Paradise Season 1, Episode 6 Review: Action and Emotion Drive the Hulu Show (2025)

Paradise Season 1, Episode 6, "You Asked For Miracles," is the beginning of the end. The Hulu show can't talk about the near-end of humanity and not deliver something on a truly epic scale. But with just three episodes to go in the season -- and the proverbial cat out of the bag -- the expectations are as high as the stakes. This episode is remarkably able to service both.

"You Asked For Miracles" picks up after Xavier Collins has announced that not alll is well in Paradise. With Xavier's message still looming in the sky, Samantha Redmond swings into action to stop whatever the rogue agent has planned before the carefully constructed society collapses. What follows is some of creator Dan Fogelman and his creative team's best work as all hell breaks loose.

Paradise Season 1, Episode 6 Brings the War Home

The Episode Is What Episode 5 Promised

Paradise Season 1, Episode 5, "In the Palaces of Crowned Kings," ended at the point of no return. Once Xavier finally confronted Samantha head-on -- in a powerful moment in which he put "I'm lying to you" in the sky while glaring at her -- the show had to shift tonal gears. It couldn't just be a conspiracy thriller anymore; it had to deliver action to back up all the threats and promises. "You Asked For Miracles" does that as a team of ex-agents led by Xavier and his boss Nicole Robinson sets up an elaborate plan to humble Robinson. At the same time, the episode doesn't do so much that there's nothing left to fight for.

Xavier, Robinson and their cohorts are able to procure weapons out of the cache and set about unnerving Samantha enough that she orders a complete shutdown of the program running Paradise... revealing to everyone in town that they're actually living in a cave. This creates a panic, although unfortunately it doesn't last very long (it would have been interesting to have the rest of the show exist in that blank space). Audiences get to see Xavier and team running around in flak jackets, setting off flares and otherwise causing a scene. But there's no gunfight or physical brawling; the offensive is purely "magic," as one character calls it.

That might be disappointing to some viewers, but it's fun to see Xavier fighting back in a way that's different from many other action heroes. It also is a solid way to explain the one concession Paradise has to make: he can't beat Samantha, because otherwise there wouldn't be anything to do in Episode 7 or Episode 8. What happens in "You Asked For Miracles" could have been the end of any action movie, in which the good guys retake their territory and topple the villain. But because Xavier has been established as a more cerebral character, it makes sense that he's not going to charge straight ahead, guns blazing. And then there's the last-minute plot twist, which some fans may have predicted, but that doesn't make it any less jaw-dropping.

Paradise Adds a Rookie Blue Star to Its Already Incredible Ensemble

Episode 6 Continues to Feature Amazing Performances

Paradise Episode 6 also gives audiences a proper introduction to Xavier's wife, Dr. Teri Rogers-Collins, played by actor Enuka Okuma from Rookie Blue and Impulse. Teri only appears in a few scenes, but Okuma makes a major impression in the role -- so much so that the audience wants to see more of her. That's critically important, because when Samantha reveals at the end that Teri is still alive, the viewer then not only wants it to be true for Xavier, but wants it to be true for themselves. Some fans might have guessed at Teri's fate since she still means so much to Xavier, but the predictability of that plot twist is negated by its emotional impact. Teri's survival matters to the Collins family, it matters to the fans, and it matters in terms of the big-picture question about life outside of the bunker.

Another thing Okuma's arrival highlights is just how uniformly great the performances of the Paradise cast continue to be, week after week. This episode sidelines a few characters -- Jane Driscoll's big accomplishment is coercing Xavier's daughter Presley to leave with her -- but when the spotlight shines on somebody, they knock it out of the park. Cal spends the episode wandering around hallways and the Oval Office, but the exchanges between him and Xavier continue to show Cal's vulnerability as he understands the position he's in. In the present, Cal's son Jeremy takes the proactive step of not just unlocking his father's tablet, but revealing some of its contents to a group of frightened citizens. It is beyond refreshing not to see Jeremy written as a stereotypical TV teenager.

The heavy lifting falls on the shoulders of Sterling K. Brown and Julianne Nicholson, as Episode 6 plays their characters' contrasting personalities off one another. Brown is perfect when it comes time to give the speech galvanizing his troops; the fact that Xavier quotes Teri makes his monologue stand out from the prototypical rallying cries. It's equally a spiel for the team and for himself; this is the culmination of all the trauma Xavier has been through. Nicholson has to remain cool and collected as Samantha keeps control of Paradise, but the cracks in her armor are beginning to show. The Paradise writers are holding fast to character even as they're raising the stakes, and the actors are raising their intensity along with him.

Paradise Leaves Plenty For Audiences to Explore

The Path to a Great Season Finale, or Season 2, is Wide Open

"You Asked For Miracles" kicks off the final showdown between Xavier and Samantha, but that means Paradise has to stretch their confrontation across three whole episodes. Plus, what does that mean for a potential Paradise Season 2, which should have been ordered by Hulu already with how good Season 1 has turned out to be? This script, written by NCIS: Origins co-creator Gina Lucita Monreal, approaches both those possible problems with an expert hand. While Samantha and Xavier come face-to-face again at the end of Episode 6, there's still plenty to resolve between them. Is she telling the truth about Teri or not? If she is, then the search for Teri becomes the driving force of Episode 7 and Episode 8, and there are all kinds of ideas that Fogelman and his team can play with. The individual vs. the greater good is just one of them.

Beyond that, there's the bigger picture of Paradise as a society and the resolutions for the other characters. Based on the brief panic that ensues when the city is "turned off," the citizens are going to have a lot of questions and probably won't just go back to normal, no matter what happens. That leaves plenty of room to explore in a second season. Even if all goes well and Xavier topples Samantha, who takes her place? What is the new normal? There may not be the ongoing mystery of who killed Cal Bradford to provide a narrative spine, but the cast has gotten viewers invested enough in the characters that they don't need a whodunit to keep things moving. There will be new challenges and other threats, because no change happens in a vacuum. Paradise Season 1, Episode 6 just proves that even at its most chaotic, this is somewhere that Hulu viewers want to be.

Paradise streams Tuesdays on Hulu.

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Paradise Season 1, Episode 6

TV-MA

Drama

Crime

Thriller

9

10

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Network

Hulu

Directors

Gandja Monteiro

Writers

Jason Wilborn

Cast

See All

• 

  Sterling K. Brown

  Xavier Collins

• 

  Julianne Nicholson

  Samantha 'Sinatra' Redmond

Xavier and Robinson set their plans in motion while Sinatra works to preserve the status quo in Paradise.

Creator(s)

Dan Fogelman

Seasons

1

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Pros & Cons

• The episode delivers the expected amount of action and suspense.
• Performances continue to be on point throughout.

• The show could use a little more of Enuka Okuma as Xavier's wife Teri.