Paradise
Agent Billy Tempo
Season 1
Episode 4
Editor’s Score
5 stars
*****
Picture: Brian Roedel/Disney
You understand what, Paradise? You may go to hell (praise). You’re out right here making us love a personality after which simply straight up killing him off? Cal Bradford was dangerous sufficient — a minimum of we already knew he was lifeless earlier than it was revealed that he will not be the ding-dong he was made out to be. At the very least we may set our expectations. However Billy Tempo?! You’re gonna reveal that Billy is a extra compelling character than we ever imagined and you then’re going to brutally homicide that dude? Truthfully, nicely performed. Our candy Billy!
Okay, wonderful, Billy Tempo was, actually, a cold-blooded killer, however he was beginning over within the mountain! And he wore a swimsuit the primary time he met Xavier’s children! And he mentioned Xavier’s household was the one factor that mattered to him! Now he’s lifeless. Useless!! And in a merciless twist, he’s killed as a result of — for the primary time in his life — he doesn’t observe the one rule he has at all times lived by: Don’t hesitate. At all times take your shot. Billy, no!!
Billy’s life, which we watch in a collection of flashbacks all through the episode, was bleak for a really very long time. He was raised by a bodily and emotionally abusive uncle who repeatedly informed him he was nugatory. It’s his uncle who instilled that “Don’t hesitate” lesson in younger Billy, in reference to not fucking up their searching journey by hesitating to take his shot. Billy hears him and in flip makes use of that lesson when his uncle tries to power him to shoot his personal canine. As an alternative, Billy shoots his uncle. He by no means hesitates once more — not when a much bigger child in juvenile detention tries to mess with him, not when he’s initiated into an ultravicious mercenary group. Billy is at all times violent first, with abandon.
However issues change in stunning methods for Billy as soon as he’s within the mountain bunker. Principally: He meets Xavier. The world ends within the entrance hangar; Billy’s already on shift when Xavier, Presley, and James come via. It’s chaos, and Xavier has simply watched the doorway guard delete Teri’s profile when he tells him that his spouse missed the aircraft there. I imply, how horrifying. We don’t know what occurred simply but that made Teri miss her trip to the bunker, simply that Xavier blames Cal and that he was speaking to her on the telephone whereas he was on a aircraft and there was a bright-white mild earlier than an explosion. However to then have to look at her actually get deleted from existence with a key swipe? It’s not likely stunning {that a} hurting, lonely Xavier can be open to a friendship along with his closest Secret Service accomplice. Particularly as a result of Billy appears surprisingly emotionally clever for a person along with his previous.
At this level, are you asking your self how within the hell a assassin who labored as a employed killer for a few years turned a Secret Service agent? And never simply any Secret Service agent however one of many few chosen to reside on this postapocalyptic society? Good. These are precisely the questions you have to be asking.
We meet up with Xavier and Billy a number of occasions over the primary few months within the mountain, often on the bar run by the Donnellys. (He’s a bartender and he or she’s a famend atmospheric scientist, if you wish to get a really feel for the sorts of folks chosen for the 25,000 bunker slots.) Two months in and Xavier is generally simply unhappy about how regular issues are starting to really feel. Billy understands why — as a result of Xavier misplaced somebody; as a result of none of that is regular — however he admits that the world because it was earlier than “began kicking the shit out of” him at a younger age, and he kicked it proper again. This new world, this is sort of a actual shot at a do-over for him. He by no means had any of this, not even grabbing a drink with a pal, again on this planet earlier than. He likes this new regular; he’s grateful for it. That’s when Xavier decides it’s time to introduce Billy to the children. Down there, all of them want all of the household they’ll get. He’s Uncle Billy from that time on, and he couldn’t be extra excited for the job promotion.
At month three, it’s Billy who suggests to the president that individuals are so depressed and having such a tough time transferring on as a result of there’s that nagging voice of their heads questioning whether it is doable that individuals survived up there. Cal flat out says “no” — their communication tech is all fried on the market, and any indicators of even remotely viable life have been restricted at finest. It’s gone, he says. However for the primary time because the day it occurred, Xavier has an actual dialog with Cal and reiterates what Billy says: If there’s a probability that “any person’s any person” is up there, folks must know. And so Cal sends a group of 4 scientists, together with Susan Donnelly, as much as the floor. They by no means return.
Within the current timeline, Xavier and Billy are way more out of sync. Though Xavier doesn’t suppose the message Cal handed alongside via Gabriela warning him about Billy makes a lot sense, he can’t ignore it. And after Billy lies to him about his whereabouts after which Xavier will get a have a look at Billy’s closely redacted personnel file, he begins to query if he ever actually knew the man in any respect.
