The first three episodes of the Hulu seriesParadisepremiered at once and left fans to get over a massive twist along with a cliffhanger ending. AfterXavier (Sterling K. Brown)and Gabriella’s (Sarah Shahi) romantic rendezvous, she shared a shocking revelation with him. Right before he died, president Cal Bradford (James Marsden) told her to go to Xavier should anything ever happen to him, and that Billy Pace (Jon Beavers) was “dangerous.”
Clearly, Xavier was having a tough time reconciling this. Billy was not only an agent who worked under his supervision, he was also a close family friend. Billy had been to Xavier’s home, broke bread with him, and befriended his children. Seeing Billy glaring menacingly into Xavier’s window as his daughter looks outside, a gun in the car with him, left fans shook.Could he really be a villain? His backstory is told in the gripping fourth episode, which is largely dedicated to the character’s journey in both the past and present.
Warning: Spoilers for Episode 4.
Billy Pace’s Backstory
Episode four, aptly titled “Agent Billy Pace,” begins with the backstory of Billy, including how he got to do the job he does now. He had a traumatic upbringing. He’s seen as a teenager, hunting in the forest with a man who is identified as his uncle.When Billy hesitates and fails to shoot a deer, which runs off once his dog starts barking, his uncle slaps him in the face and calls him a “worthless idiot of a nephew.”He urges him to “never hesitate” because “that’s how they hear you coming.”
Later in their cabin, the uncle implies that Billy must kill his dog for interrupting their hunt. “When something’s no good, it has to go,” says the uncle. Billy takes the dog outside as his uncle stands behind it, urging him to get the deed done.Billy hesitates again, but when he finally makes his move, he decides to shoot his uncle instead.
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Naturally, this murderous act lands Billy in a youth detention center where his life continues on an even darker path.When a bully approaches him, Billy beats the young man with a ferociousness that suggests there are many years of pain behind his animalistic reaction. Years later when he is released, now a strapping young man, there’s a man in black gear and a black truck waiting for him. He claims to be there to offer Billy his second chance.
Billy is seen with a line-up of men who are all described as violent men who have been pulled from halfway houses, prisons, even flame outs from the Seals. The mysterious man sees an opportunity to mold these men into mercenaries. They are introduced to Bull, described as a “highly disciplined killing machine,” and the men are asked who thinks they can take him. Billy calmly approaches and begins beating up the man twice his size, showing he has a level of confidence and lack of fear that is unmatched.
This has fans asking themselves even more why Billy made it into the exclusive community at all, one of theburning questions fans hadafter the three-episode premiere ofParadise.
Xavier and Billy’s Budding Friendship
The remainder of the episode flips back and forth between the present day and the moments after the massive natural disaster hit, thebig twist revealed in Episode 1. The purpose is to show both how Billy and Xavier came to be as close as they are, and who Billy has become since that troubled childhood.
In a flashback, he approaches Xavier as everyone is being led to the planes. He’s already an agent at this time and was told to find Xavier and get him to help secure the area and get people in their new homes. The scenes are presented as though they’re thoughts, recollections from Xavier as he’s remembering the early days of his time with Billy and trying to reconcile what Gabriella is telling him.
He and Billy are in a bar securing the area, and it’s clear they are very different men. Billy is happy to oblige the bartender and have a drink while Xavier is against drinking while on duty. Billy has a vulgar mouth, while Xavier is rigid, strict, and well-spoken. In another scene, Billy brazenly tells the president he should be honest with the people that “this s**t is not normal.” Xavier believes Billy’s overstepping, but the president is genuinely appreciative of the advice.
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Later, the pair are seen sharing an off-duty drink together at the same bar, and Xavier learns that Billy had a tough life and was lonely in the world above. “There are things that I’ve seen and things that I’ve done,” he tells Xavier, “that I don’t know if you’d be sitting here with me if you knew.”He finally has an actual home and a purpose down here, which oddly makes him feel normal in a way he never did. One thing Billy still is, however, is lonely.
