Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page (Drama) features standout drama series scripts in 2026 Emmy contention.
After scoring four Emmy nominations last year, including Outstanding Drama Series, Dan Fogelman‘s Paradise returned for Season 2 with new cast additions, greater mysteries and a finale cliffhanger to rival its first season. In its sophomore year, the popular post-apocalyptic thriller flipped audience expectations by picking up not with series lead Xavier’s (Sterling K. Brown) quest to find his wife outside the bunker, but rather newcomer Annie (Shailene Woodley), who has been waiting out the climate catastrophe in Graceland.
The premiere, written by show creator Fogelman and Eric Wen, traces the story of Annie from childhood to present day. After dropping out of medical school and finding herself in front of her sole safe space — Elvis Presley’s mansion, the remaining tether between her and her late mother — she stumbles into a job as a tour guide, making quick friends with security guard, Gayle (Angel Laketa Moore). When the end of the world arrives, Annie and Gayle hunker down in the King of Rock and Roll’s basement, where an injury eventually claims the latter’s life. After years spent alone with canned beans, scented candles and a handful of books as company, the sun slowly returns to warm the earth, bringing with it a strange new crew led by the charming Link (Thomas Doherty).
In his intro to the script, which marks his writing debut, Wen reveals how the idea of Xavier making a pit stop at Graceland came about, the research involved as he “didn’t know sh*t about Elvis,” and which Presley song he used as a touchstone for exploring a narrative that mirrored our pandemic realities as well as the exhilarating beginnings of newfound connection.
L-R: Eric Wen and Dan Fogelman
Courtesy/Getty
Here is Wen’s intro, followed by the script.
Pretty early in our season 2 writers room, we were imagining the characters Xavier would encounter on his journey outside the bunker when I remember Dan suddenly asking, “Guys, what if he goes to Graceland?!” If my memory is correct, it all crystallized in that moment: he described a young woman who dropped out of medical school and became a Graceland tour guide, and how she survived the apocalypse in the house by herself. And we would start the season telling her story and her story alone.
I didn’t know sh*t about Elvis. I spent days reading about Graceland and watching YouTube videos just to get a sense of the geography. (Which, in retrospect, I find kind of funny knowing that later in the season some of our writers did really extensive research on quantum theory and all I had to do was figure out which rooms were in Elvis’s house.) But when it came time to work on my parts of the episode the song “Are You Lonesome Tonight” kept popping up in my head. Maybe just as a needle drop we could use at some point, but I also started thinking about this idea of loneliness in an apocalypse.
Dan emphasized from the beginning that he didn’t want to do another show about “scary men with guns.” We still play with this expectation when Link and his crew arrive, but he wanted our exploration of the outside world to focus on human stories. Annie’s story in some ways reflected our experiences during the Covid pandemic when many of us were isolated trying to survive what, at times, felt like an apocalyptic moment. For her love story with Link, I thought about my partner whom I met in 2021 not long after things started to reopen: the excitement and awkwardness at the beginning of any relationship when you’re still trying to feel out a new person’s intentions; the fear of being vulnerable, or being hurt. (Only in this case, imagining this after a long period of isolation when everyone you know is dead.) Watching the episode now, I think about it less as a story about survival and more about loneliness and longing for human connection.
Anyway, what do I know? When I look at the other writers who participate in these “It Starts on the Page” features, it feels absurd that I’ve been asked to do this. I’m forever grateful that I even got to be a part of this episode with Dan Fogelman, Glenn Ficarra & John Requa, the incredible Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty, and all of our writers, actors, and amazing crew. Thank you, and apologies to all the Deadline readers who were hoping to get some insight into our show from Dan but instead had to read my diary.
Read the script below.
