Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of Apple TV+’s ‘Sugar‘ ends with a finale that answers some pertinent questions while also raising a bunch of other interesting ones. The season started with Sugar taking on the case of Ji Moon, who mysteriously went missing and is being looked for by his brother, Danny. After a lot of digging, it turned out that Ji was hiding from a dirty cop, Vega. As long as he was around, Ji couldn’t come back home. So, after trying everything he possibly could, Sugar decided to kill Vega, but that’s not where he stopped.
He had the whole scam exposed, leading to the arrests of others complicit in Vega’s crimes. From the corrupt cops to the man rewriting the details of the dead in the morgue to the assemblywoman who thought she could get away with it, everyone is sent behind bars. While this brings the Moon case to an end, Sugar still has several other things to resolve, starting with the mystery of Senator Pavich and the people who forced his friends to leave Earth. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sugar Struggles With the Aftermath of Vega’s Death
The final episode of ‘Sugar’ begins with a flashback. A woman is at an excavation site in the Atacama Desert in Chile. She finds a circular device in the sand and is later called back by her associate to take a look at the results of their experiment. Four circular devices float in the air, and under them, a patch of fruit grows in the middle of the desert. Their experiment is a success, but the woman says that this is just the beginning. They have to test the same thing in other environments before they can make it public. But before they can start celebrating or making further plans, they see several cars approaching them. While the man is confused, the woman calls her brother to ask how he has been and all the usual stuff.
It turns out that the brother she called is Sugar, which makes the woman Djen. In the background, several people step out of the cars to examine the experiment, and one of them is Henry. When the call cuts off, we discover it was made while Sugar was with Peg, who was supposed to leave Earth. In the present day, with Vega’s case solved, Sugar meets Tom, who encourages him to talk about his feelings. Sugar reveals that he has been struggling to accept who he has become as a result of his actions. He admits that killing Vega and Stallings has cracked something inside him, and he doesn’t know what that makes him. Tom assures him that whatever happened was for the best.
The conversation is interrupted when Tom’s name is called out for his radiology appointment. Later, Sugar returns to the hotel to meet Charlotte, who notes that he is a bit restless. She chalks it up to him having solved his case and now being out of work. She advises him to go watch a movie somewhere while she finishes up with her work. He, however, decides to go to a fighting ring instead, where he is beaten up pretty badly. He tends to his wounds at his secret house, from where he has been keeping an eye on Senator Pavich. He notes a lot of movement in the house as new stuff is being brought in. Meanwhile, Stanley isn’t answering Sugar’s calls, which makes the whole thing very frustrating.
Sugar Finds Out What Happened to Djen
Later, Sugar and Charlotte go to the beach, where he talks about how he has not been feeling himself anymore. At the end, she tells him that her assignment in LA is done and she is being reassigned to a different project, for which she has to go to Milan. Before he can be heartbroken by the inevitability of her departure, she makes him a proposal. What if he came with her? The idea seems a bit fantastical, but he indulges in it, seriously thinking about how they could make this work. And they most likely would have made it work if it weren’t for Charlotte saying something that throws him off. She says there is no point in his staying in LA, because all his friends are gone.
That’s interesting because while Sugar has talked about his sister, he has never mentioned his friends to Charlotte. Now, he knows she is working for someone, and she knows he knows, too. She knows she has messed up, and it leaves her a bit distraught. When she returns to her hotel room, she cries before making a call and letting the person on the other line know her cover is blown. What now, she asks? Later, she leaves the hotel to go to a party, and Sugar follows her. She makes no pretense of not knowing he has followed her, so at the party, she takes him to meet someone. He thinks it is Senator Pavich, but he turns out to be wrong. Apparently, the real boss behind Charlotte’s espionage and a lot of other stuff is Sugar’s sister, Djen.
He is happy to finally reunite with her, but he is also confused. He thought Henry hurt her, but she says their friend would never do such a thing. It turns out that living on Earth has made her sentimental towards the place. She couldn’t watch and do nothing as humans destroyed the Earth. So, she came up with something that could change that. She shared her plans with their friends, but they didn’t agree. So, she hatched a plan to expose them, driving them away from the Earth for good. She didn’t let Sugar know about it because he was still too green following his arrival, and he wouldn’t have understood her intentions. He notes he is worried she has changed, but she points out that he has changed too.
What is the Acalica Project?
While Sugar processes this new information, he is made to sit and watch the presentation that Djen is about to give. She has named it the Acalica Project. She starts talking about global warming, climate change, and the impact it has had on Earth. Her invention is supposed to be an answer to all these problems. With that, four circular devices float out over the building. When activated, they are ready to make whatever is needed of them. They can make rain, snow, and even the warmth of the sun. It is the power of the gods, and while her audience is fascinated by it, Sugar seems disturbed. Djen notices this and gestures to Charlotte, who blows a strange powder on his face. It doesn’t leave him entirely unconscious, but it leaves him unable to move his body.
In the semi-fugue state, Djen tells him she is going away again and asks him to come find her when he is ready. She also mentions that while she has presented this tech as an answer to human problems, it is not for them. It is for her, Sugar, and their people. Then comes Charlotte, like an actress in a black-and-white movie. She tells Sugar that her assignment was to observe him, to keep an eye on him, and find out how he was doing. The rest, from the friendship to the hours-long conversations to falling in love, was all Charlotte. While Sugar hears all this, he cannot counter these revelations with questions of his own. By the time he wakes up, it is morning, and the whole place has been cleaned out. There is no one around.
Sugar Decides to Keep Moving Forward
As Sugar makes his way back to his car, he wonders if he suspected the whole thing all along. Somewhere in his heart, he knew about Charlotte and even Djen, but he was not ready to accept it. Now, the whole thing is out of his hands, so he decides to focus on other stuff. He meets the Moon brothers, who are doing well. Danny is getting ready for his fight, and Ji is there to witness it. After the fight, Val will take Ji back to rehab. Sugar thanks her for being around while also pointing out that the Moon brothers’ reunions happened because of her.
As he steps out to leave, Danny thanks him and hugs him, reminding Sugar why he does what he does. Later, he goes to the Siegel Studios and has a chat with Jonathan. Apparently, Melanie told him who Sugar is and where he has come from, and Jonathan promises he will be just as discreet as Sugar has been for him. This leads Sugar to ask him if he thinks Sugar has changed. Does he seem different from how he was before? Does it look like he is getting assimilated? Jonathan reveals that he is “like Sugar,” not like the humans or the people he has left behind.
This answer gives some semblance of comfort to the alien PI. What makes him happier is the return of his dog, Wiley. When he gets home, he decides to resume his life. Djen told him to find her when he was ready, but he doesn’t know when, or if at all, that will happen. So, for now, he is going to keep solving cases with his furry friend by his side. As he steps out of his hotel room with this conviction, he doesn’t notice the light that comes on in the receiver. This means someone has received his messages and is finally responding.
Read More: Is Vega Dead? Did Tony Dalton Leave Sugar?
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