This episode contains spoilers from episodes 3 and 4 of Paradise on Hulu.
As one of the most popular TV shows of 2025, it's easy to say people are into the drama that comes with Paradise.
Following fictional U.S. Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), the hit Hulu series is about Collins trying to find out who killed his boss, President Cal Bradford (James Marsden). The show provides plenty of twists along the way, and with season 2 officially in production, we know there's a lot more to the story.
But before we can think about the future of Paradise, it seems fans are still interested in talking about the past. Mainly, some have thoughts about the fate of another Secret Service member — and they're not too happy about how the show portrayed his story.
At the end of episode 3, viewers started getting suspicious about who could've possibly murdered President Bradford when Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi) told Collins not to trust his fellow Secret Service agent, Special Agent Billy Pace (Jon Beavers). While Pace initially seems like one of the good guys, folks learn he's not as perfect as pretends to be.
In episode 4, it comes out that Agent Pace has a dark, ominous back story. Originally trained as a hunter and killer by an abusive uncle as a child, he ends up murdering said uncle in his teens and going to prison for it. After several years, Pace gets recruited by the U.S. government to be part of a special program that has him going off on missions. And given how he is one of the 25,000 people chosen to live in the underground bunker, it's clear Pace's training makes him someone who could come in handy for a potential sinister plot.
While he does end up befriending Collins and Bradford on separate occasions, he unfortunately doesn't get a happy ending. While trying to get out from under the thumb of Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), it turns out Pace's fate is sealed. Upon learning his girlfriend Agent Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom) was a secret assassin for Sinatra, it doesn't take long before he is eventually drugged and killed by the love of his life. His death adds to the story, raising more questions than answers about what exactly happened to Bradford before he died.
Now that we have that background on Agent Pace, it's easy to understand how Paradise viewers could've gotten riled up about his time on the show. On the Paradise subreddit, Reddit user @boulderaa chose to air out their feelings about the storyline.
"My man Billy never stood a chance," the user wrote on April 6.
And the poster clearly wasn't the only one who felt this way. Others who shared the sentiment took to the comments to voice their thoughts as well.
"Seriously I almost wish they made them less likable so we didn’t feel nearly as bad when they get killed off," one person wrote. "Still mad about. I hate when tv shows spend an episode getting you to really like a character only to kill them off. Especially since it’s telegraphed from the start what’s gonna happen," another agreed in part. "Billy and Cal are my favorite characters, so for them to die is disappointing to me. I realize we needed Cal’s murder to set up the plot, but dang, I am going to miss him and Billy in season 2. Flashbacks only do so much," a different viewer added.
So, how will Billy's death be felt throughout the rest of the series? Well, for those who haven't seen all of Paradise yet, you can watch season 1 every Monday night at 10 p.m. ET on ABC to find out.
As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
