(Warning: Spoilers ahead!)
Colin Farrell is an alien. Okay, the actual Colin Farrell is not an alien (as far as I know), but he plays one in the Apple TV+’s neo-noir Sugar. Considering the streamer’s penchant for space-related science-fiction stories, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, the blue-face bombshell at the end of the sixth episode is a big swing that unsettles everything that comes before it.
John Sugar (Farrell) is a private investigator looking into the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel (Sydney Chandler), the granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell). The whole Siegel family has ties to the movie biz: Olivia’s half-brother David (Nate Corddry) was a kid star now embroiled in a scandal, and Olivia’s actress mother died in a car accident years ago. A wealthy family enveloped by tragedy is a familiar set-up. A cinephile PI concealing his alien identity is more unusual—to put it mildly.
Sugar’s otherworldly status is kept a secret from the audience until the end of this week’s episode, “Go Home.” In the closing scene, after injecting a substance in his neck, we get to see the real John Sugar in all his blue bald glory (yes, he still looks hot). After weeks of speculation regarding Sugar’s background, the series from Mark Protosevich finally answers the question, “What is his deal?” It also adds way more questions to the growing list, mainly about the motives of Sugar’s “work” colleagues. Such as, why the hell is a human trafficker getting a free pass?
The twist was already met with an array of stunned reactions in reviews before the season premiered—including “disastrous”—and it is not the first Apple TV+ show to wait until after the midway point to pull the rug out from under the protagonist’s feet. (Looking at you, The Crowded Room.)
“Extremely stupid,” “sugar needs to be reclassified at the emmys as a comedy series i cannot stand this egregious category fraud” the record-scratching Barbie meme, and too many crying face emojis to count are some of the first reactions amid the general WTF posts after the episode dropped. The Daily Beast’s Obsessed’s Nick Schager called it “one of the worst plot twists ever” and said “it makes the entire show a waste of time.”
Undoubtedly, it is a WTF conclusion to the sixth episode, but I don’t hate it. Yes, I realize I might be in the minority here and you can call me unserious all you want. But I stand in my bonkers-alien-twist-loving truth.
The aforementioned The Crowded Room was based on a real story, which made Apple TV+’s insistence on swearing critics to secrecy about the big mid-season reveal moot. It also made the show’s hiding of it in the narrative rather silly, as the book the show is based on is in the opening title sequence and quite easily searchable.
Sugar’s late twist is less egregious, in part, because it isn’t adapted from existing IP. It makes it ballsy, if anything.
Sugar’s extra-terrestrial identity might seem out of the blue (excuse the pun), but a breadcrumb trail of clips from classic movies and the odd behavior of other members of Sugar’s circle signpost some sort of shadowy conglomerate. In other words, it’s not totally random.
Between the expensive suits, lack of family, fancy hotel living, and polyglot status, I figured a secret government experiment similar to what Jason Bourne experienced was what John Sugar was hiding. The ornate box stashed with intravenous drugs could be to dull whatever trauma he had inflicted on others in the past or to forget something terrible he was doing in the present.
Nope, he’s an alien.
Using movies to make sense of the world
A lot of the Sugar aesthetic feels familiar. Noir is baked into the filmmaking fabric, so even without the steady stream of black-and-white clips featuring stars like Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray, the genre is apparent from Farrell’s voiceover alone. The first episode also establishes Sugar as a movie aficionado from his magazine selection (Sight and Sound, Cahiers du Cinéma, and American Cinematographer) and memorabilia. Let me take a peep at your Letterboxd, John.
This man loves working in Los Angeles, wearing a classic tailored black suit, and driving a 1953 baby blue Chevrolet Corvette. Farrell is instantly magnetic because, well, he’s Colin Farrell. Dogs adore him, women love him, and he antagonizes selfish and violent pricks. Sugar excels at his profession because he always finds the missing. So far, so good.
While he appreciates Old Hollywood artifacts, Sugar is less fond of guns—even ones used by Glenn Ford. He can hold his liquor due to some condition that sounds made up, and doesn’t take advantage of a wasted Melanie (Amy Ryan), despite her pleas for him to fuck her. Farrell’s chemistry with Ryan is undeniable, and while it is unclear whether sex is something Sugar partakes in, perhaps a sober redo of the earlier failed seduction should be on the cards.
