‘Paradise’ Season 2 Ending Explained: From Dystopian Drama to Full-Blown Sci-Fi

Season 2 of Paradise came to an explosive end on Monday, but by all accounts, this isn’t the end (it’s been renewed for a third season, after all). The second episode of Dan Fogelman’s song This is a series took a major genre shift, veering away from the dystopian vibes of the season 1 drama.

In the last eight episodes, the show, which plays Sterling K. Brown as fugitive Secret Service agent Xavier Collins, has grown to become sci-fi space. Now that a giant quantum AI computer named Alex has been revealed as the one running things, all kinds of questions are swirling about where the story will go in its third season.

Season 1 ended with Collins charting a plane out of the basement to track down his missing wife. Most of season 2 followed him as he finished his career. That process played his part in finding a newborn baby, going against a lonely and traumatized mailman and returning to the basement to reunite his family, only to face a nuclear meltdown and the revelation that maybe he is the only one who can save the world and make it all back to normal.

Okay, I agree — that was a lot. Honestly, I’m not sure how things will go moving forward. But, like all of you, I have nagging questions about how it all ended. They are the main story forward, so step slowly if you are not caught. If not, let’s present the Paradise season 2 finale.

So, is Dylan Sinatra’s son dead?

Let’s start here. Season 2 of Paradise introduces a woman named Annie who finds refuge in Graceland, of all places. After staying there for some time, a group of robbers broke into Elvis’ old house to find shelter and supplies. It took a while for them all to feel comfortable together, but the group eventually gained Annie’s trust. And after that he became close to Dylan.

It was during these early hours that he heard the group’s plan to go to a basement in Colorado to “kill Alex.” Annie didn’t go on the trip with them, but months later, she met Xavier after his plane crashed. Annie, now heavily pregnant, wanted him to take her to the basement for safety, while his everything tracked his wife. And then she died in childbirth and left the child with Xavier.

All the while, Dylan and his team continue their mission to break into the basement. He eventually came face to face with Sinatra, who was fully convinced that he was his dead son and that Alex was to blame. How is that possible? Well, I admit that quantum computing confuses me a lot, but the idea is that Alex is a technological marvel that can predict the future, but also plays with time and introduces the mysterious to those affected by it – that is, I think, everyone.

In simple words, I think we are dealing with other facts here. This would explain the appearance of Sinatra’s dead son and his message to Xavier at the end of the episode, which is that he is the only one who can save the world and make things right — because Alex was already decided.

What’s wrong with Alex?

I didn’t expect Dylan to be Alex’s creator, but here we are. The ending gave some memories about the invention of the computer, Dylan’s collaboration with the quantum scientist Dr. Henry Miller (who said Sinatra died, so he could get the techniques to build Alex in full form) and that moment when Sinatra discussed using Alex to stop climate change — you know, because AI uses a lot of water and energy in nature.

But I’m sorry.

Miller had seen the damage Alex could cause with his time manipulation skills and asked for the project to be shut down. But as we saw in this episode and those leading up to the finale, that didn’t happen.

Is Alex the HAL 9000 of Paradise? I do not think so. The real question is, how can Xavier use Alex to save the world? I don’t know the answer, but I really hope he doesn’t hit a button in season 3 only for everyone to wake up from the dream and find that none of this ever happened in the first place. We’ll see how that goes when the show returns.

Is Sinatra really dead?

Season 1 of Paradise ended with Sinatra being shot by Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), a Secret Service agent who became a deadly monster in the new episodes. He did not die then. But is he dead, now?

The finale concluded with Sinatra coming to terms with the decisions he made and the damage he caused, all through his slanted lens of saving humanity. When Dylan and his team showed up, it was decided to include a shelter in the closing. Little did they know that the son of the late President Bradford, Jeremy (Charlie Evans), had gone deep into the bowels of the basement with the scientist who helped build it and Agent Robinson (Krys Marshall), who loved the president, destroyed everything and forced open the doors.

The occurrence of these two things at the same time overloaded the system, causing a breakdown that made Dr. Tarabi (Sarah Shahi) — who, in self-defense, killed Jane in the shower — to call Exodus, the name of their escape plan. After visiting with Alex, Sinatra returned to the chaos and decided to stay while everyone else fled.

As the mass evacuation of the underground bunker came to an end, a large crowd of survivors outside watched as the mountain on which the bunker was built crumbled and crumbled. Sinatra was last seen walking the streets of the utopia he helped build. By all accounts, he died in the basement collapse. But if Alex really messes up time and time again, something tells me this won’t be the last we see of him.

Surprise: There is a second bedroom

The final moments of the episode found the survivors in a camp not far from the basement. Dylan was reunited with his baby daughter, and Xavier’s family was back together, and it seemed like everything would end happily. That is, until a brief flashback sequence between Xavier and Sinatra occurs.

Earlier in the episode, Sinatra was given a card printed by Alex that had multiple numbers and a person called “User X.” He realized that X belonged to Xavier and gave him a card with a mission to fix things with Alex and the world.

How do you do that? I don’t know. But it was during this conversation that he told her there was a second residence below the Denver International Airport, 100 miles away. That’s where Alex is. Therefore, if he is the savior of mankind, all signs indicate that he will be leading the group to enter this other house. I bet it won’t be easy — can you imagine the security measures put in place to protect this massive computer?

Furthermore, now that the series has changed from a dystopian drama to a sci-fi adventure, I wonder what form it will take in season 3. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.