SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Paradise Season 2, Episode 8.

The Paradise Season 2 finale rightfully feels like everything the Hulu show has been building toward. It’s easy to see “Exodus” as the episode that Dan Fogelman and company have had planned from go. It so masterfully threads the needle between a crushing finale and the hope of a brand-new beginning, never careening too far in one direction or the other. Although it prompts the question How are they going to beat this in Season 3?

In a logistical sense, the path of this episode is not a surprise. It was very obvious from the end of Episode 7 that the season was going to end with the demise of the bunker; there was no way out of the meltdown that wouldn’t have felt forced. That was reaffirmed by calling the season finale “Exodus.” That title telegraphs exactly what’s coming. And frankly, it was what was always coming. As fascinating as it would have been to see the creative ways Fogelman and company could’ve kept the plot confined to the bunker, once they dropped the dime in Season 1 that people were still outside, Paradise had no choice but to go outside. And if the plot is going to leave the bunker, why not epically destroy the place on the way out?

But “Exodus” is not a whodunit. It’s about the emotional journey that the destruction of the bunker represents, and about closing the loop of how the bunker came to be. The bunker is essentially a physical manifestation of a certain arc of mankind, personified by Samantha Redmond. So it makes sense that as the bunker has to end, so does Samantha. There’s a lot to unpack about Samantha’s arc and Julianne Nicholson’s performance; if Nicholson doesn’t win an Emmy for Paradise Season 2, it will be a crime. But the most interesting thing is how heartbreaking her death is, even though it too is telegraphed by the pre-credits scene. This was a character that fans loved to hate in Season 1, and nothing in Season 2 necessarily invalidates that, but it’s also impossible not to cry as Samantha goes down with the ship. The way it happens, too—without any kind of dramatic death, just a simple transition to Samantha walking away with the young version of her son Dylan—is beautiful. It’s the ending she deserves, which is a lot to say about a character who was the villain not so long ago.

“Exodus” is Samantha’s story first and foremost, but Paradise also finds ways to service select other characters and create enough chaos to befit an actual nuclear meltdown. The episode has to feel as devastating as the emergency it’s claiming, and for the most part it does. There are only so many shots of random, nameless people running around that viewers can sit through, yet the finale is able to break these up with other scenes that show other effects of impending doom. What’s really nice is that even in the midst of all that running and screaming, there’s still space provided for a few character moments that don’t feel forced. It’s so common in TV shows for the hero to make one last tearful phone call, or have some other kind of awkwardly-placed emotional beat that unintentionally brings down the tension level. But Paradise doesn’t lose sight of its characters in the mayhem and also doesn’t let its characters lose sight of what’s going on around them.

For example, Xavier and Samantha’s unlikely collaboration includes a brief elevator conversation. It lasts only exactly as long as it needs to in order to acknowledge that these two have bad blood between them. It would be an oversight if the show didn’t take a pause to recognize these two enemies coming face-to-face again, but it also doesn’t belabor the point. There’s also a great moment between Jeremy Bradford and Nicole Robinson, in which Robinson encourages Jeremy to “become the man [Cal] saw in you.” Jeremy’s character arc as a new leader is something that Paradise Season 2 didn’t have a lot of time to focus on, so it’s wonderful to see that brought up again. It’s even better that the show didn’t kill off Robinson, because losing Nicholson and Nicole Brydon Bloom is saddening enough; to write out Krys Marshall would have been even more hard to swallow.

Yet Paradise viewers had to know someone(s) wasn’t going to make it out alive, even before Samantha was warned about her death. Again, stakes being this high mandated that at least one character would not cross the finish line—everyone escaping a meltdown would feel inauthentic. Aside from Samantha and Jane (whose death gets glossed over because there are bigger problems), the Paradise Season 2 finale is the last for Geiger (as played by Michael McGrady). There are losses on both sides, which makes it more rewarding that everyone comes together to save as many lives as possible. In this episode, there are no good guys and bad guys; it’s not the militia versus the survivors. It’s just people trying to help people survive, without an ounce of petty melodrama.

If there’s anything that’s a head-scratcher, it’s the stuff that’s designed to be. There are serious Skynet vibes about the underlying story, which is that Alex is the prescient artificial intelligence that Link and Henry (a returning Patrick Fischler) designed, that is now hiding in a second bunker. It’ll be up to Xavier in Paradise Season 3 to find said bunker. So many stories have been done about hyper-intelligent AI that audiences might be asking if we need another one. But this search for a second bunker (and the implied potential for a Terminator-style saving of the world) is what’s going to continue to separate Paradise from other post-apocalyptic shows. There are plenty of series combing the vast wasteland of humanity. What made this one unique plot-wise was the bunker. So if we wrecked one, why not create another one? The only caveat is that in going this route, there better be a role in Paradise Season 3 for Linda Hamilton or Robert Patrick. Or both, even.

“Exodus” slides just short of replicating the emotional gut punch of “The Day” from Season 1. Nothing is likely to top that perfectly written, wonderfully acted hour of devastation. But this is easily the second-best episode in the history of Paradise thus far. It is exactly as emotional and satisfying and wild as audiences have been waiting for all season. At the same time, it lays out a clearly exciting groundwork for Season 3, which is supposedly what Fogelman was envisioning at the start. Viewers have a reason to hope, just like they did when Xavier got on that plane in the Season 1 finale. Yet what may surprise them is how much they’re crying. There is simply no better show than this on television.

Paradise Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Hulu.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.