If there are two things that everyone accepts will survive the end of the world, it’s cockroaches and Twinkies. Paradise Season 2, Episode 5 “The Mailman” makes a pretty persuasive argument that “Nice Guys” may also survive the apocalypse. Well. If that isn’t a comforting thought.
As far as episodes go, “The Mailman” seemed an odd fit in such a short season. It wasn’t quite filler, since it definitely moved Xavier’s (Sterling K. Brown) plot forward. However, a full episode seems a surprising amount of time to spend on Gary (Cameron Britton) when there is so much going on. I had to sit a while, mulling over the episode, before I came to my own theory as to why the show gave us an episode like “The Mailman.” But we’ll get to that.
Mycology
Paradise Season 2, Episode 5 gave us insight into how Xavier’s wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), survived The Day. But while it answered some questions, Teri wasn’t really the focus of the episode. Which is hardly a surprise, given the name of the episode. “The Mailman” was actually about Gary, a (seemingly) unassuming postal worker leading a rather unremarkable life.
Okay, look. We’re going to get to Gary. But before we jump in, I just have to say…Teri is a mycologist? She studies mushrooms? That’s what she was doing that sent her away from Xavier at just the wrong moment? That’s what she was going to do with her big plans, that falling in love with Xavier (slightly) derailed?
I’m not here to knock mycologists, because I’m sure they do important work. At the very least, I enjoy being able to make stroganoff with the comfort of knowing it won’t kill me. But girl. I have mushrooms in my backyard! I’m sure they have mushrooms in D.C., too. You did not need to go to Atlanta to study them!
Now, to give credit where it’s due, her background helped her make medicine for the rest of the survivors in the post office bunker. So, yes, her skills make her more apt to survive the end of days than mine. But if I were her kids, I’d never let her live down the fact that she missed the last plane to safety for some mushrooms.
Team Challenge
I mentioned the rest of the survivors in the post-office bunker. As it happens, Teri and Gary (wait a minute…really, show? That’s what you did?) weren’t the only two survivors. Apparently, doomsday prepping can really work out, because Gary and his online friend Enis had planned a bunker to save themselves from a zombie apocalypse. They’d figured out what supplies they would need and what kinds of skills would help facilitate their survival.
I confess I sometimes browse Paradise fan communities online. I have seen some complaints about Link (Thomas Doherty), commenting that most survivors had made it because they’d banded together in groups. I’m not quite sure I understand why people would be bothered by that line. It makes sense to me that your odds of survival would increase if you diversify skills and form a “pack” with others. A doctor can help you if you get hurt, but they can’t necessarily build you a shelter. A carpenter can build you a shelter, but maybe they aren’t the best suited to forage and/or hunt whatever food might be able to be found.
In that sense, Gary’s survival makes sense. His group included a gardener, carpenter, (hot) nurse, mechanic…they really thought out what skills would be the most useful.
Question Everything
If Paradise had 22-episode seasons, I wouldn’t have given an episode like “The Mailman” a second thought. It may feel a little bit like filler, contrasting Annie’s (Shailene Woodley) survival with how a group of people can band together to make it. But 22-episode seasons have time to fill. Paradise does not have anywhere near that many episodes. As interesting as the episode was as a study in group dynamics, it left the question as to why they spent so much time telling it.
My theory? “The Mailman” isn’t really about Gary. It’s a reminder to the audience. Trust nothing you’ve taken for granted. On first glance, Gary seems like…well, if not the best guy on the planet, at least a nice guy. With maybe a touch of Nice Guy in him. But even then, he seemed like a follower more than a leader. He didn’t suggest the “hot” nurse. He just agreed to it.
This episode spent a lot of time setting up the idea that Enis was the “bad guy” and Gary the “good guy.” Only to reveal in the last minute that this isn’t true. Nothing Gary said could be counted on to be true. (Except for the fact that he wants Teri. I don’t doubt that. I do doubt that he loves her, because what he’s feeling? It isn’t love.)
