‘Paradise’ Star James Marsden Breaks Down the Season’s Most Intense Episode

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Paradise Season 1 Episode 7, “The Day.”]

Paradise‘s penultimate episode delivered levels of stress not often experienced from tuning into an hourlong drama, but despite the fast-paced nature of the pivotal flashback installment, viewers get to spend an extended amount of time with Cal Bradford (James Marsden), the president who kicks off the show’s murder mystery.

Prior to his demise, he was in the political position by design, manipulated by his father Kane (Gerald McRaney), Cal did the bidding of his advisors, but when faced with the harsh reality that armageddon was near, he took the opportunity to stand up and speak candidly to the nation in the episode, “The Day.” Set on the final day outside the bunker before Cal, his Secret Service agent Xavier (Sterling K. Brown), and more settled into the space known as paradise, cataclysmic weather events threatened the country and globe itself.

Taken off guard by the fast-moving nature of the incoming apocalypse, Cal’s team prepped him to record a message to the nation before departing for the bunker, but he decides against it, wishing to address people honestly about the rather hopeless situation that they face. The move stirs chaos, and when Cal and a select few depart the White House to make their way to the bunker, he faces the upset of Xavier who is distraught over his wife not being able to make an escape with them.

Disney / Brian Roedel

Still, it is revealed in this episode that Xavier’s wife survived the event, and that’s due in part to Cal’s choice to flip a switch that deactivates nuclear weapons and other electronic devices, preventing potential world destruction amid extreme weather disasters. Below, Marsden opens up about Cal’s big moments in the remarkable episode, offers a tease as to what viewers might be able to expect in the finale, and more.

Paradise‘s arrival seems rather timely, and this was the most intense episode of the season so far. Looking back on the story, how does it feel to experience the installment as a performer?

James Marsden: By design, it’s meant to be thought-provoking or provocative. The circumstances that you find all these characters in is a brilliant backdrop where all the drama takes place. But I do think it is something that nowadays we walk through life thinking about these things more than we used to. I remember when I read the first script… my first question was, “How close are we to this for real, [Dan]?” And he kind of smiled and was like, “Well, I don’t think anywhere really soon, but maybe closer than you might think. I don’t know.” But yeah, it’s some heavy stuff and I think that we think about it more nowadays with global warming and the advancement of technology for better or worse, and what we’re doing to each other or what we’re doing to the planet.

I don’t think this is a statement show, but I think Dan’s very good about presenting this world and hopefully starting a conversation about whatever people want to talk about. It’s more about how these human beings we’ve grown to be invested in and care about respond, and how they recalibrate their lives in these circumstances. Do you want to survive or not? Because I could argue both sides of who gets to go [and] who gets to stay. Is that going to be a prison unto itself of guilt and remorse? I think [the episode] was designed to do that and to be unsettling.

In the show so far, Cal has been depicted as a puppet of sorts, but he was working towards sharing vital information with the public leading up to his death. Still, would you say the final day on the outside was his most honorable for having addressed the public so candidly?

Disney / Brian Roedel

He’s a man who carries a lot of regret about rolling over a lot of his life and being a puppet [who is] manipulated into doing things he didn’t really want to do. He’d never wanted to begin a career in politics, and in this episode, he grows some balls and has a backbone, stands for something, and wants to use his power, albeit limited to do something meaningful. When he starts to turn over a new leaf in Episode 5, he’s hell-bent on trying to do the right thing, but also save himself as well as his family. That’s the complicated nature of the decisions that he’s making. But I do think it’s his most noble, I think he’s at his most honorable in this episode where he demands to be put back on TV and tell [the public] what they deserve to hear.

Cal’s resulting depression in the bunker, does that stem from regret for having addressed the public that way or is it more about not having informed them sooner?

He knew certain things, but I don’t think he knew it was going to escalate as quickly as it did. I think he wouldn’t have made that promise to Xavier [to save his wife] if he did not think that he could follow through with it. I think when we see him later [in the bunker] you see his regret and his guilt that he’s now shackled to because of a lot of things he wished he could go back and do differently. And that’s what motivates his decision to put his life on the line to maybe try to right some of his wrongs.

Cal also makes a choice while flying to the bunker to shut down nuclear weapons and other electronic devices with a special switch. Is he partly driven to do so for Xavier, knowing that his actions could give his wife a shot at living?

Yeah, I think he’s plugged his ears for a lot of his life, and he’s starting to take the stuff out and listen to people around him. The blue codes are just allowing them to have an opportunity to survive, and outside of that, you’re playing god. I feel like that’s his reasoning is that “I’m not in a position where I should be the one to wipe everybody out, especially if I’m the one surviving.” And I think that maybe strips one layer of guilt away from himself by doing that, by allowing the people out there to [survive].

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And I get Sinatra’s argument too, which is that’s not merciful. But I think there’s something at his core, that makes him a good leader. When everything else is stripped away, even if it’s imperfect in his execution, he will try to do the right thing as a person of character and a good, complicated, broken, and flawed man. So in that moment when he does decide to call off the nukes, he’s giving people a shot to survive more so than just the 25,000 people who are running away to hide in the bunker.

One of the planes that was traveling to the bunker crashed on the way there. Does that mean there’s extra room for survivors to settle in paradise?

I believe, perhaps, you might be right. It was a messy departure. I do think that’s definitely a question for Dan [Fogelman]. But when we do send people up to the surface to look for survivors, the idea is there’s room for them if anybody survived. But yeah, it’s a really provocative theme for sure. We take some big swings with this show, but I do feel like this is something we think about. I don’t think this is our future in any sort of imminent way, but it hits a little deeper than it normally would if it was just a science fiction movie about here’s our potential hundreds of years from now, I feel like we feel closer to this than we might want to admit.

Can you tease anything about the finale?

I don’t want to spoil anything, but everything that Dan has done is deliberate. I think that you’ll get answers, and maybe, not everything is what it seems. It’ll be satisfying. [The show has ] all of these plot twists and mysteries that are being solved along the way, the challenge with that is keeping the audience satisfied along the way so that they don’t lose interest. And by the time the big drop comes, it’s fulfilling. I think they’re going to be very happy.

Paradise, New Episodes, Tuesdays, Hulu

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