Contains spoilers for all of Paradise season 1.
The Hulu show Paradise had me hooked after the huge reveal in episode one, where we learned that this tense political thriller was far bigger in scope than it first seemed. What looked like a typical mystery about a president’s murder turned into something else entirely after it was revealed that it was set inside a huge domed settlement that supplied artificial sunlight to the town.
Everything we thought we knew was a lie, and suddenly I became more compelled by the dome and the ethical issues surrounding it than by solving the president’s murder (even though James Marsden’s excellent performance made me sympathetic towards him).
In the space of a single episode, Paradise made a strong case for inclusion in our best Hulu shows round-up. With so much mystery and intrigue, I knew I was in for a wild ride, and it didn’t disappoint. Now that we’ve finally arrived at the big finale, we discovered who killed President Cal Bradford in a shocking twist that I didn’t see coming.
An identity-stealing man named Trent had a vendetta against Bradford, posing as Eli, a librarian, so he could hide in plain sight. He had attempted to kill the president once before, revealing him to be the man who ended up shooting protagonist Agent Xavier Collins when he’d rushed to protect Bradford, as shown in the first episode.
You’d be forgiven for assuming that the evil Sinatra or one of her many pawns had done the deed, but no – this reveal shows that you really can’t trust anyone inside this dome, including the people who helped build it, as Trent once worked as a supervisor on the construction of Paradise. But when he tried to expose dark secrets about it, nobody listened, so he took matters into his own hands and tried to get his message across by killing Bradford.
To make matters worse, Trent has an accomplice, as he recruited someone to pose as Maggie, a waitress, and it’s just got me feeling paranoid about everyone in this dome and their true intentions. Sinatra had guessed that the killer came from outside the dome due to lack of DNA evidence, and technically she was right, as he’d been hiding this whole time. Who can really be trusted in Paradise?
The other side of Paradise
With all this in mind, I can’t stop thinking about the possibilities for season 2. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what happened in season 1, including betrayals, shocking deaths, and twists around every corner, so there’s plenty of scope for this story to continue. I’m relieved it was renewed, and I’m sure I’m not the only one considering the show’s glowing 82% Rotten Tomatoes score. I would have been gutted if this show had been axed, but thankfully it isn’t joining any of the canceled shows you should still stream anytime soon.
What intrigues me most is that Paradise was built for a doomsday event, and many people inside the dome believe the outside world has been completely ruined, but there are survivors – and crucially, Xavier’s wife, Terri, didn’t make it to the dome and he’s been told she’s still out there. I’m ready for the world of Paradise to become even bigger, especially after we saw Xavier venturing out into the outside world for the first time in a long time in search of his wife and other survivors. So we’ve got lots to look forward to, and hopefully we’ll have some questions answered too.
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