Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) with Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) in the 'Paradise' season two finale.

Hulu

Logo text

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the Paradise season two finale, “Exodus.”]

Paradise finally answered the biggest question it had been posing throughout season two: Who is Alex? It turns out that Alex is an AI. Will Alex save the world, or destroy it? That’s the big question the Paradise writers are now asking as the Hulu hit created by Dan Fogelman and starring Sterling K. Brown looks ahead to its already renewed third (and likely final) season.

In true Paradise fashion, the finale, titled, “Exodus,” answered that looming question, but raised many others. Here are some: How exactly does “Alex” work? Why is Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) so convinced that Dylan (aka “Link,” played by Thomas Doherty) is the grown-up version of her deceased son? How will Xavier (Brown) save the world in season three? Is Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom) really dead? And, did the writers know all along that Nicholson’s Sinatra would die at the end of season two?

Related Stories

Amy Seimetz Makes a Vivid Return to TV in 'The Testaments'

The 'Hannah Montana' 20th Anniversary Special Got 6.3 Million Views in Its First 3 Days

The Hollywood Reporter posed those questions, and more, to Paradise executive producer and writer John Hoberg, who co-wrote the finale, and, in the chat below, he answers what he’s allowed to answer. That does, thankfully, include a more simplified explanation about the Alex-AI of it all, including how they summed it up for the actors so their brains wouldn’t explode thinking about it (like ours are right now). The series hired a quantum physics consultant and the writers vetted their theories. “It’s legitimate in theory, and very debatable among quantum physicists,” says Hoberg, “There are camps who believe, in theory, [that the Alex storyline] is very real: If a quantum computer was trying to find a way to change the outcome of where we are right now.”

***

I spoke with your actors Julianne Nicholson and Thomas Doherty, who play Sinatra and Dylan, respectively, and when we started digging into the quantum physics of it all, they said that when you start to think about it, your mind goes crazy. The more you dig in, the more what you think you understand dissipates. They said the writers sat them down and answered their questions so they could make sense of the Alex-Sinatra-Dylan relationship. What was the explanation you gave them?

We call it “Martini’s Law” in the writer’s room. There’s one version of the finale where Sinatra has invested all this money, hoping and being convinced that this thing, Alex, is going to mess with time somehow. She says in the episode, “I’m maybe just a woman who’s finally processing her grief. But I don’t think so.” Our Martini’s Law is that you should be able to decide for yourself whether you think Sinatra’s gone a little crazy. Is this her son or is it not? One thing that’s very important to us is that the show is trying to stay slightly agnostic about it, while also leading [you in] a direction.

I thought she was crazy, until Dylan’s reaction. When she said it, he seemed to believe her, too.

Yes. Dylan was with the professor — his AI that he created in the core of that computer. We find out in the finale that he was the one who first put together this quantum computer with this AI, and he was there when the scientists realized: “This thing is approaching a problem the way we would never consider it, and it’s attempting to manipulate time.” That’s the last he knows of what this computer did because the professor was killed and then he ran off.

In the finale, you see Dylan in that classroom talking to the professor. He stands up and is asking, “Why not make this thing?” He pulls out what he made at his house. The professor’s a little nervous because he thinks it’s very dangerous. He said, “You’re putting AI intelligence in charge of something this powerful. It could be dangerous, or it could change the world.” And then the two of them built this thing together. So Dylan has been with it from the beginning.

We know that Sinatra was funding [the project] with the professor, which we saw in that cold open, and we also know that Billy [Jon Beavers], in a previous episode, had talked to the professor and said, “Sell your company,” because Sinatra wanted to buy that company and he had told her it’s too dangerous. Sinatra basically sent Billy to kill him and take the company. So we don’t know what happened between when they were in that lab, and the professor was trying to say, “This is dangerous,” because the professor was killed shortly afte

Paradise Finale: AI Alex, Sinatra, Dylan Season 2 Ending Explained