Recap: A Look Back into Paradise

"I'm always good. I'm always really happy."

"I've always said, "Frischis for Aldi." "To Aldi price." This week's table is $650 for $2.99 or "Kulturheidelbeeren." $125 for $1.39 for $1.30 for your Aldi. And wait for it to be finished.

Aldi. Good to see you Alah. Hello everybody, and welcome to Hulu's official Paradise Companion Podcast. I am your host, Ryan Michelle Bethany, and today I am talking to my husband, Sterling. I am a podcast host, I am an actor, and I am a TV host.

I am very excited about that. I'm literally, literally, literally, literally, literally, literally into this crazy Paradise family, because I am married to Sterling Kelvin Brown, and which I'm very proud to be your wife. So welcome, all right, we are going to take a look back at Season 1's wild ride, because there's a lot that goes that happened in Season 1 that maybe you thought there

was a button on our whirlwind, but then it comes back. So this episode, we're going to be picking all of that apart by diving into Season 1 of Paradise, which is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. And Hulu better to tea everything up for us than Dan the man, our showrunner, Dan Folgamy. So here we are.

What's up? Good to see you. How you doing, buddy? I'm good, I'm good to see you. Okay, so who wants to jump into the look back? Everything that happened.

Everything that happened to the first question I have is like,

I am very worried about an apocalypse. If this comes to be because you are as worried about an apocalypse as me,

“and your inability to survive set a apocalypse, like, how do we get here?”

You know, it's funny, I have all my many neuroses and concerns. Apocalypse is not really one of them, so that's not really where I start. Like, I'm one of those people who thinks they could win survivor. It really is. Do you want to help?

Like, I'm very... That's that. I wouldn't do it because I wouldn't want to be like taking my clothes off in front of America and whatnot, but like, I feel very confident I'd win survivor. Do you want me to get out?

Yeah. Okay. I feel I beat Sterling and basketball at a win survivor. He doesn't even laugh at that just because I hurt my leg. You could beat me now.

But I mean, you could win survivor. You think it could survive an apocalypse?

“No, but I think for me, you know, I had this idea for the show like 10 years ago.”

Really? Pre-dating this is us, yeah. I had had a meeting, I've told the story before, but I had a meeting with a very successful man of business. And as I was in the room with him, I started wondering to myself as he was talking.

Like, I was like, how many people does this person have serving him? And it made him mark on me not necessarily good better. I just was like, it was striking to me at the time. And I was driving home from that meeting. It might have been like 15 years ago.

And I was driving through Culver City and a crane dropped something really big. And it made a loud boom. And it was one of those moments where we were like, whoa, something really happening right now. And I was like, I wonder what happens to this guy in that moment? Like with all the people that he has under his employ and all the resources he has.

They're like, at the end of the day, don't all those people go running for their own people. And I started thinking about a secret service agent and a president. Like the man in a position of almost power and the guy whose job is literally to take a bullet for that guy and what happens when the shit really hits the fan. And that was like the kernel of the idea I started having all the way back then.

So it was less about like my fears of an apocalypse and it was more about how far would you go to protect your own what happens to people in power when those people they have working with them and for them might turn to their own and how would those people start planning for something if they had the resources and the time to plan for it long in advance. Have you guys heard like since this show came out in season one,

all these stories about underground bunkers? Totally. Like things like I didn't know was the thing before. And then you're like slowly but sure there's like, oh, this shit is happening. Yeah, yeah, they influence or do you stay on the kernel of the idea and then this just happens to be in the zeitgeist. I stayed on the kernel of the idea and then and one day I just sat down and

“wrote it and yeah and I think I was as I've talked about. I was unwittingly writing it”

picturing sterling in my mind's eyes. We had never spoken about it and I gave it to a few people

when people were responded to it. I had not given it to sterling yet and I sat down with a couple of my writers who were on the show to this day, John Hoburg and Scott Wanger and I said, let's bat this around where this goes. If I give it to people, people are going to want to make it. But I don't think I know what it's about, clay yet and I think at that point we did a lot of research. We started doing a lot of sociological studies on the billionaire class and environmental

climate change and environmental catastrophe and that's when a lot of what the show

It was after I'd rid in the pilot and then I went back and adjusted the pilot and then I sent it

sterling was probably the third person, fourth person to get it. When in the timeline did you give it to him?

