Paradise’s Sterling K. Brown Breaks Down the Reveal of Cal’s Killer, Hypes Up Season 2: ‘That S–t Slaps Real Hard’
Wheels up, Paradise fans.
Tuesday’s Season 1 finale provided a bunch of answers — chief among them, who killed President Cal Bradford, and why? — and ended with a clear path to Season 2: Xavier Collins is going to find his wife in the world that remains aboveground … provided she’s still out there somewhere. (Read a full recap of the episode.)
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If — and only if — Xavier is able to find Teri among the catastrophe’s survivors, series star and executive producer Sterling K. Brown told me in a recent chat, will we see who the wound-tight Secret Service agent he plays truly is.
“When you have your partner in life back at your side again, then you get a chance to see the man who was before it all went down,” he said.
Paradise was renewed for Season 2 in February; when we talked, Brown had seen three scripts from the new season and was giddy about them. Read on as we dive into the finale’s murderous reveal, Xavier’s Season 2 flight plan and more
TVLINE | The last night Cal was alive, Xavier said to the president, “I’ll have relief when you’re dead.” And then he finds out that Cal had this plan, and he was working so hard — knowing that, what’s the first thing that pops into Xavier’s head regarding what he said to the president that night?
STERLING K. BROWN | There’s real remorse, but I actually think that there’s real remorse [back] as soon as he saw the body. You hold onto to all these opinions and thoughts and feelings about people, and who you think they are and how they function in your life, and then they are taken out of your life, right? He has one conversation with Billy, he’s like, “I know you hated him.” I said, “I didn’t hate him, it was complicated,” right? Because he’s promised one thing, and he just really misses his wife.
And unfortunately, this is a human thing — I’ve seen it more often than I care to admit — is that we don’t just blame circumstances: We have to blame a person for when things don’t go the way that we want them to in our lives. And it just happened that Cal was the person that [Xavier] blamed for the way that his life manifested.
Now, he misses his wife, he misses his partner. But in seeing all the machinations — being able to put together, finally, what the number is on the cigarette? The fact that [Cal] put the X on there, the CD taking him to where he went, finding the maps, finding the information, things that he knew [Xavier] might not be able to get off of the iPad because he doesn’t have clearance on the iPad. But the fact that [Cal] left the breadcrumbs — and I think this is the most important thing: Sinatra is not a trusted narrator. Like, Sinatra telling you that somebody is alive means one thing. But when your boy says like, yo, man, like, Atlanta didn’t get hit?! That is clarification that he can be like, “OK, I can actually pursue this as fact, not as a possibility.”
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TVLINE | I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right: That woman would say anything just to save herself, right?
Eff her, Kim Roots. Eff her. [Laughs]
TVLINE | I’m going to pull that audio and use it as my ringtone from now on. OK, so Xavier has the gun on Sinatra but Jane shoots her: Given the headspace he’s in at that point, you think he actually would’ve pulled that trigger?
Listen, he just killed her two bodyguards, right? Yeah, he’s in that headspace. This is the only time that we’ve actually seen, outside of [Episode 7] and getting the president to where he needs to go to be evacuated, it’s the only time we’ve seen Xavier with a gun, right? He’s not the person that pulls things out for show, right? He doesn’t have the same sort of bloodlust that Robinson has, like, “Oh, it feels good to have a gun doesn’t it?”
He’s like, “I’m only pulling it because there’s one thing left to do, and that means you have to go. You’re bad for this place. You are a keeper of secrets and lies, and people are going to be better without you being present here.” I think, a hundred percent, he’s in that place.
TVLINE | Throughout the season, we see so much of Xavier watching everyone and everything. There’s that scene with you and Sarah Shahi in Episode 3, where Gabriela talks about how Xavier has been paying attention to every detail from the moment they entered the diner. And then, in the finale, Xavier has to sit there and listen to the librarian explain how he hid in plain sight for years.
[Laughs] Yeah.
TVLINE | Now, look, no one’s blaming Xavier. That man looks different. There was a lot going on. But that said, I would imagine — for Xavier, who prides himself on being aware of everything going on — that’s got to sting a little bit, right?
He definitely didn’t see it coming. It’s interesting, too, because I’m wondering. It makes me think back to the pilot. When he’s in the hospital bed and the president is with him, [Xavier] is like, “Did we find out who he was?” “He’s some guy with a 3D printer.” Right. You never got a chance to really take in all that information because, oh, I got shot, and then I’m out, and then I’m back.
I never would’ve seen it in a million years. It’s also testimony to the librarian being able to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes. But I also think he started to exist in a different way. His motives were not consistent throughout. [The librarian] actually started to find a life here in Paradise, somewhere he wouldn’t necessarily be on my radar… until he was again, you know.
Yeah, but it does suck. [Laughs] I don’t like missing anything.
TVLINE | The notes Cal made indicate that there are a lot of survivors out there. This is not, like, Teri and three other people.
No.
TVLINE | As the finale ends and Xavier is about to take the plane out of the hangar, what’s on his mind most about what might be going on with Teri?
On his mind is Atlanta. That’s what he’s thinking. Atlanta is close enough to the East Coast; it’s not going to look the way that it did before. So, I think he’s as curious, cautious as anything. He doesn’t know what he’s about to see. All he knows is that there is life, right? I think everybody probably will tend to imagine the worst-case scenario. [Laughs] Well, I’m also thinking of Dan [Fogelman, series creator], too, who likes to imagine worst-case scenarios, as evidenced by the game that he would have Beth and Randall play on This is Us called “Worst-Case Scenario,” right? [Laughs]
So, it could be anything. And I think that’s what Season 2 is going to look like as he gets in that plane and takes off on the quest to find his wife. He’s like, “I have no idea what I’m getting myself into, I just need to find her.”
TVLINE | I have to tell you: Between your show and the upcoming Handmaid’s Tale season, Hulu has it out for my mental health right now.
[Laughs] Listen: Handmaid’s is different in that I think it was a necessary allegory of what America could become, right? Like, that was the intention of Margaret [Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale author], right? Whereas we thought we were making a good-time show! [Laughs] You know what I’m saying?
TVLINE | Yeah, when the nukes got launched, I was done for.
I hear you.
TVLINE | Season 2: Has Dan told you what’s going to happen? Was it all laid out for you when you were brought on board?
Yeah, it’s all laid out. The first three episodes, I can tell you, have been written, and they have been read by SKB, and that s–t slaps real hard, Kim. It’s really, really good — and I’m saying that as a fan of the show. It’s really, really good. I’m excited.
Do you have Season 2 theories already? Hit the comments and let us hear them!
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