Paradise Season 2: Who Can We Trust? And Other Big Mysteries — Join TVLine's In-Depth, Ongoing Investigation

So now we think we know where Xavier's wife, Teri, is — but "Paradise" fans, what say you? Can we trust the source of that intel?

This week's episode of the Hulu drama didn't answer many questions, but it sure begged a new one:  Is anything that seemingly mild-mannered mailman Gary says to be believed? After all, in the hour's final moments, we learned that he's flat-out lying to Xavier about the lead-up to Teri's disappearance.

But let's back up a moment. The freshman run of Dan Fogelman's twisty drama got underway with a major mystery — who murdered the president of the United States? — and immediately chased it with a jaw-dropping reveal: After a climate catastrophe/nuclear war, the commander-in-chief and a large group of hand-picked citizens had taken shelter in an underground city built for surviving the apocalypse. By the Season 1 finale, Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (played by Sterling K. Brown) had solved the murder mystery but unearthed another: Were there survivors — including his presumed-dead wife, Teri — topside?

The three-episode Season 2 premiere proved there were. Among them were Annie (played by Shailene Woodley), a Graceland tour guide who holed up at the historic home when things went south; and Link (Thomas Doherty), a secretive traveler headed to Colorado on a deadly mission. In Episode 4, tragedy befell Annie, while Link arrived at the bunker's doors and politely (for now) asked to be let in. This week's Episode 5 a) flashed back to how Teri managed to stay alive in the years following The Day, and b) found Xavier forming a plan to rescue his woman from the people he was told kidnapped her.

Much like we did last season, we're keeping track of the show's big mysteries and all the hints that might help solve them. But before we get going, a couple of ground rules. First off, Spoiler Alert!: Please make sure your viewing is up to date, because we wouldn't want the list below to ruin the fun. And second, we'll update our roster every week to make sure you have all of the pertinent information. 

TVLine readers excel at figuring out TV-related riddles. So if you see or hear something that we don't during an episode, make sure to shout it out in the comments or hit me up on social media @kimroots: If your tip is a good one, it'll be included (with credit!) in our updates.

Now have at it, "Paradise" faithful: Scroll down and start sleuthing!

Toward the end of the Season 2 premiere, Annie overhears Link and his friend, Geiger, talking about how they have to "get to the bunker, we've got to get inside, and we've got to kill Alex." The men wind up leaving before she (or we) can glean any more information about their target.

Then, in Episode 3, a pre-bunker flashback introduces us to Henry Miller (Patrick Fischler) and his wife — whose name is Alex. Alex is suffering from Huntington's disease, and she dies of a lethal injection shortly before Billy Pace kills Henry, on Sinatra's orders. When Henry's young assistant later shows up, we realize he's Link! (More on that later.)

There's more on this front later in Episode 3. In the present storyline, Sinatra surreptitiously asks her housekeeper, Carmen — whom we quickly glean isn't just her housekeeper — "How is Alex?" Carmen responds, "Alex is well." Is Alex a person? A project? A project named for a person? 

UPDATE: In Episode 4, Link and his group arrived at the bunker and asked to be let in by holding up signs outside, "Love Actually"-style. "Please," the signs read, "as they say, take me to your leader. I'm going to ask nicely. But not for long."

... what specifically, is the nature of the secretive project that Sinatra has hatched? In Episode 3, we learn that this mysterious initiative is siphoning a significant amount of energy from the bunker's electrical grid. We also see a flashback from when Sinatra tracked down Dr. Louge (Geoffrey Arend) at the conference and asked him for a specific breakdown of what would happen when the climate catastrophe he predicted actually took place. After he lays out a hellish future in which "pressure crushes anything still standing" years after the event, he says only one thing can fix it, "and it's the one thing even you can't buy... Time."

This interaction, as well as the fact that Sinatra was very interested in the work of quantum scientist Henry Miller, has led some fans to think that the sneaky presidential adviser might be trying to bend time to her will. (And can you blame her? The woman's been pretty damn effective in making other seemingly impossible things happen!) 

And if so, Might Alex be a project instead of a person, then? That would jive with the other part of Sinatra's conversation with Carmen, in which the housekeeper mentions that "the power problem has been resolved" and that "they" don't have an estimate, "but she is getting closer." 

"She" as in the way you talk about ships? "She" as in a person? Who knows?!

UPDATE: A monologue Sinatra gives in Episode 4 might provide more insight into her overall plan. As she holds baby Calvin, AKA the first infant born in the bunker, she quietly says: "Can I tell you a secret, gorgeous boy, something no one else knows down here? Someday, you're gonna see the real sky. You'll feel how warm the sun can be on your skin. You'll know what the moon looks like in all its phases. You'll see how the constellations travel across the sky at night. I swear, Calvin, I have a plan for you. For all of us. Someday you'll see real stars."

Cryptic, no? If she is thinking about time travel, this is a very roundabout way to talk about it. Maybe Sinatra's plan has several parts or phases? Make sure to log your thoughts on [waves hands] everything in the comments!

In Episode 2, an ailing Xavier has visions (memories?) of following Link down a dark hallway. Then, in an Episode 3 flashback, Henry Miller tells Billy Pace not to kill Link, because "it's not hyperbole to say the fate of the world may depend on him." Though Billy easily could off the young man when he shows up at Henry's house, he doesn't. 

UPDATE: Xavier sees Link's photo for the first time in Episode 4, and he immediately connects Annie's baby daddy with the vision he's been having. He starts to tell her about it — "I've been having these dreams. Maybe not 'dreams,' almost like memories of things? But they're things that haven't happened." — but she thinks he's likely just experiencing the aftereffects of a concussion, and they don't get a chance to discuss it again before she dies of childbirth complications at the end of the hour.

Does the fact that Xavier already has memories of Link lend credence to the time-travel theory? Is Link the person who eventually makes such a quantum leap happen? And can you believe that we're talking about all of this for a show that we originally thought was just a murder mystery?!

When Xavier finally makes it to Atlanta in Episode 4, he's met with the worst news: His wife, Teri, isn't there! A man named Gary approaches him and calls him by name: Gary says he's a good friend of Teri's, "and she's been taken from me." 

UPDATE: In Episode 5, Gary claims that Ennis, a member of the small commune that weathered the climate/nuclear catastrophe with him and Teri, was instrumental in Teri's getting taken by a group of menacing newcomers. But a flashback reveals (to the audience, at least), that the newcomers weren't really dangerous — and that Gary shot Ennis dead when he suggested that Teri might join the group's train ride out to Colorado. Now that we know Gary is lying to Xavier, can we trust anything he's said?

OK, your turn. We want to hear all your thoughts/theories/wild flights of fancy, so hit the comments, and have at it!