Up until the penultimate episode of Paradise on Hulu, fans didn’t exactly know what went down that fateful day when a devastating natural disaster devastated the Earth, effectively turning it into an uninhabitable wasteland. All that’s known is that it’s likely linked to the event that climate scientist Dr. Louge (Geoffrey Arend) predicted many years before, and that prompted Samantha (Julianne Nicholson) to build that lavish underground community, create an escape plan, and hand-pick the individuals she believed were worth saving.
The latest episode, however, walks viewers through exactly what happened on that fateful day, along with what caused the rift between Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) and President Cal Bradford (James Marsden). It also finally confirms why Xavier’s wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), never made it to the gate to leave on the plane with them.
Paradise
4.5
/5
- Release Date
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January 26, 2025
- Network
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Hulu
- Directors
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Gandja Monteiro
- Writers
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Jason Wilborn
Key Moments Before and Leading Up to “The Day”
Episode 7, fittingly called “The Day,” begins with a few relevant callbacks to when General Curtleigh (Scott Lawrence) told Xavier that they were preparing for an extinction-level event that could happen in the very near, very real future but that he could not divulge specifics. Then, it skips back to the day when Samantha is listening in on Dr. Louge’s unpopular seminar about how, in less than a decade, a tsunami will likely plunge the entire eastern seaboard of the U.S. underwater.
While the room is almost entirely empty, Samantha, having just lost her son, is glued to his apocalyptic story. Whether she believes him or is just clinging to some type of purpose is unknown. But it’s evident that she later meets with him for advice and details, which eventually becomes the catalyst for her decision to use her billions of dollars, resources, and connections to build a bunker and a new society under a mountain.
It appears that once Xavier was made privy to what was likely going to happen, or at least what they had to prepare for, he began his training on how to ensure President Bradford was properly escorted out to safety. During one of their training walks, President Bradford tries to convince Xavier to “put his foot down” with his wife and suggests she stop taking frequent trips to Atlanta. Xavier doesn’t think much of the comment, suggesting that he never has, and never will be, able to tell his wife what to do. Cal indicates that they’ll “just have to go pick her up from there.”
Of course, they never made it to Atlanta to pick her up. But based on the third-to-last episode, viewers believe that she is still alive, saying the president did something that day that may very well have saved her. Xavier, however, isn’t buying it.
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Episode 7 kicks off with a flashback to a military man talking with his wife about how a captain made a decision not to launch all nukes, leading to the death of many people. He suggests this will happen again, and he fears the wrong person might be at the controls next time. As he heads to bed, he flicks the lights off, then on, then off again, and it’s clear it’s a lightbulb moment for him. It flips to a news broadcast on the disaster day discussing the “unprecedented chaos” that has started in Antarctica. A massive supervolcano erupted under the ice sheet, expelling millions of tons of ash. The force shattered a large portion of the ice shelf, melting gallons of water and triggering a tsunami that is traveling at nearly 600 miles per hour.
As everyone in the White House looks on, horrified, Xavier is one of a few people who knows what’s truly going on. He’s furiously texting Teri to find out where she is and if her plane has landed yet. But he keeps getting an auto-reply that says, “Message failed.” He also calls the school, ensuring that his kids are staying close with Jeremy Bradford (Charlie Evans), knowing someone will be arriving to get them. As the death toll creeps up in the hundreds of thousands, a meeting is taking place with joint chiefs. It’s time for the president to make some tough decisions. “How bad is it? Is this it?” he asks. “This appears to be it, Mr. President,” says one woman. They learn that various coastal cities, like Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina, are already gone.
Cal is terrified and frantic, angered at the scientists that they told him he’d have at least a few weeks, at least days, of warning. But this is it. “This happened faster than even our worst-case scenario,” one declares. There’s no time to think over crucial decisions. It’s literally do or die. It’s time to enact “Versailles.”
The President’s Courageous Speech in ‘Paradise’
Realizing that there’s virtually no chance of survival above Earth, President Bradford asks for a vote, and they all call for “Go” on Defcon 3, the highest state of alert before war. The TV news report continues, and Dr. Louge is one of the guests discussing what he had warned people about so long ago but to which no one would listen. The broadcast is cutting in and out, suggesting that the tsunami is closer than they even realize to taking out the city.
Xavier finally hears from Teri, who is still in Atlanta as the flight was grounded. Now, he’s in a heightened state of panic. But he is also responsible for rallying everyone and, most importantly, for his job, ensuring the president is protected. President Bradford prepares to give his on-air speech to the people prior to them leaving for the underground community. As he sees a female reporter virtually wiped out from the tsunami on air, he realizes the gravity of the situation. Xavier manages to get a moment alone and asks Cal about his wife. “Talk to General Curtleigh,” Cal says. “They’ll get her here.”