They lastly meet up on the large annual carnival. (Sure, it’s bizarre to have this carnival proper after the president has died, earlier than he’s even buried, even when the billionaires working the place have informed everybody that Cal died of pure causes; a number of folks word this.) Their dialog will get heated. Billy tries to warn Xavier to again off pulling at threads concerning Cal’s homicide as a result of Sinatra is just not somebody you need to mess with. However Xavier can’t hear it. He asks Billy point-blank if he murdered Cal. Billy can’t imagine Xavier would even suppose he would do one thing like that. He’s damage. “I took you in! I allow you to round my children!” Xavier yells. And that basically breaks the man: “Your children are my fucking world, man!” It feels not possible to be so connected to Billy already that this second might be so heartbreaking, however because of Scott Weinger, who wrote the episode, and Jon Beavers, who’s so nice on this function, it’s the most heartbreaking.
Nevertheless it’s not simply this blowup that upsets Billy — he’s been off all day. He’s haunted by one reminiscence of being hidden out within the snow along with his sniper rifle, and finally it’s revealed that this reminiscence isn’t from the earlier than occasions. We study that these 4 scientists didn’t die from the inhospitable postapocalyptic world up on the floor. Nope, Billy was despatched as much as the floor, too, with orders to verify not one of the scientists made it again alive. However proper earlier than he kills Susan, she begs him to cease and tells him that all the pieces they thought in regards to the floor was fallacious and that the air is breathable. It’s true: He can breathe with out his masks. Even when he does look out over a ravaged metropolis under him, there might be survivors.
This appears very dangerous! Somebody is on the market ordering the murders of scientists and preserving the reality in regards to the circumstances on the floor from, on the very least, the overall bunker inhabitants, however truthfully we don’t know but who is aware of what. However you may in all probability guess who wields this type of energy in the meanwhile — maybe somebody with a penchant for pulling out their hair and weaponizing their grief?
The suspicion is confirmed when Billy bursts into Samantha’s workplace and calls for that she go away Xavier Collins and his household alone. Beavers and Julianne Nicholson are nice on this scene, among the best but of the collection. Billy is spiraling, so indignant that Samantha is stopping him from really beginning over and having a traditional life down right here, with an ice-cold Samantha reminding him that the one purpose he’s right here in any respect is to be her employed gun. Echoing his uncle, she callously tells him that he’s a killer and that’s the one factor about him that provides any worth to her and to this new society. Much more chilling, nevertheless, is how seamlessly Samantha can go from “I’m not a monster — I’m a mother” to copping to homicide and authorities conspiracy within the identify of what she believes is the higher good. Whereas it’s objectively superior that Billy calls her out for letting different folks do her soiled work and has no time for the massive “My son died, so I’m allowed to be like this” speech she begins winding up, it additionally indicators his demise warrant. He tells her once more to depart Xavier alone or there can be penalties, and he or she mainly laughs a Don’t you already know who I’m? in his face. She introduced a couple of killer into the mountain as an insurance coverage coverage — she isn’t an fool. “You’re gonna ship any person for me?” he barks again. “You higher ensure that it’s the largest motherfucker you bought.” An unbelievable exit line, however I did instantly go, Oh no, this man goes to die.
When you didn’t suppose Billy’s standoff with Samantha was a loud sufficient sign that his demise was imminent, certainly the second he pulls Xavier apart to inform him that Samantha is a vicious killer however he’s going to carry off on the main points till tomorrow so he could be “Uncle Billy” to the Collins household for one final night time set off a couple of alarms. By no means wait to reveal necessary and delicate data when you have already got a goal in your again, dude! And Billy “Don’t Hesitate” Tempo appears as if he’d be the final particular person to take an evening off earlier than taking motion. Alas, he tells the Collins household he loves them and he’ll see Xavier tomorrow after which he heads dwelling.
There, he finds his candy girlfriend, Jane, ready for him on the desk after which promptly learns that — shock! — Jane is, actually, the “greatest motherfucker” Samantha’s obtained, one other employed killer on the billionaires’ payroll who poisons Billy’s beer and watches him suffocate on his dining-room flooring.
• They slide this line in with out making a lot of it, nevertheless it looks like it might be necessary: Billy tells Presley that she received’t have the ability to come over for these secret video-game nights on the president’s home with Billy and Jane anymore. Was Presley there the night time Cal died? Did she see something we must always find out about?
• Wow, Xavier has precisely zero recreation! Gabriela could be very clear their hookup was informal, however he’s so awkward in all of their interactions. I by no means would’ve guessed a man with a butt that good would don’t have any chill, however right here we’re.
• Ugh, Billy actually did love Xavier’s children. He pushes Presley to inform Jeremy she has emotions for him with a narrative about how scared he was to inform Jane he had emotions for her however that you must go for it. Don’t hesitate, keep in mind? It was very candy, endearing on the time. You understand, till we study Jane is a psychopath.
• The thriller of Cal’s homicide and no matter different shady shit Samantha’s orchestrating within the mountain is compelling, however the timeline I’m presently most all in favour of is the one following the early days of this bunker metropolis. I need all of the logistics on getting this place off the bottom. Now we all know there are two soccer fields’ value of alcohol stockpiled within the bar’s basement. And sufficient carnival-game prizes for an annual occasion? Copious well-tailored girls’s pantsuits? I’m fascinated.
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