Sugar Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: Unknowns

John Sugar’s latest case focused on finding a missing man named Ji Moon, and he solves it in the first half of Apple TV’s ‘Sugar’ Season 2. This, however, does not mean that he has found answers to all questions relating to the case, and this is where the second half of the season kicks in. A dead body is cremated in the morgue under Ji Moon’s name, but as we know from the ending of the previous episode, Ji didn’t actually die. Sugar overdosed him to convince Vega he had died. But as soon as the dirty cop left the scene, Sugar brought Ji back to life. Now, he has sent him to rehab, told his friend to fake his grief better, and assured Danny that his brother is safe and he can focus on other things now. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Sugar Fakes Ji’s Death

Sugar knows just a dead body won’t be enough to convince Vega that he has gotten away with murder. The next step is to falsify Ji’s death certificate, for which Sugar already has contacts. Then, he returns to the crime scene to be thorough. He knows he was in a hurry when he tried to bring Ji back from the brink of death, and such situations can cause a person to make errors. Sure enough, he left behind a part of his vial in the drain, which he promptly takes out. He also puts the taxidermied animal head back on the wall, though it is a bit crooked. For his final trick, Sugar, who Vegas knows is a bit sentimental, storms into his backyard, crashes his barbecue, and punches him right in the face in front of other police officers.

As expected, Vega takes it as a sign of Sugar’s anger for losing Ji. While Ji might be out of sight now, he won’t be completely safe until Vega is behind bars. To figure out a solution for that, Sugar visits Tom, who is running his own mission. He has been keeping an eye on a man in a building across the street for three days, hoping he will do or say something incriminating so that Tom and his team can finally arrest him. Sugar assures him it will happen sooner or later. In the meantime, he tells Tom about Vega, the crooked cop. He asks for witness protection for Ji in return for his testimony against Vega committing a murder.

But Tom reminds him that Ji himself had been in the middle of a crime at the time, so his words won’t have much weight against a cop. Still, Tom says he’d talk to the DA about it. Before Sugar leaves, they briefly discuss how the person Vega is working for is likely trying to buy back the market, but it doesn’t make sense so far. Meanwhile, Vega calls his unknown boss to report Ji’s death, confirming that everything is on the right track. Still, he has one of his men keep an eye on Sugar, who is aware of this, and goes on a Paramount Studios tour, talking about ‘Rear Window’ with the guide, a conversation that is later reported to Vega.

Sugar Turns the Focus on His Second Case

After getting into a fight while he was about to get a deal, Danny is chided by Teddy for making trouble for himself. When Danny says the other person spoke badly about his brother, Teddy notes that this mistake could cost him all he has worked for. Danny, however, isn’t too bothered as it is better than taking disrespect for Ji, even from Teddy. Eventually, all turns out to be well, because later, when Danny is called into Teddy’s office again, he discovers that he has not blown his chances after all. He gets a green light for the fight in Vegas and is asked to sign his contract. In the meantime, Sugar continues working on his second case. He follows Professor Stanley Ondaatje, whom he’d seen meeting Pavich.

He enters the house after the professor leaves and is greeted by his parrot, who says nothing but “what the heck.” He is almost caught when the professor returns, having forgotten to pick up some stuff. He leaves as quickly as he came in, promising his parrot that they will watch the Bachelorette together when he returns. When he leaves, Sugar finds a paper with a rough sketch of the plan that he later notices on a board in Pavich’s house. He also finds a room full of cacti and a book about them. Clearly, the professor has some interest in them. So, later, Sugar reads up on cacti, drops his suit for a sweater, and visits the place he knows the professor will be, too, and chats him up on the cacti, forming a friendship that will surely come in handy later.

This interaction is also reported to Vega, but since they have nothing to do with the other guy, it looks like Sugar is no longer focusing on them. The other cop assures Vega they are on the safe side, but the cop is not yet convinced. He later visits the house where he saw Ji’s dead body, and notes the crooked hanging on the wall. But before all this, Sugar returns to his hotel room and decides to stay in. There are no new messages on the machine, so he sends out another. He feels so lonely that he calls up Melanie, who is in Paris now. He asks how she has been and how Wylie is. He goes back to the apartment to keep an eye on Pavich, and that continues for a while. A few days later, he decides to make his move on the professor.

Sugar Finds a Crucial Piece of Evidence Relating to Vega

Val wonders if Chuy found himself in the same problem as them. Perhaps he was looking for a way to prove that Vega is dirty and was killed because he found something. Since he was Gen Z, his best weapon would have been his phone, which likely contains a video or other evidence. The theory seems good, so Sugar sends Val to Chuy’s grandma’s place to find the phone. Her search comes up empty. It turns out his phone was not in his belongings, and he handed it over to the old woman. This likely means that the cops have the phone. Later that night, Sugar is not in the mood to dine alone again, but when he goes to the restaurant, it is closed. They offer to make something simple for him, and he asks for a cheeseburger.

This is when Charlotte comes in and takes the opportunity to apologize to her. Later, as Sugar continues to reflect on Chuy’s situation, he realizes that his mom, Sandra, had the phone all along. He goes back to where he last met her, but she is nowhere to be seen. After looking around at a few more places, he eventually finds her dead of an overdose under a bridge in an obscure part of the town. He is saddened by her death, but he is also proven right when he finds the phone in her bag. Later, in the morgue, he talks to the doctor, who reveals overdose deaths have been higher than ever. The assistants also explain the meanings of the green, blue, and red tags, indicating whether a deceased’s next of kin has been notified.

Later that night, when he returns to the hotel, he and Charlotte cross paths again at the bar. He apologizes again, talking about his professional hazards. She talks about her own travels and how she keeps hopping from one hotel to another. He tries to crack a joke about the only fruit that never gets lonely, which she correctly guesses as “pear.” She offers him to join her for dinner, and they spend the entire night talking. They realize how late it is when they are served a breakfast menu. Before she leaves, Sugar asks if she’d like to go to the movies with him sometime, and she agrees. He returns to his room, and right as he is about to fall into sleep, Peg’s ghost shows up, reminding him that cheeseburger, sex, and murder are the road to assimilation,

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