TV Recap/Review: "Paradise" - Season 2, Episode 7 "The Final Countdown"

Recap:

Six years ago, Samantha (Julianne Nicholson) is getting a tour of the life support system for the compound. President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) is listening as the science of how oxygen will be created and balanced in the bunker, asks if they could take the tour down a few grade levels. (God, James Marsden is a gem. He makes Cal so likeable.) When Cal explains to the scientist that he needs to think caveman level, Bradford gets a simple answer of what is happening. From oxygen to water tanks to the burning of trash, Cal and Samantha are shown crucial systems needed to keep everyone alive. 

Cal and Samantha exchange some jokes, and this brings down the seriousness of what they are experiencing. Cal starts to talk about his honeymoon in London, and how he spent the time with his wife. He confesses to Samantha that he hopes that the money they spent on the bunker turns out to be a waste and not essential to the survival of the world. 

Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) survived Gary’s (Cameron Britton) deception but is captured by the group at the train station. Even though Teri (Enuka Okuma) is a part of the group and is telling them Xavier is her husband, they aren’t listening. When they get to close, the Secret Service agent fights them and disarms several members of the caravan group. Xavier and Teri are reunited, and with Teri’s urging, she tells her husband to put the gun down. Xavier relinquishes his gun and tells them that Gary told him they had kidnapped Teri. 

Teri gets a note from Gary that he has Bean and wants her to come back to the post office. 

Samantha is trying to decide on what to wear to her meeting with the outsiders, her husband Tim (Tuc Watkins) joins her in the closet. He suggests an outfit, and Samantha then reminds him about their morning fashion consults and Samantha asks when they stopped following each other. Tim tells her that they both know when that stopped. He then reminds her that their son Dylan would have been 26 this year. Samantha wants to know how her husband healed from the loss of their son. He insists that he didn’t, and Samantha explains all the things he can do that she can’t when talking about their son. 

Gabriela (Sarah Shahi) has a nightmare of Jane (Nicole Bloom) in her room shooting at her. It’s just a bad dream but it still unnerves the good doctor. Gabriela is paranoid but she still pursues her investigation of who Alex is. She leaves the house only to be met by Jane who offers a ride. The menacing Secret Service agent tells Gabriela that if she needs anything, Jane knows where to find her. (This is scary good. Nicole Bloom has the perfect visage to portray a wonderfully normal wolf in sheep’s clothing.)

Hadley (Kate Godfrey) has Presley (Aliyah Mastin) over to the house, because her mom will be gone all day. They are discussing where the prisoners were taken and looking for a way to break them out. Hadley tries to hack inside her mother’s computer and succeeds. 

Jeremy (Charles Evans) Nicole Robinson (Krys Marshall) and Anders (Erik Svedberg-Zelman) have escaped from the underground prison, and when Robinson learns about their plan to open the doors to the bunker and allow everyone outside, the former Secret Service agent joins them to help. 

At the advisory meeting Samantha learns about the safety being planned before their meeting with Link (Thomas Doherty) and his men. Jane volunteers to join Samantha, but thanks to Gabriela’s interjection, Samantha agrees and Jane is forced to miss out on the meeting, much to her annoyance. 

Back at the train, Teri gets to spend time with her husband after he answers some questions. Their emotional reunion brings out tears and Xavier cries as he apologizes for giving up hope. ( I wonder how he will explain his night with Dr. Torabi.) Teri shows Xavier the note from Gary, and he is not happy. Teri tells her husband that they can’t leave without Bean (Benjamin Mackey), and he agrees. He also tells his wife that they have a lot to catch up on. (Such as that Xavier has his own adopted child at the moment.) Xavier and Teri arm themselves and take off for the post office.

In Samantha’s office, Gabriela joins her friend and wants a word. Samantha is less than friendly, but that doesn’t stop the good doctor from being honest about what she is feeling. Gabriela tells Samantha that she is worried about Jane and tells her that she thinks Jane is responsible for President Baines murder. Gabriela asks who Alex is, but Samantha will not answer and tells her friend to not say that name again.

Hadley and Presley continue to dive deep into her mother’s computer wondering where Jeremy is. They found security video that shows where he was brought to the bottom floor when the cave was excavated. Using her computer skills, Hadley gave their wristbands access to go wherever they want including to the makeshift prison. 

