden around, the writers would “force” them. I should have had more faith in the show, because that hasn’t been the case.

Cal is definitely…flawed. He isn’t perfect. But this episode reminded us that he is fundamentally good at heart. His care and compassion for a bunker resident who was pregnant, scared, and alone were genuine. Marsden is utterly perfect in the role.

Back to the contrasting childbirth scenes. Calvin’s birth was far from smooth. His heart rate dropped. He needed to be born via emergency C-section. This story hit hard for me. But because he had access to the best of healthcare, everyone was okay. Annie’s baby, however? Well, the baby’s okay, but Annie didn’t make it. As even she said, the smallest things on the surface can kill you. And childbirth is far from the smallest thing.

I’m going to ignore the question of how Xavier plans to feed a newborn in the post-apocalyptic world. Heck, maybe they even showed it. I might have missed it because I was sobbing pretty much non-stop from Annie’s death (Woodley is good) to the end of the episode.

Thanks for that, Paradise. I have something to talk about with my therapist now.

Oh No, They Didn’t

Speaking of therapy…excuse me, Paradise? EXCUSE ME? The ending didn’t mean what it sounds like it means, does it? There’s no way this show would get me all invested (well…even more invested) in Xavier and Teri (Enuka Okuma) only to take her away.

Look, I’m going to need this show to stop emotionally compromising me like this. Between Teri potentially being dead (or, I don’t know…abducted by aliens?) and Annie’s death, I am not okay. And that’s before we even get to Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) breaking my heart.

I always feel like I have to preface my thoughts about Sinatra by “Yes, I know she’s bad. No, I don’t entirely care. I love her anyway.” But maybe if fan speculation turns out to be true, I won’t have to say that much longer? We’ll get to that in a bit.

The point is, my heart breaks for her. It’s also a testament to Cal’s kindness that he was aware of how hard the birth of a new child in the bunker would be on her. But things there aren’t entirely what they seem, it appears. Sinatra has a plan. (Who is surprised? She always has a plan.) I don’t know how she plans to get Calvin living on the surface. Except…well, I guess it’s time to get into fan theories and speculation.

Speculation Abounds

I am certain that there is plenty of speculation about the show. I confess I’m not in the Discord chats (or wherever) discussing said speculation, so I’m sure I don’t know everything that’s out there. But I’ve come across a theory or two as a member of the fandom.

Admittedly, when I first came across these theories, I thought they were a little too out there. I don’t even know why. I’ve been in fandom long enough that I should know better than to doubt their theories. Is this enough space that anyone who didn’t want to be here for the speculation has moved on? Let’s say so and get to the heart of things.

The most prevalent theory that I’ve come across is that Alex (the thing Link (Thomas Doherty) wants to kill) has to do with time travel or quantum entanglement…alternate reality…somethings. This theory really threw me at first, because Paradise doesn’t seem to really be that kind of show. But then it seemed like maybe Teri is dead? (There are a couple ways to interpret that last line. That’s certainly one of them.) And now I think Paradise had better be that kind of show.

There are a lot of things about the show that feed into the theory. Too much for me to go into here. Feel free to go down that rabbit hole yourselves. (And if you do, please loop me in because I am invested now.) But there do seem to be moments when people know things before they should. Things like Billy’s (Jon Beavers) reaction to the comment about the bar in the last episode. As well as his nosebleed after he’d been handed a tissue.

Actually, the nosebleeds seem to be a big part of it. The idea, as far as I’ve gathered, is that the nosebleeds happen when something is “changed.” It happened to Xavier right before he crashed the plane. (So he could find Annie?) It happened to Link when he was trying to convince Annie to go with him. (So that Annie would stay and be there to save Xavier?) It happened to Billy…when he decided not to kill Link?

And this episode did confirm that Xavier is remembering things that haven’t happened…yet? He has no idea who Link is, but he has a clear memory of him. (As for Link, there are separate theories about him that might explain why he doesn’t have any knowledge of Elvis songs or the movie Jaws. I’m not sold on any of those quite yet, but I’m certain there’s more to his lack of knowledge than meets the eye.)

It’s a fascinating theory. And as I delve into the episodes, I’m increasingly convinced fans might be onto something. In which case, maybe Sinatra isn’t really the bad guy she seems. Yes, she’s committed murder. Well…had it committed. But if you thought any murders would be undone via time travel, is that really evil? Even if they aren’t undone, we’re again back to the question of whether one life is worth saving billions. It’s an interesting moral quandary. But, then again, Sinatra is an interestingly morally ambiguous character.

I don’t know if fan theories are true or not. Although, like I said, if Teri actually is dead? They darn well better be.

What did you think of Paradise Season 2, Episode 4, “A Holy Charge?” Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

New episodes of Paradise Season 2 are available to stream on Hulu on Mondays.