WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Sweet Tooth, now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix’s Sweet Tooth brings to life Jeff Lemire’s DC/Vertigo story about young Gus (Christian Convery), who’s taken to Colorado to find his mom by Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) and Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen). Throughout Season 1, he realizes the journey isn’t easy, as the Last Men are hunting hybrids like him. And to make matters worse, most of humanity scorns and wants them dead, thinking they brought about the deadly H5G9 virus.
Sadly, this leads to a gut-wrenching finale where Gus’ crew is broken up. But while everything seems to be doom and gloom, there’s still hope heading into a potential Season 2.
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Aditya’s Dark Fate
Aditya Singh is the doctor the military leader of the Last Men, Doug Abbot, takes with him to their new base at the Essex County Zoo in Colorado. Abbot killed the last person responsible for betraying him when it came to making a cure, Dr. Bell, and now he wants Aditya, her protege, to complete the process so he can decide who lives and dies in the new world. Sadly, this process will involve experimenting on hybrids and draining fluid from their pineal glands, which always results in death.
Aditya didn’t want to participate in this, as he was just trying to cook up a serum for his wife Rani, who was infected by the virus. However, he didn’t follow Bell’s formula of using hybrids. Now, he doesn’t have a choice because he has to find the perfect cure, not the temporary “special sauce” Rani was on. To make matters worse, Abbot has Rani held up in a glass case, even though she’s not contagious. This is in an effort to intimidate Aditya, who was bluffing about the cure so Abbot would save them. Abbot leaves Aditya to operate on a frog-boy with Johnny overseeing, and while he tries not to lose his humanity, that may not be in the cards if he wants to save his wife’s life.
Gus Gets a New Family
Gus finds Birdie’s home, thinking she’s his mom, but soon discovers she engineered him in the Fort Smith science lab. He runs away, realizing his dad, Richard, lied about him being a miracle. Gus then goes to vent in a field near a downed plane, and he radios the Preserve to find hybrids like him. Unfortunately, this is the zoo Abbot’s taken over and the Last Men arrive, shooting Jepperd through the chest and kidnapping Gus.
However, when Aditya meets Gus, he’s shocked that he can speak, and he soon realizes the kid’s special. Gus ends up in a cell, but just when he feels hopeless, a ball emerges from the dark. Bobby, Wendy and the other hybrids Abbot kidnapped who tried to escape the Preserve embrace Gus, making it clear he isn’t alone in an emotional sequence that gets him to believe again. They’ve always been fostered with a sense of family at the zoo, and without even hearing Gus speak, they continue the tradition.
Jepperd Finds a New Ally
When Gus activated the radio on the plane, it wasn’t just the Last Men that picked up on the message. Later revealed to be Aimee, the adoptive mother of all the hybrids at the Preserve, someone pulls up in a truck and takes Jepperd, patching him up in the city. They got separated when Abbot’s army raided, though, leaving her held up in her old office where she once a therapist.
Aimme tells Jepperd to rest up because they’ll be going to take their kids back soon. While Aimee’s become a full-fledged soldier, even going as far as to use explosives to take out parts of Abbot’s army, she knows she needs help. Jepperd and her have similar motivations, seeing as he was a traitor in the Last Men and a sturdy football player, he’s the perfect candidate to help on the mission. Aimee considers Wendy, aka Pigtail, her daughter, and Jep thinks of Gus as the son he lost, meaning Abbot will have his hands full as the duo inches closer to their location.
Bear’s Story Drops Bombshells
The last member of the trio, Bear, is at Birdie’s home when they found the truth out about Gus. Judy (Birdie’s ex-colleague) is keeping Bear company, and while it’s clear Bear’s upset Jep and Gus are missing and is defensive at first, she eventually reveals her past to Judy: she was originally a young girl named Becky, and her parents died from the virus. After that, the Last Men took her sister away, but flashbacks reveal her sister’s alive, and that she’s actually Wendy.
However, there’s one more bombshell in the final scene when Bear’s radio connects to someone in a snowy setting. It turns out that the person on the other line is none other than Birdie, who left her home and Judy 10 years ago and went to the Alaskan site where her exploration squad initially found the microbe she experimented on in Fort Smith. Birdie created Gus from this, but sadly, her work also gave rise to the pandemic. Despite that fact, though, she may be the only hope of acquiring a cure, ending the season on an optimistic note.
Sweet Tooth stars Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Aliza Vellani, Stefania LaVie Owen, Dania Ramirez and Neil Sandilands, with Will Forte and James Brolin. Season 1 is now available on Netflix.
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