Paradise's Season 2 Premiere Takes A Gorgeous Detour Through Graceland — Read Episode 1 Recap

Xavier Collins doesn't enter the Season 2 opener of "Paradise" until the episode's very last minutes, and the premiere is all the better for it.

Does that mean we don't love Sterling K. Brown's character, last seen getting behind the controls of Air Force One in a last-ditch attempt to locate his presumed-dead wife? Hell no. It just means that, much in the way that "The Last of Us" broadened its storytelling via a Bill-and-Frank centric episode in Season 1, "Paradise" offers a delicate — and very different — take on the end of the world than we saw in the Hulu drama's first season. Namely, we stay above ground as the combined horrors of climate catastrophe and nuclear winter are visited upon a young woman who just happens to be holed up in Elvis Presley's old digs.

In a moment, we'll want to know what you thought of the premiere. But first, read on for the highlights of "Graceland."

The character at the center of this episode is Annie (played by Shailene Woodley, "Big Little Lies," "The Secret Life of the American Teenager"), a young Tennessee woman whose Elvis Presley-loving mother died when she was young. Annie is very bright and on the path to being a doctor, but flashbacks to her mother's illness and the trauma of her subsequent passing prove too much for Annie one day while doing rounds at the hospital. She drops out of medical school and becomes a tour guide at Graceland, instead.

She's at work when The Day happens — the one we saw unfold in Season 1, Episode 7 — and I'm quite impressed with how this show manages to fill me with dread even now, when I know how things are going to shake out. Annie thinks quickly, grabbing supplies and ushering a female security guard to hide with her in the historic home's basement. But the guard falls and breaks her leg on the way downstairs.

Annie uses her medical training to help her friend as best she can. Outside, an ash cloud blocks out the sun, and the women light Sterno cans and huddle under blankets to try to stay warm. A month after the world ends, the guard dies; a despondent Annie braves the outside to bury her in the backyard.

Then we jump to Day 689, or nearly two years later. A sunbeam peeks through one of the windows, tempting Annie to go outside. Frozen things are thawing, birds are singing. Hallelujah! Her joy, though, is short-lived when she hears trucks and motorcycles and sees a group of men approaching the house. They enter and she hides, but they eventually find her and want her to point them toward Elvis' storied car collection. When she won't help them, most of them leave to search the property, but one stays behind. His name is Link (Thomas Doherty, "Tell Me Lies") and he tries to chat with her, but she won't engage. When he turns his back on her to play Beethoven's "Für Elise" on the piano, she hits him over the head, takes his gun, and runs to barricade herself in another room.

She stays there for three days, while the guys make themselves at home in the King's palace. They cook. They joke. They claim they aren't dangerous, and Annie softens slightly. As she joins them for a meal, we get their backstory. One of the group, a man who calls himself Geiger, has recruited them all to travel what's left of the country and shut down all of the 94 nuclear power plants in existence, which are "just meltdowns waiting to happen if they're abandoned." While no one knows exactly what happened when the world shut down, they've got theories. Another member of the assemblage (correctly, as it turns out) thinks an electromagnetic pulse device knocked out anything with a battery, and Link guesses that two-thirds of the United States population was wiped out. "Any survivors that we meet now are people in groups who have figured out how to work together and, most importantly, how to grow food in these conditions," he adds.

All of the kumbayah is nice and all, but it definitely feels like the men are hiding something from Annie. At one point, she overhears Geiger and Link talking about firepower and saying, "Even if we get in, how are we going to find her?", though they cover when they realize their new friend is near. Still, Link is pretty and nice to her, and she drops her guard even more. She fixes his wrist, which she realizes is broken. She learns he's 25. And she takes part in the guys' celebratory last dinner at Graceland before they head out west to join others who want to "restart the world."

Everyone dons Elvis' and Priscilla's best finery for the meal — and here's where I want to make sure I note that "Psych" alum Timothy Omundson is one of the men, who goes by Chef — and everyone seems to have a jovial, relaxed time. When Annie notes that she really misses giving tours of the home, they ask her to do so; by the time she gets to the Jungle Room, though, the group has winnowed to just her and Link.

He compliments her on how she's managed to survive on her own. He shows his Elvis ignorance when he thinks her mention of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" is a question instead of a mention of her favorite Presley tune. And after he pulls her close, kisses her head, and hugs her, he strokes her hair as she sobs. He's crying, too. They both acknowledge how it's been a long time since they were touched — this scene is really beautifully done all the way around, by the way — and then they go upstairs to have sex.

Afterward, she notes that he's got a lot of scars on his body, then asks why he and the others are really there. He confesses that even with the EMP theory, some vintage machine parts still work, and they want to salvage some for their trip to Colorado. "There's a bunker out there. We're convinced of it," he says, adding that they think it's full of "energy sources that can help jumpstart the world." Oh and then he casually drops that there's something very dangerous out there, but he can't explain it, because she wouldn't understand. Cool, cool.

Regardless, he wants her to join them on the journey west. "Come with us," he purrs. "Come restart the world with me, Annie."

But Link wakes alone the next morning. Annie has locked herself in another room, picking her nails bloody like she did when she freaked out as a medical student. Link speaks to her softly through the door, trying to coax her into joining them, and that's where an impatient Geiger finds him.

"We've got to get to the bunker, we've got to get inside, and we've got to kill Alex," Geiger says, inadvertently giving up more of the game to Annie than he realizes. Just then, Link swoons and has a nosebleed — he's looked a little peaked all episode, truth be told — so Geiger gives him a few more minutes to get himself and his girl together.

Link begs some more, but ultimately is unsuccessful. She watches them leave from an upstairs window, then descends to find a map with "I'll come back for you" written on it. He also left his college ID behind.

Time passes, and Annie successfully grows two things: indoor vegetables and a human — yep, she's pregnant. She's well into her third trimester when she hears a plane flying low nearby, then a crash moments later. Annie thinks it's Link coming back for her, so she grabs Elvis' gun, hops on one of the Graceland horses, and rides toward the noise.

When she arrives, it's not Link: It's Xavier, who has crashed the president's plane and is lying nearby, unconscious. Annie approaches warily, her gun trained on him, then crouches down to check his neck for a pulse.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Hit the comments with your thoughts!