Before he sounds too good to be true, John Sugar is also avoidant regarding personal health and doesn’t enjoy mandated work gatherings (okay, that one is understandable). A painful past bubbles beneath the surface, tying back to his sister’s abduction—Olivia reminds him of his missing sibling. An “I can fix him” undercurrent gets stronger with each episode, as it becomes clear that he uses movies to understand the world around him.
At the start of the fourth episode, he visits the doctor and gets a clean bill of health, despite persistent tremors that resemble withdrawal or something neurological. Sugar asks the doctor if he is a movie guy, which he isn’t. Sugar plows ahead regardless (like any movie buff would), recounting a particularly gruesome scene from John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing.
After describing the defibrillation-gone-wrong “chest chomp” sequence (“At a certain point, his hands go right through the patient’s chest. But instead of ribs, like a normal human being, the patient’s got teeth and those teeth bite down, and they rip his arms off. Both arms.”), he ends by reflecting, “It’s actually a really good movie.”
I agree with Sugar, but it doesn’t fit with the catalog of mid-century flicks that pepper the series’ present-day scenes. The Kurt Russell-starring sci-fi horror doesn’t directly link to anything Sugar is experiencing in this scene other than the undisclosed otherworldly alien aspect. Sometimes, a film fan just wants to describe a gnarly sequence under the guise of actually saying something.
Theorizing twists
Okay, the scene also serves as a theory-raising point because my husband became sure that John Sugar was an alien during this medical consultation. He first floated this theory (which I mocked him for) during the previous episode because of Sugar’s performance review at the Société Polyglotte Cosmopolite meeting (aka Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society). Sugar’s handler, Ruby (Kirby), emphasizes that the mission is to observe and report, not catch feelings for those he crosses paths with or obsess over the cases. “Don’t forget who you are,” Ruby warns.
It became a running joke that Sugar is an alien—in that I made fun of my husband for claiming Sugar was an alien. Ah, how the tables turned. I should be mad at the series for giving my husband bragging rights when I am the one who writes about TV for a living.
Maybe I was too convinced that Sugar was some sort of super-soldier CIA experiment fitted out with advanced tech. Since Sugar seemingly deflects a bullet with his expensive cuff, I immediately went to the suits in John Wick that act as stylish armor for Keanu Reeves in the title role. The two Johns also share an affinity for dogs, and much like Sugar, I use TV and movies to understand what I am currently watching.
Later, when Sugar is brutally stabbed, his crimson blood looks pretty damn human. Sure, the blood bag brought to his hotel room by his friend Henry (Jason Butler Harner) doesn’t look like a regular O negative. Again, the super-soldier theory leaps out, as it does when his dog-whispering abilities turn aggressive Dobermans into sweet pooches.
Perhaps even more brain-wrinkly than the whole extra-terrestrial identity thing is the fact that Sugar compares Ruby’s betraying him to a more recent movie that happens to star someone from the Sugar cast. It takes him a beat to pull the name LA Confidential from his mind, but it is in there, and so is James Cromwell, who plays a corrupt police captain in this movie. Does Jonathan Siegel just resemble actor Cromwell? (This might be Sugar’s biggest mystery to date)
Protosevich’s blend of genres causes some tonal whiplash despite combining Apple TV+’s signature sci-fi and Dad TV leanings—the old-fashioned detective story is peak Dad TV.
Still, there are enough “off” elements that it was clear this was never a straight-up neo-noir pastiche. A typewriter that looks straight out of the J.J. Abrams’ Fringe playbook is a reminder that network TV has long been pulling twists like this. Maybe nostalgia for that time is why I want to embrace rather than recoil from this narrative choice. The gumshoe narration’s self-seriousness has a somewhat goofy quality. However, the inherent earnestness in the words and Farell’s delivery help sell the overall conceit.
Over the last three decades, Farrell has convincingly played his fair share of heroes and villains. The Irish actor is inherently charismatic, but Farrell tempers his flirtatious charm here. Instead, it is his deep empathy well and feelings that his character neglects to suppress that ensure Sugar doesn’t go off the rails.
“Convincingly strange” is how one character describes Sugar, which also works as a read of the series. As eyebrow-raising as the twist is, in a sea of adaptations and remakes, it is a rare feeling to be surprised—even if my husband guessed Sugar was an alien.
The post The Colin Farrell ‘Sugar’ Twist Was Called the Worst Ever. We Think It’s Genius. appeared first on The Daily Beast.
