Spoilers below for the latest episode of Paradise, so be warned if you haven’t yet streamed “The Final Countdown” via Hulu subscription or Disney+ subscription.
Much like other hit mystery thrillers of the prestige TV era — with Lost (polar) bearing the brunt of many comparisons — Paradise has woven a successful pattern of emotional thrills, reality-skewing mysteries and jaw-dropping twists. The penultimate Season 2 episode delivered what could go down as the Hulu series’ most bonkers reveal yet, by way of Thomas Doherty’s Link possibly being her alt-universe son Dylan. I’m still wrapping my brain around that one and what it could lead to for Xavier & Co..
That definitely wasn’t the only baffling turn of events in “The Final Countdown,” however, as the episode also somehow took its most obviously villainous piece off the board by killing off the psychopathic Secret Service agent Jane Driscoll. I know other viewers out there were in the same boat I was, readily assuming that despite being stabbed and left for dead in a running shower, Jane would survive and go on to make Dr. Torabi’s life even more harrowing. Yet…that’s not the case at all.
Article continues belowStar Nicole Brydon Bloom spoke with People about the gobsmacking episode, and confirmed that Jane — who may or may not have been the subject of a time-jaunting email sent in 1997 — is indeed dead. As it turns out, the actress also took issue with this outcome, and questioned whether or not this would actually go down in such a way. As she put it:
I was defensive of my character when I read that because we've established that Jane is highly-skilled, highly-trained, the biggest mother ever in the bunker. And so I kind of was like, wait, what? How does Dr. Torabi, who has no prior experience with this at all, take Jane by surprise?
Sure, the episode telegraphed that moment properly enough for it to make sense in a plot-planning kind of way. Sarah Stahi's Torabi was justifiably living in constant paranoia, never knowing where Jane might show up, and knew that it would take more than a friendly conversation to bring that threat to an end. So I definitely get why she drove that blade into Jane's back like that. I just don't get how the writers allowed the murderous antagonist to just die off in a shower puddle without making it 1000% clear to viewers that she wouldn't be returning. (I'm at the point where I need to see a character being embalmed to truly buy into a death.)
Despite her initial reservations, Bloom came around to the concept of Jane's fallible nature, and agreed that the only way to make her death work is by having her be completely blindsided. In her words:
For viewers, I think it'll be really fun. How incredible for Gabriela to sort of get the jump on someone who is so skilled. But yeah, I had to kind of work to have that make sense... anyone who's taken off guard is in a vulnerable position. So I was like, okay, it does make sense.
The actress even went as far as to make some thematic connections between that steamy shower scenario and the flashback memory to Jane locking her mother (and her mom's fling) inside a sauna. Bloom suggested that perhaps Jane instinctively made a mental link that rattled her concentration just long enough for Torabi's attack to be successful. I technically don't buy that it was written that way, but adore that it became a motivational point.
As far as why audiences didn't see more of a throwdown between the two women after Torabi stabbed her, Nicole Brydon Bloom says that Jane very quickly realized that her survival was compromised, and that it would have been futile to put more physical effort into the confrontation. As she said:
And Jane, I think, probably understands the human body enough to know that a kidney shot in the lower back is pretty quickly fatal and so perhaps rather than fighting back, which was kind of my desire or instinct, she just knows how quickly this can take her down.
At least I know I don't have to feel alone in my confusion over how Paradise so casually killed off a top-tier antagonist one episode after delivering her quasi-tragic backstory. It sounds like Bloom wanted to fight back against this plot point nearly every step of the way, even if it all ended up making sense to her in the end. But was it actually a dumb move, or was Jane's death a means to a weirder end?
Is There Another Version Of Jane Out There? (And Have We Seen Her Already?)
By some logical standards, the only way it makes sense to kill off a character as (seemingly) important as Jane in such a manner is if there's another version of the character out there somewhere. Obviously not a scenario that the majority of TV shows can opt into, but Paradise's Alex mystery is almost definitely setting up a parallel universe reveal, allowing for alt-versions of characters to surface like Link/Dylan.
At this point, I'm fully expecting Paradise to reveal that some of the scenes that we've been watching in Season 2 (and maybe Season 1) haven't actually followed the character we thought, and were instead focusing on those alt-versions. Which would obviously allow for a second Jane to step out of the shadows at an opportune moment to deliver some off-kilter justice. Or whatever it's called when one is doing the deeds of a corrupt leader of the free world.
Paradise's Season 2 finale is set to hit Hulu on Monday, March 30. Will we see Jane 2.0, or is Bloom's Nintendo-loving killer truly gone for good?
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