Paradise season 2 finale: What is Sinatra's grand plan as Alex is finally revealed and Xavier faces an impossible choice
Yes, we finally know who Alex is... and it'll change the world
Paradise season 2 has ended, with its finale offering hope for the future of the world – but, as you’ll see in this breakdown of its ending, it will come at a massive cost.
Naturally, in a show full of espionage, apocalyptic calamity and deceit, not everyone made it out of the season alive. But as we’re about to discover, that doesn’t mean it’s the last we’re going to see of them.
At the end of episode seven, things were going nuclear in the Paradise bunker (literally). Although Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) and Anders (Erik Svedberg-Zelman) designed it to withstand any catastrophe, it wasn’t equipped to handle them all at once. So, when Jeremy, Anders and Robinson attacked the bunker’s oxygen supply to force open the doors, and Link (Thomas Doherty) outside with his group of survivors ready to stage a siege, a town lockdown was pointless.
Then there’s Xavier (Sterling K Brown), who was en route back to the Colorado bunker with his wife Teri (Enuka Okuma) in tow. On top of that, two new kids – Bean, whom Teri adopted, and Annie’s baby, following her death.
So how do they all get out of this one? With season 3 already confirmed, here’s everything you need to know about the season 2 finale.
***Warning: spoilers for Paradise season 2 ahead***
Paradise season 2 ending explained: Alex is revealed… and could save everyone
Alex had been teased throughout this season, becoming the show’s biggest mystery. Hidden from view, speculation over who – or what – Alex was.
But the Paradise season 2 finale, ‘Exodus’, told us the truth: it’s kind of both.
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We knew Link, real name Dylan, was a student of Dr Henry Miller (Patrick Fischler) – a man we saw die at the hands of assassin Billy Pace earlier this season. Under his tutelage, Dylan created the world’s first, AI-powered quantum computer. It’s so powerful it could even predict the future.
Dylan and Henry worked together to expand on the idea, and named it Alex in honour of Henry’s terminally ill wife. Henry took credit to lend the invention credibility for investors. Among those interested was Sinatra – who took a vested interest on her quest to build Paradise.
Alex is what Sinatra killed Henry for. When he realised Alex didn’t just predict future events, but it also had the capability to manipulate time itself, he shut the project down over fear of its power. But time manipulation is exactly what Sinatra wanted.
The final product was a massive super computer siphoning off Paradise’s nuclear energy in a second bunker 100 miles away. Alex was now being hidden in a secondary underground bunker, located underneath Denver airport. Sinatra was able to access Alex via a rickety train tunnel between there and Paradise.
Alex had since continued to influence the world. Most notably, Link/Dylan was the adult version of Sinatra’s son, who died of an illness when he was still a child. Dr Chase, who was taking care of Alex, notified Sinatra of a message: “Awaiting User X. User X will activate Alex.”
Link’s survivors storm Paradise – and face the consequences
While the outside survivors planned to siege Paradise and lay claim to its resources, Link was on a vengeance mission. With his father-figure (Henry) dead because of his creation, he wanted to kill Alex off once and for all.
What no one counted on was Paradise in crisis mode when they tried. The bunker’s oxygen supply was depleting by the second thanks to Robinson, Anders and Jeremy’s sabotage. So instead, they decided to help residents escape.
Link and a team headed in to get what they could, while Xavier and Teri tried to locate their children, Presley and James. They found James in the town square, but Presley was stuck in an elevator in the Down Below after trying to rescue Jeremy.
So, Xavier separated from his family once again to rescue his teenage daughter. He found help from Sinatra, whose daughter was trapped with Presley. Link, who wouldn’t stand by and watch two teens die, later joined, too.
With the infrastructure of Paradise collapsing and the whole place threatening to blow up, the team just about succeeded in retrieving them. But Link wasn’t done. With the kids safe, he held Sinatra at gunpoint.
Link demanded to be taken to Alex, but Sinatra cut off all connections to Alex due to the impending explosion.
But Sinatra knew Alex was working. In what can only be described as the biggest information overload of all time, Link discovered he’s Sinatra’s son, and his girlfriend Annie was dead.
On top of all that, she died giving birth to a daughter he didn’t even know he was expecting.
Xavier appealed to him to see sense, and get out of town so he can be with his little girl.
Who died in the Paradise season 2 finale?
Every faction we’ve been following in the story suffered loss during the Paradise season 2 finale. Anders died in an oxygen tank blast in the Down Below, with Robinson badly wounded.
The outside survivors suffered the devastating loss of Link’s right-hand man, Geiger, who was killed in a pipe blast. It’s this death that triggered Link’s decision to help people escape rather than keep fighting to reach Alex.
But the biggest loss was Sinatra. When she got Link to safety, she and Xavier headed back to the control tower to control the impending nuclear blast. She knew how to control it, but warned someone needed to “go down with the ship”. With that, she calmly thanked Xavier for his service, muttered something to him, and locked herself inside, at peace with the decision.
Xavier ran out of the bunker and, once he was safely outside its walls, she blew the whole thing – and herself – up.
In her last moments, she pictured herself reuniting with the child version of Dylan she once lost.
Then there’s Jane, who seemingly died in episode 7… but did she? Gabriela stabbed the assassin in her shower, but a brief shot before the nuclear blast reveals she was no longer there. Did she somehow survive?
What comes after Paradise season 2?
For a fleeting moment, life was somewhat peaceful. The bunker was destroyed – but, as Paradise season 2’s finale wound down, everyone was with their loved ones.
After years of fighting for them, Xavier was back with Teri and their two kids. They even had a bonus one in young Bean, a pre-teen Teri adopted after the world ended.
Link met his baby daughter, whom he decided to name Annie in her mother’s memory. He joined his comrades in toasting the fallen Geiger, sad but relieved that there weren’t more casualties.
However, as the survivors created a camp for the night, Xavier reflected on Sinatra’s last words to him. She realised that he is “User X”, the person set to activate Alex.
Before she died, she tasked him with a mission to get to the Denver bunker, and finish what she started. He asked why she believes he’ll follow her orders. In response, she shared that he believed he already has… just not in the present day.
Xavier was torn. While the future looks so uncertain, has his fate already been decided?
Unfortunately for us viewers, that’s a story for season 3…
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