In episode 6 of Paradise, season 2, we got a peek into Jane’s backstory, where it was revealed that she was suffering from some serious psychological issues, which were probably genetic, a result of bad parenting, or something supernatural. Yes, supernatural; because when Jane was born, a random computer repair guy was contacted by Alex via email and his pager, and warned that that kid would turn out to be a killer and the only way to stop her was by delivering a message to her. Credit where credit is due, the guy did try to complete the task he was given; he reached the hospital where Jane was born, and he even got in touch with Jane’s mother. But since he looked like a crazy guy who was accusing a newborn baby of growing up to be a killer, he was removed from the premises, and he never got to deliver Alex’s message to Jane or her mother.
Jane was apparently aware of her multiple-personality disorder and mommy issues, which was why she had latched on to Sinatra for guidance. Sinatra assigned Jane to set up a meeting with Link, and she pulled that off pretty smoothly, thereby reforging their relationship, which had been broken by Xavier’s antics in Season 1. Gabriela was onto whatever Sinatra and Jane were doing, though, and she essentially warned both of them that she’d expose it even if it came at the cost of her own life. Meanwhile, on the surface, in Atlanta, Xavier tried to infiltrate the armed convoy that, according to Gary, was holding Teri captive. However, when Xavier was this close to executing his plan to save Teri, Gary tried to kill him by detonating the bomb that Xavier intended to use on the convoy. Xavier barely survived this betrayal, and when the dust settled, he saw Teri emerging from the convoy, not as a prisoner but as a member of that group. What does that mean? Let’s talk about episode 7 and find out.
Spoiler Alert
Xavier Reunites With Teri, Finally
As Teri approaches Xavier, who is still coming to his senses after that explosion Gary set off, members of the armed convoy stop her in her tracks, not because they are holding her captive, but because they don’t know who Xavier is. Teri is clearly a member of that convoy now, and they don’t want her to get close to a guy who, from the looks of it, has tried to destroy the convoy with a bomb. Some other guys pick up Xavier from the ground and point guns at him so that he doesn’t try to do anything shifty, which prompts Xavier to go full Jason Bourne on them. Teri manages to calm Xavier down, and she tells him that Dakota (the leader of the convoy) and her crew are headed to Colorado to get to the bunker; they are not the enemy, they are actually friendly. When Gary detonated that bomb, Xavier knew that his intentions were not positive, but after reuniting with Teri and meeting Dakota, he is sure that Gary is the villain in this particular situation. However, before getting to deal with Gary, Xavier goes for a debriefing session with Dakota so that the convoy has a better understanding of what they’ll be dealing with once they reach the bunker in Colorado. That’s also when Teri receives a note from Gary, which states that he has Bean in his custody. Once Dakota is done extracting every piece of information that she needs from Xavier, she lets Teri catch up with her husband.
Xavier and Teri Plan to Rescue Bean
It seems like Dakota’s conversation with Xavier was one-sided, because he didn’t get the opportunity to ask her what she and her crew intend to do at the bunker in Colorado. So, when he meets Teri again, he asks her what Dakota and her team’s mission is. Instead of answering that, Teri asks Xavier to help her out with the current issue she’s staring at: rescuing Bean from Gary’s clutches. Xavier knows who Bean is; he knows how much Teri cares about Bean; and he hates Gary’s guts for almost preventing him from reuniting with his wife. So, without wasting another second, Teri and Xavier head to Gary’s lair. Dakota gives Xavier a gun and tells the husband-and-wife duo to deal with Gary quickly, because their train will leave for Colorado in the next few hours. While heading to the USPS office, Xavier gives Teri a brief recap of the events that happened in Season 1. Before he can tell her about the major Season 2 update, and by that I mean Annie’s baby, their conversation veers into the topic of how they are going to deal with Gary. Teri obviously wants to have a chat with him and convince him to let go of Bean, but Xavier wants to put a bullet in his head and rescue Bean. They reach a middle ground, where Teri will go into the USPS office to talk to Gary, while Xavier will be perched on the opposite building with Gary in his crosshairs so that if he makes one wrong move, Xavier will take him out.
