Paradise Season 2 has been an emotional rollercoaster, with plenty of mysteries to untangle.
Arguably, the biggest and overarching one is the identity of Alex.
Who is Alex?
On Paradise Season 2 Episode 7, everyone wants to know the answer to that question—from the audience to Gabriela Torabi to our boy Link, the only one who’s ever called out Sinatra (Samantha Redmond) so effectively and bluntly. In hindsight, it’s definitely giving mother and son vibes.
When Torabi questions Sinatra about Alex’s identity, she immediately shuts down, telling her to drop it.
She extends the same sentiment when Link, the outsider, comes into the bunker expressing his interest in Alex. In fact, Sinatra tells him that they’ve “reached an impasse” when questioned about Alex aboard the presidential plane.
However, before Link exits back above the surface, her attitude about Alex softens a bit, as she informs Link that she’ll do everything to “protect her.”
Is that a clue? Is Alex a girl? A woman? Or is she just using “her” because everyone assumes Alex is feminine and she’s just going along with it?
It’s the show’s biggest mystery that no one has been able to crack—yet. Though the final moments of the episode, titled “The Final Countdown,” gave audiences just a few more breadcrumbs when Sinatra, oblivious to the chaos and crumbling of her empire above, pays a visit to Alex, making her way to “her” through the very same tunnels that have been seen in both Link and Xavier’s visions.
The glow of the lights, paired with all the other hints about time travel, seems to confirm that Alex is some sort of time machine.
There are other mentions and moments from previous episodes we have to consider when posing the question, “Who is Alex?”
Henry Miller’s Wife Leans Into Time Travel
Originally, Alex was the wife of Henry Miller, who suffered from Huntington’s disease. Henry euthanized her before killing himself, after Billy was sent to take care of him on Sinatra’s orders.
Link not only worked for Henry Miller, but Henry considered him a sort of protege.
The professor who specializes in Advanced Wave Functions, Superposition, and Quantum Entanglement, is also the owner of a company named Vestige Quantum, and died protecting the company and knowledge that Redmond sought to purchase for her secret project.
And thus, we’re looping back into the time travel angle. Henry’s love for his wife ran deep, so the secret project could’ve been called Alex, and thus, when Redmond got her hands on it (to ensure the Bunker’s functionality), she was thrown on Link’s radar, as he aimed to avenge Henry’s death and get justice. We really still don’t know why he’s the leader and so hellbent on getting justice.
In Season 2 Episode 6, where we learn all about Henry, there’s a mention that the one thing Sinatra cannot buy is time, once again leaning into the time travel probability.
The show’s biggest mystery has kept Alex’s identity–whether her or it—vague on purpose, but that “Hi, Alex” at the end of the most recent episode was admittedly chilling. Alex, whoever it may be, has been in the bunker this whole time, existing off-screen. It’s less haunting if it’s a piece of technology, but if it’s a person, it paints Sinatra in a much more sinister light.
It’s possible that Alex was a person in the past, and in the present is a piece of AI technology. Maybe Henry Miller uploaded all of his wife’s knowledge into an AI that Redmond acquired to help with this whole bunker situation/whatever secret project she’s working on.
Link’s Nameless Baby Plays Into It Somehow
I do have an out-of-the-box theory here as well that’s a little harder to piece together, but I’m throwing out either way.
There’s one thing connecting that connects Link, Sinatra and Xavier, even if they don’t know it just yet—a baby. The baby that Xavier has in possession… Annie and Link’s currently nameless baby.
Why is the baby still nameless? I mean, I get Xavier wants to make sure he gets her to her father so he can properly name her, but still, it’s suspicious.
While plenty of signs point to the possibility of time-travel, namely, Sinatra and Link’s nosebleeds (Xavier ends up getting one, too) following their meeting, which comes on the heels of the almost near-confirmation that Link is Dylan, Sinatra’s dead son, which in turn, points to Alex being a time machine, there’s also the compelling option that Alex is Link’s baby.
It would explain why Link is so determined to get to his daughter.
I don’t entirely know how it’s possible that above the bunker, Alex is a newborn, but below the bunker, she’s somehow not, but I can’t shake the feeling that these things aren’t a coincidence. The storytelling we’ve come to expect from this show taught us that nothing ever is. Read into the signs, question things. And right now, all I’m saying is that we don’t talk about the baby enough.
Link had a baby girl. Link is likely Sinatra’s son, meaning that the baby is her granddaughter. And now, this mysterious being is referred to as a “her.”
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Also, what did Sinatra mean by “it worked”? Maybe the time machine worked to make sure Dylan never died in another timeline?
I may just be trying to find a different alternative to time travel because I don’t want it to fit in Paradise. I don’t want it to be the way out.
As someone who loves a good time travel show—heck, it can be a terrible time travel show, too, but I’d still be all in—time travel on Paradise somehow feels like it’s cheapening the plot. And it gives the show a shelf-life. Rarely do time travel shows stay the course, which is why I don’t want that life for Paradise, a shows fully living up to its name when we’re talking about the payoffs from each episode for viewers. We may have no idea what’s going on most of the time, but man, is it enjoyable.
And thus, maybe Alex isn’t just one singular entity—maybe she was a person in the past with all the secrets of the world, a project or machine built on those secrets in the present, and something even more important to the future: a baby on which the fate and future of the world depends.
One thing that’s for certain is that the series isn’t afraid to take risks, go bold and burn it all to the ground,
Who do you think Alex is?