The planning for building a new “Paradise” for a select few people started the day Cal Bradford and Sinatra attended that international summit, where a speaker named Dr. Louge warned them about the horrors that awaited them in the near future. Sinatra, with the help of Bradford and a few other influential people, began building an underground city in Colorado that could accommodate around 25,000 people. Nobody would have ever come to know about the lies the administration told the people had President Bradford not been killed. His death led to many revelations, and it became hard for Sinatra to hide the truth. In Paradise’s penultimate episode, Collins learned that his wife, Teri Rogers, was still alive, and that shocking revelation made him quite restless. He had planned to conduct a coup, but the news of Teri’s survival and his daughter’s abduction brought about a change in his plans. So, let’s find out everything that happened in Paradise’s season 1 finale, to find the killer behind Bradford’s murder.
Spoiler Alert
Why Did Trent kill President Bradford?
The seed of vengeance was sown some 12 years ago, when an employee at the secret Rocky Mountain facility said something that affected the project manager so deeply that he could never get over it. Samantha Redmond realized that, in order to survive the tsunami, they would have to build an underground city, by any means possible. Sinatra was a pragmatist, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to accommodate more than 25000 people, which was one of the main reasons why she decided to keep the project a secret. Sinatra probably reached that conclusion after attending the conference with Cal Bradford (who was serving as a senator at that time), where the scientist Dr. Louge claimed that the world would be destroyed in the near future due to a massive natural catastrophe. Workers were brought to the secret site, and they had no clue what they were constructing.
The project manager, Trent, came every day, and he briefed the workers about their daily tasks. One day, somebody asked what they would do with the money that they would earn, and Adam, one of the workers, said that he would send it all to his mother. There was a lot of pain in the eyes of that man. Trent quietly stood in one corner and kept looking at the man. Later that day, the project manager shared a meal with Adam aka Abdour Rahman, and they soon developed a bond. A few days later, Trent noticed that the site had deposits of iron arsenic sulfide, and he knew how poisonous it could be. He went and informed the chief architect, Anders, about it, and the only thing the latter asked was if it would compromise the safety of the site, i.e., he just wanted to know if the site would be safe in the future. Trent told him that though it would be safe, all his workers would die a painful death eventually if they didn’t stop working there. The next day, Trent found out that he had been let go from his position. For a very long period of time, Trent tried to reach out to each and every media house, but nobody listened to him, and ultimately, he had to resort to extreme measures. Trent was the one who tried to assassinate the President before the catastrophe struck, but Collins intervened and saved President Bradford.
Fate had a different plan, and Trent was sent to a prison in Colorado. Soaked in guilt, the man made many calls to Adam, convincing him to be hopeful and have faith in him. Trent kept telling Adam that when the time came, they would be able to get inside the underground city since they were already in the area. But Adam was dying, and he had no motivation to fight the battle and go against the administration. Trent managed to get inside the underground city using fake credentials. He killed a librarian and his wife and then later found a woman and asked her to pretend to be his wife. Trent shaved his head, trimmed his beard, and used the chaos at the arrival depot to his advantage. He was able to get inside the underground city, and he started working at the library, whereas the woman who came with him started working as a waiter at the restaurant. Trent got a bit comfortable with his new life, and he started to believe that he probably needed to live for his friend Adam and all those workers who had sacrificed their lives in order to build this facility. But then, one day, Cal Bradford came to his library, and all those memories flashed in front of his eyes. The very same night, Trent broke into the President’s house, and killed the man. Trent stood there with his eyes wide open. He probably didn’t know that he would feel such hollowness within him after he achieved his goal. At that moment, Trent probably regretted his actions, as he didn’t know if what he had done was right or wrong. But it was a bit too late to back down.
How Did Trent Die?
Sinatra told Collins that the DNA that was procured from the crime scene did not match any citizen. So basically, it was clear that whoever killed the President either came from outside or was living under an alias. Collins also got to know in the previous episode that his daughter was in Sinatra’s custody, so he didn’t have any other option but to follow her orders. Collins came out of Sinatra’s house, told Robinson about everything he knew and asked her to free the administrative members from their captivity. They both set out on a quest to find President Bradford’s killer. Collins went to the President’s mansion, and he heard the mixtape made by the latter back in the day for his son, Jeremy.
