This piece incorporates heavy spoilers for “Paradise” season 2, episode 7, “The Last Countdown.”
The most recent episode of “Paradise” delivers one of many wildest moments of your complete present but. No, it is not affirmation that “Paradise” is a time journey story. No, it is not the reveal that the mysterious Alex we have been listening to about is a Terminator, and even an Akira-like boy with psychic powers in some way powering the bunker. As an alternative, we get a nuclear emergency that threatens to annihilate the bunker, and it occurs with logic straight out of “The Simpsons.”
Episode 7 options the convergence of two particular plots. We get the arrival of Hyperlink (Thomas Doherty) and his group of survivors to the California bunker, whereas Jeremy Bradford (Charlie Evans) turns into a would-be revolutionary inside it. The previous is right here to seek out Alex, and he’s such a menace to the key council of billionaires contained in the bunker that they resolve to provoke full lockdown to forestall the survivors from breaking in. On the identical time, Jeremy forces the safety system into considering there’s an oxygen downside, which might power open the bunker doorways.
The activation of each the door-opening mechanism and the complete lockdown sequence collapses the system. Fairly than overriding one or the opposite, the command battle causes an imminent meltdown of the nuclear reactions that energy your complete bunker. It is a ludicrous and humorous coincidence that feels extra like one thing cartoon character Homer Simpson is able to doing than the characters of a live-action drama from the creator of “This Is Us.”
Season 2 of “Paradise” has been an unbelievable trip, a messier however extra satisfying journey than season 1. To date, it is toying with greater and even sillier sci-fi ideas, however that is the silliest up to now — and it is type of enjoyable.
Somebody name Homer Simpson
Some really wild stuff occurs on this episode (Xavier reuniting along with his spouse, Xavier coping with one of the best villain of 2026 up to now, Sinatra discovering Hyperlink may be her son), however maybe the wildest choice of all is to have the bunker’s system collapse as a result of it may’t compute two instructions concurrently.
Certainly, it feels extra just like the second in “The Simpsons Film” the place the bomb-disarming robotic succumbs to the stress of deciding which cable to chop by capturing itself. That this sequence of occasions in “Paradise” not solely breaks down the system however actually causes a nuclear meltdown feels extra like one thing that Homer Simpson would do. It brings to thoughts the time Homer causes a meltdown inside an enclosed, unconnected simulator of his desk. It is foolish, certain, however it’s additionally fairly humorous. In some other present, this may really feel like it’s ruining the story. And but, “Paradise” season 2 is already toying with concepts of time journey, prophecy, and a few Skynet-like supercomputer. A little bit of “Simpsons”-style silliness will not damage.
As goofy because the second is, it does serve a thematic function. After season 1 revealed precisely how and why the bunker was made, season 2 of “Paradise” is difficult the very notion of getting this supposed secure haven for the tip of the world. In spite of everything, we all know the skin world did not finish, and now there are survivors on the door. Worse but, the bunker won’t even be a secure haven in spite of everything. This improvement is supposed to point out that Sinatra and her billionaires have been too over-confident and smug in constructing the bunker, and that they might by no means truly be ready for each single attainable final result. There’s one thing very humorous about such a gargantuan venture doubtlessly ending due to a Homer Simpson-level mistake.