It was long before. I mean, I'd sent it to my producing partner and John and Scott and Jess and those three people kept saying, what it's sterling think of this and I was like, I haven't sent it to sterling like you wrote it for him though, clearly and I could know I really was just writing and that I was worried that sterling wasn't going to want to do it. As soon as I read it, I called him and I was like, I'm in, right? And he thought I said amen. I was like, why would I say amen?

“And he said, he wasn't 100% sure. That's what happened. And then we got a moment of clarity.”

I mean, we moved on from there. The exact story is that, but I sent it to sterling, like on a Tuesday and this was like, it's kind of opening yourself up. You're sending it to one of your guys and you're like, I don't want to put sterling in a tough spot. We have to say no to something with me. And so all those things were like nerve wracking and I sent it to sterling. You were sick sterling. You were under the weather and you called me.

See, I remember things. Good. And sterling called me and I saw it was sterling calling. I remember

I like, I never get nervous anymore, but I was like, oh, I'm nervous because I really do want him

to do this now. And I might not make it if it's not. And he was like, Dan, this is really good. Where does it go? Because obviously, that would be the question. Anybody else. And I started pitching him. Season one is this season two is this. It's eight to ten episodes. And a certain point in saying that he said, amen. I don't even say. And I was like, oh, sterling is developing this like, affectation now that like he says, amen. I'm looking at it.

I'm in church. So I just kept going. And I was like, no, no, while in season two, this will happen. And then he said, no, Dan, I'm in. And that was it. That was our handshake.

“And I think the series was sold and set up within 24 hours. I said, good. We shoot it”

in Los Angeles. I was like, dude, if we can make all of that happen, I can't wait to get in the sandbox. And then 20 slash school who agreed to shoot it here. And it's awesome too, because honestly, over the past several years, a lot of production is left Los Angeles. I'm very happy to be one of the same. Martin, that's still here. So we got to talk about secret keeping over here, you guys. How did you catch the reveal at the end of episode one, season one? Was it something that's on?

Or what was it? I can't remember. You look over at the bus station sign. And the thing says, there's been a maintenance problem. Yes, yes, yes. I knew at that moment that we were not where we thought we were. But how did you keep such a big secret like that? The hook was as important as the show. And if you could away, you robbed the audience of something. I think part of it was a really good job by the powers that be in our company that they sold it as like a political thriller with

the secret, but they didn't sell it as an apocalyptic thing. We're trying to get the secret away too quickly. And our cast Sterling and James and Julianne primarily were really good at talking about

“the show without talking about the show. And I think in this day and age, if you're able to say”

there's something that changes the game at the end of the pilot, there's a secret, there's a twist. And have the actual twist that's worthy of that titillating kind of preview that then it only makes people lean in harder and want to hear about it. So that was part of it. And then again, our studio and network really trusted us and me that they not only kept the secret going up until

the first episode there, but through many months of it coming out so that people were able to

discover it on their own. And that was really exciting to just watch people in real time catch on. And I think I was very conscious when we shot this first episode way back when I screen a lot. They're only way to really know how these twists are going to work is watching people watch it. And then I grill people after and I said, like, sterling was just asking you, like, when did you lock in on the secret? There's like 12 different spots in the final minute and a half of the show where

people start going, ah, something's weird. And we played with that. We played with how direct we were going to be in our final visual effect of the reveal of the cave. Right around Christmas time, we were airing in January. I had to cut it home and I screened it for my family who was visiting for Thanksgiving. And so after it ended, I was like asking them what they thought. And my brother and law, he was like, are they in our space? Oh my god. And I was like, Josh here and idiot, like,

no, they're not in our space. But then I started hearing that a couple of times when I was screening it to be one out of every 10 people would say something about outer space. I was like, where is this coming from? And I realized in our final visual effect that had first being put in the show, there was a little bit of darkness in some red lights. It read a little like where Luke Skywalker Darth Vader read at the end. And I was like, oh, no, I have to take this out. And so I actually

wanted to keep in our visual effects team all through the holidays, getting paid triple time and I felt terrible. But we actually changed the final visual effect to see more of the underground rock, because at the last minute, my screenings were going left a little bit for one out of every 10 people. We were very, very thankful that you took this time. I know we're going to be able to see you at

Can I just give a note, since it's completely, absolutely. Less of me and more of these two is my note.