I do think we can trust what we see from the show. The “unreliable narrator” extends to what the characters say, but I think what we see is accurate. Just…incomplete. Since every episode tells one person’s story, we don’t necessarily get all sides of that story.
Where am I going with all this? Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson). I’m not the only one who thinks that we’re going to discover she’s not quite the bad guy we’ve assumed. Or even that she (intentionally) presents herself to be. Her hands certainly aren’t clean. But I think we’ll find she’s been pursuing the “greater good.” Her definition of it, at least. Not just acting to her own benefit.
Trust nothing you’ve been led to assume. Even about the characters you think you know well. Except for Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom). I’m pretty sure what you see is what you get, there. And what we see is…terrifying.
Nice Guys Finish First
For most of the episode, the audience (and Xavier) was told that Teri had been kidnapped for reasons unknown. Gary seemed like a decent – if slightly clingy – guy. He didn’t want guns in the post-office bunker. He saved a little boy who had been abused. Heck, he saved Teri, a random woman on the street.
But even while he seemed like a nice guy, there were hints of…something underneath. It was little moments. His warning to Teri on her first night…was he being honest? Or was he subtly manipulating her to trust him and not Enis? (Granted, he wasn’t entirely wrong about Enis’s feelings about her.) His attempt to push boundaries and go for a kiss, even though he knew Teri was convinced her husband survived and could be reached.
Although at first, I wondered if I was reading too much into it. In the outside world, Gary might come off as a little bit sketchy, but they’re also in an unimaginable situation. Plus, maybe I was conflating Gary with Britton’s eerily good depiction of serial killer Ed Gein on Mindhunter.
Until those last few seconds, when we discover that Enis didn’t betray his friends. Gary was actually the betrayer. He killed his friend just for pointing out that Teri was about to leave to find her husband. Maybe it could be argued that he didn’t do so intentionally. He seemed to be in something of a daze when he pulled the trigger. But everything that came after? The lies to Xavier? The manipulation to get his help “rescuing” Teri? None of that is an accident.
Those last few seconds of the episode make the viewer rethink everything. Gary isn’t a nice guy who saved a kid and a stranger on the street from the goodness of his heart. He knew an extinction-level event was coming, and he wanted to build a makeshift family. He doesn’t want Xavier’s help freeing Teri. Teri undoubtedly fled to the train with Bean upon learning that Gary shot Enis. He’s trying to take her back.
Annie v. Xavier
As a side note, I do think that the show did a pretty good job of hiding just how imposing Britton is, until the scene where Xavier and Gary shake hands and join forces. Of course, I knew the actor was tall (reportedly 6’5″). But seeing him next to Xavier, I had the first moment that I thought someone might actually be able to take the hero of our story in a fight. And it is going to come down to a fight, because there’s no way Gary lets Teri go anywhere with her husband.
Gary shouldn’t rule Xavier out, though. We saw last season that nothing gets in Xavier’s way when he’s determined. And right now, he’s determined to get his family back together. Gary might get the jump on him because Xavier bought his story, but he’d better hope his first strike is his last. Xavier won’t give him another.
Which brings us full circle, in a sense. If last week’s episode, “A Holy Charge” showed us the value of Xavier’s trust, “The Mailman” showed us the value of Annie’s cynicism. In “A Holy Charge,” Xaveir put his faith in some rather untrustworthy-seeming people. They turned out to be good people. They saved Annie’s baby’s life and did everything they could to save her, as well.
“The Mailman,” by contrast, presented us with a person who seemed…if not entirely good then at least not a villain for 99% of the episode. Only to prove in the end that sometimes trust genuinely is misplaced.
Here’s hoping Xavier truly believes the words he told Annie last week: “You can guard against the worst of people while still believing in the best.” Xavier, keep your guard up.
Who do you trust after Paradise Season 2, Episode 5 “The Mailman”? Let us know in the comments!
New episodes of Paradise drop weekly on Hulu on Mondays.
