Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Paradise Season 2, which you can catch up on with either a Hulu subscription or a Disney subscription.
Paradise Season 2 kicked off this week with a bang. Or three bangs to be exact. The first three episodes of the season dropped late Sunday night/early Monday morning, and I have to say, I think it was the perfect way for the season to be introduced. Streaming services sometimes struggle to present episodes the right way, like Season 4 of Bridgerton, ending the first half of the season without a good cliffhanger. Here’s how Paradise got it right.
The First Episode Featured All New Characters
Back in the olden days, before streaming, a season premiere like “Graceland” would have been roasted by fans. “Where was Xavier!?” “What about the bunker??” “Is Sinatra in trouble?!” “I neeeeed answers now!!” Those are just a few of the complaints I can imagine would have stretched out for a week as we all waited for the second episode. Instead, the hit show, starring Sterling K. Brown, could afford not to feature him in the first episode because of the release format.
Instead, in “Graceland,” we’re introduced to two brand new characters, Annie Clay (Shailene Woodley) and Link (Thomas Doherty), and for the full episode, we learn their situation through flashbacks and their current situation after the disaster struck. The episode takes its time telling the stories, especially Annie’s backstory. It allows us to get to know her, so that by the end, when we catch our first glimpse of Xavier on the ground near his crashed plane, we are emotionally invested in the new character. This never could have happened with an old network TV show. People would be howling mad that we’ve only gotten more questions and no answers to the previous season’s cliffhangers.
We Still Get Some Answers And See The Season Get Set Up
In the second episode, “Mayday,” we get back to Xavier’s story and catch up with where we left him, on a plane headed to Atlanta to find his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma). We see him in the current time, flying and eventually crashing, but we also get way more backstory about his relationship and marriage to Teri. We’re now much more emotionally invested in them as a couple than we were when we all assumed she died in the catastrophe. After Xavier is found and nursed back to health by Annie, we find out she’s going to try to force him to return to Colorado.
Then, in episode three, we get some answers about Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) and her condition after she was shot by Jane Discoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom) in the Season 1 finale. It also sets up broader questions for the season. Why is Sinatra using excess power from the bunker? Why is Henry and Link’s company so important to her? Who is Alex, and how does he or she fit in? Ok, that last one was teased in the first episode, but it’s brought back in Episode 3.
All told, it’s a fantastic way to introduce a new season, including important new characters and all-new mysteries. We’re just a couple of months into the 2026 TV schedule, and I already have a must-see show with Paradise (again), and I can’t wait to see how everything plays out.