Oh, it's way more this and won't be here. I'm just here to help out. Oh, I do. Thank you very much for this. Bye. Bye, I guess. Okay, so we are going to take a podcast pause. Let's start at the top and review everything that happened.

“President Cal Bradford, played by Jamarius Marston, is dead. And secret service agent,”

Xavier Collins is the number one suspect and also the number one lead person trying to figure it out. While raising his two kids, President James, all by himself. Okay, so then we figure out that this isn't actually a murder mystery that's the end of the world. So now we realize that we are actually in a bunker under a mountain in Colorado and it's called Paradise. Okay, so then we meet Sinatra. She's like the richest woman in the world. She's one of the smartest women in the world. And

she's the mastermind behind this whole bunker situation. And we find out that her son has also passed away when he was very, very young. So then things get really crazy with Sinatra because we start to sort of peel back the layers to who she is a little bit and we start to realize that she's like this onion. That's when she unless Xavier's best friend, secret service agent, Billy Pays to go kill some people who decide it to go and see what's out there. Because she realizes

that if anyone inside the bunker knows that there's even a slim chance that anyone that they loved or lost could be alive outside the bunker, all hell is going to break loose. And this is I think when we realize that Sinatra is the one who's not just the architect of this whole thing, but the boss of this whole thing. She also orders Billy's crazy girlfriend, Jane, to kill him, to keep him quiet for what he did because he knows where all of her bodies are buried. And she

does it quite gleefully, which is a little crazy and terrifying. Jane is terrifying. Okay, so Xavier

“teams up with another secret service agent, Robinson, they need each other to figure out what's”

going on with Sinatra and to take her down ultimately and see if that's even possible. And that's when we get their lying to you. And through an incredibly thrilling and terrifying flashback episode

that incredible episode seven, we get the story of how these 25,000 souls ended up living in this

bunker. Basically, a giant volcano triggered worldwide tsunamis and all the big nuclear powers totally freaked out and started getting ready to nuke each other. President Cal is part of everyone telling him not to step up and he told the American people like what's really going on. And then everything just goes, it goes, tits up guys. Okay, so then Xavier feels like Cal betrayed him because Terry got stranded in Atlanta, huge city, almost certain death. And he thinks Cal could have

done more. But back in our current timeline, Sinatra gives Xavier actual proof that Xavier

“Collins' wife, obviously not me, which I'm about Terry Rogers Collins, is alive outside the bunker.”

So of course, that isn't the end because Mr. Dan Folkeman has to propel us forward into season two. So, Agent Xavier Collins decides he's going to leave his children with Agent Robinson and he leaves the bunker to find his wife. So he finds his little prop plane, no clue what's out there, just a little bit of a glimmer of hope. And he looks at the camera and he says, "I'm coming baby."

Welcome back, everybody. To this very special episode of the Paradise podcast, where we are going to look back at season one as we get ready for the big season two premiere. And I am beyond excited to introduce the OG President of Paradise to be set with us. And of course, I am talking about the one it only, Jamariah's Mars, Jamariah's on.

I will never get old. You all, you call him James Mars, do. You all know him as President

Cal Bradford, may he rest in peace gone but not forgotten. He's in season one, he's in season two. Thank God, because you were in credible. Let's start with my least favorite part of the entire show, which is your murder. Okay, that's fair. What is it like as an actor to say, yes, to something where you know you die? Like a dying page one. So I guess I'll take the job. I'm noticing a worrying trend with some of the roles I've been taking down. I die quite a bit.

You do? Yeah. And then I'm also brought back quite a bit. And dead to me, Westworld. They can't die all the time. They can't waste this big dog. Yeah, they like the kill it. And then he's bringing back him killing him. I mean, I knew that the whole show was going to be timeline jumps and told from jumping back in time. So it was more just to see what the story was and how he ended up, you know, on the floor, muting out. And if it was compelling, which it was, it was like, yeah, I'm all in.

you know, starting dead. Or maybe the only character. I got to play, starting dead. Yeah. Yeah. So it was great. You're great. Yeah. Man, you're great. No, no, no,

calling out. I'll wax for a second and then I'll let Ryan ask questions and you can respond to him.

But there is the balance of humor of pathos. A lot of the colors that are actually you.

