Paradise Keeps Threatening Us With Time Travel

by

Spoilers follow for the second season of Paradise through the sixth episode, “Jane.” 

I have a suggestion for a new title for the Paradise storyline. How about This Is Us: Traveling Through Time, or maybe This Is Us: Lost in Linearity? The show isn’t following a simple post-apocalyptic structure anymore, and this season’s story jumps around in time, which feels out of character for creator Dan Fogelman, who usually prioritizes heartfelt storytelling. The hints have been building all season, and episode six, “Jane,” really feels like a turning point. Something strange is happening in the present timeline of Paradise, and it’s unfortunately pulling away from the show’s otherwise strong emotional core.

The show Paradise blends familiar elements of disaster and survival stories: a hidden, high-tech shelter for the wealthy, a nationwide power outage, and a world facing immense loss and limited resources. While the first season focused on solving the mystery of who shot the President, the bigger question was always about what happened outside the bunker. Why did Samantha Redmond build it, anticipating environmental or nuclear catastrophe? The discovery that survivors existed beyond the bunker walls changed everything. If rebuilding the world was possible, why remain sheltered instead of helping? This idea, similar to the premise of Fallout, was explored when Xavier Collins ventured into the unknown at the end of the first season, hoping to find his wife, Teri, and discover what the outside world is really like.

The second season of Paradise has really explored what it means to be human in extreme circumstances. While the show started with major disasters – a tsunami, a storm, and an electromagnetic pulse – it quickly focused on how people came together afterwards. Communities formed, friendships blossomed, and relationships developed, showing the resilience of the human spirit. This is familiar territory for the apocalypse genre, but it perfectly suits creator Dan Fogelman’s strengths. He excels at telling stories about how people connect, much like he did in his previous show, This Is Us. The season asks questions about maintaining relationships when you don’t know someone’s history, struggles, or feelings, and how to build trust. Fogelman’s sincere approach made Shailene Woodley’s storyline, and the scenes with Teri, Gary, Bean, and their group at the post office, particularly touching. Seeing different people unexpectedly find common ground and rebuild their lives, taking a risk on each other’s kindness, and creating new traditions is powerfully moving, especially with actors like Woodley transforming her character from bitter to devoted, or Cameron Britton showing Gary’s journey from distant to lovestruck. It’s truly heartbreaking and beautiful to watch.

The show Paradise is starting to feel confusing because it’s layering time travel on top of an already complex story. It’s like adding another mystery within the existing one. Here’s what we’ve figured out so far: both Xavier and Link get nosebleeds, which often happens in stories with time travel or psychic powers, and they share a strange memory of walking somewhere together. Years before building her bunker, Dr. Louge tells Sam that you can’t buy time – something Sam already knows because of her son Dylan. We also find out Sam is working on a secret project that’s draining power from the bunker. Is this project called “Alex,” and is “Alex” actually a time machine? Sam took research from scientist Henry Miller – whose wife was named Alex – and used it to set his assistant, Link, on a path to destroy a new version of “Alex” that she built. When Henry first meets his future killer, Billy, Henry says something that gives Billy déjà vu, even though Billy hadn’t heard the phrase before – or so it seems. Billy heard the line from Xavier later, so the déjà vu should have happened then, not now. And consider Henry’s company name, Vestige Quantum. A “vestige” is a trace of something lost, like the past – unless you can travel back to it.

The show “Jane” starts with a mysterious message sent back to May 29, 1997, warning about the birth of a future killer – Jane Driscoll, who grows up to be a CIA and Secret Service agent. Someone instructs a man in the past to tell Jane and her mother that she is destined to become a killer, but can potentially be stopped. The series raises several questions: Who sent these warnings, and why? How does Jane actually become a killer? And how does this connect to Henry’s knowledge of Billy’s attempt on his life and his question about fate? The show seems to be exploring whether fate is unavoidable, as both Billy kills Henry and Jane commits killings despite the attempts to change things. Is the idea of “Alex” – interfering with fate – a false hope? Or could the story involve multiple universes? Hopefully, it won’t go down that route.

Everything at this point is just speculation, as there are still two episodes left this season. It’s possible the hints of time travel will eventually connect with the show’s focus on its characters. However, it’s frustrating that the show hasn’t explored some characters more fully, like Annie, who felt like she was only there to move the plot forward, or the strange Lost Boys. The show also relies too heavily on brief scenes of Link and Xavier together to suggest their connection – their individual stories as lost fathers searching for meaning are compelling enough. I enjoy Paradise most when it focuses on the relationships and conflicts between the characters – the challenges of building a society in a limited space, the problems with a class system when old rules no longer apply, and the difficulty of trusting people with different backgrounds. Now that the show has moved beyond the bunker, it has access to much more emotionally complex storylines beyond the central mystery. Every time it revisits the bunker, Paradise feels less substantial and more like a shadow of its potential.

Read More

2026-03-16 21:58