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[This story contains spoilers from the three-episode premiere of Paradise season two.]

If the first season of Paradise was a post-apocalyptic survival drama — albeit, a twisty one — the second season of Dan Fogelman‘s hit Hulu series starring Sterling K. Brown is about something even bigger — and less tangible.

“This season is about: Do you believe that things happen for a reason, or is it chance? It’s a big, emotional question. It’s almost a religious question; a philosophical question. What do you believe?” executive producer and writer John Hoberg tells The Hollywood Reporter about the newly released second season of Paradise.

Fogelman, who famously created This Is Us, set out to make Paradise with a clear three-season vision, one that had a beginning, middle and an end. Hoberg, who has previously detailed the end-of-the-world research that went into Paradise, says they stuck to that vision. Now that the second season has released its first three episodes, viewers see that the series has traveled outside of the survival city bunker called Paradise that was the main backdrop of season one and is exploring the remnants of the world above after a nuclear fallout — not only to follow protagonist Xavier (Brown) in his search for the wife who he thought had died, but also to introduce new characters, played by Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty, and show how everyone else outside of the bunker has been surviving.

Below, Hoberg details to The Hollywood Reporter what Fogelman and team are setting out to do with season two, while hinting at some big looming questions that will be raised ahead and revealing that they have already plotted out almost all of season three (while they await for an official renewal) that will close out this story. They also promise to answer the biggest question already raised: Who is Alex?

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Creator Dan Fogelman said he had a very clear three-season vision for this show from the start. So when you all returned to the writers room for season two, how much was laid out for you, and what was trickiest to figure out?

I was one of the people who was in [on the show] really early. It was me and [writer/co-executive producer] Scott Weinger with Dan [Fogelman] and Jess [Rosenthal, executive producer]. This was before we even gathered the [writers] room and Dan was trying to decide where it was going to go. That’s where we formulated the three-season idea and what those seasons would be. We knew we were in the bunker season one, and we knew we were going out and Xavier [Sterling K. Brown] was going to look for his wife [in season two]. We also knew that we were headed for a collision of two different worlds. So when you have that beginning and you know where you’re swimming to, you know the high points. We probably knew what the midpoint of season [two] was and the final thing [of the season]. There was a lot of debate over, “When will Xavier get to Atlanta [where wife Terri is believed to be]? What’s going to happen along the way? How long do we want to be on the road?” Those are the things we really started to figure out.

You knew you would release three episodes with launch. Why did you want to structure the first three episodes this way, and kick off season two by introducing new characters Annie (Woodley) and Link (Doherty) before catching back up with Xavier and returning to the bunker?

The big debate was, “Do we do what we felt was the right, but more gutsy, move of starting with the Shailene episode, where you don’t see Xavier until the last second?” That was the big discussion. We knew we wanted that episode. We knew we wanted to give the audience a chance to experience what the last day out in the world was like — not with the president and all the protected people [as was shown in season one], but what it was like for an everyday person when the world ended.

Everything except for that episode is through Xavier’s emotional experience. He’s driving the entire show. So we knew we needed to put him through it when he finds those kids [in season two] to say, Here’s the new world you’re in. This is a different reality than he had experienced before [in the bunker]. The rules are different. We knew we wanted that, and we also knew we wanted to check in on the bunker.

There was discussion of, “Do we flip [episodes] one and two? Do we flip episodes two and three?” Because they could flip. Ultimately we landed on this format, and decided that it was the best path to invest you in the world you’re about to get into and then be like, “Oh, that’s right. Xavier’s there.”

There are mysterious nose bleeds and what I’m referring to as memory flashes in these first episodes. What did you call these unexplainable acts in the room?

We call them flashbacks. I’ve become a believer that we all walk around and our memories give us this ability to transport us to a different time. That’s what our characters are doing. Xavier, when he’s in and out after what’s happened to him when he’s in the plane crash, is flashing to Terry [Enuka Okuma]. In his experience, he’s with Terry. So what we try to do is find these flashbacks that are informing you about the character, but also taking you back and forth through time in the character’s experience.

Already this season seems to be moving from a post-apocalyptic survival drama into a sci-fi story that will raise even bigger questions about what we believe. What were some of the conversations you had in the room about these questions you wanted to pose, and how you would gradually raise them throughout the season?

