Paradise season 2, episode 5 review: Cameron Britton proves he's perfect for the Hulu series
SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Paradise Season 2, Episode 5.
Paradise Season 2, Episode 5 is Cameron Britton’s world, and everyone else is just living in it. It’s fantastic to see the actor, who should have a few Emmy Awards already, doing further award-worthy work as the new frenemy in Xavier Collins’ universe. “The Mailman” has arrived and he’s taking center stage.
As that title of the episode indicates, this hour is really about Britton’s character first and foremost. Even Xavier is a supporting player across the hour; this is Gary’s story. It explains how Gary was a seemingly unremarkable mail carrier until a gaming buddy got him convinced of a pending apocalypse. Audiences see him listening to Dr. Louge—the same guy who convinced Samantha Redmond she needed to build a bunker—before he and his friend are rounding up some folks with very specific skills and hiding out in the basement of an Atlanta post office. This is “Graceland” with a wider cast of characters.
So why repeat that same kind of story? And why take another narrative detour when Paradise Season 2 is now more than half over? The biggest reason is the casting of Cameron Britton; nobody else could play Gary. Not only is Britton an incredibly talented actor but he’s found a knack for portraying misfit characters in a way that destigmatizes them. Paradise viewers will obviously recognize him from his complex portrayal of serial killer Ed Kemper in Mindhunter opposite Jonathan Groff, but it’s even more worth watching what Britton did as Richard Jewell in Manhunt: Deadly Games. He captured everything that made Jewell so misunderstood, and gave audiences a new perspective on his story.
He accomplishes something similar here; Gary could easily be the token social outcast that every post-apocalyptic drama seems to have. Paradise naturally takes pains to write him far more three-dimensionally than that, but Britton is able to convey Gary’s pain. He’s never just the weird, socially awkward guy in the corner. There’s always something going on with him. And there are moments of genuine warmth and charm, too, as Gary forms a bond with Teri Rogers-Collins, still wonderfully played by Enuka Okuma. The two of them together is a delight. Audiences come to care about Gary over a relatively short period of time—which is naturally when Paradise pulls the rug out.
Another reason for taking this narrative detour is that Xavier needs a foil to bump up against. In Paradise Season 1, he always had Sinatra; even when they weren’t on screen together, she was always over his shoulder. He hasn’t had that in Season 2 until “The Mailman,” as one of the last moments reveals that Gary, not his best friend Ennis, was the person to betray their group of survivors. (Mindhunter fans are likely already considering worst-case scenarios.) Gary is in love with Teri, and who knows where she and the child she was protecting ended up? It’s a new mystery for Xavier’s portion of the show, and a new character who threatens him both in a physical sense and an emotional one.
The third and most surprising reason for giving Gary his own episode is that by putting the focus on Gary, Paradise actually gives viewers some additional perspective on Teri and Teri’s marriage to Xavier. There’s a quiet narrative thread here that doesn’t just explain why Teri never made it to Colorado; it shows how she survived three years without her family and what that did to her. If Paradise Season 2 is about exploring the world outside the bunker, that has to start with Teri. Teri is the whole reason for going outside the bunker. It’s also only fair that since Xavier’s emotional arc in Season 1 was living without his wife, Teri gets to tell her side of that story.
It’s really fascinating to see Teri’s life in the post office contrasted with Xavier walking through the same rooms, interacting with some of the same people. Connie Shi, who recurs on Law & Order as tech expert Violet, shines in one of the most prominent guest roles that couldn’t be more different from the NBC procedural. There’s even a little contrast in seeing Teri take care of Bean, and Xavier trying to take care of Annie’s baby. There is a decent explanation given for Paradise taking the baby off his hands, at least temporarily, so that he can get things done—like mount an assault on a train. But even other characters comment on the similarities between Teri and Xavier. They both have the same one-word reaction to a destroyed radio in a funny moment, one of several beats in which the audience can see why they ended up together and why they both fought so hard to find each other. The “meet cute” part may be over, but “The Mailman” still shows even more of Teri and Xavier’s bond and reinforces why Paradise viewers should care about their reunion.
Yet even Sterling K. Brown takes a back seat to Cameron Britton in this episode. Paradise Season 2, Episode 5 is through Gary’s eyes and thus it’s Britton who drives the story, even in the present-day scenes. Fans will realize with growing dread that Ennis isn’t the one who pulls the trigger, and yet thanks to Britton alongside the dread there’s a sadness, too. The audience doesn’t want to see Gary as a bad guy. Yet with every piece that the script reveals—with this show’s usual subtlety—Britton’s performance changes just a little bit. He quietly shifts his approach to build to that moment of self-centered destruction. Telling Gary’s story further fleshes out the world of Paradise with a whole new community of survivors, and it adds more color and depth to Xavier and Teri’s core plotline, but it’s also a reminder that not everyone can be a hero. For every Xavier or Annie, sometimes there’s a Gary, and that’s okay, too.
Paradise streams Mondays on Hulu. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Hulu.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
