Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Season 3 of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth.
After three seasons filled with danger and wonder, Sweet Tooth has given Gus (Christian Convery) and Big Man (Nonso Anozie) an end to their story.
As expected, the series finale of Sweet Tooth is packed with action. More importantly, though, the ending of Sweet Tooth mixes science and mysticism to explain where Hybrids came from and their connection to the Sick. Finally, Season 3 of Sweet Tooth explains what happens to Earth after the dust has settled and the final battle for the fate of humankind has been fought.
What’s at stake in Season 3 of Sweet Tooth?
The first season of Sweet Tooth primarily focuses on Gus and Big Man’s journey to reunite the young Deer Boy with his mother, Birdie (Amy Seimetz). As episodes and seasons go by, we understand that Gus was the first Hybrid, born before the Sick wiped out 98% of the human population, causing the apocalyptic event known as the Great Crumble. Because of that, Gus’ DNA holds the key to finding a cure for the mysterious disease, turning him into the most coveted prize of human survivalists.
In the third and final season of Sweet Tooth, Gus and his allies go to Alaska, where the Sick and the Hybrids supposedly come from. Gus wants to find the cure for the Sick to keep his human friends alive. Birdie is also in Alaska, trying to find a mysterious cave where the virus was supposedly born.
Joining Gus in Alaska is Dr. Singh (Adeel Akhtar), who abandoned the scientific approach to solving the Sick problem and embraced his mysterious visions of the cave where the virus was born. Singh believes he must sacrifice Gus inside the cave to free humanity from the Sick. This action would also end Hybrid births, which is why the doctor finds an ally in Zhang (Rosalind Chao), the last warlord in America. Zhang despises Hybrids, so she’s using all her resources to hunt Gus down.
Everyone eventually gets to the cave, where the fate of humans and Hybrids is decided.
What happens in the cave?
Inside the cave is a massive tree with branches shaped like antlers. The tree holds the Blood of the Earth inside, which explains its miraculous healing properties and why it became a source of youth in legends of old. In 1911, Captain James Thacker found the cave, using an ax to wound the tree and steal some of its miraculous sap. His actions angered Earth so much that the Sick spilled from the tree’s wound. Thacker’s entire crew died from the disease, but a pregnant Inuit woman, Ikiaq, birthed the world’s first hybrid, Munaq. The reasoning is that after being violently attacked by Thacker, Earth decided humans are too greedy to survive, unleashing a curse on humankind while creating a new species to inherit the planet.
The microbes in the Blood of the Earth were only rediscovered in the 21st century, trapped in the ice of Alaska. Gillian Washington (Robyn Malcolm), a descendant of Captain Thacker, organized the scientific resources of Fort Smith Labs to retrieve the samples and experiment on them, ultimately leading to Gus’ birth and the release of the Sick.
The ax Thacker used to tear the tree at the cave is still carved in its trunk. Dr. Singh believes that killing Gus and returning his blood to the tree would end the Hybrids and the Sick, restoring the source of both phenomena to its original shape. Before Singh can proceed with his plan, Birdie throws herself between the doctor’s knife and Gus, trading her life for her son’s. That leads Singh to question his actions and freeze, incapable of completing the ritual.
Determined to get things done, Zhang pulls Thacker’s ax from the tree to use it against Gus. Unfortunately for all humans, Zhang inadvertently unleashes a new deadly wave of the virus. All the humans, inside and outside the cave, fall to the ground, their organs failing. Desperate, Gus slices his hand open and bloodies the rip on the tree trunk.
Gus is teleported to a dreamlike dimension, like when he approaches the blue flowers. In this place, he meets Pubba’s (Will Forte) spirit, who talks to the boy about death’s inevitability and the Hybrids’ right to exist. Moved by Pubba’s words, Gus returns to the world of the living and throws an oil lamp at the tree, burning it down. Gus destroys the source of the Sick and prevents humans from harvesting the power of the Blood of the Earth. He doesn’t return his life essence to the tree, meaning the Hybrids will still roam free.
Did Tommy “Big Man” Jepperd survive?
After Gus burns the tree, the cave starts to collapse. During their escape, Dr. Singh finds redemption for his actions by pushing Gus away when the Deer Boy is about to be crushed by a boulder. Dr. Singh dies, firmly holding Gus’ broken antler in his hand. Later, we see a sprout germinating from Gus’ antler as a new tree grows inside the cave, symbolizing a new era for the planet.
Over three seasons, Jepp has been shot, stabbed, and punched multiple times. As he gets older, Jepp feels his old wounds dragging him down. When they escape the cave, the Big Man is certain his time has come, so he asks Gus to tell him a story. At that moment, Gus comes up with the story of Sweet Tooth, a tale about the best and worst of humanity, which Jepp represents.
While it seems like the TV show is getting ready to say goodbye to Jepp for good, we later discover that he made it back to Yellowstone with Gus. The Big Man and the Deer Boy had a happy life together, enjoying whatever time was left for them once the Sick was no longer lurking around and what was left of humanity just focused on living their last days on Earth.
What’s next for Gus and the Hybrids?
After the battle in Alaska, Gus, Wendy (Naledi Murray), Jepp, and Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen) return to Yellowstone. There, they build massive wooden structures that become the center of the newborn Hybrid civilization. Before the credits roll on Sweet Tooth’s final episode, we glimpse an aged Gus, telling Big Man’s story to a new generation of Hybrids. There are no longer humans on the planet, but the memory of the past civilization will live on as cautionary tales for the new species.
At the end of Sweet Tooth, Nature decides to hear Gus’ pleas and allow humans to live without fear of the Sick. Yet humans still get replaced with Hybrids for the planet’s survival. It’s a bittersweet ending that forces us to think about how humanity has been destroying nature, one of the main recurring themes of the series.