Anders is confused on where to go, and Jeremy and Nicole are not sure what to do. Jeremy tries to tell Robinson that he doesn’t need her, and then she explains that she is there to protect him, because his dad talked about him the whole time, and she feels a duty to keep him safe. Jeremy replies that Cal never said a word about her. (Ouch Jeremy, that was not nice.) 

Xavier tells Teri that their daughter Presley has a boyfriend and that it’s President Bradford’s son. Wondering what Cal has to say about it, Xavier informs his wife that Cal was murdered. She is shocked by the news. Xavier listens as Teri tells him about Bean the boy she cared for during their isolation. 

The hangar doors open, and Samantha is ready to meet with Link (Thomas Doherty). Samantha is overjoyed at the feel of the heat from the son. Then Link and his crew walk through the open doors. He is surprised to see Samantha because he was expecting President Bradford. She tells him that Cal is dead. Samantha does not tell him that President Baines is dead as well. Link and his crew admire the fresh apple pie that they receive and this annoys Samantha. Link wants to talk on Air Force One and despite the objections of the security team, she agrees.

Xavier mounts the roof opposite the post office and takes aim to see where Gary is and what he has done to Bean. He wants to shoot Gary before they go into the building, and this surprises Teri. She wants to go in alone and leave Xavier outside. Teri tells her husband that she didn’t get this far by being a fool. Teri tells Xavier that she will be right back. 

Inside Air Force One, Link is amazed by the sight of everything that is on the presidential plane. He compares himself and Samantha to Luke and Vader from Star Wars. Link says Samantha is Vader because her hair is short, and because she is evil. (I like Link, he’s very funny.) They exchange details of the difficulty about leading a large amount of people. (Two sides of the same coin.)

Link explains that they want one of the nuclear reactors that they use in the bunker. He explains that his group would use it to help restart the world. Samantha is impressed but states that this isn’t a five-star resort with reactors to spare. Samantha asks him what he really wants, and while Link tries to claim that he only wants the reactor, Samantha is not buying it. The cloud of illusion is broken, and Link tells her that he is there for Alex. (Who is Alex? I bet it’s some form of program. It can’t be a person. Could it? No! Imagine if Alex is a real person locked in a hidden cell? I hope it’s a computer program.) 

Teri enters the post office and finds Bean. They reunite and when they embrace, Gary walks in. Teri tells the boy to go outside, and he leaves. Gary wonders if Teri thought he would actually hurt Bean. Gary tries to tell Teri how the post office doesn’t work without her. She tells him that he needs to calm down because if he doesn’t then Xavier will kill him.

Samantha tries to play coy about Alex, and Link does not believe her. He wants to know where Alex is, and Samantha ends the meeting by getting up and leaving. 

Gabriela is searching through computer records trying to figure out who is Alex and not having any luck. Worried, she checks the windows to see if anyone is spying on her, and across the street unknown to Gabriela is Jane watching through her binoculars. 

Anders, Jeremy, and Robinson make it to the auxiliary control room, where Jeremy apologizes to Robinson about what he said about his dad never talking about her. (Wow the kid has a conscience. It’s nice to see that he recognizes immediately that he was a jerk. I mean come on, Robinson saved your life. Glad to see he is showing some love. That’s what Cal would have wanted.) Robinson is less that kind and insults the boy. (Nice one Robinson.) Their plan is to force the oxygen out in order to open the doors. The only way to do it is to smash some stuff.

Gary is not doing okay. He’s upset about the fact that he is going to lose Teri and Bean. His life was going to change forever, and he is upset about everything that he has done. He never meant to hurt anyone. He mentions that these three years were the worst but the best of his life. Teri tells him they were wonderful, but they are over. Gary tries to get Xavier to shoot him, but Teri embraces him and stops it. She tells him that he has the chance to start over and that he will be okay. Teri promises that Bean will remember only the best parts of him. She walks out of the post office, collects the boy and leaves with Xavier as Gary stays behind. The three of them walk to a playground, where Bean plays on the swings. Xavier tells his wife that they have one more stop to make before they get to the train. He asks Teri if she still likes babies. (Oh boy, what a traveling group the Collins family has become.)

