What did the eruption of the Antarctic supervolcano in Hulu's Paradise lead to? The fate of people on the surface explained

Warning! Below are spoilers from the Paradise series.

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Paradise season 1 is nearing its finale, so the creators are slowly unveiling the cards, revealing, among other things, what the apocalypse was all about, making life on the surface impossible and forcing people to go underground. The latest, episode 7, of the series has been the most emotional so far, showing just how big and devastating a catastrophe humanity has faced.

How did the world end in Paradise? What's the deal with the Antarctic supervolcano?

The disaster came as a supervolcano erupted beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. The eruption led to the crushing and melting of the ice shelf, which turned into trillions of gallons of water that triggered an unprecedented tsunami, moving at 600 miles per hour across the planet.

Its first victim was all of Australia, but the disaster did not end there at all, as the tsunami traveled between one end of the planet and the other, destroying everything in its path. This, in turn, led to most of the land being deep under water, which was highlighted by showing the top of The Washington Monument (555 feet tall), which was the only one protruding above the water in Washington D.C.

However, not all of the land has gone under water – there remain regions that are still safe and where people still live, so the residents of underground Paradise are not the only survivors. There is still some life on the surface, despite the fact that millions of people died underwater.

President Bradford saved some of humanity on the surface, including Xavier's wife

Only a small fraction of humanity was saved in Paradise. The chaos caused by the impending cataclysm led to nuclear war in a misguided attempt to control remaining resources. The United States was not to look on indifferently at nuclear war, the president was to use red code to launch the United States' nuclear missiles.

But President Bradford ultimately had a different plan. He didn't want to add his hand to the destruction and lead to the deaths of countless people, even though his advisors, like Sinatra, advised him otherwise, convincing him that it would be more humane to let people die right away, instead of forcing them to grapple with reality in a post-disaster world. So instead of the red code, President Bradford used the secret blue code, developed by the Colonel after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Blue code is a special procedure that activates a linked array of global electromagnetic pulses to destroy every electronic circuit on Earth. With this, Bradford was able to disarm all nuclear weapons that had been launched. All electronic devices were also deactivated.

Thanks to this, some of humanity managed to survive the nuclear war and the tsunami that hit the Earth. Among the survivors was Teri, Xavier's wife, located in Atlanta at that moment, who almost died because of a missile heading in that direction, which President Bradford deactivated in time.

Thanks to Bradford's decision, some of humanity was given a chance to survive, however, they now have to face a whole new reality on the surface, without the support and security that Paradise residents can count on.

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