It’s an otherworldly plot twist, if so.
Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Sugar Episode 3.
The Big Picture
- John’s work as a private investigator is more complex than it seems, hinting at a larger conspiracy at play.
- The Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society holds secrets, with members detached and possibly supernatural, needing further exploration.
- John’s origins may not be of this world, potentially revealing him as an alien with a unique mission to understand humanity.
Apple TV+’s Sugar is finally starting to dive into its main character’s backstory. Private detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is the kind of guy that seems almost too good to be true. He’s polite and respectful, deeply observant, speaks multiple languages, and loves movies. But there’s something else about him that we haven’t quite been able to grasp, and that Episode 3, “Shibuya Crossing,” may have hinted at. When he shows up to a meeting of what initially seems like a group of long-time friends, things take an unexpected and perhaps even otherworldly turn.
Sugar (2024)
Private investigator John Sugar examines the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer.
- Release Date
- April 5, 2024
- Cast
- Colin Farrell , Nate Corddry , Massi Furlan , Bernardo Badillo , Sydney Chandler , Dennis Boutsikaris
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- Mark Protosevich
There’s More to John Sugar’s Work As a Private Investigator
Back in the series premiere, “Olivia,” John Sugar gets an invitation to a meeting of the Société Polyglotte Cosmopolitaine, a French name for the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society. At that moment, it isn’t explained what that was about, but Sugar is a polyglot and displays this talent as a way of getting closer to people, so no one pays much attention. Now, in Episode 3, he has to show up to the meeting despite not really wanting to; he spent the last two episodes complaining about it every time he looked at the invitation.
The first surprise is that this is that the gathering is happening at Ruby’s (Kirby) house. The second is that everyone suddenly stops and looks at John when he enters the house, which is a little unsettling. So far, we’ve known her to be Sugar’s manager and informant – the “girl in the chair” that every good investigator or spy has to have in their stories — but this time she is not just a host, but is also talking privately to every guest in a separate room. While it isn’t John’s turn, he talks to his friends, and it’s implied that those present haven’t been together for a long time. The conversation topics are all strange, like misadventures when applying sunscreen on the beach and “other jobs,” which John talks to his friend Henry (Jason Butler Harner).
When it’s John’s turn, he joins Ruby in what feels like an interrogation room. She reads the notes he wrote in his little black notebook, which include random musings (like thinking the band U.F.O. is underrated) and notes about how he feels about the world and work. He is reprimanded by Ruby because they are not supposed to feel anything, only “observe and report” to someone higher up that she is in contact with. Ruby expresses her discomfort with John taking Olivia Siegel (Sydney Chandler) once again, as she feels he is getting too attached, and orders him to go see their doctor the following day. After the party is over, Ruby contacts said doctor, Vickers (Scott Lawrence), and warns him that John is getting close to one of the suspects in the Siegel case, Byron Stallings (Eric Lange), hinting at a larger conspiracy the whole affair may uncover.
What Is the Real Nature of the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society?
Episode 3 is crucial in starting to understand the mystery of John Sugar. He is just as compelling as the cases he takes, and people are starting to catch up to him. For example, Davey Siegel (Nate Corddry) and his henchman Kenny (Alex Hernandez) start digging with the help of a former NSA agent and discover that John studied at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in California, which only top agents and officers in the military and diplomatic corps attend. They also decide to go after John’s mother in Arizona, so more information about that may be revealed.
Later, Davey explains this to his father, Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), adding that the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society is a secret society of secret agents that used to be enemies, but got together once their missions ended to do some good in the world. While this description can be true, as we see in the meeting that everyone only talks about doing good things, it seems that there is more to it. People there seem too detached from everything, marveling at simple things, like going to the beach, and are too concerned with one another, which isn’t all that usual, seeing as they haven’t been together for a long time. This, along with how Ruby behaves as the host, talking about their collective mission and then analyzing everyone individually, implies that there is much more to this organization.
John himself has a behavior that feels almost strange. He is very polite and friendly to everyone, has his urges well under control, and has excellent fighting and observation skills. It’s as if he has supernatural abilities, but is still learning about how the world works. That, for example, if you give 100 dollars to a homeless person on the street, as John did in Episode 1, they will likely use it to buy drugs; it doesn’t matter how much they promise otherwise. John’s fascination for movies also feels like a yearning to understand people through stories and to model himself to be like them. If he is like this, it’s safe to assume that many other people in the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society also are.
Where Does John Sugar Really Come From?
Sugar has been marketed as a “genre-bending” series, but, so far, the series has been mostly a typical detective noir story. It even follows similar structures and tropes, like having a likable protagonist who has past traumas that he deals with by solving cases in the present, voiceover tracks that work as if John was narrating everything in real-time, a case that is about to uncover a deeper conspiracy… It’s all noir, so far, so we must expect that the genre-bending part is yet to come — and it’s related to John Sugar himself and the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society.
As weird as it might seem, everything that happens in Episode 3 leads us to believe that John is not from this world, and so are his peers. What the series suggests is that John is an alien. His exact nature can’t be worked out yet, but the weird meeting in Ruby’s house (including the U.F.O. mention), all the “observe and report” instructions he gets, and his thirst for helping and understanding people feel too out of place for a regular person, and this would make much more sense, making him an outsider with superior abilities who simply wants to help people in need. But anyone with a human background would know that, most of the time, people don’t want help, they want to be right and do what they want. This puzzles him, hence his thirst for understanding human nature and his passion for movies as a way of achieving this.
This reveal would certainly bend the noir genre in Sugar and provide a shocking and unexpected plot twist that would explain a lot. Of course, an alien is not the only answer so far; John’s origins could also just be supernatural in general. He could be something like an angel who works on Earth to better understand God’s creation, for example. Or he could simply be a very, very well-trained former spy who works for a higher power. The fact that Ruby contacts Dr. Vickers using human technology could be a pointer in this direction, and the only supernatural element could end up being whoever she reports to. Regardless, there’s much more to John Sugar than meets the eye.
Sugar is streaming exclusively on Apple TV+ in the US. New episodes air on Fridays.
This article was originally published on collider.com