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Eventually, someone had to step into the role of antagonist.
In a world where human compassion is the thread holding society together, Paradise Season 2 Episode 5 introduces Gary, a character whose seemingly benign nature obscures darker intentions. Played by Cameron Britton, Gary exudes a warm, childlike innocence reminiscent of John C. Reilly’s most endearing roles. It’s hardly surprising, then, when Xavier overlooks the possibility that Gary might harbor sinister secrets.
This installment centers on Gary, much like the season’s first episode spotlighted Shailene Woodley’s Annie. (For those tracking the season’s special guest appearances, this makes two standout episodes.) Through flashbacks, we delve into Gary’s pre-Event life: a quiet mailman, content in his solitude, who finds joy in simple interactions. His Southern drawl is as comforting as a quilt, and his main social outlet is gaming.
Within the virtual realm, he befriends Ennis, a quick-witted gamer portrayed by Andy McQueen, known for his role in the heartfelt post-apocalyptic series Station Eleven. Their discussions about surviving a zombie apocalypse evolve from casual chatter into serious prepper dialogue as news of an imminent catastrophe circulates online. A supervolcano expert appearing on a podcast titled “PREPS AND REPS” serves as a comedic highlight, matched only by Ennis’s later acquisition of a cheeky t-shirt declaring, “DON’T YELL AT ME, I’LL CUM.”
When disaster looms, the unlikely duo springs into action, executing their well-laid survival plan. They’ve amassed provisions and are recruiting a diverse group of specialists—including a gardener, a carpenter, and a medic—to join them in a shelter beneath Gary’s post office. Amidst the chaos, Gary takes in two unexpected companions: Bean (Benjamin Mackey), a neglected child from his route, and Teri Rogers-Collins, a woman whose nurturing care of Bean earns Gary’s trust. Despite Ennis’s protests, they all become part of this impromptu community.
For a long time it looks like the only trouble on the horizon will come from Ennis’s direction. He takes to his position of command a little too readily, and he’s openly resentful of Teri (if not Bean). When members of tiny group start pairing off and moving on, it appears to chafe at him.
But it’s Gary we’ve had to watch out for all along. The present-day storyline shows him earning Xavier’s (limited) trust as they prepare to strike a nearby group of armed survivors traveling by train, who Gary says kidnapped everyone after Ennis betrayed their location. But the flashbacks slowly reveal that most of the group has departed on their own by then, that Gary is in fact in love with Teri, and that he’s so desperate to stop her from joining the train group’s convoy to Colorado that he murders Ennis to keep him quiet. Only Bean sees what happened.
All of this is artfully concealed by Britton’s performance. Never once does he give off creepy incel or violent stalker vibes in an obvious way. He’s never obsequious — early on he gives Teri tough love about needing to pull her weight — and he backs off when asked. Nor is he a calculating TV supervillain. His master plan is, what, to lure the husband of his beloved Teri into doing his bidding and mount a suicidal “rescue” mission against people who didn’t even kidnap anyone, in hopes that everyone between himself and Teri will die in the process? Does Gary seem like that kind of guy to you?
This is not to let him off the hook by any stretch of the imagination. He killed his oldest friend, and he appears poised to risk the lives of many more innocent people. It’s simply to say he’s just some guy who cracked under the pressure of the post-apocalypse. He hung all his hopes on one person, even though both he and she acknowledged to one another that these hopes were in vain, then happened to have a gun in his hand when he learned those hopes were about to be dashed and he’d lose her for good. Xavier, a trained Secret Service agent, falls into his lap in a similar manner. He’s not planning, he’s reacting in the moment. He’s not moving chess pieces, he’s spinning plates as fast as he can.
That’s what makes him feel like he’s still part of the fabric of this story, rather than some kind of glitch in its matrix. If things had gone slightly differently he’d have been as legitimately helpful to Xavier as Annie, or the people in that diner last episode. There’s a world where Gary never pulled that trigger. It’s just not this one.
Paradise’s second season is a fascinating thing to observe. A radical departure from the original season’s structure as well as a dramatic expansion of its scope, it keeps introducing new characters not as cameos, but as load-bearing features of the narrative and members of the cast. Even if Gary winds up lasting no longer than Annie — actually, especially if he lasts no longer than she did — it’s an illustration of Dan Fogelman and company’s confidence in their own abilities. (I dunno about you, but it helps that I like Annie and Gary more than just about anyone let down there in the bunker. Woodley and Britton made sure of that.)
And now we have a real cliffhanger on our hands. Unless something changes in a hurry, Xavier is about to attack innocent people, just to put his wife back together with a man whose love she’s already politely rejected. That will put a damper on their reunion — although this is Paradise, so I fully expect it to be set against the blazing sun as the most rapturous synthesizers you’ve ever heard in your life wash over you. Life at full volume, remember? You just have to hope you like the tune life is playing you, or else there’s no telling what you, like Gary, might do to change the channel.
Sean T. Collins (@seantcollins.com on Bluesky and theseantcollins on Patreon) has written about television for The New York Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pain Don’t Hurt: Meditations on Road House. He lives with his family on Long Island.