'Paradise' Season 2's explosive finale reveals the truth about Alex
Paradise Season 2 ends not with a bang, but with a full-on nuclear meltdown that blows up the Paradise bunker. But even then, that's somehow not the most explosive part of the episode.
Instead, the biggest revelations of the finale, titled "Exodus," are all centered around Alex, the side project Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) has been working on all season long. While you may have been able to guess at Alex's true nature thanks to some clues sprinkled throughout Paradise Season 2, we now have official answers to our most pressing Alex questions (as well as several more questions Season 3 needs to answer). Let's break it down.
Paradise's Alex is a quantum computer.
Back in Season 2, episode 3, Paradise introduced Professor Henry Miller (Patrick Fischler), the head of Vestige Quantum. Working with his genius protégé Dylan (Thomas Doherty), also known as Link, he created a technology that Sinatra literally killed for. Now, in "Exodus," we learn exactly what that technology is. It's an AI-controlled quantum computer. The AI is named "Alex" in honor of Henry's wife (Gwen Holloway).
Paradise uses a lot of quantum computing buzzwords like "all-to-all platform," "neutral atoms," and "optical tweezers" to describe why Dylan's early prototype of what will become Alex is impressive. Sort through all that quantum noise and you'll learn what you really need to know, which is that Alex can predict any future problems within microseconds.
That speed draws the attention of Sinatra, who wants to use Alex to solve the climate crisis. However, Henry has misgivings about the technology the more he works on it. As Alex grows more advanced, it begins to try to manipulate time, resulting in strange anomalies. For example, it's answering complex equations that no one has asked it to solve yet. (Yes, that means all your Paradise time travel theories are officially taking off.)
Henry's hesitation to keep working on Alex is what winds up getting him killed. Plus, the dangers of the machine's time manipulation explain why Dylan wants to "kill Alex" in the first place. However, in Sinatra's hands, Alex has grown more advanced than ever.
Where is Alex now in Paradise?
Alex is now located in — gasp! — a second bunker, hidden under the Denver airport. It's under the supervision of Dr. Chase (Simon Templeman), a mysterious new figure introduced in "Exodus."
When Sinatra pays Alex and Dr. Chase a quick visit (apparently those trams from the main bunker can cover 100 miles with no problem), he informs her that Alex hasn't been activated, yet she's somehow communicating with them. Alex has been accurately predicting weather events, earthquakes, and even Sinatra's arrival. The machine has also printed a series of numbers, the first of which are two sets of coordinates: One points you to a mountain in Colorado, while the other points you to the Denver airport. Given that they're roughly 100 miles apart, these are the coordinates of the bunkers.
Above the numbers is a message that Alex is awaiting a user cryptically named X. Given that that's Xavier Collins' (Sterling K. Brown) nickname, Sinatra realizes that he is user X, and that he is meant to activate Alex. That tees up the biggest storyline for Paradise Season 3: Xavier's journey to Denver. However, there are still several important pieces in play in "Exodus."
Yes, Link is Sinatra's son Dylan. No, we don't know how it's possible.
Paradise Season 2, episode 7 reveals that the character we've known primarily by the codename Link is actually named Dylan, just like Sinatra's late son. He also has the same birthday. Coincidence, or quantum miracle?
Paradise opts for the latter, with Sinatra convinced that Dylan truly is her son. "I can't explain it, and it doesn't make sense, but somehow, I'm certain," she tells Dr. Chase. That's honestly how I feel talking about this twist!
Dylan still being alive is one of the "anomalies" created by Alex's time manipulation. That's all the clarification we get on that end, but hopefully Season 3 will give us more answers on that front.
Season 3 also needs to give us more answers about all the strange anomalies that have been causing nosebleeds throughout the season. The biggest example? Whatever is going on with Xavier's premonitions of him and Dylan walking through an unknown hallway. The pair finally link up in "Exodus," but we don't get payoff on the vision just yet. Whatever mission they're on will come somewhere down the line, perhaps when they're under the Denver airport.
Another loose end? The message that so urgently needs to be delivered to Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), whom Paradise implies is very much alive after her run-in with Dr. Torabi's (Sarah Shahi) machete.
What will happen when Xavier activates Alex in Paradise?
By the end of "Exodus," Paradise has literally blown itself up. The bunker is gone, Sinatra along with it, and Xavier has the daunting task of activating Alex and saving the world. (In another moment of headache-inducing time-loop shenanigans, Sinatra says she believes he's already done so.)
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So what exactly will happen when Alex finishes her calculations and gets activated? Will she find a solution to the world's next crisis, in which trapped greenhouse gases from the super-volcanic eruption will heat Earth to an unbearable extreme? Or will she go full time travel mode and give Xavier the power to stop the entire apocalypse before it even begins?
Based on Sinatra's assertion that the quantum computer "can stop all of this. In fact, it already has stopped all of this," I'm going to guess the latter. In a bonkers move, Paradise could reset its entire timeline to the point that the show doesn't even come to pass. Maybe the apocalypse is successfully avoided, and characters like Cal Bradford (James Marsden) and Annie Clay (Shailene Woodley) never perish.
It would be a big swing, but when has Paradise ever gone small? This is a show that opened with an underground bunker reveal and only got wilder from there, and I trust Season 3 will be no different. Until then, I'll be blasting dramatic Phil Collins covers and trying to learn more about quantum computing in order to prepare.
Paradise Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu.
Topics Hulu
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
