chaifan

I'm probably an outlier, but I really prefer for shows to be released one episode a week. I actually enjoy them more that way. Especially hour long shows and dramas. It gives me time to marinate on the episode. On the rare occasion I will rewatch an episode before the next is released. Even for shows that are released all at once, I try to slow binge, putting a few days in between episodes. But then I tend to watch the last 2 (sometimes last 3) all together. I have no willpower to put off a final episode! I agree that the pacing is slow, but is it any different than the first 2 seasons?

I think the original reason for the bunker was the "natural" impending disaster, which we now know was the underground/water volcano in Antartica, which the scientist predicted would lead to massive tsunamis. And that the volcano would create so much ash that there would be a "nuclear winter" effect. So areas outside of the tsunami range would still be uninhabitable. Sinatra said that every scenario played out the same in the end - that countries would resort to nuclear weapons. And that might be the reason they knew they'd have to stay underground for 100 years. But, now that I think about it, Cal knew he disabled (most) of the nukes with the EM blast. So if it were only the nukes keeping them underground, it would no longer be necessary. Did Cal tell others (other than Sinatra) that he stopped the nukes? Does everyone else assume it's a nuclear wasteland up above? Another lie to keep people from trying to leave the bunker? Or, would the volcanic ash still make the rest of the US uninhabitable for the full 100 years? And, now that I think about even more... if the US has EM blast technology, wouldn't all the other world superpowers? Wouldn't that be more of a deterrent to nuclear war than bombing back? Hey, if you launch nukes, we'll set off our EM blasts to not only disable the nukes but leave your country in the dark? (I have to assume that if these exist, you'd have the option to use one, some or all, not just an "all or nothing" situation.) OK, so I'm a geek, and after this episode I looked at topographical maps. The show said that anything under 300 feet above sea level would be covered. Atlanta is closer to 1000 feet. So it could have survived the flooding. The Washington Monument is 550 feet (yep, looked that up, too), so showing the tip of it above water would be accurate within the show.

@Paloma I didn't catch that in the article, but you are correct in your timeline. The author got it wrong.

Any of the ghosts there before Hetty would have picked up on the nickname from hearing her family call her Hetty. So it makes sense for them to use it. And then the other ghosts would have picked it up from them. Or maybe she just really doesn't like "Henrietta". Who could blame her?

Washington Post has run 2 Paradise related articles this week. 1. Great interview with SKB. Spoilers through Episode 7, and one semi-spoiler in the last paragraph about something that will happen in Episode 8. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/02/25/sterling-k-brown-paradise-plot-twist/?commentID=f9fae23a-a125-4292-bbe9-5ebce59c9eca 2. Article on the science of tsunamis and volcanoes, based on real world examples. Again, spoilers up through Episode 7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/02/27/paradise-hulu-volcano-disaster-tsunami/ I'd love it if someone did a Paradise podcast, talking about the science/politics /world building behind all this.

@Paloma Great points mentioned above! I love the theory about Marsha being the killer. But for that to happen, she would have had to be able to get out of DC really really fast. Maybe there was another helicopter that landed, just to get people more inland. Maybe she grabbed the ID/bracelet off of the dead guy who had the "football". But that's a lot of good luck/coincidences. But there was a lot of emphasis on her in this episode, a good old fashioned Chekov's Marsha. 😁 I'd bet we'll see her again. But I think if she got her way into the bunker from the beginning she would have killed Cal (and X) way sooner. (And I agree - it would be very hard to hide for 3 years.) So maybe she found her way to the bunker and got in somehow. When X went into the computer room to find out how to get Teri to the AFB, there was a screen that briefly showed a video of someone unpacking a wristband. I'm guessing that comes back into play - it becomes known among survivors that the wristbands are important, people find them in the crash sites. Or from people who were on plane #3, with the joint chiefs of staff, who were going to try to land in St. Louis. Or other people that never made it to the bunker but survived. Since we now know Colorado wasn't nuked, I think it's weird that the bunker hasn't already been breached by all the contractors who worked on it. Some may have been given slots, but most likely not all. They know where it is. That's the first place I'd head for if I survived everything else. There is a good article with SKB in the Washington Post from this week, talking about the show in general and this episode. Here's a snippet of something SKB said. I'm going to spoiler tag this because it talks in general about something that will happen in Ep 8, but without giving specific details.