Gary Lets Go Of Bean and Teri
Surprisingly enough, Xavier and Teri’s plan goes well. To be honest, there were a few moments where it seemed like things could have gone sideways because Gary wasn’t taking the news of Teri leaving well. Eventually, though, he understood that it was pointless to hold on to Teri, and he came to terms with the fact that she was better off with Xavier, that she should go to her family in Colorado, and that Bean should go with them too, because he wasn’t in the right mental state to take care of a child. I think this is the last that we’ll see of Gary, and that’s fine because he served as a great minor antagonist. I would have empathized with him if he hadn’t literally killed Ennis and almost murdered Xavier. Right now, I’m just glad that his chapter has come to an end, and I hope he drops his obsession with Teri and works on himself before the world goes up in flames (so that he doesn’t regret dying a loser and an incel). Anyway, on their way back to the train, Xavier reveals to Teri that Bean isn’t the only kid that they’ll need to look after; Annie’s baby is going to be a part of their family as well. We see Xavier and Teri sitting in the train that’s headed to Colorado, and Xavier is woken up from his slumber by a nosebleed. Now, what might be the reason for that? I don’t know for sure, because I am not the writer of the series, but I have a couple of theories.
Xavier Is In An Alternate Universe
Later on in the show, it’s insinuated that Link is from an alternate universe, and the people in this universe, whose alt-universe versions are in some way connected to Link, experience nosebleeds when they come near him or touch him. So, it’s possible that the alt-universe version of Xavier was Link’s friend, and the two of them had raided Project Alex in the bunker (the corridor leading to Project Alex in this universe is the same one that Xavier sees in his visions). The two of them got separated at some point, and now, whenever Link and this universe’s Xavier get close to each other, the latter gets a nosebleed. But Link and Xavier are too far away, so how can they affect each other? I thought that since Annie’s baby is also Link’s baby, maybe she’s causing the nosebleeds in Xavier (because Annie’s baby is a mix of both universes). Since that sounds too far-fetched, my final proposal is that Xavier is actually in an alternate universe altogether. Yeah, that’s right. When Xavier was flying to Atlanta and he experienced that hailstorm, he flew in through a portal. I am guessing that every time Sinatra opens Project Alex and accesses the multiverse, it causes anomalies all over the USA (something like what we’ve seen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, except the anomalies were restricted to Brooklyn); and by anomaly, I mean a wormhole. And I think Xavier flew in through that wormhole and is in an alternate universe, whose storyline is so similar to that of his own that neither he nor his wife have figured out that they are interacting with alt-universe versions of their loved ones. Since Xavier’s system hasn’t adjusted to this realm, he gets nosebleeds. Well, that’s the best I’ve got; if you have an alternate theory, let me know in the comments section below.
Cal Foreshadows Paradise’s Worst Day
During a flashback sequence, set 6 years prior to the events unfolding in the present day, Anders is seen giving Sinatra and Cal a tour of the technology that will be running Paradise. Cal is undeniably impressed by the sheer scale and scope of this project, while Sinatra is satisfied with how the project is progressing, but Cal fears that this underground bunker won’t be humanity’s savior, but its tomb. Sinatra assures Cal that he shouldn’t be second-guessing this project, because it’ll save the human race (or the select few Americans who’ll be allowed to enter the bunker) from extinction. During the closing moments of that tour, Cal asks Anders and Sinatra what’s going to happen if the bunker experiences oxygen loss and a siege at the same time. Anders says that the chances of that happening are so small that they don’t need to worry about it. When Anders notices that Cal is worrying anyway, he assures him that the bunker’s security system is prepared to deal with any reasonable catastrophe. Does that calm Cal’s mind? As evident by the long rant he performs in front of Sinatra, where he lists down all the empires and sports teams that thought that they had covered all the bases and were invincible only to lose miserably, no, Cal isn’t convinced that the bunker is the most foolproof thing in existence. Cal says that even though humans think they can beat the apocalypse, based on how things are going, our reign will come to an end. Sinatra says she won’t let that happen.