To help his newfound friend, Xavier invites Billy to dinner with him and his children, where Billy awkwardly shows up, clearly nervous. While he initially doesn’t really understand how to interact with young children, the kids are amused by his weirdness andthey instantly form a bond.From there, he becomes known to them as Uncle Billy, and the relationship evolved not just between Xavier and Billy but between Billy and the kids, too.
The Big Reveal About Billy
Everything comes to a head, ironically, at the carnival when special agent Nicole Robinson (Kris Marshall) approaches Billy and warns him about his pal Xavier being on Sinatra’s (Julianne Nicholson) radar. She needs his help. Billy has been dodging Xavier, knowing there’s trouble and that he’s in an awkward position. But it isn’t because he wants to harm him, or he’s against him. Billyisindeed dangerous, but not in the way fans may have thought.
In another flashback, Xavier and Billy are in the bar with Cal when Billy expresses to the president that the “not knowing” about what’s going on above is what makes people feel uneasy. Even though the president says everything is gone up above, Billy asks him how do the survivors know? When Xavier, who’s listening in, asks if it’s possible that “somebody’s somebody” could be okay up there, even if they are desperately trying to survive, it’s clear he’s thinking about his wife.This is the catalyst that leads Cal to send an elite team of four to the surface to investigate.
But when the team starts walking back from the surface to give their report,Billy is seen in uniform and swiftly shoots all four of them dead. As he surveysthe desolate scene above, one woman happens to still be alive.She pleads for her life, saying the survivors below need to know that it’s not what they think, there’s still life, and you may breathe without a mask. People may still be alive. Billy shoots her dead before she can continue. In a terribly emotional scene, Billy recalls this moment while talking to the bartender whose wife was this very victim, staring at her memorial in the bar with deep regret.
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Back in the present day, Billy visits Sinatra to vent his frustrations. “I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me,” he says. He confirms that she is the one who sent him out there to kill those people and keep everyone scared, so they give up any hope of leaving. She calmly replies, but seems unfazed by his concerns, spinning it to say that the above world is not habitable and anyone left is likely tearing each other apart for the scarcest resources.She’s completely uncaring and unfeelingabout potential survivors that might be above.
Billy makes a major mistake, however, when he calls her a monster and threatens her to leave Xavier and his kids alone.She threatens right back, telling him that all he has to offer the world is that he’s a killer, confirming that this is the reason she brought him along. She adds that he isn’t the only killer she brought. Billy goads her to send someone for him, but if she does, she better verify it’s “the biggest mother f**ker you’ve got.” This turns out to be Billy’s undoing.
Billy’s Final Redemption
The version of Billy in present day is much calmer and sweeter than the flashback scenes, but he’s still by and large a killer with violent tendencies. He has a lovely relationship with Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom) though he is clearly haunted by his past. In a sweet scene, he finds Presley (Aliyah Maston) at the annual carnival and dolls out dating advice in the only way he knows how. He encourages her to “shoot her shot” with Jeremy (Charlie Evans), who she admits she likes as more than a friend. When night falls, Billy catches up with Xavier and the kids to light some fireworks and talk things out.
Billy insists that he did not kill the president, but he wants to confess about things he has done that may have to do with what happened to Cal.He calls Sinatra a cold-blooded killer and admits that he has done some things for her that he regrets. He promises he will tell Xavier everything in the morning, but for one last night, he just wants to be Uncle Billy. Sadly, however,Billy never gets his chance to confess his sins.
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Billy arrives at home where Jane is waiting in the dark with the remnants of a funnel cake and a beer for him. He sits down as they talk, but after a single sip, something is wrong. He is holding his chest and finding it difficult to breathe. Jane, meanwhile, sits stone-faced picking at the fried dessert.He keels over on the floor as she puts on black gloves to lay pills out on the table and make it look like a suicide. Jane leans over Billy’s body as he struggles to breathe and says “you told her to send the biggest motherf**ker she had. I’m it, baby.”
Billy’s lifeless body lies on the floor, the fallout of which will be massive. He never got to tell Xavier the truth and never will. Jane is clearlya cold-blooded killerplanted by the Secret Service, made to look like a harmless, innocent young woman. AndSinatra is a level of evil no one could even imagine. At least Xavier now has further confirmation that she is bad news, and he likely won’t let up until he proves it.
