Alex and Dylan’s relationship in season 3

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Paradise,” now streaming on Hulu.

Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) has a new mission for “Paradise” Season 3, but whether he accepts it is up for debate by the end of the Dan Fogelman drama’s second season finale, which premiered on Hulu on Monday.

In the final episode of “Paradise” season 2, “Exodus,” it was revealed that “Alex,” which Sinatra (Julian Nicholson) had been keeping hidden, is a supercomputer that is more advanced than previous AI and potentially capable of time travel. This device was created by Link (Thomas Doherty). Link is now desperate to shut down the device, fearing that it could take on a life of its own and cause more harm than saving to those remaining on Earth.

At the same time, Sinatra formed the theory that not only was Link actually his deceased son Dylan (somehow thanks to Alex), but that Alex was the key to reversing what happened to Earth, and that Xavier was the one who needed to solve it. Why Xavier? Alex is giving instructions to “User X”, which Sinatra assumes is Xavier. She then tells Xavier that she must go to Alex and save everyone before Sinatra sacrifices herself to close the bunker and save everyone else from destruction. Because I think Sinatra somehow already has a future and will lead to a Link/Dylan-like timeline anomaly.

“I think this is Fogelman’s exploration of the multiverse. Shows that deal with genre and science fiction and things like that end up playing around with the idea of, “Is time travel even possible?” Brown told Variety. “And what are the rules governing the journey to time travel? The first time I really got into time travel was with ‘Back to the Future,’ and you see that Marvel has been dealing with all the multiverses and different timelines. ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ is also doing its own thing. ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is more real than people realize, so I’m intrigued by this. And it unlocks your brain and anything you think is possible becomes possible if you can come up with it. ”

“And now that this has been introduced into our world, the question is, what do you think you really want? Do you want to go back? Do you want to keep it that way and move on? Is it too mysterious to even play with and tinker with? Or is it just too urgent to quit? And different people have to make different decisions based on where they are in their lives at that particular time. And we’ll see how that plays out over the course of season three.”

“Paradise” executive producer and co-writer of the Season 2 finale, John Hoberg, confirmed that creator Fogelman’s plan is still for a three-season arc, and that the upcoming third season, which begins filming on April 7, will be a “pretty definitive” conclusion to the story.

“Given where all the characters are and what’s left at the end, Xavier is tasked by Sinatra to go to this second bunker, but the question for me is, is he going to go?” Hoberg teased. “Does he believe what Sinatra is trying to do? Does Sinatra really have good intentions? Will this machine do what she thinks? Or is she actually just dealing with her own grief, as she said? And will Xavier answer that call to do what he wants? (Season I don’t know if I can name a specific genre (to explain 3), but I know we’re moving forward, Xavier is given a mission, and I’m asking myself, is he going to follow through? What are the implications of this if he does or doesn’t?

Why was Xavier chosen in this case? Hoberg promises that “Paradise” will answer that burning question and many more by the end of the series. In fact, it was the mission of Fogelman and the “Paradise” writers’ room (which just last week pitched Brown the outline for the series finale) to leave no major loose ends. “There’s a reason why Xavier is User X, and we’ll figure it out,” Hoberg said.

“I think from Season 1, we’ve established a moral compass in Agent Collins. I think he’s willing to make difficult decisions for the greater good,” Brown added. “There’s something about him, the reason why Dr. Torabi chose him as part of the President’s Secret Service to come to the bunker in the first place, that gives him a unique ability to deal with difficult situations in the clearest way possible.”

Meanwhile, Link/Dylan is also facing an identity crisis. He’s probably Sinatra’s son, most likely the father of the late Annie’s (Shailene Woodley) young daughter, and could potentially still be leading the movement to bring down Alex.

“He knows it’s possible. Is it true? We don’t know yet. That’s definitely going to be revealed in Season 3, so I don’t want to say too much about it,” Doherty said. “I think in Season 3 we’ll start to see all of this information. I mean, one of those pieces of information is hard to calculate individually, hard to understand, never mind processing it. I think we’re going to see him start to process his daughter. We’re going to start seeing how he starts to process the possibility that Sinatra is potentially the mother. We’re going to start seeing the loss of Annie.”

I haven’t been able to confirm anything yet. Brown says that the “coincidence” of Link/Dylan’s name and birthday is “more than just a coincidence, more like a coincidence.”

“There are some parts that were actually in that finale that were cut out a little bit more to explain the connections,” Brown said. “I think they ultimately made the decision to eliminate them, because I don’t know if the science is accurate or not. What can I say? Oh my god, they’re clearly connected. I don’t think it’s just her grief being resolved. There is a connection.”

By the end of the “Paradise” Season 2 finale, Xavier’s family is reunited, but his wife Terry (Enuka Okuma) and children Presley (Aliyah Mastin) and James (Percy Daggs IV) face new challenges, along with thousands of others who have just been evicted from the destroyed bunker.

“We got the 10,000 that the rink had and the 20,000 that were in the bunker,” Brown said. “There’s no central leadership. You could say Link is leading the people on the outside. But there’s a ton of people who came to do things, and now the question is: Are they going to keep destroying Alex? Are they going to change course? Is Alex not that important anymore? What are the people inside the bunker going to decide to do? Are they going to stay together? Are they going to branch out and try to find their own people? There’s going to be a lot of different groups that are going to be spread out throughout the season.” And we’re going to follow all of them. ”

Doherty said that Paradise season 3 will be “really, really interesting” to see the dynamic between Link/Dylan and Xavier, with Dylan trying to raise his young daughter (Xavier brought him only “holy sins” from Annie) and continue his quest.

“I think they’re cut from a very similar cloth, but I think Xavier is much calmer as a person. He’s older, he’s more experienced, he’s more poised. Whereas, even away from Dylan, he’s still filled with a kind of courage and righteousness,” Doherty said. “And, as young people generally do, he has testosterone and forces people to say, ‘This is the right thing to do.’ It would be very interesting for him to be around someone who shares very, very similar beliefs but is more of a pragmatist than he is. Is Dylan going to learn from him or is he going to fight Xavier?”

Xavier had other issues to deal with. Now that he’s reunited with his wife, who he thought was dead, he must explain to Teri his one-night stand with Dr. Torabi (Sarah Shahi). “If you look at Season 3, you can clearly see that her attention is being sought,” Brown said. “And you see how they manage it as a couple. We’re not just going to get over it.”

Overall, the Collins family is happy to be back together, but a lot has changed in just a few years apart, with Xavier and the kids living in a bunker and Teri surviving outside.

“I think this is a very different setting,” Brown said. “There are two more white babies. Welcome to the tribe. He’s with his wife, he’s with his kids, and I think he’s as happy as a pig in a swamp. They’ve obviously been evacuated, so we have to find out what their lives are like now, where they’re going, where they’re going to be based, who’s going to be part of the tribe.” Something very interesting is going to happen with the two new members, Bean and Annie, and that change is going to force us into action in season three. ”