‘Paradise’ Season 2 Finale Explained: Alex Becomes Xavier’s Mission

PARADISE - “Exodus” - Worlds collide. Time is of the essence for Xavier. Link and his team spring into action. Sinatra puts it all on the line. (Disney/Ser Baffo) STERLING K. BROWNDisneyMajor spoilers ahead for Paradise season 2As is the case with Paradise, the season 2 finale tied up loose ends while kicking the door open to a whole new issue. It’s good season 3 already got the green light because Xavier’s (Sterling K. Brown) next chapter is going to be dealing with a problem of Link (Thomas Doherty) and Sinatra’s (Julianne Nicholson) making aka Alex.The finale, titled “Exodus,” revealed the figure’s identity, how it came to be, and what it’s been doing in the near decade since it was created. The episode also connected Alex to Xavier in a way that could run directly opposed to Link’s driving ambition, killing Alex.Here’s what happened.PARADISE - “Exodus” - Worlds collide. Time is of the essence for Xavier. Link and his team spring into action. Sinatra puts it all on the line. (Disney/Ser Baffo) THOMAS DOHERTYDisneyAlex Is Link’s AI ComputerThe mystery of who Alex is was answered in the opening sequence of “Exodus.” It is as an AI-controlled quantum computer that Link created before he turned 18. Tired of auditing Cal Tech courses where theory was prized over practicum, Link decided to actually build what had been discussed theoretically. That’s how he became connected to Henry (Matt Malloy).Link and Henry decided to name the AI after the professor’s wife, Alex (Gwen Holloway). That’s why the computer is sometimes referred to as “she” and “her.” Henry was the face of their work, he met with Sinatra and acquired the funding they needed to scale their progress with Alex. But in the process of growing its capabilities, Henry learned that the AI was doing something dangerous. It was attempting to manipulate time.MORE FOR YOUHe told Sinatra that they had to shut Alex down. It only took ten seconds to solve an equation that a super computer couldn’t have solved without taking as long as the universe has been around. But the problem was that Alex hadn’t been asked to solve it. The AI did so because it knew it was going to be asked the question.Henry’s warning went unheeded by Sinatra. She had Billy (Jon Beavers) kill him so she could gain control of Alex and use the AI to save the world. Finally, she’d bought the one thing she was told she couldn’t…time. But it was Alex that would ultimately predict her death.PARADISE - “Exodus” - Worlds collide. Time is of the essence for Xavier. Link and his team spring into action. Sinatra puts it all on the line. (Disney/Ser Baffo) JULIANNE NICHOLSONDisneyHow Sinatra Dies In Paradise Season 2As the reactors were melting down and the cooling tower was threatening to blow, Sinatra was 100 miles away from Paradise. She’d gone to see Alex after learning that her son, Dylan, is alive thanks to a time anomaly and that Link, the young man she’d met who demanded entry into Paradise, was him.But she received unexpected news. Though Alex wasn’t currently active, the AI was attempting to communicate with the team in charge of its maintenance. It was making predictions about the future, which were coming true. Alex was noting extreme weather before it occurred above ground. But the AI’s most disturbing prediction was that the day Sinatra came to visit it would be the same day she died.Dr. Chase (Simon Templeman), Sinatra’s science advisor, gave her a key card inscribed with Alex’s name, coordinates, a series of numbers, and the words ‘Awaiting: User X.’ He believed he was meant to give it to her and that the user Alex is referring to is the person that’s meant to activate it.It turns out that person is Xavier. Sinatra came to realize this later after she heard Link referring to him as X. They’d just saved Hadley (Kate Godfrey) and Presley (Aliyah Mastin) from the elevator shaft, and were at the control tower to ensure the imminent explosion from the reactors would be trapped in Paradise.Sinatra had bid her children goodbye, promising that everything would be alright. She was going to make amends for all that she’d done to save the human race. At the tower, she handed Xavier the card. Sinatra told him that he needed to get to Alex, which is located under the Denver airport. The quantum computer will be able to stop what’s happened. All Xavier needs to do is follow its instructions.He questioned why she thinks he’ll do as she asks, and Sinatra said she believes he already has. With his mission given to him, she locked herself in the control room to go down with the ship. While he rushed to make it out of Paradise in time, Sinatra entered the code to lockdown the safe haven she created. Then, she walked around the city as it fell apart until she came to a mechanical horse where her son, at the age he passed away, slipped his hand into hers and they continued to walk.Sinatra died in the explosion that happened moments later.PARADISE - “Exodus” - Worlds collide. Time is of the essence for Xavier. Link and his team spring into action. Sinatra puts it all on the line. (Disney/Ser Baffo) STERLING K. BROWNDisneyXavier’s Mission in Paradise Season 3In Paradise season 2 episode 3, “Another Day in Paradise,” it was revealed that surviving the extinction level event created by the eruption of an Antartic supervolcano, was only the first hurdle the human race needed to clear. Dr. Louge (Geoffrey Arend) told Sinatra that in time the Earth would become like Venus. At first, survivors would think they’d made it through the worst. But then greenhouse gases would get trapped and the temperature on the planet would ratchet up. The air would thicken, oceans would evaporate, and then pressure would crush what’s left standing. He said the only thing that could fix it is time.Currently, the survivors are living in the calm period that Louge described. But it’s unknown when the Earth will move into the next phase of contending with the after-effects of the supervolcano’s eruption. There’s also an element that he couldn’t have factored in and that’s the existence of Alex.The AI’s manipulations of time have been represented by nose bleeds that Xavier, Sinatra, and Link have all experienced. It’s possible the quantum computer has been trying to save humanity for the past decade by finding a way to change or shift the timeline. It tried to intercede in Jane’s (Nicole Brydon Bloom) future as an assassin before she was born. The AI also saved Link’s life.Xavier isn’t up to speed on Alex’s capabilities. But Link, as its creator, would have some understanding of how fast it could grow given the money, time, and resources poured into it. But his goal was to restart the world by killing the AI. What that means given what happened in the finale is unclear. But viewers could see Xavier and Link at odds over how to save humanity.The “restart” Link wants may be more complicated than he initially thought, and Alex’s objective may not be as cut and dry either. Xavier is going to have to figure out what to do in season 3, but first he’ll need to travel a hundred miles to meet the AI at the heart of this story.All episodes of Paradise season 2 are available to stream on Hulu. Filming on season 3 begins this spring. Follow me on Forbes for more coverage and news about TV and the industry.