Much like Sugarâs first season, its second installment followed Colin Farrellâs John Sugar, a Los Angeles private investigator, as he pursued a case that led him to some very dark placesâwhile also tracking Sugarâs experiences as an alien living undercover on Earth.
The extraterrestrial reveal was a major twist in season one, explaining things about the main character that didnât quite add up while also rewriting the entire showâs DNA. Then, after Sugar solved the case of a movie mogulâs missing granddaughter (who was actually the manâs daughter, though it wasnât as sleazy as that sounds), he had to grapple with his decision to stay behind when the rest of the aliens sharing his âobserve and reportâ mission abruptly departed for home.
It wasnât their choice, but rather a last resort. Someone had become aware of their clandestine presence and very much wanted them to leave. The question of who was behind this anti-alien push haunts Sugar as season two gets started, though his initial quest is to find the only other ET left on Earth: Henry, a man with information about Sugarâs long-missing and very beloved sister, Djen.
That source becomes a literal dead end in the first few minutes of the season two opener; Sugar finds Henry deeply depressed and dying by his own hand. He perishes before giving Sugar any new information, though he does amplify the worry that Sugar himself will feel the mental anguish of âassimilation,â something everyone from their planet fears.
To keep himself on track, Sugar takes a new case. Once again, chasing a missing person through different layers of Los Angeles uncovers cruelty and horrors, this time with law enforcement and government corruption in the mix. That keeps him plenty busy, but he also pursues an even more personal project: finding out just who was targeting and threatening to expose the aliens on Earth.
Heâs accepted that Djen is gone forever; sheâs the one missing person he will never find. But at least he can solve this puzzle and find some peace of mind. Or so he thinks.
As the story gets going, Sugar returns to his favorite digs, the luxurious Hotel del Corazon. Thatâs where he meets Charlotte, an alluring fellow guest whom he falls for despite it being against the ârules,â for obvious reasons. That emotional arc ties into Sugarâs concerns about assimilation and that his closeness with humans has made him change in subtle but worrisome ways. But still, Charlotte is beautiful and cool, and he rolls with it.
In season two, Sugar also acquires a second base of operations, a hilltop house that offers a perfect view of Senator Pavich’s mansion. In season one, fans will recall, Sugar discovered Pavichâs son was mixed up in some very gruesome business that tied into the movie mogul’s case.
The son didnât survive the season, but his crimes didnât occur in a vacuum. Still, nobody else who was involved faced any consequences. As Sugar discovered, his alien bosses withheld the evidence in deference to the figure who was threatening to expose them. With the bosses now light-years away, Sugar becomes determined to find out who sold his people out and why, and the senator makes for an obvious starting point.
Sugarâs surveillance operation percolates around the edges of season two as he works his main case. That one reaches a conclusion so satisfying that it shouldnât really be so shocking when his other investigation goes sideways. But Sugar, a very solid neo-noir mystery show, is here to pull the rug out with its wild twists.
Midway through season one, we learned about Sugarâs secret alien identity. In season two, we never saw him turn fully blue, but his inner conflict over being the ultimate outsider and his terror over losing touch with his real self become important markers for the character. His loneliness is part of the reason why he hooks up with Charlotte, and in the finale we realize how vulnerable he really is.
As it turns out, Charlotte has known the truth about Sugar all along. Her directive was just to âobserve and report,â exactly like Sugarâs alien mission, though she developed genuine feelings as part of that.
But, uh… who gave her those orders? The betrayal gets worse. Charlotte works for a certain individual whoâs perfected a wondrous, world-changing invention, which Sugar learns all about when he crashes its launch party at Senator Pavichâs house.
At first, he thinks Pavich is the man he needs to talk to. But then, he sees a face he thought heâd never see again. Itâs Djen! Djen is alive!
But this version of Djen is not the Djen whose memory he so cherished. This is a woman who has supervillain energy as she tells her brother the grief her absence caused him couldn’t be helped. When it came time for her to fake her disappearance, heâd just arrived on Earth. He didnât understand this place well enough yet, so there was no place for him in her plans.
âYou hadnât seen what Iâd seen,â she says. âNot just the beauty, but the horror, too. The cruelty. Their disregard for the sanctity of nature.â
She explains that she had to overextend her âobserve and reportâ mission because âI couldnât just stand by and watch this planet die. So I created a technology.â
When their alien bosses pushed back, she did what she thought was necessary. It was Djen who caused her people to be hunted, persecuted, and sometimes killed. It was Djen who made them all leave.
Sugar is aghast at this. He’s also taken aback by her invention, which could very easily be weaponized. Itâs a device that can control the weather: make it rain or snow on cue, and even bring out the sun at night.
But he doesn’t get a chance to confront his sister. After Charlotte dumps cinnamon on himâfinally, a payoff for all those “Sugar is allergic to cinnamon” teasesâhe’s losing consciousness when Djen informs him she has to go away again.
âCome find me when youâre ready,â she whispers. âThey think this is for them. They have no idea this is for us.â
If thereâs a third season of Sugar, which has yet to be announced, we could see Sugar chasing after Djen with the entirely new purpose of protecting the human race from his diabolical sister.
But the way the finale, which is titled âLike Sugar,â ends, thereâs a sense that Sugar is now going to focus more on the things he can control, like his own happiness. He reunites with his dog from the first seasonâa delightful momentâand âLike Sugarâ concludes on a surprisingly uplifting note.
Sugar muses in his final voice-over that Earth now at last feels like âhome.â And it feels like he means it, even as the very last shot irises in on the communication device he keeps around, just in case any other aliens are planetside and feel like reaching out.
Seasons one and two of Sugar are now streaming on Apple TV.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whatâs next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.