“And I mean that in the most sincere way, you're a good man. And I think this happens with the”

extremely attractive because you are extremely attractive. People like to sell the extremely attractive short as if that's all they have to offer. Right. But more than has everything. He has humor. He can act his ass off. And if you need somebody to communicate goodness on screen, it's right there. Like it's everything that you could hope for in a president, right? And it's not anything on the nose about it. Like you are picture perfect, whether I told this

dude, in episode 7, what I say to you, Jim Marius, I walked up to you. I said, are you ready for number two? And what did I mean by that? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Did I call this ground that he's familiar with? That's my dude. Not that I'm not familiar with. I'm gonna jump in. I didn't call it. You know what I did that day? I stressed about how I was going to tell you that you were wrong. I did. I was like, how is it going to handle this? I don't want to be embarrassed of it. Hey, man, don't worry about it.

You know, you're not right all the time. I'm going to tell you that episode 7, when we find out how the world sort of ends. And he was giving his speech to the people. And he does two speeches.

“The first one is sort of by-wrote like he's looking into the teleprompter and he's saying his words, right?”

When the dust clears from this tragic day, we will go forward as Americans,

as a beacon of strength and sometimes dark world. The second one is like, you know what?

Yes, yes. Can't bullshit the people. Yes. Wait. We said, like they deserve a chance to decide how they want to spend their last moments. James comes in, he has huge passages of dialogue that he knows. Ice cold. Every single time we met. Yes. You're trying to like pull, is maybe to get to say something. I'm like, no, I'm just like, I think that was maybe day three or four or something. Maybe day two for me. And it was nice because it was like there's some really,

really great stuff. I hear you're the best of the best. And it doesn't hurt that you black. So I'm here because I'm black. You hear because you're good. And the other guy was boring and old. He just doesn't hurt that you black. Does my directness bother you? No, sir. In episodes seven, not only do you save the day, but you set up the whole fact that the world keeps on spinning. You give just enough people just enough time. Yeah. For there to even be survivors

in that one moment. When you decide, I've given the speech and now I'm just going to be me and tell people what I would want to hear. I know you're aware of the situation we now face and I want to tell

you the truth. And then the second one was when you have that moment. It's a way of repeating. Right?

And you have the ability to say, I'm going to make sure that whatever happens is not going to be nuclear holocaust. Right. Some Colonel had an idea to create a switch that would fry every electronic circuit on earth. It's a switch that would shut off the world. But that was better than the alternative because it would get people a chance. He's in a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. And Sinatra has good points. Sure. We'll lose the communication from the bunker. We won't

know what's going on in the outside world. It's sorry. Well, this gives people a chance. It does give people a chance. But you play that scenario out. I mean, I could be more suffering. You know, who will be more deaths. But I do feel like he was searching inside himself and going, what is the right thing to do here? And we need to have hope. And if we don't have hope, then what have we? Season one ultimately is the murder mystery, right? It's a who got it. Sure. And we can

introduce some of these other characters who are so central to this who got it. Is it Billy? Is it Jane? We realize that Jane's our friendly neighborhood cycle path. So as season one is unfolding. Right? We get to know these other characters. What is your relationship like with Sinatra

“given the dynamics of power? You know, they go back many, many, many years. You have to work”

for his father. And they added good relationship. And I think there's still something there. But the power dynamics start to shift. And once we're in the bunker. It's a paper presidency. Yeah. Like that's, Jane. I can't remember what episode it was. I want to say 105, but shows you guys on the porch. And she's like, I want to see what it looks like when you have balls. And you're like, hey, man, you can't tell me what to do. I'm the president.

And you're saying, she's like, what you're going to do, man? What you're going to do? Whereas

not. And you're like, hey, I'm my fucking president. You're saying, I do what I do. This is the power

that I do. That is the power. And then to find out what she gets into the bunker. I can't even get into my own iPad. Was there a relief when he realized, oh, I'm really not the president anymore? Yeah. Like, I'm really not in charge. I mean, we don't really see that moment happen. But there had to have been a moment when the plane lands, you get in the bunker and you're like,

