Yahoo Lifestyle Wait, Paradise’s [Spoiler] Is Actually Alive?! Read Episode 6 Recap
Yippee ki-yay, Paradise enthusiasts!
In addition to being heavy on Die Hard references, this week’s episode raises a question I’ve (and likely you’ve) certainly considered since the show’s start: Could Xavier’s wife, Terry, somehow have survived the catastrophic event that send the chosen few underground to Paradise?
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At the end of this week’s episode, Sinatra says that’s the case: Terry did not die. Do we believe her? More importantly, should Xavier believe her, especially because Sinatra has demonstrated that she’s — how do I say this nicely? — insanely dogged in achieving her goals?
Meanwhile, Presley unlocks both the tablet and a memory from the night of Cal’s murder with help from an unlikely source.
Read on for the highlights of “You Asked For Miracles.”
MAKING A SCENE | In a flashback to the Beforetimes, we see that Terry had a feisty personality that paired well with Xavier’s more measured one; after she gets a little passionate while defending Presley in the principal’s office one afternoon, Xavier gently chides her for making a scene. “Sometimes, making a scene is the only thing you have to do,” she counters. She predicts that, one day, he’ll hit his limit. “And when that happens? Tell you what: I would not want to be the motherf–ker on the other side of it,” she jokes.
Then we’re back in the present, where it’s now daytime in Paradise, but “They’re Lying to You” is still prominently displayed on the dome. Sinatra is on site at the control tower, livid that Carl rigged things so that everyone is locked out of the system. (In case you’re worried for the safety of Carl and his sweet pup, the bartender is hiding them, as well as Presley and James.) Sinatra summons Gabriela and demands that she talk to Xavier and find out what’s going on. Though the therapist feigns surprise, Sinatra reveals that she knows about them having sex in the shower; seems like Dr. Torabi’s suspicions about her place being bugged were on point. Sinatra sends her to the diner, where Xavier is having a meal, to discern what he’s got planned.
At the diner, Xavier calmly recounts how Sinatra “led us down here, corralled us and sent us to slaughter,” then he asks why she killed the scientific team. Gabriela only says that Sinatra isn’t a monster. “What does she think of the sky? I did it for her,” he replies, unsurprised when Gabriela says Sinatra is frantically trying to get it taken down. Just then, Robinson — who’s been raiding the weapons locker under the arena — texts Xavier: “Phase 1, done. Moving to Phase 2.” That’s the cue for him to cut off his band with a hunting knife and leave. “Tell your girl,” he says as he departs, “I’m coming for her.”
Paradise’s Big Mysteries: Did Anyone Survive the Catastrophe? Join TVLine’s In-Depth, Ongoing Investigation
A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD | In another flashback to life before Paradise, we see Cal ask Xavier to walk him through the doomsday protocol for what will happen when/if the Big Thing happens. Xavier does so, but Cal notes that his Secret Service agent is hurrying a little and has little patience for the president’s asides and Die Hard references. Xavier hasn’t seen Die Hard.
Eventually Xavier asks to know precisely what world-ending scenario is supposed to happen, and when it will take place. Cal says he can’t share, but he offers this: “I think it’s time you put your foot down with your wife. Trips to Atlanta are not as risk-free as they used to be.” Xavier says she won’t listen, especially given the vague nature of the warning. So Cal grins and says if something does happen, “I guess we’ll just have to go pick her up from there.” He quickly sobers, though, noting: “I’m going to be the man in charge when the world ends.” We learn that Xavier is rushing because he’d like to catch Terry before she goes to Atlanta; Cal gets him a car home, which allows him to catch her just before she gets into her car. “Don’t go,” he asks after kissing her soundly. “I love you, baby, but you’re late,” she says, smiling. “See you in 10 days.” She leaves.
In the present, as Gabriela reports to Sinatra, we learn that the kids’ bands — as well as those of Secret Service agents Robinson and Rainey — are offline, too. And from the geographical spot where Robinson’s band stopped working, it’s clear she’s at the weapons closet. “Go keep an eye on my family, now,” Sinatra tells her security detail. And by the time her men get to the gun repository, Xavier and his group have cleared it out but not without leaving behind a Post-It note that’s also a Die Hard callout: “Now I have all the guns ho-ho-HO.”
Elsewhere, Xavier and Robinson meet up with other like-minded members of the Secret Service; they note that they didn’t even try to recruit Jane, who’s a) too bereft after Billy’s death, and b) “Holly Hobby with a gun,” per Robinson. (Ha!) Soon after, the message in the sky changes: “Do You Want To Know The Truth?”
