The finale of Paradise Season 2 was largely centered around the evacuation of the titular bunker before the modular nuclear reactors in the facility exploded and killed everyone. That said, there were certain details peppered throughout episode 8 that hinted at what we might get to see in the third season of the show. FYI, yes, Paradise Season 3 has already been greenlit. That said, Dan Fogelman has said that the third season is probably going to be its last season too. If the producers and showrunners stick to that plan, then they have a lot of ground to cover. I mean, Dark did a pretty good job of wrapping up its time-travel shenanigans as well as its emotional drama in 3 seasons. But in that show’s case, every season was packed to the brim with questions and answers. I don’t think Paradise has done that yet. The first season didn’t have any time travel shenanigans in it. The second season has merely hinted at the existence of time travel. So, trying to conclude all the character arcs in the show and also unpack its headache-inducing sci-fi elements in one season might be tough. However, that’s for Fogelman and his crew to decide. My job is to theorize what might happen in the third season. So, here goes nothing.
Spoiler Alert
Alex and the Mobius Strip
Based on my very limited scientific knowledge, I have deduced that the symbol on the card that Alex has printed for Xavier is a Mobius strip. I am sure most of you watching this show have watched Avengers: Endgame too; hence, you’ll know how the titular heroes used that mathematical theorem to enter the Quantum Realm at one point in time and exit out of the other to get another set of Infinity Stones. To avoid creating branches in the “Sacred Timeline,” Captain America returned the Infinity Stones back to where they were after defeating Thanos. In Paradise’s case, Thanos probably is the apocalypse; Xavier, Link, and anybody else who cares about saving the planet are the Avengers; and time is not a flat circle. That’s my theory! I don’t know if that’s what the show is going for. If it is, that’d explain why Alex can “appear” at different points in time (the message about Jane or creating that card) even though, in the present, it hasn’t been activated; a future version of the machine is meddling with reality to influence the characters to achieve an unknown result. The card had coordinates on it, which pointed to certain spots on the Mobius strip. Season 3 will definitely expand on that. In my opinion, those are the locations and time stamps where Link and Xavier need to go in order to prevent the apocalypse or find a fix for the apocalypse. By the way, in case you are wondering whether the heroes are going to succeed in averting the apocalypse, I think the fact that Alex exists in the future and is communicating with Xavier and Link via cards and visions proves that we won’t get an unhappy ending.
The Mystery Of The Nosebleeds
Alright, Season 3 of Paradise has to address the nosebleeds, because I don’t have any clue why that’s happening. At least I know (like, I am 95 percent sure) that some time travel shenanigans are occurring. But the nosebleeds? What’s up with that? So far, Xavier, Link, Billy, and Sinatra have experienced these nosebleeds, and Henry was aware of this phenomenon. However, what’s the trigger? Do all of them coincidentally have some kind of a disease that makes them bleed from their nose, or is it something supernatural? I initially thought that Link was the trigger for all the nosebleeds because it happened when he was around. But then Xavier got a nosebleed when he was up in a plane. And to make things even more confusing, Link and Sinatra got nosebleeds the first time Sinatra touched him, but while parting ways with him, neither of them got a nosebleed? What?! Which brings us back to Alex. I think that Xavier, Link, Billy, and Sinatra (and maybe Henry too) are the major players in Alex’s game. So, every time they are about to deviate from the path that the AI-controlled quantum computer has laid for them, it does something to bring them back on track. Since that requires a lot of force (because there’s telepathy, time travel, and space-bending involved), it causes a nosebleed in the subject. Again, that’s just a theory of mine. Only Season 3 holds the answers to this mystery.
