The Hulu series Paradise dropped viewers into a confusing world right from the start. A U.S. president is dead. A Secret Service agent is hunting for answers. And somewhere underneath a mountain in Colorado, 25,000 people are living in a perfect underground city without knowing the full truth about their so-called paradise.
At the center of all the secrets stands one woman. Her name is Samantha Redmond, but everyone calls her Sinatra. She is the richest person in the bunker. She built the city. She decides who lives and who dies. And by the end of season one, viewers finally understand why this woman controls absolutely everything inside the mountain.
Here is everything we know about Sinatra and her iron grip on Paradise city.
Sinatra Was Not Always a Cold-Blooded Leader
Before the world ended, Samantha Redmond was just a tech billionaire who sold her startup for massive money. She met her husband in a bar, they hit it off, and they built a happy life together with two children. Episode two of the series, titled “Sinatra,” shows her as a regular mom doing grocery shopping with her family .
Then everything changed.
Her young son collapsed in the grocery store. Doctors told her he was terminally ill and nothing could save him. Samantha sat with her son in his final moments, and he told her about his vision of heaven. That conversation stuck with her forever. After losing her child, she became obsessed with building a place that matched what her son imagined — a perfect world where people could be safe and happy .
The grief never really left her. It just buried itself deep inside and came out later as something much darker.
How Sinatra Got Her Nickname
The name “Sinatra” came from Kane Bradford, the father of President Cal Bradford. He was an oil baron who noticed something about Samantha early on. She had a way of appealing to everyone. She could walk into a room full of powerful people and make them feel like she was the leader they had been waiting for. Kane started calling her Sinatra because she reminded him of the famous singer who could charm any crowd .
The name stuck. Even years later, inside the bunker, people still call her Sinatra. Some say it with respect. Others say it with fear.
The Real Story Behind Building the Bunker
Sinatra did not build the bunker alone. She hired construction workers from all over the world to dig deep into the Colorado mountains and create a self-sustaining city underground. The project was massive. Thousands of workers helped build Paradise long before anyone knew the world was about to end .
One of those workers was a man who later became the bunker’s librarian. He helped design and build the city from the ground up. But when the time came to choose who would actually live inside Paradise, Sinatra left him out. He was a worker, not an elite. He did not make the cut .
That decision came back to haunt everyone.
The Librarian Connection You Probably Missed
Here is the twist that shocked viewers in the finale. The man who killed President Cal Bradford was not some master assassin. He was the librarian. And he had been hiding in plain sight all season long .
Creator Dan Fogelman explained that the writers planted clues everywhere. In early episodes, the librarian is always standing near a diorama of the bunker. He asks people if they want to see it. He seems obsessed with the place. In episode four, when Xavier enters the bunker with his children during the disaster, the librarian is having a meltdown in the background. That tantrum was actually a distraction that helped him sneak inside .
The librarian knew the bunker better than almost anyone because he helped build it. Sinatra threw him away like garbage. Years later, he got his revenge by killing the president and exposing the cracks in Sinatra’s perfect city.
Why Sinatra Hid the Truth About the Outside World
Episode seven of Paradise dropped the biggest bombshell yet. The world did not actually end. Around 55 million people survived the disaster outside the bunker . Scientists sent from Paradise tried to make contact with survivors, but Sinatra ordered them killed. She did not want anyone inside the bunker to know the truth .
Why keep such a massive secret? Simple. Control.
If people inside Paradise knew they could leave, many would try to escape. The bunker would empty out. Sinatra would lose her power. She built this city to be her kingdom, and she was not about to let anyone walk away from it .
Xavier Collins, the Secret Service agent played by Sterling K. Brown, learned this truth the hard way. Sinatra played recordings for him of survivors broadcasting on shortwave radios. One of those voices belonged to his wife Teri, who he believed died when Atlanta was destroyed . Sinatra knew Teri was alive the whole time but kept it secret to maintain control over Xavier.
The Moral War Inside Sinatra’s Head
Sinatra is not a simple villain who twirls her mustache and laughs at evil plans. Julianne Nicholson, who plays her, explained that the character carries a deep inner conflict.
“She’s a complex woman,” Nicholson told The A.V. Club. “Feeling her vulnerability doesn’t also mean that she can’t be tough as nails. We don’t have to be one thing” .
Showrunner Dan Fogelman described Sinatra as someone caught between two worldviews. One part of her believes people are selfish and dangerous and need a firm hand to control them. The other part believes in human goodness and wants to give people a real chance at rebuilding .
Those two voices have been fighting inside her head for years. Sometimes the ruthless side wins. Sometimes the human side peeks through. In the finale, when Sinatra thought Xavier’s daughter Presley had been killed, she broke down and whispered “God forgive me” . That was the real Sinatra showing through the armor.
Sinatra’s Lowest Moment and What Comes Next
The season finale left Sinatra in bad shape. Jane, the assassin she hired to kill Billy and others, turned on her and shot her. The last image shows Sinatra in a hospital bed, unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator .
But do not count her out yet.
Fogelman confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Nicholson will be back for season two, and Sinatra will not spend the whole time lying in bed . The creator teased that Sinatra still has a mission, and it is bigger than viewers realize right now.
“She’s incapacitated. But Julianne is going to be in the show next year, and she’s not going to be in a bed the entire season,” Fogelman said. “Sinatra, like any delicious leader, even when she’s a step behind the curve and losing control, she always seemed to find a way out of it and regain control” .
Nicholson added that season two will explore more of Sinatra’s backstory and how Paradise came to exist. She also hinted that the character might get “messier” now that her perfect control has been shattered .
What Makes Sinatra So Terrifying
Sinatra is scary because she is practical. She does not kill people because she enjoys it. She kills people because they become problems that need solving. The expedition teams that found survivors outside the bunker? Problems. Solved. The construction worker who helped build Paradise but did not make the cut? Problem. Solved.
She treats human lives like line items on a budget. If removing someone keeps her city running smoothly, she removes them without hesitation. That kind of cold practicality is more frightening than any screaming villain could ever be.
Yet somehow, the show makes you understand her. You watch her lose a child. You watch her grieve. You watch her channel that grief into building something she thought would honor her son’s memory. By the time she starts ordering deaths to protect her vision, you are not cheering for her, but you understand how she got there.
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Will Sinatra Regain Control in Season Two?
Screen Rant reported that production on season two is currently happening, with an expected release in early 2026 . The new episodes will follow Xavier as he searches for his wife outside the bunker while also showing what happens inside Paradise with Sinatra out of commission.
Someone had to fill the power vacuum while Sinatra recovers. The show has not revealed who stepped up, but viewers can expect plenty of political maneuvering and backstabbing in the episodes ahead.
Nicholson told Deadline that there is definitely more to explore with Sinatra’s story. “You get a little more of the backstory and how Paradise came to be. So there’s definitely more there to explore,” she said .
For now, Sinatra remains one of the most fascinating characters on television. She is a grieving mother, a ruthless dictator, a visionary builder, and a cold-blooded killer all wrapped into one perfectly tailored business suit. She built Paradise with her own money and her own sweat. And even lying in a hospital bed with a bullet wound, she is still the most powerful person in the room.
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