‘Paradise’ Episode 4 Hit Us with Another Major Death
Good afternoon, citizens of Paradise. I’m so glad that this series is taking off with audiences. The first episode had one of the greatest opening twists I’ve ever seen in a TV show. This might be a niche call out, but a pilot hasn’t shocked me like this since FlashForward’s mystery man stood up among a crowd of unconscious baseball fans and walked out of the stadium. If you don’t remember that one, that’s okay. You’re here with me now.
And it’s lucky you are, because the ending of episode 4 flipped the script on Paradise once again. Let’s recap what we know so far. The president is dead. Cal Bradford (James Marsden) was hit in the head with a blunt object in his own bedroom, where he was left to bleed out until Special Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) found him in the morning. Oh, and humanity lives in a giant underground city based in Colorado because of a mysterious extinction-threatening event on the surface.
Episode 2 focused on the mastermind behind this operation, Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond (Julianne Nicholson). She’s the world’s richest self-made woman and the most important figure in Paradise. She used her wealth and power to design the town, which now houses roughly 25,000 people. Xavier believes that she knows more about the president’s assassination than she’s letting on. After she swears in Vice President Henry Baines (Matt Malloy) as Paradise’s new figurehead, Xavier even swears to take her down.
That all changes in episode 3. The president’s therapist and Redmond’s personal grief counselor, Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi), whispers in Xavier’s ear that she has a message for him straight from the president himself. Torabi hilariously waited until she was hot ’n’ heavy with Xavier in the shower ... but it’s an important message nonetheless. “He said if anything happened to him, I should find you,” she says. “He said Billy Pace is dangerous.”
Since Dr. Torabi’s message was a reveal in last week’s episode, I expected Spent Agent Billy Pace (Jon Beavers) to remain a red herring in this investigation. I wish that I’d documented my suspicions from the premiere that the security cameras were down because Billy was having an affair with Special Agent Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom). It was so obvious! Despite Billy’s menacing turn at the end of episode 3, I thought that this one would roll over as well. There’s no way that the man who naps through his shifts and plays Wii Sports instead of protecting the president has an evil, ulterior motive. It’s only been three episodes! I just didn’t believe he was built that way!
Well, episode 4 only strengthened my belief that Billy is innocent. The opening scene goes a long way to convince you that he’s a killer in rather obvious fashion. During a flashback, his crazed uncle tells him to put down their dog for ruining a hunting expedition. “When something’s no good, it has to go,” he tells a young Billy. Would Billy carry that advice all the way to the man in the top office? I doubt it. Plus, Billy turns the gun on his own uncle instead. Something just tells me that his violent past comes down to Billy choosing survival over anything else. Paradise is smartly written, though, if a little too obvious. Most of the time, I can see the script’s gears in motion. Later in the episode, Billy’s dating advice for Xavier’s daughter is “Don’t hesitate. Shoot your shot.”
Still, I’m with Xavier when he says that Billy “doesn’t track for me, but I’ll talk to him.” As messed up as this sounds, Paradise is the most normal life that Billy’s ever had. That’s why episode 4 ends with another fantastic twist.
In a flashback, one of President Bradford’s explorers attempts to return from the surface when her party is immediately ambushed. She pleads for her life as a masked man approaches her with a rifle. “It’s not what we thought,” she says. “There’s life. The air … you can breathe!” Then the man kills her and stares out into the desolate landscape. He removes his mask ... and it’s Billy.
Back in the present, Billy visits Samatha racked with guilt. He regrets killing the explorers to keep everyone in Paradise scared of the surface. “Conditions, even if they’re livable, they’re not hospitable,” Samantha reassures him. “Anyone left is most likely tearing each other apart for the scarcest of resources. The best place on Earth … is right here.”
Billy attempts to blackmail Samantha in exchange for Xavier’s safety, but she’s not taking orders from him. He doesn’t realise that she could just as easily kill him and blame the whole assassination on him afterward. “You gonna send somebody for me?” he asks her before he storms out. “You better make sure it’s the biggest motherfucker you got.”
Well, Samantha does Billy one worse. She orders Jane to take him out with some poisoned funnel cake from the carnival. Yup, the world was ending and they still thought to fill their underground city with a whole Ferris wheel and funnel cake. “You told her to send the biggest motherfucker she had,” Jane tells Billy as he dies on their living room floor. “I’m it, baby.” Heartbreaking.
Next week our hit list has two names at the top: Samantha Redford and whoever allowed that terrible cover of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” to play as the credits rolled. RIP Billy.
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