Paradise Season 2 Kills Off The Show's Most Complex Character

This post contains spoilers for Hulu's "Paradise."

The first season of "Paradise" introduced tech billionaire Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) as a suspect in Cal Bradford's (James Marsden) murder. Codenamed Sinatra, Redmond was revealed to be a major antagonist, with more layers being added to her motivations in season 2. Sinatra's obsession with creating the Colorado bunker and protecting its secrets stems from the unimaginable grief of losing her kid, Dylan, to terminal illness.

This compounds into the fear of losing her daughter, Hadley (Kate Godfrey), leading Sinatra down a dark path where the ends justify the means. She has done some horrible things over the years, all in the name of working towards a future catered to a select few. That said, the season 2 finale, "Exodus," rewires our interpretation of Sinatra with her sudden, tragic death, which can be viewed as her ultimate sacrifice. Although it doesn't absolve her of the harm she has inflicted, it does put her convictions under scrutiny, especially with the reveal about the quantum supercomputer, Alex.

"Paradise" has been breadcrumbing clues about Alex being related to time travel all season, but the finale helps us understand Sinatra's integral role and the reasons behind her sacrifice. In episode 7, she came to the realization that Link (Thomas Doherty), whose actual name is Dylan, is her son. This obviously doesn't make sense from a logical standpoint, but it holds water when we bring quantum entanglement and time manipulation into the mix. As Alex is a supercomputer capable of creating temporal glitches and loops, is it possible that child Dylan survived in another timeline, and adult Link is the result of that alternate reality? While these theories are viable at best at the moment, Sinatra seems certain that Alex has already saved the world. Here's why. 

While the nuclear reactors inside the Colorado bunker start melting due to a Simpsons-level logical twist, Sinatra visits Alex, the side project that she has been so secretive about. Keen-eyed viewers had already figured out that Alex is named after Henry Miller's (Patrick Fischler) ailing wife. This connection ties in to a flashback where a young Billy Pace (Jon Beavers) is sent by Sinatra to kill Miller, who begs him to spare a young scientific prodigy who has close familial ties with them.

The prodigy is none other than young Link, who is revealed to have built Alex's blueprint in the finale. At some point, Miller had even warned Sinatra that Alex is dangerous, as it solved an equation before being asked to do so. This points towards retro-causality, where future events shape or influence past events, thus challenging cause and effect.

If Alex is a supercomputer capable of retro-causality, it isn't far-fetched to assume that it is dictating events from a future timeline to shape the present. This supports the fact that Alex predicts Sinatra's death and ensures that Xavier and Link cross paths. As Link is at the center of these anomalies, Sinatra is convinced that he is adult Dylan, who must have traveled here from a reality where Dylan survives. This certainty heals the gaping wound associated with Dylan's death, as she can die knowing that Alex has already created a timeline where nothing ever went wrong.

So Sinatra stays behind after the bunker is evacuated, as someone needs to close the doors to contain the nuclear blast. Before dying, she hands Xavier a chip with his initial on it and asks him to find Alex if he wants to save the world.

It's crucial to note that Sinatra's certainty about Alex is her interpretation of events and doesn't necessarily reflect objective reality. If we look at Link's life so far, his presence as Miller's protégé  means that he has always existed in the current timeline. While some sort of temporal twist is possible, we don't know how they manifest. More importantly, it is foolish to assign benevolence to a supercomputer that can manipulate time (and perhaps, space), as it is possible that Alex planted the suggestion of Sinatra's death to trigger that specific outcome.

Even if we assume Sinatra was wrong about everything, her death serves a more emotional purpose in "Paradise." It doesn't matter whether Alex is good or evil, or if Link is actually Dylan or not. What's important is that Sinatra believes that the world has already been saved, which finally allows her to process Dylan's death. She touches Link's cheek affectionately and says they will meet again, and hallucinates child Dylan holding her hand as the bunker collapses. This sense of peace and acceptance is something Sinatra — no, Samantha — had never experienced as a grieving mother. She had to assume the cruelty associated with her Sinatra persona to work towards the ultimate retro-causality, which consumed whatever tenderness she harbored inside of her.

There are no bunkers to take shelter inside in season 3, as all survivors are now on the rapidly-heating surface. But Alex is out there in a bunker somewhere, waiting for Xavier to help save the world. Will the current timeline reset? It's tough to say, but Sinatra/Samantha's absence in the upcoming season will be felt. Given that she is the show's most compelling character, I hope Sinatra's story is far from over.