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE | Back at the tower, no one knows how to stop the messages from appearing before the masses. (Side note: Is this a bad system, or is this a bad system?) The only real option is a hard reboot, which involves shutting down the sky and turning it back on. This is a bad choice, psychologically speaking, Gabriela advises: “People will remember they’re living in a cave.” She likens it to when the lights have to go on during a ride at Disneyland (though having to be walked off Haunted Mansion is my DREAM — you’d get to see how it all is put together!), and she wants Sinatra to find Xavier and talk it out. Sinatra seems to be listening, but she also orders Xavier arrested on sight.
Behind the scenes, though, she texts Jane and orders her to find Xavier. The pint-sized assassin pulls a gun out of her fuzzy heart throw pillow and gets to work.
Elsewhere, Presley sneaks out of the bar’s basement and finds Jeremy listening to music at the library; she chastises him for brooding while “weird stuff is happening.” She shows him the tablet and shares her concerns that Xavier’s actions are connected to it. That’s when we learn that she found the device just lying in the bushes the last night that she was playing Wii with Billy at the White House. “I shouldn’t have taken it, but I thought maybe it could tell me something about what happened in Atlanta,” she says — but she can’t access it. “I can help,” Jeremy volunteers.
‘WE’RE TAKING CONTROL OF THIS CITY’ | A small cadre of Secret Service folks have signed on to help Xavier with his coup, so he addresses them. He starts by telling them that Cal and Billy were murdered. “Samantha Redmond, codename Sinatra, is behind this. She’s pulling the strings, and the other billionaires are marching in step,” he says. “But that ends now. We’re taking control of this city. And when we do, we’ll find justice. For the president, for Billy and for every one of us who went through hell to get here. Because we didn’t come this far to be fed a bunch of lies. We didn’t come this far to nod our heads and play along. So if you’re with me, we’re going to go out there, and we’re going to rip the f–king lies from right underneath them. We’re going to make a scene. You know why? Because sometime making a scene is the only thing you need to do.”
Then he and Robinson swing by Air Force One to put the next step of their plan into action. “We don’t need to blow s—t up, Robinson,” he says. “We just need her to think we are.”
Back at the presidential residence, Kane thinks Jeremy is Cal again, and he agrees to help Presley unlock the tablet. As he does so, Presley sees a pressed flower on the bookmark Kane is using and remembers that she saw it the night Cal died: A quick flashback shows us the back of a person wearing what looks like coveralls with a logo on the back that looks like the pressed flower, and the person is on the grounds of President Bradford’s home.
There’s some information about Atlanta on the tablet: Namely, that two thermonuclear weapons were there.
‘SAMANTHA, WHAT DID YOU DO?’ | Gabriela tries to make things better, telling Sinatra that she’s doing the right thing by waiting to talk with Xavier. But she’s slowly starting to suspect that she may be way out of her league here. “What does he know?” she wonders, eyebrows narrowing. They’re interrupted by “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” palying from speakers all over town while the message in the sky switches to “Who Is Sinatra?” with a minute-long countdown. Confused citizens gather in the streets, where they have a front-row seat to Xavier and Robinson’s next theatrics: They light the missile-confusing pyrotechnics — which look like explosives but are harmless — and aim them right at the tower.
Just like that, Samantha’s done waiting. She orders the dome shut down, which plunges the entire community into dark. Alarms and emergency lights follow. Is it a wonder that everyone freaks out? “Yippee ki-yay, motherf—ker,” Xavier says, surveying the scene.
As everyone panics and Samantha and Gabriela are hustled out via car, Jeremy stands on top of a vehicle in the middle of the crowd. “Whoever wrote that up there is right: They are lying to us!” he yells. “You think they told the truth about how my dad died?” While he’s preaching, Jane approaches Presley, who’s watching in the crowd. The agent says she just wants to hide, grieve and eat ice cream, and she asks the teen to join her. “I got you,” Presley says, leaving with her/likely voluntarily marching herself straight into peril.
HOPE IN HELL? | Xavier runs after Sinatra’s car and winds up coming face-to-face with Gabriela, who’s sitting outside the place Samantha is hiding. He realizes the doctor tipped her off. “We built this place together,” she says by way of explanation/apology. “The city has to hold.” As the sky starts to reboot, she encourages him to “talk to her.”
Sinatra is drinking a glass of wine when Xavier enters her home; she lets him know she sent her guards home. He holds his gun on her, but she doesn’t seem scared or bothered as he accuses her of killing Cal and Billy. “I didn’t murder the president,” she corrects him. “I might’ve, if he kept digging where he was digging. But I didn’t.” Billy, however? “Left me no choice,” she says.
She lets him know that she knows he has all the weapons in town, “but there’s one bullet you didn’t know about,” she says. Then she fires it, as he stares, unbelieving: “Your wife is alive out there, Xavier. And if you stop all this nonsense, I can help you find her.”
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Do you believe that Terry is still alive? Vote via the poll below, then hit the comments with allllll the rest of your thoughts!
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