Jane, The Timeline Killer
The hype around Jane is truly insane now. In Season 1, she seemed like a run-of-the-mill rogue secret service agent who is doing the bidding of those who are in power to, well, gain power. But in Season 2, she has been revealed to be important (read: dangerous) enough to compel Alex to meddle with time and get the message across to Jane’s mother, via some random computer repair guy, that her daughter is about to become a killer. That’s why her supposed death in the penultimate episode of Season 2 seemed quite underwhelming. However, during the closing moments of the finale, we saw that Jane’s “dead body” is missing from Gabriela’s bathroom, which means she isn’t dead. She is severely injured, but she is fit enough to move around. Where is she? Well, that’s something only Season 3 of Paradise can answer. I think she has assimilated with the evacuees and is hiding in Link’s camp, waiting for her chance to get even with Gabriela. Or she’s headed to Alex’s chamber through the tunnel that connects the bunker and that cave. Either way, she has certainly not been killed by the nuclear explosion. However, that’s not the big mystery here, is it? What we need to know is why Alex is worried about Jane becoming a killer. I feel that Alex doesn’t think that Jane has done anything monumental by murdering Billy, or that she’ll be a threat to its master plan if she kills Gabriela. I suppose Jane is some kind of a timeline killer, and she has the potential to do something so diabolical that it’ll ruin humanity’s fate. If she’s headed towards Alex, she can meddle with the timeline. If she’s in the camp, she might murder Link (who is very important to humanity’s survival, according to Henry). So, yeah, I am excited to see how villainous Jane is going to be in the third season.
Link’s Mysterious Past
Every major character in the show has gotten entire episodes dedicated to them, and then there’s Link, who, despite being so integral to the plot, is a massive black hole of information. He just showed up in Henry’s class with an AI-controlled quantum computer? How? He is a genius but we have no information about his upbringing or education. Yes, the running theory is that he’s Sinatra’s son from a reality where he didn’t die, just because his name is Dylan and he is as old as Dylan would have been if he hadn’t died. But that throws a wrench in the Mobius strip theory, because that doesn’t exactly accommodate the existence of alternate realities. If multiple realities exist, instead of a timeloop, then, sure, it’ll offer some explanation as to why Link is here in this reality. However, we still need to know how he got here and why he wants to save this world instead of trying to go back to whatever reality he has come from. Has he been created in a lab by a future version of Alex? What about him having a baby with Amy? If he’s from a different timeline or reality, isn’t that going to cause a rip in the fabric of time and space? Or maybe we are overcomplicating all this, and Link is a guy from the timeline he’s walking around in, whose name coincidentally happens to be Dylan, and he is unintentionally doing Alex’s bidding. He doesn’t possess superintelligence; he is just Alex’s puppet. With all that said, if Season 3 is the last season of Paradise, I think the showrunners should dedicate an entire episode to Link and clear up the mystery around his past and future.
A Glimpse of What Was Lost
Teri, James, Presley, Jeremy, Robinson, Gabriela, the members in the council, Link’s crew members, and the denizens of Paradise have been integral to the plot of the show. But I don’t know what purpose they’re going to serve when Alex only needs Link, Xavier, and maybe Jane to reverse the effects of the apocalypse. I don’t know about Jane, but Xavier and Link will be roaming around the timeloop via Alex’s Mobius strip. I don’t think those two will have the time for any interpersonal drama. If Link and Xavier do go back in time, I think we’ll get glimpses of what life used to be like for all those people before things went colossally wrong. That’ll be interesting to watch. However, are any of them going to join Xavier and Link on this time-traveling mission? I highly doubt that. I don’t know how that’s going to impact the overall viewing experience because, so far, the show has struck a balance between sci-fi shenanigans and human drama. A major highlight of Season 2 was Xavier’s long-awaited reunion with Teri. What’s going to be the equivalent of that in Season 3 of Paradise? Well, as mentioned before, we are probably going to get flashbacks of the Collins’ family dynamics pre-apocalypse through the eyes of the post-apocalypse Xavier, thereby deepening the weight of the timeline-hopping journey he’s on. Link’s dynamic with his crew is also an unexplored area, so the time-traveling flashbacks might flesh out those ties. Last but not least, I think we’ll get some crumbs of info about Henry, Alex (the human being), and Sinatra. Do you think that Link, after knowing that Sinatra is his mother, is going to try to resurrect her via some time manipulation? Let me know in the comments section below. If you have any more theories about Season 3, then type them down as well.
