‘Paradise’: Sterling K. Brown on Shocking Revelation About Xavier’s Wife, Trusting Sinatra & More

Meaghan Darwish February 25, 2025, 2:57 pm

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

Paradise brought viewers back in time to “The Day” that the world as Xavier (Sterling K. Brown), Cal (James Marsden), and the rest of humanity knew it, ended.

The stress-inducing installment picks up where last week’s episode left off as Xavier prods for answers about his wife Teri’s (Enuka Okuma) status from Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson). Meanwhile, flashback sequences reveal Xavier and Cal’s perspectives of the day they fled for the bunker known as Paradise.

Although Xavier had previously learned a catastrophic climate event would impact the world, he and Cal were both taken by surprise when the danger arrived rather abruptly, leaving Xavier unable to connect with his wife as she found herself stranded in Atlanta. Meanwhile, Xavier worked to protect the president in the hours leading up to their departure, as Cal weighed the responsibility on his shoulders, eventually speaking to the public candidly about the incoming apocalyptic event.

When Xavier headed to the plane that would bring him and his family to safety at the Paradise bunker, he had to grapple with the fact that Teri would not make it as she missed the plane that would have transported her out of Atlanta. The episode uncovered the real reason for Xavier’s anger towards Cal in his final days, but what does this latest revelation about her survival mean for him moving forward? Cal apparently had access to a switch that turned off the world’s nuclear weapons as well as certain electronic devices, which he utilized in the moments leading up to his arrival in Paradise, giving anyone in the outside world a shot at survival.

James Marsden, Sterling K. Brown, and Krys Marshall in 'Paradise'

Disney / Brian Roedel

But while Xavier’s newfound knowledge about Teri is enticing, he also has to consider that his daughter Presley (Aliyah Mastin) is in danger with crooked agent Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom). Below, Brown opens up about Xavier’s tough position of having to trust an untrustworthy individual like Sinatra, his character’s feelings about Cal now, what viewers might be able to expect next, and his reteaming with This Is Us collaborator Dan Fogelman.

Sinatra claims Xavier’s wife has survived, and it seems real, but does he have the luxury to choose whether or not he trusts her? Sinatra does have his daughter after all.

Sterling K. Brown: It doesn’t matter. He’s lived three years thinking that she’s dead, right? And so this is the first time that he’s even allowed himself the possibility that she could be alive. So whether Sinatra’s telling the truth or not, he has to know for certain — especially once he hears her voice on that tape recorder. This is my partner; the thing that has been missing most in my life that I felt this hole in my chest about could be out there in the world. So he has to find out whether she’s telling the truth or not. The possibility is enough. The fact that she has my daughter also is its own thing.

Sinatra also revealed that the president was seemingly killed by someone who doesn’t have records in the bunker. Can he trust that information? She hasn’t proven herself to be extremely trustworthy.

She is not. As Sterling who plays Xavier, reading the scripts, I just kept looking for, when can [Xavier] shoot her? I just want to shoot her. That’s all I want to do. But because she has my daughter, because she’s been pretty steadfast in saying she hasn’t killed the president, she hasn’t wavered even with a gun to her, and admitted to killing Billy, I think that’s the interesting thing.

She admitted to one, why would she not admit to both, right? I could just kill you for shooting Billy. And she said, “Yes, but I didn’t kill the president, and I actually kind of need to know who killed him, too, because I don’t need somebody in my paradise that I only have room for 25,000, not 25,001. So this dude is here. I need you to figure it out too.” So, I don’t know if he takes her at her word per se, but I don’t think he has any other choice. Because he’s got to keep his family intact, he’s got to get his daughter back. He’s got to find out whether or not his wife is alive.

Disney

Xavier still doesn’t know Jane is a dirty agent though, so that’s something in Sinatra’s back pocket.

This is true. He does not know the truth about Jane yet.

Xavier had a lot of animosity towards Cal for Teri not making it into the bunker, but did he let his personal feelings unfairly impact his position as a Secret Service agent?

As an audience member, personally, [Xavier] should not be putting all of that on the president. The president has clearly got the entire country to consider, to make sure that the most people he can make safe are indeed safe. He did tell [Xavier], “I would try to end those trips to Atlanta,” and I told him, “My wife don’t listen to me, man. We’ve been married for 20 years.” But the fact of the matter is he also said, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to find a plane and we’ll have to get her to a plane.” Is it right that he blames him? I don’t think it’s right, but do I understand why he blames him. Sometimes when you play a character, you don’t have to agree with every decision they make or every stance they have, but you have to understand how they came to that place.

Whether or not it was intentional or unintentional, a promise was made, the promise was broken, and now I am alone. I think that’s all I needed to understand the nature of my relationship with the president at the time of his death. And I feel for Cal as people who’ve seen how Xavier has treated him or whatnot, and the fact that they had such a wonderful friendship — if you can call it a friendship because there’s still a power dynamic, I still have to do what he tells me to do — but it’s about as close to a friendship as one could call it. And then to see the coldness that existed in [Episode 1] when you see that he’s just not really talking to him, and Xavier said, “I’ll be happy when you’re dead,” I feel for Cal. And so I think Dan Fogelman has a very gifted ability to make me — I’ll just speak for myself — have sympathy for white dudes. It’s not something I walk around with all the time in life, but even with This Is Us with Kevin and Jack, I was like, “Man, Kevin’s getting a short stick, dude.”

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Xavier also learns that Cal was responsible for giving his wife a shot at living when he hit the switch on disabling nuclear weapons and other electronic devices across the globe. Do you think that stirs up any sense of regret for Xavier’s treatment of Cal in his final days?

I would say so. I mean, Xavier thought he knew everything that happened. He thought that the nukes went off. He’s sitting there watching as Atlanta is being destroyed, so he had no reason to think anything other than that. Certain decisions were made, and god bless the president for saying, “You know what? Even if it shuts out everything else, I’m giving people a chance at life.” I think he definitely has a different feeling about it. Honestly, once he saw Cal’s body on the floor, once he saw his body… I think in that moment Xavier’s like, “I could have been different. I could have dealt with this differently.”

Dan Fogelman does emotions really well onscreen as we saw on This Is Us. What has it been like reuniting for this latest collaboration?

It was a great reteaming. I think he’s an incredibly collaborative guy and he always makes you feel like you’re a part of the process; even going from an actor in one project and now being an executive producer in this one, the casting is always so much fun. The selection of directors is always something that we’re very conscious about and trying to have a diverse, very capable slate of directors that can help us realize the vision and bring balance to it.

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