Paradise season 2 is back with a three-episode premiere that raises the political and emotional stakes of Hulu’s post-apocalyptic thriller. Besides being the creator, Dan Fogelman, the show starring Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, and James Marsden, is a poetic continuation of the exploration of survival inside and outside the underground city called Paradise.

After being given a new batch of episodes in February 2025, Paradise season 2 was released on February 23, 2026, right after the chaotic events of the first season.

The opening story of Paradise season 2 shifts between different times and places, mingling Xavier Collins’s surface tale with the growing tension inside the bunker. The first episode introduces new characters, explains key flashbacks, and sets the stage for a larger dispute involving a Colorado bunker and a person named Alex.

At the third episode’s finale, Paradise season 2 performs a significant political assassination that changes the underground power structure.

What happens in the premiere of Paradise season 2?

The pilot episode revolves mainly around Annie who is played as an adult by Shailene Woodley. Prior to the global disaster, Annie would often go to Graceland with her mother.

However, after the death of her mother and the drastic environmental collapse, Annie was one of the few to survive through staying in the mansions basement together with a security guard named Gayle. While power was out and the weather was extremely harsh, they shared the last of their food and supplies. At some point, Gayle died and thus, left Annie to live alone for several hundred days.

After almost two years of living alone, a gang of gunmen led by Link showed up at Graceland. They were on their way to the west and claimed that they would be able to find supplies in the underground bunker. Annie, however, stayed wary of them and gradually, she regained her trust.

Link eventually left a note for her saying that he would be back once they had restarted the world. Most importantly, Annie comes to know that their goal is to get into the bunker and kill some person called Alex. This narrative line becomes one of the most crucial plots in the Paradise season 2 story.

A few months later, Annie happened to be the one to witness the plane crash and she found Xavier Collins unconscious in the forest. The story in the second episode switches to Xavier’s point of view, showing a mixture of present survival and early relationship flashbacks with Teri.

After injuring himself during training and being hospitalized, Xavier gets to know Teri when she temporarily loses her sight after an operation. At present, while Xavier is giving radio updates, his plane is forced to come down by a hailstorm. He gets injured and briefly takes refuge with a group of children who have been separated from the adults because of the disaster.

To protect them, he kills the man who threatens them, but the children decide to leave him behind with only a note and a family photograph later. Eventually, Annie discovers Xavier fainted close to the crash site and she takes him back to Graceland.

During his recuperation, he makes references to Atlanta and the Colorado bunker. Annie says they are going to that bunker, thus both characters’ paths in Paradise season 2 are running parallel with the bigger enigma around Alex.

The last episode shifts the scene from the outside world to the underground city. There are flashbacks where Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond is shown consulting Dr. Louge about the destruction of the planet.

He explains that the breakdown of the Earth would be a two, stage process, finishing with a rise in temperature and a massive increase in atmospheric pressure.

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What happens at the end and who kills President Baines?

The climax of the first arc of Paradise season 2 is the killing of President Henry Baines. Samantha is in a coma and when she wakes up, Baines starts to consolidate power, ordering arrests and crackdown on dissent. He interrogates Samantha about a secret project that is said to be drawing energy from the bunkers grid.

She refutes any accusation of using the resources for personal gain and even takes a lie detector test successfully, but eventually, she is put under house arrest.

However, Special Agent Nicole Robinson slowly begins to question the official story on Billy Paces death. She spots discrepancies between Jane Driscolls statement and the physical evidence, among which is a left engagement ring at Billys house. When Nicole keeps digging, Jane is getting closer to Baines.

The decisive moment is when Jane takes Baines for a run in the evening and then kills him by slitting his throat and marking his shirt with an X in blood. Jane gets the better of Nicole when she approaches, makes her unconscious, puts the knife in her hand, and then gives the alarm.

Everything has been arranged in such a way that Nicole appears to be the perpetrator. The answer to the main question of Paradise season 2 who killed President Baines? is thus clear: Jane Driscoll kills and frames Nicole.

At the same time, Jeremy Bradford, a detained resistance figure, is brought upstairs to the level where the original architect of the bunker is being held. Jeremy indicates that they will “tear Paradise apart together, ” thereby implying a planned opposition.

Meanwhile, Samantha and her assistant Carmen talk about Alex’s development, saying that “she is getting closer.” Unaware to them, Dr. Gabriela Torabi hears the discussion through a bugged device.

At the end of the premiere episode, Paradise season 2 plants the seed for two merging crises, political turmoil within the bunker as a result of Baines murder, and, the oncoming trip to the Colorado bunker that is connected to Alex.

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Interested viewers can watch the show on Hulu.