‘Paradise’ Season 1 Ending Explained, and What We Know About Season 2

• The “Paradise” season one finale reveals who shot President Cal Bradford.
• However, major plot threads are left unresolved.
• Season two of “Paradise” is coming but doesn’t have a release date.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Paradise” season one.

The finale of “Paradise” season one doesn’t tie up all the plot’s loose threads, but Hulu confirmed in February that there will be a second season.

The political, post-apocalyptic thriller hasn’t become a major streaming hit. Still, it has received high praise from fans and critics and remained on Hulu’s daily top 15 TV shows list since it premiered in January.

The series opens with US President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) being killed at his house and follows Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), a widowed father of two and the president’s head of security, as he tries to uncover who is responsible.

The show’s other major mystery is teased at the end of the season premiere — after a disastrous tsunami, the remnants of US civilization live in a futuristic bunker in a mountain.

Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson), a tech billionaire, prepared for the disaster by organizing a secret underground city to be built for a select few US citizens, with the help of other billionaires and the president.

Now, Sinatra pulls the strings in the bunker city and seems to be Xavier’s biggest suspect for Cal’s murder. But in episode seven, she reveals to Xavier that the killer’s DNA does not match that of anyone in the bunker.

Here is the ending explained and what to know about season two.

A librarian with a grudge killed President Cal

Ahead of the finale, Sinatra conceals from the public that an expedition group from the bunker found human survivors.

She orders Billy (Jon Beavers), a security guard, to murder the expedition group and tells his girlfriend Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom) to kill him after he threatens her.

After Billy dies, Xavier stages a coup and confronts Sinatra with his suspicions that she’s behind Cal and Billy’s deaths.

Sinatra turns the tables on him, ordering Jane to kidnap Xavier’s daughter and use information that Xavier’s wife, who was presumed dead in the tsunami, is alive to get him to stand down and force him to find the real killer.

Xavier’s investigations bring him to Trent (Ian Merrigan), a librarian.

This may come as a big surprise to viewers because he isn’t featured in the series. But before the disaster, Trent was a project manager for the underground city and was fired after discovering the site produced toxic fumes that would slowly kill the people working there. He becomes a conspiracy theorist and tries to assassinate President Cal at a press conference.

This was shown in a flashback earlier in the series, but at the time, Xavier gets in the way, and Trent is arrested.

Another flashback in the season finale shows that Trent escapes prison when the disaster happens and enters the bunker with an unknown woman, pretending to be a married couple whom he killed. This explains why Sinatra’s scientists do not have Trent’s DNA to link him to the crime.

Trent waits years to kill the president because he enjoys life underground. But seeing the president up close reignites his hate for him and he breaks into Cal’s house to kill him with an iron rod.

Trent confesses to Xavier and tries to escape, but when the authorities corner Trent at the highest point of the bunker, he jumps to his death.

In season two of ‘Paradise,’ Xavier will explore the world outside the bunker

Xavier discovers a book Cal left to share what he knew about the outside world in the event of his assassination.

Xavier tells Sinatra he has found the killer, so she should let his daughter go. At this point, Jane pretends she killed Xavier’s daughter, so Sinatra tells him she’s dead.

But just before Xavier kills Sinatra in revenge, Jane swoops in and shoots Sinatra in the neck and tells him that his daughter is alive. Xavier runs away and Jane tells Sinatra she didn’t kill her because she has uses for her.

Thus the ending of season two leaves three plot threads open for season two.

Jane, who has not been exposed as Sinatra’s secret assassin, could stir more trouble with Sinatra’s help in a bid to seize power.

There’s also Cal’s son, Jeremy Bradford (Charlie Evans), who looks set to become the leader of the bunker in the finale. In episode seven, he helps expose that there are humans alive outside the bunker. This could result in a power struggle in season two between the people under Jeremy and the billionaires under Sinatra.

Finally, Xavier goes on a mission to understand the outside world and see if his wife is alive.

Season 2 of ‘Paradise’ does not yet have a release date.

There are no reports that season two has started filming, so new episodes will likely not air until at least 2026.

Dan Fogelman, the series’ creator, told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the season’s premiere in January that he had already planned three seasons of “Paradise.”

“Without giving away too much, each season of the show is a slightly different show, within the same show with the same characters,” he said. “As we go into second season, we pivot a little bit, but in a way that I think is very follow-able. But yes, there’s big moves ahead.”

The cast will likely include actors from season one, like Brown, Nicholson, and Evans, but it is unclear if Marsden will return as President Cal.

Season one of “Paradise” is available to stream on Hulu.