TV Recap/Review: "Paradise" - Season 2, Episode 5 "The Mailman"
Recap:
Five years prior, Gary (Cameron Britton) is sorting mail and getting ready to deliver to his customers from the postal service warehouse. Customers and even the local dogs are friendly, but Gary is a lonely soul who spends all his time watching the world go by. His one joy is video games where he excels. Gary doesn’t have anyone, except his friendships online. Time goes by, and soon the conspiracy that was behind the attempted assassination of President Bradford, has led to the revelation of the volcano eruption that will decimate the world.
As Gary listens to all the doomsday messages of what will happen, and Gary starts to notice how at work the thick concrete walls at the post office is a perfect place to survive the forthcoming terrible event, Gary realizes there is a fallout shelter in the basement of the post office. He theorizes with his online friends that this would be the ideal place to survive when the volcano erupts.
On the day of the eruption, Gary is at home and knows that disaster is on its way to Atlanta. Gary collects his online friends. They all agree to meet at the post office. Seeing the boy he has often seen on his route alone, with a world ending event about to hit, Gary offers the boy Bean (Benjamin Mackey) to take him somewhere safe. As they stop to collect more food, Bean meets Teri (Enuka Okuma) as she says goodbye to Xavier.
The EMP pulse has been triggered by President Bradford, and the power stops. Teri sees the boy and goes toward him. He introduces himself as Bean, and Teri wants to know how he got out there all by himself. It’s at this moment that Gary arrives with fresh eggs. Bean is scared and seeks safety with Teri.
Gary, recognizing the moment, tells Teri that the end of the world is coming, and they have a safe place to go to. He is not trying to hurt the boy but rather he is trying to keep him safe. He offers Teri safety and invites her to join him. Teri accepts and the flee to safety.
In the present time, Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) holds a gun on Gary, and wants to know where his wife is. Gary tells him that she is his best friend (Never trust a guy you don’t know who claims to be best friends with your wife. Especially if she isn’t there next to him.) Gary will tell him everything he knows if Xavier puts the gun down.
Gary, Teri, and their group make it into the shelter, and they are greeted by the rest of their group of survivors. After introductions Gary tells everyone why they were chosen for the shelter and explains their roles. (I love how they have Gary reading from cue cards.)
Teri is shocked by what Gary has to say about the ash cloud that is forcing them to stay where they are. The group is confined to the shelter for the next twenty-one days and slowly everyone settles into their place and roles in the shelter. Gary learns that Teri has chronic back pain, and Gary gets truthful and tells Teri that she needs to help and not stare at her broken phone the whole time. He tells Teri that he has never had instincts before but when he met her, he felt that Teri was going to be a big part of what would happen in the shelter. Gary appeals to her that they need her, as does Bean, and she needs to get focused on the present and not what could happen in the future.
In the shelter, Gary shows Xavier where Teri’s bed was and learns that Teri was kidnapped from the group twelve days ago. The group also took Bean. Gary explains that he tried to rescue them but he couldn’t. Xavier insists that he shows him where they are.
Down at the train yard, Xavier sees that this is an armed group. He tells Gary that he thinks he can get into the camp. Back at the post office, he changes the baby and gives little detail to Gary about how he and the baby came to be a duo.
In the shelter, Teri starts to work and now the group is out of the shelter and living in the post office. Teri tells Gary they need to help Bean have a life so that there is something to live for. Teri creates a Christmas tree and everyone takes a moment to celebrate the holiday.
Gary shows Teri her gift, and it is a radio. He built it for her to transmit and hopefully contact her family. Together they build an antenna which gives Teri the chance to try and connect with her family. Time passes by and the years trickle on, as the group starts to grow as a family. Numerous messages are broadcasted, but one day when Teri arrives to the radio room, she sees the machine destroyed. Who could have done it? Was it Enos, who disliked Teri from the start? Or was it someone else?
Xavier works at creating a bomb, so he can create a distraction and rescue Teri.
Teri spent a lot of time teaching Bean at the post office and shows him the map of how they are going to travel to Colorado, when Bean goes looking for mushrooms. Gary is worried about letting Bean go off on his own, but Teri tells him that they need to let him roam, it will be good for him.
At the swap meet, Xavier is introduced to Crystal and Jackie, and they wonder where Teri is. Xavier learns that Crystal and Jackie would do anything to help get Teri back. They vouch for Xavier, and he gets the supplies needed.
Back in time, Enos talks with Teri, and tells her that he doesn’t hate her. He may not like her, but he does respect her. He comes clean about the radio and apologizes for destroying it and about the reality of his life before the eruption. Bean comes in and tells everyone about the moving train that is coming. Gary and Enos leave armed to check out the situation.
Gary asks Xavier why he would leave the baby with strangers after hearing one story about his wife, yet he wouldn’t even let Gary smile at the child. (Good question Gary.) Xavier explains how important it was for Teri to read to the kids at night before bed. If she had Crystal and Jackie read to Bean then she trusted them. Then Xavier states flatly that there is something that Gary is not telling him. He tells Gary that he should choose sooner than later to fess up to what he is not saying. (You don’t get to be head of the President’s detail without being a quick judge of liars.)
When Enos and Gary arrive at the train they are confronted by armed people and they offer them coffee and a chat. Inside the train, Gary and Enos listen to the leader tell them that they are on their way out west to help restart the world. They are a part of the group led by a kid named after a video game character. (Link is really important I see.)
The leader tells them that they will be gone in two weeks, and if they know anyone who wants to join them, send them their way because the train is heading to Colorado. On the way back to the post office Enos is talking about how lucky Teri is because now she has a free ride to Colorado, and in a couple of weeks she can leave to find her family.
Gary in present time starts to tell Xavier what he has been keeping hidden. He admits to being in love with Teri and promises to reunite the two. In the past, Enos is explaining how Teri is as good as gone when Gary shoots him, with Bean watching in the distance. (Holy cow, I should have seen this coming, the meek loner, who finally snaps and kills one of his only best friends because he can’t stand the thought of losing the one person he loves. Gary has some problems.)
Xavier and Gary shake hands with Xavier vowing to get his wife back.
Review:
‘The Mailman’ is a story about the mailman, and Gary played by Cameron Britton is a wonderful example of loneliness and fear, that gives the character a moment to do the right thing and to save everyone. Britton is very subdued in his performance which allows the other characters to see only the loveable and soft teddy bear like guy.
The fact is, Gary is very dangerous, and thanks to his years of loneliness and isolation, he struggles with boundaries. I mean he kidnaps Bean. Granted he does it for the right reasons as the world was coming to an end, but he still kidnaps him. Killing his friend Enos is just another sign that Gary has a tunnel vision look to life, and anyone who interferes with that he will cause harm to them. Britton makes Gary one of the scariest people found on the outside because here is a guy who knows how to survive and will do anything to keep things just the way he wants them and one may not suspect his ill intentions until it was too late.
Sterling K. Brown once again shows how he can do so much with little screen time. The main focus of the episode is the past, but Brown’s Xavier Collins is a man not to be messed with. From making bombs and calling out a liar when he sees one, Collins is cool under pressure, and explosive when needed. Brown is dynamic in his ability to switch faces throughout the episode. This character could not exist without Brown and without him in the lead role, Paradise would never have made it to television.