Paradise Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Exodus

Paradise Season 2 Episode 8, “Exodus,” gets one question out of the way immediately: Alex is the supercomputer at a bunker’s core. Yes, “a” bunker.

Xavier and Teri head back to Paradise, unaware it is in meltdown. Dr. Torabi quickly admits to killing Jane and, after some debate, orders the Exodus of everyone in the city. As citizens flee, Link and his crew enter but decide to help.

In quick succession, Anders and one of Link’s men are killed and Robinson seems doomed by an injury. Xavier and Teri arrive and find James safe but learn Presley and Hadley are still trapped in an elevator. Xavier goes alone to find them.

Sinatra is told she will die before the end of the day and she and Xavier form a truce to save their daughters. They only manage it with the help of Link and his remaining allies, who also help Robinson hobble out alive.

Sinatra is given moments with both her children, telling Link he’s her dead son Dylan. Then she takes Xavier to override the systems, saying she must stay behind. As the city literally crumbles, she imagines walking away with a young Dylan.

In the surreal calm that follows, the Collins family is finally together again. Jeremy and Presley kiss and Link gets to meet his daughter. But Sintra left one more loophole: there’s a second bunker in another timeline that can “fix” everything.

Paradise is one of the most intense shows in recent memory, and its season finales rachet that up tenfold. There’s hardly a moment to breathe in between the moments of emotional devastation and long-awaited hope.

I’m actually surprised by the relatively low number of character deaths, at least among major characters. We didn’t get enough time with Anders to truly mourn him, and Link’s devastation is the worst part of him seeing his friend die.

With the miraculous rescues of Robinson and the girls (at least we’re not killing kids yet), that really just leaves with the scale of Sinatra’s demise. And, of course, the loss of the bunker itself. Is it strange to miss an underground city?

It would be stranger to grieve for Sinatra if not for her own final act. Whether her sacrifice is motivated by remorse or something else, it will be what we remember most about her. The last visual of her and Dylan is heartbreakingly bittersweet.

We’re left in quiet aftermath with the Collins’, who feared never seeing other again, Hadley and her father holding each other in the wake of their loss and Dylan, only just learning of Annie’s death, adjusting to being a father.

In spite of all that, the scenes after Paradise is destroyed are a sign that these people will persist, holding on to their love for each other and surviving even when forced back into a world that many of them had believed to be lost.

Then there’s the final twist. What does a second bunker mean for well, everything? Before sealing herself to her fate, Sinatra tells Xavier he can change everything they’ve faced there. That she believes he’s already doing so.

When we return to this series in season 3, it will be to an established universe of multiple timelines. Does that mean that any of what’s happened has actually happened? Are there times in which Cal and all the others are still alive?

I honestly have no idea. By this point, we could probably create an entire college course around unpacking all the layers of this show. There are too many questions to list for season 3. Let’s hope it doesn’t take too long to come.

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Paradise streams Mondays on Hulu. 

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