‘Paradise’: Shailene Woodley & Thomas Doherty Break Down Season 2’s Surprise Love Story (VIDEO)

[Warning: The video above and article below contain MAJOR spoilers for Paradise Season 2, Episodes 1-3.]

Paradise is back and setting up even more mysteries with its three-episode Season 2 premiere, kicking off with an unexpected love story between Shailene Woodley‘s Annie and Thomas Doherty‘s Link.

The first installment, “Graceland,” captures Annie’s survival story as a young woman who works as a tour guide at Elvis Presley‘s Graceland when the catastrophic weather event that flipped the world upside down unfolded. Previously trained to be a doctor, Annie found it too difficult to be around patients after experiencing the traumatic loss of her mother as a young girl.

While Annie spends years alone, hunkered down at the famous home, her peace is disrupted with the arrival of Link and his friends, whom she’s initially suspicious of. Ultimately, they win her over, and the solitary young woman gets swept up in the camaraderie, forming a particularly special connection with Link.

On his party’s last day at Graceland before they head west for the rumored Colorado bunker, Link is given a tour of Graceland by Annie, and they ultimately end up finding comfort in one another after so many years without any physical affection. While Link invites Annie to join him out west, she hides away and refuses to go, overwhelmed by the idea.

Disney / Ser Baffo

When Annie finally resurfaces from her hideout, she finds a note from Link that promises he’ll return for her after his supposed mission, which involves killing someone named Alex. As the days pass, it becomes clear that Annie and Link’s one night together resulted in a pregnancy. As Annie hears a plane approaching the area, she notices a crash and rushes out to check if it was Link, but discovers Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) instead, having crashed on his mission to find his wife.

While they may have only one episode together (so far), Annie and Link’s love story quickly captures hearts, which is something the stars were excited to portray. “I really didn’t do much,” Doherty says humbly, regarding the onscreen romance. “I tried to personalize what it would feel like to live in a post-apocalyptic world and how that would impact my nature and characteristics and all the rest of it. But apart from that, the writing is so good,” he gushes. “Dan Fogelman is just the best at what he does, and working with Shailene Woodley was just a dream.”

When Doherty utters Woodley’s full name, she’s taken aback at the praise, but he’s quick to note, “she deserves her full name.” As for Woodley, she says, “It was beautiful to create a love story, and this world is so harsh and so intense, and love is so… it can be so healing, and it can feel so unifying and scary, and I just was so excited that we got to play with this tenderness so quickly.”

Disney / Gilles Mingasson

She adds, “I think it really sets up the world of Paradise Season 2 for audiences to know that there is hope amongst the muck because so much of their world is full of chaos and trial and tribulation, and to enter the season with this spark of connection felt like a proper Dan Fogelman move that really works.”

Of course, fans who have tuned into Fogleman’s other works might recognize the spark Annie and Link have through some of his other great TV romances, like on This Is Us, with favorites like Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) or Randall (Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson).

And that wasn’t the only presence of romance as flashbacks in Episode 2, “Mayday,” reveal Xavier’s love story with Teri (Enuka Okuma), which started in a hospital where they were both patients. But it’s what’s going on at the bunker in Colorado amid Xavier’s absence that could really shake things up, as Robinson (Krys Marshall) had finally begun to catch onto Jane’s (Nicole Brydon Bloom) shady behavior.

Disney / Gilles Mingasson

“I just love that Robinson’s always two steps ahead of the audience,” Marshall gushes. Ultimately, she realizes that Jane has made Billy’s (Jon Beavers) death seem like a suicide, despite there being plenty of evidence pointing to his thirst for life. While Robinson is wrapped up in this scheme, the new president, Henry Baines (Matt Malloy,) goes out for a jog with Jane, unaware that Samantha, a.k.a. Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson), has sneakily ordered his death by way of Jane.

Just as Robinson is alerted to the fact that Jane is with the president, she races after them, only to find the man dead. Immediately, Jane chokes her out, framing Robinson for the killing, and knocking over an interesting tower of metaphorical dominoes. But where will they land? Fans will have to tune in to find out.

For now, Marshall couldn’t help but praise her character’s perceptive abilities, “I love that she knows that there’s something more going on with Jane, and then Jane gets a beat of her just ahead, and that’s fun. That was really fun, getting to do that physical work with Nicole, and we did some MMA training and preparation for it to get the fight into our bodies.”

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As for Jane’s shady behavior and ongoing collaboration with Sinatra, Bloom says, “I’m always surprised by what they throw my way for Jane, so it was exciting. I think the layer like Robinson catching on to Jane, but then Jane not even batting an eye because she’s just happy that Robinson’s weirdly fallen into this trap… she very quickly twists the reveal that you’ve discovered to her benefit.”

What will happen next? Will Xavier find his wife? Will Annie reunite with Link? What will happen in the bunker? These questions and more will continue to be answered as Season 2 unfolds. Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime, check out the full video interview above.

Paradise, Season 2, Mondays, Hulu