I was not expecting Elias to pop up! But that was a very fun B plot, and a good use of everyone in one episode. I loved how everyone demands Jay to "pay attention" to something he can't see or hear. At a certain point it seemed like Isaac was dancing around Hamilton (the musical) lines, and I was just waiting for him to say something about "not throwing away my shot", but they never quite got there. Any other hidden Hamilton (the musical) references in there? I'll disagree with your take on this. The "joke" was for us when Isaac said it. We all knew it was coming when Franklin said earlier "life, liberty... I think there needs to be something else." (paraphrasing here) The whole point was that Isaac never knew he actually contributed, and I thought the scene with Pete was sweet. Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, but did anyone else think Sam Adams - you know, the guy who likes beer - looked a little like a certain Supreme Court Justice that also (allegedly) likes beer? Snarky casting, or just coincidence? hmmmm.... Interesting to know that Elias can appear anywhere now, and he's not confined to the manor. And that he can appear in non-ghost form with a different outfit. That opens up soooooo many more questions... Oh, those curls! Maybe it was a particularly humid day. Isaac didn't have that curly of hair when he let it all down earlier this season. Weird observation... the outside of the barn looks horrible! I think that's the only outside shot we've had since construction finished. I know they're going for rustic, but still, I'd be having second thoughts driving up to that place.

Just to clarify, I am talking about NEXT season. Season 38, which will start filming shortly and air probably in 2026. This season (37, starting in a week) is safe to watch. https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2025/02/amazing-race-38-big-brother-teams/

Paradise has already been renewed for Season 2. The creator planned this as a 3 season series, and my guess is that he'll get that. My guess is that Season 2 focuses on X's search for Teri, but I hope we also still see what's going on in Paradise.

I'm curious - what did you see that indicated the people in the board room were billionaires vs. gov't people or scientists? Barely anyone in that group has spoken. I recognize one or two faces as the scientists from the beginning of Ep 2, but that's it. I may have missed something, but I still think who these people are and what they do hasn't been revealed. Spoiler tagging this as it refers to a scene in Ep 6:

A few thoughts as I've been marinating on this episode... 1. Paradise was originally planned for 25,000, but how many people are actually down there? We know they're missing at least one plane load of Congress members, justices and presumably their families. But how many other people weren't able to get in the air on time with such little notice? Apparently everyone thought they'd have 10 days or so notice. I think it would be interesting to find out that they lost a good % of the people, maybe up to half of who is supposed to be there. And of the people who are there, a good amount would be people who are there to make it run, who were there setting up the place. (Most likely their families didn't make it, though.) The entry way/hangar has only a few planes, but a lot of space. Does that signify most of the planes that didn't make it? 1a. How did Billy and Jane get there with so little notice? Were they already embedded in the secret service before the disaster? Or were they already in Paradise? 2. How does everyone have a full personalized wardrobe, able to last a lifetime? If no one had notice, they only came with what they had at the time. I can see Paradise having planned out stocked warehouses of clothing, school uniforms, things like that. We know the liquor had arrived (2 football fields worth). But all those suits for X and the other secret service agents? Really nice suits and business clothes for Sinatra and the board? It seems like only a handful of people really knew what "Versailles" was about. So Cal, Sinatra, Gabriella and maybe a few others would have shipped stuff down in advance. But everyone else? Did someone else stock their closets for them, or are they now using resources that were meant to be replacements or for future generations. (And now I realize why so many sci-fi shows centered around new world building have everyone wearing the same outfit - standard uniforms are easier from a resource standpoint.) 3. How were they able to get all that artwork if no one else in the world knew this was coming? Yes, we saw them taking some pictures off the walls in the White House, but so much of what we've seen would have been in museums around the world. Either the White House came up with some ruse (loan those to us for an upcoming special exhibit at the Smithsonian) or they're all fakes. 4. How ready was Paradise? Was it at 100%, just waiting for the volcano to erupt? Or were they still working on things? Is this the first construction project ever to be finished ahead of time?