This season is about: Do you believe that things happen for a reason, or is it chance? It’s a big, emotional question. It’s almost a religious question; a philosophical question. What do you believe? We want the audience to think about, What do these nosebleeds mean? Is that a coincidence? Is it not? That’s really important for us, especially in these first three episodes. Where do you land on what’s going on? Is your Spidey sense going up a little bit? It might not. You might be right for it not to, and you might be right for it going up.

Do you feel like the genre of the show changes this season?

The weird thing is that the genre I have in my head for this show is a Western. Xavier is a Western hero. He is that person with an uncompromising goal. He has a set of values he won’t compromise. So even if the genre is shifting one way or another, the anchor to the entire show is him. We’re testing him. Every episode, we’re going to test him on his moral and personal codes to see if he is going to crack. So even if it the show blends into different things, he holds it together.

We meet Shailene Woodley’s new character Annie at Graceland. We got her survival backstory there, and that’s where she takes Xavier in. I know you all do a ton of research, so why did you chose Graceland as a key location for season two?

A big thing we read up on was really depressing. There are people who I call disastereologists. People who focus on: “What will human beings do in the event of something like this?” One of the things we discovered is what most apocalyptic shows show: the mean-men-with-guns thing. That’s very real. There’s this thing they call “the killing years.” It’s two years when it is ugly and people are fighting for resources, and things are what we have seen in a lot of these shows. But then there is this thought that, at year three, the people who survive are the ones who work together, and gather resources together and can kind of figure things out.

So we started researching that. “What’s a place you might be able to wait out those dangerous two years? Where could this woman be? A bank vault, or another type of shelter?” And then we really let the character lead, and we got into this idea of a woman fighting agoraphobia. Someone [in the room] brought up that they had a friend who was fighting agoraphobia who ended up becoming a tour guide at the Getty Museum, and it was this release because there was a script. We started building with that, and Dan suggested Graceland as being an incredible way to show the end of the world. Throughout the whole season, you’re going to find Americana left behind or repurposed. Gracelan set that theme of how we used to use things versus how people might use them in this kind of world.

The big question viewers are asking after these first three episodes is, who the hell is Alex?

Good! I want people to ask, who the hell is Alex? The one thing with this show is that we answer questions. That’s really important. That was important to Dan from the beginning. We’ll pose questions and we will answer them, and bring up new questions. So if you’re wondering if you will find out who Alex is, you will find out who Alex is.

Dan had confirmed Sinatra [Julianne Nicholson] would come back in season two alive, but that it would be different for her. When she wakes up, she’s knocked down a peg. She has to fight to get back in charge, and we see her addressing her own humanity. What story are you telling with Sinatra this season?

Sinatra is up to something much bigger. Is it nefarious? Is it good? Who knows? But she is driven and. Hopefully it makes you question like all the extremes she’s gone to in trying to protect the bunker. But it seems like she’s trying to protect something bigger than the bunker. And that’s what her goal is — her life’s goal is something other than just the bunker. That’s what we’re going to learn about her.

You brought back James Marsden’s President Cal and John Beavers’ Billy through flashbacks. Was that important to keep them among the cast, and will you find a way to do that again if you come back for season three?

Yes. The great thing if you’re an actor on a Dan Fogelman show is you kind of never disappear. You may die, but that doesn’t matter, because there are so many flashbacks. The story is informed in the past, and this collection of people have roles they have to play. They’re very interconnected, and that’s something that will continue — the interconnectedness of life.

Each season two episode is focused on a character’s backstory. Was that something you set out to do more of this season? Did you debate who would get that treatment, and were there people left out?

Yes, there are people left out from getting their flashbacks. In season three, which we’re already breaking — we’re breaking episode seven right now and we know where it ends [with eight]; we know what episode eight is. Everybody gets their due. I will say that. But there’s only so much real estate and the story really dictates. I personally want to know more about Robinson’s [Krys Marshall] backstory, and we’ll get that, along with other characters. Everyone will have a moment, but it’s when they come to significance in the grander story when we made those decisions.

Since you are breaking season three and you know how it ends, does that mean you remain set on three seasons and there won’t be a fourth season of Paradise? The ending is plotted out?

We know what the end is, and it’s an end that would make it very difficult to make a season four come afterward.

What would you say the second season is building to, and how would you say it sets up your vision for season three?

It is setting up that there’s a lot of things going on in two different places. And if I were a viewer, I would wonder if those two different things might come together at some point.

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Paradise‘s first three episodes of season two are now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes releasing on Mondays. Read THR’s premiere interview with Nicole Brydon Bloom.