Gabriela Suspects Jane Will Kill Her
In the present day, Sinatra gets ready for her meeting with Link. Tim tries to help Sinatra with her choice of clothing, but it blows up into a verbal battle about how Tim has moved on from their son, Dylan’s death (who would have been 26 by now, as per Tim), which is why he can be a good parent to Hadley, while Sinatra still hasn’t moved on, which is why she can focus on her job but never be present for her family. Sinatra is glad that the love of her life is doing okay, but at the same time, she is envious of him, because she can’t enjoy the peace that he experiences. Speaking of not experiencing any kind of peace, Gabriela seems to be spiraling out. She might have bravely confronted Jane, but since Robinson has told her that Jane is more dangerous than Sinatra, Gabriela now spends every waking moment of her life fearing that Jane is going to kill her as soon as she drops her guard. That fear is only worsened when Jane shows up at Gabriela’s doorstep to take her to the leadership meeting; Gabriela refuses to get in a car with Jane and opts to walk all the way to her office (as if that’s a safer option). Elsewhere in Paradise, Presley and Hadley are hacking into Sinatra’s office to search for the location of the underground prison (Hadley manages to give herself and Presley access to the elevators that go underground); meanwhile, Jeremy, Anders, and Robinson are headed to the area where the mechanisms that keep the bunker functional are housed.
Sinatra Prepares To Meet Link
Robinson finally learns that Jeremy and Anders are trying to open the bunker doors so that the denizens of the bunker can decide for themselves if they want to stay inside or live outside. Sadly, they don’t know that neither is it safe to be outside, nor is it safe to be inside, because the planet’s stabilizing phase is over; everything is going to get obliterated. I wonder why Anders doesn’t know that. He is the architect of this whole project. So, shouldn’t he know something about Sinatra’s secret, or what Alex is? Or is he aware of both of those things, and he is knowingly trying to sabotage it all? Well, unaware of this underground mission, Sinatra sits down with her cabinet members and soldiers to chalk out the plan for her meeting with Link. Peter Kato, one of the billionaires who is part of the board, advises against this meeting, and suggests that they go for a full lockdown. Sinatra doesn’t want to do that, because a full lockdown will put an immense amount of pressure on the power grid. This was the perfect opportunity for Kato or any of the other board members who are now aware of Sinatra’s side project to tell her that one of the biggest reasons why the power grid is so overworked is because she’s siphoning power from it for her own potentially nefarious purposes. However, I guess they are too afraid to do so, which is why the topic shifts to Jane and whether she should assist Sinatra on her trip to the great outdoors.
Sinatra Meets Link
Due to Gabriela’s intervention, Jane isn’t allowed to go with Sinatra, and she only gets to pass on the information she has gathered regarding Link and his associates to the soldiers who’ll be with Sinatra during the meeting. Gabriela then follows Sinatra into her office so that they can have an actual chat about Jane and the danger she poses. Gabriela actually asks Sinatra if she’s the one who asked Jane to kill Baines, or if Jane did that of her own volition. Sinatra doesn’t give an exact answer, but we all know that she had ordered Jane (by using the code word that Billy had told her about) to kill Baines because he was about to overload the power grid to create summertime in Paradise, which may or may not have killed her secret side project. And if her secret side project died, then everything she had done so far would be rendered pointless. Which brings Gabriela to the topic of Alex. Of course, Sinatra doesn’t say anything about Alex, but the way she gets defensive about it makes it clear that it’s way, way more important than the bunker. So, despite getting dissuaded by Sinatra, Gabriela vows to get to the bottom of this mystery. Sinatra isn’t all that bothered by that, because she knows that Alex is untouchable, especially for a normie like Gabriela. So, she goes for her meeting with Link, who requests that Sinatra take him to Air Force One so that they can chat without the threat of being accidentally shot by snipers (which exist on both sides).
Link Wants Sinatra To Give Alex to Him
Before addressing the elephant in the room, Link makes a Star Wars reference, where he refers to himself as Luke and Sinatra as Darth Vader, which is so interesting, because the first time I saw Thomas Doherty in this show, I kept thinking that he looks like a young Mark Hamill. I don’t know if that line was added after Doherty’s casting, or if it was always there because of Link and Sinatra’s Star Wars-esque dynamic (which we’ll get to in a bit), but it’s pretty satisfying to see your fan theory getting addressed in real time. Once Link is done establishing which side of the ideological spectrum he and Sinatra stand on via a Star Wars reference, he asks Sinatra to give up one of her modular nuclear reactors so that he and his crew can “restart the world.” Sinatra says that giving away a modular nuclear reactor is obviously not possible, and she thinks that Link knows that as well, which means that Link’s real demand is something else entirely. Link, without beating around the bush anymore, says that he wants Alex. Sinatra feigns ignorance and adjourns the meeting. On his way out of Air Force One, Link takes one last bite of the apple pie that he had demanded and pockets one of the pens; I thought that he was going to stab Sinatra with it, but he just needed it as a pointer for his map (everything’s not sinister coded).
