Courtesy of Hulu
THE PERFORMER | Shailene Woodley
THE SHOW | “Paradise”
THE EPISODE | “Graceland” (February 23, 2026)
THE PERFORMANCE | The Season 2 premiere of “Paradise” spent most of its time with a character we’d never met before: Annie Clay, a Graceland tour guide who wound up weathering the apocalypse in Elvis Presley’s famous home. Within moments of meeting Annie, we were deeply invested in her survival, and that’s because new cast addition Shaliene Woodley is so damn good in the role.
To be fair, Woodley is a ringer whose work in series like “Big Little Lies” and “Three Women” presaged a stellar performance here, too. Still, we didn’t expect her to draw us in so quickly, right from the moment of Annie’s breakdown during her rounds as a medical student. So we feared for her as she quickly figured out that she’d better take cover, and we wept with her when she couldn’t save the life of her injured coworker. Woodley just has that way of drawing you in, you know?
Woodley excelled in the episode’s most moving scene
Courtesy of Hulu
Her finest moments, though, came after a group of men showed up and barged into the shelter Annie had maintained for years. Though Woodley had Annie present a tough and no-nonsense face to the group of strangers, she slowly grew comfortable not only with their presence but also their company. Woodley’s body language eased. She had Annie smile and laugh, despite herself. And all of that paved the way for the episode’s most moving scene.
Annie had already softened considerably by the time she and Link wound up alone upstairs on the final night of the guys’ stay, so it’s not surprising that the first meaningfully loving human touch she’d had in years would break her open. How gorgeous was the way Woodley blended joy in Link’s closeness with her grief for everything she’d lost? How perfect was the way she — with an assist from scene partner Thomas Doherty — piloted her character’s whipsaw emotions in a manner both tender and compelling?
And that ending! Now that Annie is hoping, waiting and yearning (for two!), we’re excited to see what Woodley will bring to the mother-to-be in the rest of the season.
Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!
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