At the exit to the bunker Samantha tells Link that they will never get into the bunker, it was designed to withstand a nuclear blast and that they should move on. Link tells her that he is getting in and he will find Alex. Samantha tells Link that she will do everything she can to protect her (meaning Alex, so it’s a girl, doesn’t mean it’s a person) and everything that she (Samantha) has built.

This annoys Link and he confronts Samantha about her statement. He states that she hasn’t built anything but bribed stole and killed. (Ohh, Samantha, you have no idea how angry Link is, nor how much he is connected to you.) When Geiger (Michael McGrady) calls Link by his real name Dylan, Samantha has an ah ha moment. She is quickly putting together who Link really is. Samantha wants to know when he was born, and he obliges and tells her. 

Link and his band of merry men leave with Samantha developing a nose bleed. At home, Samantha finds her husband Tim waiting for her. He asks how the meeting went and she tells him that she thinks it worked. Samantha tells Tim that she thinks everything is okay with Dylan. (WAIT A SECOND? DID THEY JUST REVEAL THAT LINK IS DYLAN, SAMANTHA’S SON???? DIDN’T HE DIE? WHAT IS GOING ON?)

Back in the past Anders is leading Samantha and Cal through the nerve center of what is controlling the bunker. He wonders who the poor soul is that monitor’s the screens. When Cal asks what if someone tries to reenact the Battle of Helm’s Deep, Samantha hates that she knows what he is talking about and explains they will initiate a full lock down procedure. When Cal asks what happens if every bad thing happens at once, Anders explains that the system is programmed to respond to every reasonable scenario. (Ah I see, Bradford anticipated the worst, while the smart people didn’t.)

Leaving, Samantha asks what Cal is looking for. Cal explains that empires don’t fall because of a lack of redundancies, but rather from being to high on their horse. While Bradford gives a lesson about the fall of the Roman Empire, the advisory council is trying to reach Samantha because they know that Link and his militia are about to invade. 

The advisory council votes for a full lockdown, while Jeremy and Robinson smash oxygen pumps, and Jane enters Gabriela’ house with a gun, Samantha rides off through a distant tunnel. 

Jane is surprised and stabbed by Gabriela. (IS JANE DEAD? I doubt it. After all Freddy and Jason continue to return in the movies. You can’t kill a great villain.)

While Cal tells Samantha of six years ago that dominance may last for awhile, it will always end, and Anders watches from the control room as the alarms start to go off. Full Lockdown is initiated, and the elevators stop with a system failure causing harm and preventing the security of the bunker from being achieved. This leads to a meltdown of the nuclear reactors. 

To Cal Bradford, everything that achieves greatness ends. However, Samantha Redmond assures him not on her watch. Xavier, Teri, Bean, and the baby are riding the train to Colorado, and Samantha enters a secret control room, where she says hello to Alex.

Review:

For a penultimate episode, we got a lot of possibilities revealed in "The Final Countdown." The fact that Samantha’s son may be Link, makes me wonder how that is possible. Of course, it would make sense in a literal way why he goes by the name Link, because he is the link to Samantha and the bunker, but I am intrigued by the possibility. 

The fact that Gary survives his encounter with Xavier is a miracle. There is no way that he should have lived, but thanks to the grace of god, and Teri, Gary gets to live and hopefully will do something with his life. It was nice to see Enuka Okuma have the pivotal role in ending the Gary storyline. As much as I would have loved to see Xavier beat him up, Teri’s ending of it was far more devastating to Gary, which is what he deserved. 

Finally, Dr. Torabi stabs Jane, and it looks like she killed her. That is insane. The cold-blooded crazed killer that is Jane was taken out by the therapist who is the architect of social well being in the bunker. This makes me wonder, should we be afraid of Dr. Torabi? I wondered about her in season one, and now I am starting to think she might be dangerous for everyone. 

So much happens in episode 7 that viewers will be glued to the screen. One of the best parts was having James Marsden play such an important narrative voice. For the president who needed things dumbed down for him by the scientists, he was acutely aware of the worst possible situation and was the only person to wonder what would happen should every safety measure fail. 

Now the smart people in the bunker are about to find out in a certain to be explosive season finale next week. It looks like we are in for a Paradise version of the "Battle of Helm’s Deep" and any show that so brilliantly references The Lord of the Rings is a brilliant show to watch.