The first 40-odd minutes of Paradise episode 7 were probably the most nerve-wracking buildup that you’ve witnessed in any show or movie in recent times. What made this episode even more entertaining was the use of real-life events (the Cuban Missile Crisis) to symbolize certain things and to provide motivation to various characters.
At the end of the previous episode, we saw that Xavier Collins, together with Robinson, had broken into the secret armory of the underground world, stolen the weapons, and taken all the politicians and diplomats (apart from Sinatra) captive. It was Torabi’s presence of mind that helped Sinatra make the right move, not following the cavalry into the government’s safe house. Sinatra realized that it was about time she used her wildcard. She made a call to Jane and asked her to take Presley, Xavier’s daughter, into custody. Nobody had a clue that Jane was an undercover assassin who was working for Sinatra. Sinatra liked playing it close to her chest, and she was well aware that she couldn’t depend on or trust anybody. She knew how a man’s conscience often overrode his ability to be detached, tactical, and do the right thing. She knew the kind of man Collins was and that a time could come when he wouldn’t listen to her. That said, I still believed, until the previous episode at least, that Sinatra was a monster. She was quite pragmatic in her approach, which made her look a bit unsympathetic and cruel. But I think my perception about her changed a bit after I watched episode 7. I believe she just needs a nudge to grow into a full-blown megalomaniac. Torabi trusted Sinatra even though, at times, the former didn’t agree with her ways and means. Torabi saw some good in Sinatra that others, like Collins, didn’t. So, let’s find out what happened between Collins and Sinatra and if the former capitulates or carries on with his rebellion.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Bradford tell the truth to the American citizens?
In Paradise episode 7, we are taken back in time and shown what was happening inside the Oval Office after it became clear that the world stood on the brink of destruction. We learned that due to the eruption of a supervolcano in Antarctica, ice sheets had started melting, volcanic ash had covered the entire sky and it triggered a widespread, more than 300 ft. high super Tsunami. President Bradford and his team knew that such a calamity was going to happen, but what they hadn’t anticipated was that it would happen in a matter of minutes, and they wouldn’t have time to prepare for it. In the previous episode, we had seen Bradford asking Collins to walk him through the emergency protocol and show him how exactly he would be escorted out of the White House. Most of the coastal areas were going to be submerged in water as a result of the tsunami, and there was a panic, as nobody knew what they should do in that situation. The administration chose to hide the truth from the people to stop unprecedented chaos. Bradford and his team knew that they couldn’t take everybody to the underground city in Colorado and that if people came to know about it, then it would become very difficult to control them, so they decided to hide it from the people who were not on the list.
At the beginning of episode 7, we see Bradford notice an elderly man, who was one of the cleaners working at the White House, doing his duties and going about his business as if he were unbothered by what was happening around him. His calmness and his nonchalant nature bothered Bradford so much that he made a decision that, strategically, was the worst thing he could have done at that time. But it proved that Bradford was a good man, probably too emotional to be a president, but still, he decided to go against all the protocols. Bradford gave a speech where he assured people that things would be fine and that the administration was working to make it better. Bradford was in a constant battle with his own conscience, and at last, after talking to that cleaner, he just gave in and did what he felt was right. Bradford was being escorted by Collins and the others when he just stopped to have a word with that old man. The cleaner told him that he had worked under eight administrations, and he had seen times when everybody had felt that the world was going to fall apart. The old man was hopeful that things would get back to normal like always, and that’s when Bradford realized that he just couldn’t keep his people in the dark. Bradford wanted them to know what was going to happen so that at least they got a chance to be around their loved ones and say their goodbyes. So Bradford went live once again, and he told the citizens of the United States of America that things had gotten out of hand and that the world was going to end, this time for sure. As expected, the people lost their calm and became violent. Using weapons was not something that Collins or Robinson wanted to do, but they had to shoot their way out to make sure that the president was safely escorted out of the White House.
Was Collins able to rescue his wife?
Marsha, who had worked under Bradford’s administration as the President’s secretary/desk clerk since the beginning, wanted to know what was actually happening, as she wanted to make sure that her family and her kids were safe. She asked Collins for help, and continuously asked him to tell her the truth, but the latter’s hands were tied. Neither Collins nor any other person was authorized to tell anybody that there were only a small number of people who were going to be taken to the underground city. That list had already been made, and no matter how bad any of them felt, nobody could do anything about it. I believe Collins would have never been able to forget how Marsha looked at him when he was leaving on that helicopter. There was something really haunting about the way Marsha looked at those privileged individuals escaping and leaving them behind. That day, at that moment, Marsha and thousands of people like her were made to realize how small and powerless they were. They realized the true nature of power and how life could be bought with it. The moment Collins told President Bradford that his wife was still in Atlanta, the former knew that his team wouldn’t be able to rescue her in time. Still, Bradford didn’t reveal the entire truth to Collins as he probably didn’t want him to take any irrational steps. Just before Collins was going to board the plane, he realized that he would have to leave his wife behind. Bradford came and told him that he needed to be there for his children and that he shouldn’t commit the mistake of going back to save his wife. Collins and Bradford had a heated argument, and probably, the former knew that nothing was going to come of it.
