The Many Twists of Paradise Episode 4, Explained

IN A LOT of ways, Paradise—Hulu’s new instant hit conspiracy thriller/sci-fi mystery show starring Sterling K. Brown—feels like a throwback to a different era of television. There was a certain period of time, after Lost became television’s talk of the town, when the rest of network television was scrambling to find another Lost; a show with wide appeal, compelling characters, and a high-concept mystery that would keep viewers excited and eager to tune in and learn the answers each and every week.

This is exactly what Paradise feels like, except these kinds of shows have largely moved off the networks and onto streaming. And that means that Paradise can push the envelope more than some of those shows ever were able to, even in ways as simple as including additional violence and curse words. After all, a not-so-complex-but-still-high-concept mystery is part of the appeal here.

But Paradise also is feeling like the Alpha of the genre, Lost itself, in some ways; it’s not as specifically defined and written this way, but most episodes of the show so far have focused specifically on one character and their back story. Early on we got to know Xavier Collins (Brown), and then we got to know Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond (Julianne Nicholson).

By the end of episode 3, we were made to be suspicious of Special Agent Billy Pace (Jon Beavers), after Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi) told Collins that the President said not to trust him. Why? Well, in Lost fashion, we would soon find out—as episode 4 was focused almost entirely on Billy and his backstory.

And as has become Paradise fashion, episode 4 told us a whole lot about Billy, and the show itself—with all sorts of unexpected and wild twists along the way.

Below, we get into the most vital parts of episode 4, and what it told us about both Billy and the absolutely bananas show unfolding in front of our eyes.

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Billy is not who he says he is—or who most think he is

After episode 3 closed with a shot of Billy looking at Xavier’s house and family, we open up with a flashback to young Billy Pace’s childhood. It turns out he was trained to be a hunter and killer by an abusive uncle; at a certain point, Billy was told to kill his dog by his uncle. Using the advice his uncle gave him—to act and not hesitate—he killed his uncle instead of his dog.

Billy was imprisoned for the murder of his uncle and labeled a juvenile delinquent; he would get into fights throughout his time incarcerated. Eventually, though, he was taken out to be part of a special program for government dirty work—his aggression and skill for killing came in handy for what were essentially black ops, off-the-books missions.

That’s right: Billy isn’t just a secret service agent, or a regular dude. He’s a skilled killer with a murky, spotty history.

Billy has done a bunch of brutal murders

So, as it turns out, Billy didn’t take the normal route to his “secret service” spot in Paradise. And, as we learned in previous episodes, every single one of the 25,000 people in the underground bunker was hand-selected by either Sinatra, Dr. Torabi, or both. And considering those things, it becomes very clear why Billy is there: to be a killer if and when Sinatra needs one.

A secondary plot of the episode emerges as we continue to see Xavier troubled by the loss of his wife, and the constant questioning and wondering if the people above the surface could still be alive—while we, the viewers, still have no idea what exactly is going on up there. After some musing, President Bradford (James Marsden) announces that a mission will be executed to go above ground and see what the hell is going on; if the environment might actually still be habitable, and if anyone is up there.

Throughout the episode, we also see Xavier, Billy, and Cal become friendly with a bartender (“Mixologist”), whose wife, Susan Donnelly, is actually a scientist vital to the bunker community. She’s one of those sent on the mission—which is painful for the bartender when she doesn’t return.

A quick and jarring flashback, though, tells us the truth. While the above environment certainly doesn’t look like a vacation in the Bahamas, Susan reveals that the air is hospitable. It’s not inherently deadly to go up there. But that doesn’t matter, because all we see is Billy murdering her and others, similar to the way we saw him hunting at the start of the episode.

It’s revealed that this was all a ruse, set up by Sinatra. She doesn’t want anyone to have any ideas that there’s any better life outside of the bunker, even if it’s not particularly true.

A scene between Billy and Sinatra puts this all out in the open, and picking a fight with the richest and most powerful person in the world proves to be a very poor choice for Billy. But we’ll get to that. He’s annoyed that Xavier and his family is involved in the mystery surrounding President Bradford’s death, and, knowing what he knows about who he is and what he does, figures he can threaten Sinatra. That doesn’t go so well, as Sinatra basically laughs in his face and out-threatens him, warning him essentially to watch out because he’s just signed his own death wish.

Both actors are great in this scene; Billy laughing in Sinatra’s face when she brings up the tragic backstory of her son, because she’s just clearly so evil at this point is a particular standout. But getting to play evil can be fun for any actor, and Julianne Nicholson is doing a particularly good job at it, as she always does.

After we were suspicious about Billy for much of the episode—and there’s certainly more to him than meets the eye—the way he stood up for Xavier’s family proves him to be one of the “Good Guys” in this story. He never had a family outside of his horrible uncle, and so the way we see Xavier accept him and invite him into his home, despite knowing so little about who he actually is, clearly hit him hard. Being “Uncle Billy” certainly means a lot to him.

But Billy was not long for this world

After some major confrontations—including the one with Sinatra, and a couple between Xavier and Billy—Billy came to Xavier’s house, promising to tell him the truth about everything the next day, but wanting to just be “Uncle Billy” at least one more time, having a great time with Xavier and his kids.

But, guys, if you’ve ever seen anything like this, you have to start getting suspicious when anyone starts kicking the can down the road for any amount of time. Billy, dude, spit it out!

Anyway, Sinatra’s threats proved to be real, and Billy did not see where the would be coming from. He got home to his girlfriend, Jane, waiting for him. Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom) is a fellow Secret Service agent, and one who, at times, seemed a bit naive and oblivious to everything happening around her.

But, uh, whoops—no. Jane is not only a fellow Secret Service agent, but also another secret assassin and killer for Sinatra, and an ice cold one at that. Who knows if her feelings for Billy were ever real or not, but she has absolutely no hesitation in poisoning him immediately upon entering their house, setting up some drugs to make it look like an overdose or a suicide, and staring at him in the eyes as he presumably died.

Brutal, brutal stuff going on here—and certainly some compelling story fodder for the future of Paradise. We have to trust in Xavier to get to the bottom of all of this, but who can he trust? We know as much, or as little, as him. And like if we were in his shoes, it’s hard to know if we can trust anyone at all.

There’s one person we know we cannot trust (well, outside of the woman who we just saw murder her boyfriend): the power-grabbing, ultra-rich Sinatra. She’s got to go!

Is Billy actually dead in Paradise?

Folks, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but barring some kind of supernatural or surreal twist in Paradise a bit down the line, Billy is almost certainly dead and dead for good. Jane watched him die, and being as it was just the two of them in the room, she probably wouldn’t risk leaving anything up to interpretation. As we continue to draw the comparison to shows like Lost, Paradise went and pulled a classic trick: make us care about a character just in time to kill them off in a way that breaks our heart.

RIP Billy (“Uncle Billy”), you may have been a murderer several times over, but you were also a real one.