Link Is Sinatra’s Son (From Another Universe)
As Sinatra and her troops are about to usher Link and his guys out of the bunker’s hangar, Link and Sinatra get into an argument about the ethics of this place that she is protecting with her life. That’s when Geiger ends up calling Link by his actual name: Dylan. So, it’s been established that Link is 26, and Tim said that his and Sinatra’s son, also named Dylan, would have been 26 if he had lived. Hence, the question that’s probably on everyone’s mind is whether or not Link is actually Sinatra and Tim’s son, all grown up. That Star Wars reference makes even more sense now, doesn’t it? “But how can Link be Dylan if Sinatra and Tim’s son died before their eyes?” I hear you asking. That’s where the nosebleeds and the alternative universe theory come into play. Of course, Sinatra and Tim’s son is dead, but maybe Link is Tim and Sinatra’s son from a universe where he didn’t die of a mystery sickness. Given how Link (I’m calling him Link instead of Dylan to avoid any confusion with the dead kid) is in a universe different from his own, the atoms that form his body keep glitching now (just like in Into the Spider-Verse), and he gets nosebleeds. Since Sinatra is connected to Link (because an alternate version of her was Link’s mother), she gets the nosebleeds too when he comes in touch with him.
The Bunker Malfunctions
I am guessing Link doesn’t know that he has come from an alternate universe, which is why he doesn’t know why he or others around him have nosebleeds; I suppose he’ll learn sooner or later. Going by Sinatra’s reaction, though, I think she has known about the existence of alternate universes all this while, and encountering Link has just confirmed her theories, and she celebrates that by fornicating with Tim after what seems like ages. I don’t know how long that feeling of elation is going to last, because in the ending of episode 7, what Cal had predicted comes to pass: a series of improbable scenarios happen all at once. Anders, Robinson, and Jeremy jeopardize the bunker’s oxygen system, which triggers the blast door opening sequence. The cabinet members give the green light for a full lockdown. These two programs clash with one another and cause the entire system to malfunction and shut down, which means that everyone in the bunker is trapped with no oxygen and no way to open the blast doors. Hadley and Presley, who were on their way to the underground prison, get stuck in an elevator, which is probably worse than getting stuck in the bunker with no oxygen. Link goes over his plan to infiltrate the bunker, which is something that the people of the bunker will probably be rooting for, because that’s their only way to escape that deathtrap.
Jane Is Dead In This Universe
Amidst all this chaos, Gabriela kills Jane when Jane tries to kill her, which struck me as odd, because she was touted to be this great killer by Alex. However, if there’s a whole multiverse out there, maybe this Jane’s death is meaningless. Gabriela has stopped one Jane from becoming the ultimate killer (as predicted by Alex), but there’s a whole multiverse of Janes waiting to achieve that title. Speaking of the multiverse, completely unaware of all these developments, Sinatra heads to the site of her secret project to talk to Alex. Now, I must address 2 things: the train to Project Alex and, well, Project Alex itself. Firstly, the train leading to Sinatra’s secret is unaffected by the bunker’s system malfunction, which means that that train and Project Alex are connected to a power grid that’s not linked to the bunker’s power grid. How and why Anders doesn’t know that is a mystery. And secondly, is Alex a person or a computer program? Well, by the looks of it, Alex is a program. What does it do? That’s a big question mark. Based on the alternate universe theory, my best guess is that it’s a navigational program that’ll help Sinatra travel the multiverse, thereby allowing her to take what remains of the human race to a world that hasn’t been destroyed by the apocalypse. That move will be complicated by the bunker’s malfunction and the fact that an alt-universe version of her son is trying to save this world (instead of hopping to the universe that he has supposedly come from). Well, I hope that the finale is going to shed a lot of light on all of these puzzling plot elements and more.