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President Bradford gives a PR-friendly speech about the extensive damage and how Americans will stand together, ending with “God bless you all.” But it’s evident he’s not comfortable with his speech. This is especially so when the military recommends to him that they move to Defcon 2 in preparation to deploy nuclear missiles.
All the while, Xavier is giving Teri instructions on where to go and how, based on what the military has advised him to do to ensure that she gets to safety. But he must start the evacuation procedure. However, when President Bradford sees the elderly janitor working at the White House for decades, he feels compelled to stop and talk to him. The sense of hope the man has that everyone will be okay leaves Cal feeling guilty. He can’t leave like this, not without revealing the truth.
He heads back, demanding that he go back on television. Xavier prepares other agents, knowing there will be mass hysteria once Cal makes his announcement. Cal decides to deliver it straight, telling everyone that their modeling shows imminent worldwide disaster. “I’m telling you this,” he says, “so you can make decisions based on where you want to be right now and who you want to be with.” He ends with, “God bless you and good luck.”
Emotions Heighten as They Escape to Safety in ‘Paradise’
Not surprisingly, everyone in the White House who isn’t privy to the plan wants to know what’s going on. Where is the president being taken? Fights break out, and shots are fired as Xavier is torn between his duty to the president and ensuring that Teri is safe. Cal is escorted outside to the plane, but he’s met with a mob of angry people, both inside and out. The gravity of the situation is displayed when Xavier tells a young agent he cannot board the plane with them and that his orders are to stay back and help at the White House. The agent pulls a gun on him, but before Xavier can talk him down, Robinson (Krys Marshall) shoots him in the head and tells Xavier to “do his f***king job.”
The plane takes off as Robinson holds everyone back and Xavier and Cal are shaken to their cores. Upon arrival at the air base, Xavier pleads with Cal about Teri, saying he can’t get on the plane without her. “Your kids need you,” Cal tells Xavier. “I need you.” It’s in this moment that Xavier knows the truth. “When did you know she wasn’t going to make it?” Xavier asks Cal. “When you told me she was still in Atlanta,” he admits. Xavier is angry that Cal danced around it with no urgency, and if he had known, he would have told her not to go. “I would have kept her close!” he screams.
“If you don’t want a seat on that plane, there are roughly eight billion people who will take it,” screams Cal. “Your wife is gone. You need to process that and go be with your children.” Now, the issue Xavier had with Cal is made crystal clear. Of course, Xavier gets on the plane where he sees his kids and can’t bring himself to answer the “where’s mommy” question. The president is then taken to a back room where he has to make yet another impossible decision. Nuclear bombs have been set off, and his military is suggesting he launch all their weapons. General Curtleigh is matter of fact when he indicates that their plane has had too much damage and will not make it. All Cal has to do is enter the codes.
As Cal sits in front of the nuclear football, the device that allows the U.S. to launch its entire nuclear arsenal in one shot. He’s torn about what to do because he also knows that there’s an alternate option with the blue code. He harkens back to the beginning, when “some kernel” had the idea to create a switch, an ultimate failsafe, that would fry every electronic circuit on Earth, including turning off the nukes. This would basically switch everything off in the world and take the planet back 500 years, “but that was better than the alternative,” he adds when telling the story to Samantha. “At least it would give people a chance.”
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He opens the blue codes, and he’s ready to use it. “All those people will die anyway,” pleads Samantha. “It’s more humane to let it happen in a bright flash than let them all starve over the course of a year.” “They need a chance,” Cal insists. Samantha, however, is more concerned about the bunker, which relies on communication up top to know when it’s safe and what’s going on. But Cal is definitive in his decision. He’s not launching the missiles. He calls his agent in and advises that if Samantha does not move, he orders him to shoot her.
Thus, Cal decided to turn off all power worldwide, disabling any country and any military from being able to set off their weapons. As he inputs the codes, the world goes dark. Before it all cuts out, Xavier gets the chance to say a final goodbye to Teri before the phone cuts out. Xavier sees that Atlanta, where Teri is, is a projected strike area. However, he doesn’t know that the strike might not have happened because of Cal’s in-the-nick-of-time decision.
Back in present day, Samantha lets Xavier hear a recording of Teri, who says her name, his name and the names of their kids, saying she’s with other survivors and searching for them. But Samantha has leverage because Presley (Aliyah Mastin), it appears, is missing. What does she want? Samantha reveals that the DNA taken from Cal’s murder scene didn’t match anyone in the bunker. This means that someone from the outside somehow made their way in.
Samantha wants Xavier to release her people, give back her weapons, and figure out who the killer is, or she will not release his daughter. It appears she is the very monster she so passionately insisted she was not. She is not, however, Cal’s murderer. With Paradise already renewed for a second season, it’s unclear if the finale will reveal Cal’s killer or if this story will be taken into Season 2. What’s evident, however, is that it will be an intense, emotional final episode that could show what’s going on above Earth as well. Stream Paradise on Hulu.
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