Review: Discover the Twisty Intrigue of the Murder Mystery ‘Paradise’

***Caution. Spoilers ahead***

I remember seeing billboards for “Paradise,” the new mystery brought to life by “This is Us” creator Dan Fogelman, a month before its recent release. It looked like something tense, so I had to wonder about a title that elicits thoughts of a tropical vacation. Needless to say, you’ll understand at the end of episode one. I have watched the first three of eight episodes for this recap.

The show, through a flashback, introduces us to Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (“This is Us’” Sterling K. Brown, reunited with Fogelman) being brought in to see President Cal Bradford (“X-Men” and “Dead to Me’s” James Marsden). The president has asked Collins to become lead agent on his detail, a job for which Collins seems less than enthused. But he accepts.

Cut to the present day, where we see Collins arriving at the president’s post-presidency residence in a nice, planned community. He’s greeted at the front gate by Agent Billy Pace, and Collins makes his way inside. He checks in with Agent Mike Garcia, who keeps an eye on security cameras. Apparently, there is a gap in footage from the evening before. He goes upstairs to check in with the president, thinking it odd that he isn’t up and about already. But as he opens the bedroom doors, Collins finds he’s been muuuurdered! Clear blunt-force trauma to the head.

Collins, at first, doesn’t call it in. He surveys the room to see if anyone might still be there and whether anything has been taken. The balcony door has been flung open. He notices a pair of gold earrings on a table and that, sure enough, a safe has been emptied. There is also a lockbox that’s been emptied of something we learn is “the tablet.” We aren’t sure what exactly is on the tablet, but it’s safe to assume it is classified information we don’t want in the wrong hands.

He also finds a pack of cigarettes with a bloody “x” written on it. Collins suspects the president, in his last lucid moments, was trying to tell Collins this is something to investigate. Perhaps for the fingerprints of the killer? Maybe. But then he discovers that on one of the cigarettes in the pack, a numbered code was written down, “812092.” Hmmmmm. Collins finally asks another agent, Jane – who’s recently gotten involved with Billy – to lock down the house without telling her or anyone why.

One of the worst-kept secrets in town is the now divorced President Cal is having an affair with Collins’ boss, Agent Robinson (“For All Mankind’s” Krys Marshall). You better believe those are her earrings. Once she’s called in, Collins knows she’ll take him off the case because he’s too close to it. He’s even the last person the president saw during his final check-in at 10:00 p.m. the night before. That last fact, of course, makes Collins Robinson’s early suspect.

Through another flashback, we see Collins and President Cal begin to bond a little bit over family. Collins finally softens when talking about his wife, Teri, and their two children, Presley and James. Cal, of course, asks if she’s named after the King. We also see a flashback where Collins steps in front of a bullet for the president, saving his life. Paradise is clearly establishing a relationship forming in their few years together.

The ultimate flashback, however, occurs when Collins is brought in to meet the president, the head of the Joint Chiefs, and others. They read him in on a most classified briefing: something huge is about to affect the world in a way that it will never be the same again.

Episode Two focuses much more on Samantha Redmond – Secret Service codename “Sinatra” (played to icy perfection by “Mare of Easttown’s” Julianne Nicholson) – who in present day is the billionaire who funded the development of the planned community where our story takes place. It shows her rise from the hungry head of a tech startup to selling the company for a mint. On the day she becomes super rich, she also happens to meet her eventual husband just after she’s made the deal.

There’s a flashback story arc where her son Dylan suffers from an incurable disease. She is helpless despite having all the money in the world to help. His death so crushes her that we begin to see where her cold exterior begins to form.

After her son’s death, Redmond attends a financial summit where she hears a scientist make a devastating prediction that later comes to life in that meeting Collins has with the president and head of the joint chiefs. Also, attending Redmond’s conference? Then Senator Cal Bradford. The two strike up a friendship that Redmond later reveals to be 20 years come the present day.

Nicholson, as Redmond, is the MVP of the series thus far. She definitely runs the show in the planned community and knows everything about every person residing there. Would I call her the “big bad” of the series? It’s unclear. But she’s not to be crossed.

In Episode Three, we get much more into Dr. Gabriela Torabi (“Person of Interest’s” Sarah Shahi), therapist to the president and just about anybody else in this town of 25,000. We learn she was also Samantha Redmond’s therapist after Dylan died. She attends a lie detector session for Collins that Redmond is keeping a close watch on. At one point, she asks to question Collins herself. She enters the small room to ask, “Is there a part of you that’s glad the president’s dead,” and with her body facing away from Redmond, reveals the palm of her hand to Collins which says in black ink, “say yes.” He plays along.

Now, what we learn along the way is that there is something Collins can never forgive the president for, and that’s his role in his wife Teri’s death. To say what from would be giving away the giant twist at the heart of our story. But it’s what makes the answer plausible to those listening in.

The next day, Collins goes to Torabi’s office to inquire why she asked him to say yes. She refuses to answer until she knows who she’s really talking to and whether she can trust him. She asks him to take a walk around town. She reminds him of the only therapeutic session they had with one another, and that he pleaded the fifth on so much she didn’t get much sense for him. Collins knows she’s read the full file on him and reminds her of that. But she still wants to know some things, namely about his relationship with his father.

It is then through flashbacks that we see the young Collins in the cockpit of his pilot father’s plane. We then see a grown Collins, working his way up the ladder in the Secret Service, meeting his dad regularly at the airport before his flights to play chess and chat. When Collins learns that his father has Parkinson’s, he insists he tell the airline and retire. His father resists for what we think is months or more, and when he again won’t retire, Collins writes to the airline and does it for him. This creates a rift so large he and his father no longer speak.

As they continue to tour the town, they go into a grocery store, and Torabi tells him why it was designed the way it was—the whole town, in fact. It is then that we learn that Redmond brought Torabi in to psychologically plan a town that would help keep people happy and interactive. At the end of the day, she reveals to Collins that the president told her that if anything ever happened to him, she could only trust Collins and to find him.

I can’t wait to watch more. I hope I’ve wet your whistle – but again, you have to watch what I’ve revealed for yourself for the full enjoyment. And enjoy it I hope you do.

And that’s what Todd’s watching.