Paradise Season 2 Episode 4 Sees Xavier’s Mission Take a Heartbreaking Turn

Critic’s Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

4.2

Does anyone have a tissue? My eyes won’t stop leaking.

With Dan Fogelman, expect an emotional ambush before you see it coming.

It’s going to knock you on your butt for no good reason, and even if you see it coming, it’s going to sting badly.

After the first three episodes of Paradise Season 2 focused primarily on three distinct locations, Paradise Season 2 Episode 4 shifted gears by merging Xavier and Annie’s storyline, taking us from Graceland to their journey through the ravaged south.

There were, of course, flashbacks as well because Paradise can absolutely not help themselves, but they were employed much more sparingly, and thus didn’t take you completely out of what was happening in the present day.

When Annie picked up Xavier and brought him back to Graceland, handcuffed and all, it wasn’t clear what kind of dynamic the two of them were going to strike up.

Annie’s naturally distrustful after years alone with nothing but a telescope that has surely documented the breakdown of humanity, but Xavier’s pretty much the complete opposite of that. And that’s not solely due to the time he spent in the bunker, never having to succumb to his worst instincts for survival.

Their time together at Graceland mostly unfolded through a montage. This direct approach made sense, as instead of lingering on Xavier regaining strength or Annie overcoming her hesitation to leave her haven, the montage highlighted their transition more fluidly.

No matter how much Annie declared that Xavier was going to take her to Colorado, there was no way he was going to abandon his quest to find Teri when he’d gotten so far.

But the idea of traveling from Memphis to Atlanta and then Colorado on horseback with a pregnant woman felt incredibly ambitious and terrifying.

Annie had many fears about what lay ahead for her, and it made perfect sense given the state of the world. First-time parents are typically terrified in very basic ways, like coming to terms with the fact that they’re going to be wholly responsible for a tiny human.

But Annie had the added stress of bringing a baby into a broken world.

Annie and Xavier’s talk on the Graceland roof was cathartic, and while Xavier was correct to point out that being a parent never really stops being scary, it’s also one of the most beautiful things in the world.

The anxiety will still spike when they cry all night, and you can’t figure out why, but the joy will come when you see them sleeping soundly, safe and secure, or you get a bright laugh that makes everything feel a little less dark.

Sterling K. Brown and Shailene Woodley are both fantastic actors, and this hour truly relied on them just existing together in quiet moments, with quiet dialogue that showcased two strangers on an extraordinary journey learning from one another.

The rooftop conversation was the most honest Annie had been, even more so than with Link. Meeting Xavier was crucial for getting her to Link and civilization, but it mattered even more for her emotional well-being.

She’d gone through the pregnancy alone, and now she had someone to talk to. Someone who wasn’t saying everything was going to be okay because it was the “right” thing to say, but because he meant it.

Xavier’s not someone who immediately thinks the worst of people, but he’s also not naïve. He’s more willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt before casting them off, which is in opposition to Annie, and you can’t even blame her.

If you’ve seen the worst of the world and humanity, plus been alone for so long, it wouldn’t be easy to just assume the best about people. Being cautious in that world is what could be the difference between life and death.

Perhaps my inner romantic overshadowed my realist this time. I fully expected the narrative to build toward Annie and Xavier reaching Atlanta, either finding Teri or grappling with her absence, and then returning together to the bunker.

There, she would be reunited with Link, and maybe they wouldn’t live happily ever after, because who knows what would become of that place over the course of the season, but I did believe the two would be reunited.

But the minute Annie went into labor, I had a sinking feeling in my gut that things just weren’t going to be okay.

There was a very heavy-handed message pervading this hour about the power of trust, belief, and human decency, but it was something essential for Annie to see in some of the scariest moments of her life.

It’s not like I ever doubted Xavier would return to Annie, and I understood his leaving to find supplies, but I was terrified something could go wrong. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and hope that a stranger will give you the shirt off their back when you need it, rather than turn away.

The good Samaritans Xavier found may have been the reason Annie was able to deliver her baby, because they had the necessary supplies, and they helped in a way Xavier just wasn’t equipped to.

But my goodness, there was just this overwhelming sense of wrongness hanging over the whole birth, especially as it was intercut with Louisa’s birth in the bunker and the message of hope that came from it, making you feel like Annie’s birth wouldn’t have the same outcome.

One hallmark of post-apocalyptic stories is the accelerated deepening of connections, as people rely on one another in desperate times.

Annie and Xavier spent a few weeks together, and you could tell that, despite her judgment and her fears, she completely trusted Xavier not only to take care of her daughter but also to do right by her and Annie’s memory.

I was bawling my eyes out when Annie was telling Xavier to make sure he didn’t let her daughter become afraid of people, while he sat there silently with tears streaming down his face.

Xavier set out on this mission to find his wife and reunite his family, and now he was suddenly the caretaker of an infant. He now had this all-encompassing job to take care of this baby and get her to safety, while also fulfilling his own personal mission.

For a moment, I wondered if he would abandon Atlanta and just try to get the baby back to the bunker so they could be properly cared for, but then I realized that Xavier would not have come as far as he did and not seen things through.

Armed with apparently enough food, diapers, and clothes to make the trek down to Atlanta on horseback, he got there, and then he got sucker punched because nothing can ever go smoothly.

Who the hell took Teri?

I could not believe that Xavier had gotten exactly where he needed to be, and a man appeared to tell him that Teri was just gone.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Given how Paradise tends to structure episodes, chances are we’ll return to the bunker next week and be left waiting to learn about Atlanta and Xavier’s next steps.

Paradise broke my heart with this one and left me with even more questions.

Thinking Twice About These Paradise Details

• So, what exactly is the plan for Link and company now that they are outside the bunker? I know there’s a kill plan, but do they all want to move in? Take over? I need to know what the master plan is quickly.

• Speaking of Link, this premonition he and Xavier are both having is very bizarre. Any theories on what it means?

• I’m so distrustful of Sinatra that even though I knew she would never hurt a child, I was screaming at Louisa to never leave her sweet little baby alone with her. She is far too calculating to ever be fully trusted.

• Did I miss Annie’s baby getting a name?

• Cal’s excitement about the first baby in the bunker was perfectly in line with who he was. He was more interested in bringing people together in the early days than in figuring out how the hell they were meant to survive down there long-term.

• Anyone else surprised they brought Shailene Woodley in just to kill her character off almost immediately?

The three-episode drop means that we’re now already halfway through this season, and while this was a more slow-building hour, it was a goodie.

If this is only the halfway point, I’m terrified of what’s to come.

Let me know what you thought about this one in the comments so we can discuss!

You can watch Paradise on Mondays at 12:00 am ET (available Sundays at 9:00 p.m. PT) on Hulu.