Collins knew that no matter the decision he made, he would have to live with the regret of not being able to save everybody. He chose to board the plane, and at that moment, he lost a piece of himself. With tears in his eyes, a lump in his throat, and guilt in his heart, Collins wrapped his children in his arms, and he saw the world burn while he flew to the underground city.
Did Bradford use nuclear weapons?
The Cuban missile crisis, a reference to which had been made at the beginning of episode 7, was basically a confrontation between the US and the Soviet government that lasted for almost 13 days. What happened was that, in response to America’s deployment of nuclear missiles (named Jupiter missiles) near Turkey and Italy, the Soviet regime decided to do a similar thing in Cuba. It was the closest the two governments had come to waging a full-blown nuclear war, and that scared a lot of people. People like Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (a real-life American ambassador to the UN, who felt that the Kennedy administration made a fool out of him by not informing him about the entire development) realized the kind of widespread destruction that would have happened if either of the leaders had acted recklessly. Though the “nuclear football,” the mobile emergency box that enabled the President to launch a nuclear attack from any location, had existed since the tenure of President Eisenhower, it was given an upgrade, and it came into its present form after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The experts knew that a similar situation might arise in the wake of a natural disaster. The research team had run a few simulations and speculated that an extinction-level event would lead the world to a nuclear war.
While the President was on the plane en route to the underground city, he was informed by the army generals that he needed to launch a nuclear strike before any other leader launched their own. After the briefing, Bradford told the army chiefs that he was going to take a moment and then take that call. He went into his cabin and opened the nuclear football briefcase. Sinatra realized that the president was in a dilemma, and he didn’t know what to do. She went into his cabin, and that’s when the president told her something that changed the entire course of events. The President told Sinatra that whoever created the nuclear football wanted to give another option to the one pulling the trigger. The briefcase had two codes that served different purposes. Where the code in the red could be used to activate the nuclear option, the one in the blue could be used to disable every electronic device, i.e., every device that used electrical current to process data, on the face of the earth. Now, entering the blue code had some consequences that Sinatra was quick to inform the President of. If President Bradford used the blue code, then as per speculations, it would take humanity another 500 years to put all the devices and control systems back in working condition.
President Bradford’s dilemma reminded me of the metaphorical choices offered to the characters in the film, The Matrix. Bradford could either choose to keep the world shrouded in illusion, or he could avail himself of the option of making them privy to reality and leaving things to them. Sinatra was of the opinion that if he shut down the electronic systems all over the world, he would do no good to humanity, and in fact, it would be impossible for them to bounce back in the future. Sinatra believed that giving the people a painless death and making sure that a bunch of them were safe, was the best they could do. She believed that after spending some time in the underground city, they could at least go back and try to rebuild their world. But President Bradford chose to give in to hope that day. He chose to give the people a chance and let them decide their own fate. He didn’t want to play God; he didn’t want to control their destiny. President Bradford knew that even if he had a one percent chance, he would want to take the risk and leave things up to the universe. So at the end of Paradise episode 7, President Bradford told Sinatra that he would have her killed if she tried to get in his way, and then he put the blue code in the system and probably gave mankind another chance to mend things.
How did Sinatra blackmail Collins?
As stated at the beginning of the article, Sinatra had Presley in her custody, and she told Collins that if he wanted his wife and daughter to survive, then he should call off his operation, release the hostages, and hand over the weapons. Sinatra made another striking revelation at the end of episode 7. She told Collins that she believed that somebody from the outside world was responsible for the murder of President Bradford. She made Collins listen to some audio messages sent by people from the outside world. One of those voices was that of Teri Rogers Collins, Xavier’s wife. I personally don’t know if Teri is still alive or if Sinatra just made Collins listen to a message from the past so that he surrendered and called off his operation, but what it meant was that it broke Collins’ resolve. Sinatra told Collins that she needed him on her side so that he could find out who was behind the President’s murder. One thing that became clear was that Sinatra was scared of the survivors in the outside world, finding out the exact location of their underground city and infiltrating it. She knew that there were a lot of people out there and the kind of negative feelings they had for the administration. They were the ones who were left behind, and obviously, they wanted to topple the entire system and make them pay for keeping them in the dark till the very last moment. It would be interesting to see what Collins does from there on, though I feel he would call off the operation as he has a lot at stake.