I agree. And I can see this as a reason why they didn't tell the world about the impending volcanic eruption, tsunamis, potential for global nuclear war, etc. It would induce widespread panic and violence. It sounded like even without the inevitable nuclear wars, that the scientists predicted that the tsunamis and ash cloud would kill most people and make the surface uninhabitable for any survivors. So if everyone was going to die, why unleash chaos for their remaining days, weeks, or even months? (How close were the scientists able to time the volcanic eruption?) I thought the bit about the tsunamis going from north to south pole, and back again a dozen times was interesting. I think that was just hammering home the point that any places not at high elevation would be taken out by the resulting flooding (up to a certain elevation), not just the coastal areas. Survivors in Colorado, sure, I can buy that. But Atlanta? It sounds like Atlanta would be under water. So it will be interesting to learn how Teri survived. My least favorite part of the episode was the oh, so convenient discovery of Teri's voice among all the communications. I think it would have been less eye-rolling if they wrote it so it was possible that Teri somehow got her wristband, and the communications equipment was picking up a ping from that. So, maybe Teri, maybe not?

Damn. That was probably the most riveting hour of television I've ever watched. They deserve all of the awards for this episode alone. I posted in an earlier thread that around the time of the tsunami in either Japan or Thailand (can't remember which) I heard some theory about a volcano somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, and if that erupted the tsunami would take out the east coast. I don't remember there being talk about an ash cloud, though. So I wonder if that's actual science or just sci-fi for the show. I get the nuclear war part, but I don't get the immediacy of it. It would make sense for war to break out as soon as you know what's left to fight for. But I don't understand the rational for immediately firing nukes at other countries. Especially knowing they can and will fire back. They don't call it Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) for nothing. I also am confused about the EM pulse. Wouldn't that take down AF1? And any other planes in the air heading to Paradise? I do love the concept of that being an option. If the best the scientists were hoping for was a ten day warning window, and that got reduced to "minutes", then the whole bit about Cal "hinting" to X to keep Teri close doesn't make sense. If Cal wasn't yet given a 10 day warning, then there'd be no issue with Teri going to Atlanta. If Cal would get a 10 day warning, he could tell X to get Teri back home with plenty of time to spare. So I get why X was distraught, but nope, he can't blame this on Cal. I find it odd that the planes were divided up as they were. You think you'd put 1/3 of each group on each plane. Having all of Congress and the Supreme Court on one plane wasn't a good plan. But I also wonder if all of Congress, all of the SC were part of the plan. They wouldn't need all of them. You have to wonder how many other people didn't make it to Paradise. I'd have to guess a lot. Everyone thought they'd have 10 days, and they had a few hours. I loved Sinatra in this episode. Man, nothing phases her. Almost nothing. Cal wanting to use the EM pulse is the only time we've seen her rattled. I think we now know there was only 1 bunker involving the US gov't. So much for the theory of multiple bunkers. I'm surprised they didn't have communication monitoring equipment set up before the scientists went up top. Maybe they didn't have time to do that? oooh, someone from outside the bunker! I love the theory about Marsha. But that almost seems too obvious at this point. I'm guessing more that someone snuck in with the original bunch that wasn't supposed to be there; grabbed someone else's wristband and has been pretending to belong this whole time. But then, why wait 3 years to kill Cal?

You're right. I just edited my posts, as I had mixed up the two names and was referring to Pornchai when I meant Gaitok. Pornchai - wellness guy working with Belinda Gaitok - security guard who's sweet on Mook

From the interview quoted above: Really, Phil? I'm not believing you on this. Because if you really looked at what people talk about, what teams we like, you'd find that one of our Top 3 (if not #1) gripe is cross casting from other reality shows. And what are you giving us next season? An entire cast of reality show whores. TAR has done really well lately casting teams that seem to be true TAR fans. Apparently, that's out the window. 🤮