Paradise season 2 just answered some MAJOR questions with episode 5 as danger lies ahead for Xavier
Things are about to get extremely complicated...
Paradise season 2 is already past its halfway point, and we’re still no closer to finding out what exactly is going on after the end of the world.
In fact, it’s now been two whole episodes since we’ve even been IN Paradise. What would Phil Collins say?!
At least Xavier (Sterling K Brown) made it to Atlanta in one piece for his wife Teri (Enuka Okuma), albeit with a baby in tow after the devastating events of episode 4.
We can only imagine his disappointment when, after arriving at the co-ordinates, he instead found a bumbling mailman named Gary (Cameron Britton). Gary at least knew Teri and proved it by showing a Polaroid photo, but ‘men with guns’ had taken her.
But as the episode played out, backing and forth-ing between present day and life outside Paradise in the years since The Day, it became clear there was more to Gary’s story. And that ending? Serious gut punch.
Here are all the questions that episode 5, The Mailman, finally answered.
**Warning: Spoilers for Paradise season 2 episode 5 in our recap below**
Who is Gary in Paradise season 2?
Gary is the titular mailman. Before The Day that wiped out most of the world’s population, he would spend his days delivering letters, before going home and playing online video games.
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He doesn’t even know the real name of his best friend, whose username is the (very mature) Normus P*Ennis. We’ll just call him Ennis from now on.
Gary and Ennis would speculate about their plan for the end of the world while playing games. While it mostly started in jest, Gary quickly nosedived into Doomsday Prepper podcasts and plans. Gary also discovered that his mailroom was one of 1,500 U.S. locations built in the 1950s with a fallout shelter underneath amid fears of nuclear attack. The shelter had sat abandoned for decades, so Gary began filling it. Just in case.
Turned out those Doomsday Preppers had a point – and when Gary saw the tsunami hit on the news, triggering the natural disasters that would destroy Earth, he sprang into action. Gary thrived in a crisis, and what’s more panic-inducing than the end of the world?
He drove his van to pick up Ennis – and all his guns – and decided to rescue a young boy on his delivery route who lived with an abusive family. When they stopped to get eggs, the boy clung to Teri, who was caught in a car wreck. With no other choice, they allowed her to tag along too to the shelter.
Where has Teri been since The Day?
In the present day, Xavier held a gun to Gary and demanded to know where Teri was. Gary revealed that a group of armed men had come and taken them all when his friend, presumably Ennis, betrayed them and gave up their location.
He didn’t know why they had been taken, but they had been gone for 12 days. He did know where they were, though.
Flashbacks showed that after The Day, Teri had a safe place in the fallout shelter thanks to Gary.
Gary and Ennis had thought everything through, inviting a select group of people to help them rebuild the world. The group consisted of Gary; Ennis, an engineer; Roberto, a carpenter; Jackie, a mechanic; Ruth, a gardener; survivalist Bob; and nurse Crystal.
Teri was useful as a doctor and acted as a mother figure to the boy called Bean. Gary instructed them to stay within the shelter for 21 days to avoid radiation and to remain there for up to five years until the ash cloud dissipated.
Teri was heartbroken and wanted to get to Colorado to be with her family as soon as possible. Gary told her he knew it was scary, but they had everything they needed to survive, so they needed to start there.
In the years that followed, the group built their own community and turned the mailroom into a home — their own paradise. Unopened mail provided some handy equipment and treats, and they were even able to celebrate Christmas.
One year, Gary built Teri a radio so she could attempt to contact Xavier. She was delighted, but the moment was ruined when he tried to kiss her. She politely turned him down, saying she was very much in love with her husband.
What happened to the rest of the group?
By the time Xavier arrived at the post office, Gary was the only one left. At first, he claimed they had all been taken, but that wasn’t strictly true.
The collective had been good for a while, but problems soon crept in. Ennis had been extremely strict and had grown paranoid that others would find them.
When Teri discovered that her radio had been destroyed, she blamed Ennis. Gary believed Ennis hadn’t wanted anyone to leave because it was the most important he had ever felt, and he feared their location could be traced through the radio. The stunt ultimately fractured Ennis and Teri’s relationship. She never found out it had worked, and the transmission had reached Sinatra in Paradise, who later showed it to Xavier to prove she was alive.
The group became aware of other survivor communities and began to move on. Now married after falling in love in the shelter, Jackie and Crystal belonged to a group that ran a market in a school gym where people traded materials.
In the present day, Xavier and Gary headed there to pick up supplies. Jackie and Crystal were excited to see Gary but shocked to hear that Teri and Bean had been taken. They believed Gary’s story that Ennis had betrayed them, because he had been so tightly wound in the shelter. He was one of the reasons they decided to move on. Ennis had a massive crush on Crystal and had hoped their end-of-the-world plight might win her over. Clearly, it had failed.
Ruth and Bob had also moved on from the group once the coast was clear. So by the end, only Ennis, Gary, Teri and Bean remained — which brought things up to date with Paradise season 2.
Who were the people on the train?
Gary claimed that the people with guns who took Teri were currently on a train, and took Xavier there. Sure enough, there were dozens of people in the area, most of them heavily armed. Gary warned they were dangerous, so Xavier came up with a plan to blow the whole thing up.
However, a flashback revealed the truth: they were a group of survivors who were working in league with Link. They had made a planned stop in Georgia to refuel before going on their way to the bunker in Colorado.
It was the same train Link was waiting on before descending on Paradise last episode. When they got stuck, he decided to move forward with the plan without them.
When Bean saw the train, he told the elders of the group, and Ennis and Gary went to investigate. They actually seemed pretty nice, and the woman in charge informed Ennis and Gary that anyone “who is useful” was welcome to join them when they moved on to Colorado in two weeks.
Ennis was excited to tell Teri the news, knowing it was exactly the opportunity she needed to get to Xavier. Gary, however, had other feelings about the development.
What was Gary up to?
There’s something about Gary that Xavier never entirely trusts. Throughout the present day scenes, Xavier was listening to Gary’s story, but knew he was missing something out.
Gary clocked on when Xavier let Jackie and Crystal look after Annie’s baby girl. When he asked why Xavier left her with them, but wouldn’t even let him hold her, Xavier told him Teri trusted them. He knew that because she let them read Bean bedtime stories. Bedtime reading was Teri’s love language towards their children – so knew it was important to her.
Xavier directly told Gary he needed to start telling the truth. Quickly. Gary bent and admitted he fell in love with Teri. She didn’t love him back though, and he knew that. He promised to help Xavier get her back.
After getting supplies for a bomb from the market, Xavier planned to create an explosion by the train to distract the group long enough to get Teri and Bean out.
But Gary was on his own mission. A final flashback revealed Ennis never double-crossed the group. In fact, Gary shot Ennis when they discovered Teri had a route to Colorado, and Paradise, on the train. He wanted her and Bean to stay with him at the home he’d created. What he didn’t count on was Bean witnessing him kill Ennis.
Given the train hadn’t left yet, and Bean and Teri went missing 12 days ago, it appeared he’d told Teri, and they’d fled. So the people on the train didn’t have them captive – they were protecting them from Gary.
So Xavier was unwittingly helping the bad guy, completely oblivious to his true motives.
Nothing’s ever easy in Paradise season 2…
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