Secret Sauce
Episode 4 of Sweet Tooth season 1 begins with the Animal Army preparing to shoot Tommy. Gus jumps in though and saves his life. The pair are eventually carted across the wilderness to the Animal Army hideout. With Gus separate to Tommy, he’s made King for the night and settles in his newfound role. The kids mention the virus and how pollution has caused the world to sink into oblivion. Hybrids are the next stage of evolution, at least according to Bear anyway. Eventually Bear speaks to Gus in private, warning him about Jepp and how he’s one of the bad people his Father warned him about. As the truth comes tumbling out, Bear reveals that Tommy is actually one of the Last Men. She pleads with Gus to stay with them, prompting him to instead see Tommy and hear the truth from the Big Man to be sure. Meanwhile, Aimee and her hybrid daughter Wendy head out together to pick up supplies, including books from the library. However, the Last Men are still out there and continuing to patrol. As day turns to night, they make it back to their hideout. In the middle of the night, Wendy and Aimee are awoken by their alarms (tin cans) being set off. It turns out Wendy has a friend, and it comes in the form of a hybrid animal called Bobby that seems to be capable of talking. Dr Singh meanwhile, continues to come under fire back home. Nancie wants to instigate random weekly virus screenings. On top of that she also wants to run random ones too, believing this is a new wave given there’s been three viral cases in six months. There’s no convincing her otherwise either, as she decides to call a council meeting to let the community decide on their fate. Gus meanwhile, finally speaks to Tommy. He admits to being a former member of the Last Men and admits back then it was a choice between killing or being killed. Bear doesn’t believe him but Gus is determined to stand by his side. He throws his arms around Tommy and pleads with the Animal Army not to hurt him. It’s no good, as the boys and girls take him away to cast their judgment. Gus manages to get through to Bear though, who tells them all they’re not going to execute Tommy Jepp. Tiger however, is enraged and rallies the people against her. Eventually they free Daisy, which happens to be a tiger. Gus stands in the way though, managing to calm it down and asking the tiger not to hurt Tommy. Mutiny eventually grips the group as the Animal Army change to Tiger’s cause, leaving Bear distraught and dumbfounded. She eventually heads off alone while Tommy and Gus manage to slip away too. Singh starts arguing with Nancie outside but unexpectedly the horse becomes startled and kicks her, knocking the woman down and killing her. Adi and Rani decide to cover it up, while we cut across to the Preserve where Aimee uses the radio to welcome everyone into the Preserve.
The Episode Review
The midway point of Sweet Tooth sees these three different stories all starting to divert off now as we see more of this Animal Army and how it ties into Gus and the larger world. For the most part, this has worked well to add an extra level of depth, and the sprinkles of exposition and worldbuilding about the time before this viral outbreak is a nice inclusion and certainly helps to give some context to what happened in the past. It’s also eerily clos to what we’ve all experienced over the past year or so. The idyllic community with Dr Singh is the more fascinating and interesting story here, away from the simple journey to Colorado that Gus and Tommy are embarking on. Here, the story takes some interesting turns and Adi’s choice between whether to dissect and experiment of hybrids or not sees him caught with a moral dilemma. The ending with Nancie being kicked by a horse is an unintentionally hilarious and unexpected turn of events. This will almost certainly have big consequences though, leaving the door wide open for where the rest of this series may go.