In that mixtape, Bradford said that he had come to the library to make the tape, and also to hide certain state-held secrets. It didn’t take long for Collins to figure out that the number that the President wrote on the cigarette was the Dewey decimal number of a book stashed in the library. Collins went to the library, and he found the book in which Cal Bradford had hidden his notes. Cal had jotted down the entire conversation that Sinatra had had with the four explorers, who’d communicated that there were people aboveground who were still alive. Apart from that, Bradford even mentioned the entire process of getting out of the underground city using authorized channels. Before Collins could do anything, Trent, the librarian, arrived there and knocked him out. When Collins regained consciousness, he found himself tied up. Trent confessed to his crimes, and he told Collins that he was surprised that he didn’t recognize him, since Collins had been shot by him back in the day.
Meanwhile, Robinson took Dr. Torabi’s help, and she was able to figure out that the waitress’ real name was not Maggie, and she had merely used that identity to get into the underground city. Maggie testified against Trent and told Robinson how, back in the day, the man had convinced her to accompany him in order to survive the catastrophe. Robinson reached the library just in time, and she freed Collins. Robinson and Collins went after Trent, but unfortunately, they were not able to stop him from taking his life. Trent reached the top of the underground city, and he jumped from the roof to evade an arrest. He wanted his death to expose Sinatra and the others who were responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people. Trent said that they had a chance to rebuild what was lost, but once again, they let go of that opportunity and just did things that favored the rich and the powerful.
Why Did Jane Shoot Sinatra?
One thing that was established in Paradise Season 1, Episode 8, was that Jane was a psychopath. She literally toyed with Sinatra, making her realize the consequences of going against her. Sinatra didn’t want Jane to harm Collins’ daughter, as she knew that that was the only card she had up her sleeve to make him obey her orders. She might have told her to do whatever was necessary, but I believe that she hoped that she didn’t have to kill her. Sinatra had conflicting thoughts in her mind and she was not able to make a call, which is why she left things up to Jane’s judgement.
Jane asked Sinatra if she could have the video game console that she played on at the president’s mansion. Sinatra couldn’t believe her ears. As any sensible individual would, really, Sinatra asked Jane if she had completely lost it. Jane didn’t take that very well, and later, she told Sinatra that she had eliminated Collins’ daughter. Jane did that on purpose, because she had something else on her mind. Now, Collins reached Sinatra’s place, and he told her all about Trent and how he had taken his life. When Collins got to know about his daughter’s death, he was livid. He killed Sinatra’s guards, and just when he was about to shoot Sinatra, Jane arrived at the scene and shot Sinatra herself. Jane shot Sinatra in a manner that she didn’t die, but her ability to speak was gone at least for the time being. In a way, Jane saved Sinatra’s life, because if she hadn’t intervened, then I guess Collins would have killed her in a fit of rage. Jane acted all innocent in front of Collins, and she told him that Presley was safe and that she was with her. Collins and Robinson had no clue what had happened at the back end and how dangerous Jane was. Jane, in a sadistic manner, told Sinatra that she wouldn’t have suffered this way if she had just given her the video game console. Jane was the perfect mix of madness and cunning. She was an apex predator, and I have a feeling that she will play an extremely crucial role in Paradise Season 2.
Will Collins Be Able To Find His Wife?
At first, Collins didn’t want to leave his kids and go out into the surface world, but then Robinson reminded him of his duty. She told him that he needed to go out not only for his family but to honor the sacrifices so many people had made. Robinson told Collins that Trent’s methods might have been wrong, but he was not a bad man. He was a victim of the system, and he had seen things that changed him from within. He wanted justice for his employees, and he couldn’t live with the fact that the administration was able to hide all the crimes that had been committed in the past. They knew about the arsenic deposits, and still, they let the employees die. So Collins decided to go out and find the truth. I believe Collins will find his wife, but what would be interesting to see is what he does next. I don’t know how the administration will respond to whatever has happened, how people like Vice-President Henry Baines and the power brokers will take advantage of Sinatra’s absence, and if there will be any change in how things were done in the past. But what I do know is that things won’t be the same again. People will demand answers, and the administration will have to give them that sooner than later.
As for Jeremy, I feel that he will get into politics just like his deceased father. I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes an activist and wages a war on the sitting government. He heard the mixtape his father left for him. His father told him that if he didn’t like the world his father had created, then he needed to get involved with the system and fix it. It would also be quite interesting to see what Jane does next, and if she has some big plans, or if she is just concerned about playing video games and satiating her psychopathic desires.