“my work here is done. You know, I think he, well, he's, you see where we come from. Yeah. And he's haunted”

by that as they go into the bunker and that hasn't effect on him for sure. But the laws of cause and effect have been turned upside down and everything's starting from scratch here. And the billionaires are the ones with warp hour. And he's sort of the face of leadership for the people there. I mean, it's almost like he went from the president to the mayor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Do you know what I mean? You do. Yeah, I think. I don't know. He has a tendency at our

habit to maybe block some things out of his mind and sweep walk a little bit. There were actually scenes, too, that we didn't have shooting, but you know, smoking like he just was a wreck. Yeah, I think we pulled that back a little bit here and there. But there's an awakening, I feel like he has obviously him getting their recordings about the people of top there. That's you. Yeah. There is an unsenctioned killing because you send the scientist out in the world because people

deserve to know. Yeah. Right. And then ultimately at the end of the day, those scientists are

murdered. They need to know. By the mantra at that point, you're like, oh, the power has really, I don't have it. Yeah. I thought I'd be. It also plays out in all of the clues that you lay behind, right? For your son, which is like, I'm not who you think I am and I don't have time to tell you who I really am because time has run out for me. Yeah. I remember having a real interesting conversation with Dan about whether or not he knew he was going down.

I mean, because the last thing I wanted it to be is feel like he was some martyr. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. I'm doing all these things and I'm going to break your hearts

“after you leave. But I'm going to let you get the jet. But I think we came to the point of like”

he realizes the threat level is through the roof. There's a big bounty on his head at this point because he's going in and upsetting everything. You're messing with his status? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, sure. But I think that this is where he finally stands for something after years of

maybe feeling like he wasn't standing for much. Right. So when he got the recordings, he realized what was happening, you know, hell or high water, I'm going to block her from doing all of this. And then in addition to that, since I can't have this conversation with my son directly, I'm going to have it through music. I'm going to have it through an audio message. I do think he really wanted to still continue to find him and have that conversation.

It was just a planted, if I'm not here, you know, because I think even when I go in and talk to Sarah's character, there's a feeling of if anything happens. Yeah. Exactly. There's a very real threat there that you might just not make it. So funny to use the audience at that point, nose. Yeah. Right. I'll say this just to add as now parents of a teenage boy, I feel like I need to make a few recordings right now because it's hard to get through it. It's

good. I don't know, but like, that was also what was so interesting because even if there was no paradise, no bunker, no president, just a man in his son, like, that also is very real. When they're at a point where they don't want to listen, but unfortunately, he really do have to listen to the end of the world. Yeah. But it's so interesting because our kids think we're stupid. This thing happens where they go from thinking that you're really, really smart to like,

“no, you don't know anything about anything, you know? And what I think is so interesting about”

that is that you don't play stupid. You use the stupidity as an armor. It's literally like your way of being like, this is the one thing that disarmament do you mean? We'll both. Okay. Because it's like, it disarms people. He's able to be charming, but I think you know at the end of the day, the thing that is going to trip everyone up about you is that they're going to underestimate you and you allow them to do it. Right. And I think that that is genius. Yeah. I wish I could claim that

that that was his endgame all along, but it's true. And we're going like that. No, it's how you make the character so incredibly layered. And I think it's what gives us such an end to the heart of the character. And why we fall head over heels and love with this character. And it's because how you play. Very nice of you to say. I mean, that very genuinely, I just wanted people to feel like, oh, maybe this is what it would look like if I was president. Sure. But it's, do I trust, you know,

foreign policy with him? I don't know, but at least, hopefully, you want to have a drink with him.

Well, I'll say it here for what it's worth. He'd probably better off not having any more kids.

Smart move right now.

“Definitely a very, very smart move. Not sure I understand, so that'll be all aging counts.”

Yes, sir. You are a delight. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for

showing up and doing this with us. I know that this, you know, this whole podcast of it all is a

“a new thing that we're doing. But I also think it's a really wonderful way for us to get to process”

such a huge show that we are so emotionally invested in. And it's because of you guys, the chemistry that

you have together. It's very cool. So thank you for that. And I don't think that we're officially

“all caught up because I don't think we can ever really get caught up with so much happens. But our look”

back is here by complete. Okay. And thank you to all of you for watching and listening at home, work, or a car, or maybe even in your own bunker. So we're going to see you all soon to get us these into. Right on. Paradise, the official podcast is now streaming and stream the new season of Paradise on February 23rd on Google and who the one Disney plus for Bundle subscribers, Tom Supply. Sam, you're a star, too. This is a school flashback,

just to get some data and then the whole thing is streamed. Oh, no, garney, this star is so my safe space. You're my, you're all right. Yeah, exactly. This star is so deep, the one that just understands, the game of the studio, the job or the own so. That's it. Cross. I don't feel like I'm going to stay on. Stay on a ledic. Save. With visa, steuer.