Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for Sugar S2E1, “Home Away From Home” (written by Sam Catlin and directed by Michael Morris)
You’ll recall that Season 1 of Sugar ended with the Polyglots/aliens leaving Earth, while John Sugar (Colin Farrell) stayed behind, largely due to his discovery that Henry (Jason Butler Harner) had not only been present in Ryan Pavich’s (Cameron Cowperthwaite) basement while Pavich tortured captives, but was somehow involved in the disappearance of John’s sister, Djen (Mireille Enos).
At the time, I predicted that a Season 2 would revolve around these plot points, so it’s something of a surprise that Henry dies (apparently by suicide) in the opening scene of Sugar S2E1, and he does so without providing Sugar any information about what happened to Djen.
Sugar continues to refer to Henry as his friend, and as Henry tells John he’s sorry, John forgives him. I think this serves more as a signal of the difference between their species and humanity than anything else. John tells us, in voiceover, that suicide is unheard of on their home planet, but he’s seen it happen (rarely) when someone’s been on a mission for so long they forget who they are and where they come from.
If that’s not foreshadowing for John, it’s at least an articulation of a risk he’ll face as the narrative of Sugar proceeds. He’s spent six months tracking Henry, but he’s truly alone now, as far as he knows. John sets the whole house on fire to dispose of Henry’s corpse.
I don’t think we’re done with the question of what happened to Djen. At least, Sugar will never be over the question, even if he believes the possibility of receiving an answer died with Henry. I wonder whether the writers of Sugar plan to have John find a clue at some point, and if we might ever learn what led Henry to end his own life. Maybe Henry’s death stems from a change of plan behind the scenes, but I prefer to interpret it as a creative decision to subvert our expectations.
Regardless, John returns to California and falls into a new case when Munzer Amin, who taxied Sugar from the airport towards the beginning of Season 1, puts him in touch with Danny Moon (Jin Ha), a Korean boxer whose brother, Ji Moon (Raymond Lee), has gone missing after having left a disturbing voicemail. In the message, it sounds like Ji is running away from something, or someone, and Sugar notes (in voiceover) that Ji sounds terrified.
Sugar proceeds to check some of Ji’s regular haunts and receives a tip that he’s been seeing a nurse named Hannah McDaniels (Nona Parker Johnson). And apparently, there are other people looking for Ji… bad people.
Meanwhile, John’s car gets “stolen” and sold back to him, which he’s completely unfazed by.. Season 1 displayed his sympathy for the down and out, so I suppose we can file his reaction to this extortion in the same folder.
From Hannah, Sugar learns that Ji stole drugs from the hospital some days ago, with Hannah’s help. But she hasn’t seen him since. They were supposed to meet up after her shift. That didn’t happen. She’s been figuring he’s off somewhere getting high and/or avoiding her because he’s betrayed her. It’s a reasonable guess, but unlikely given the things we know that Hannah doesn’t.
Back at the hotel, Sugar takes out his alien communication device and sends a message, just in case there are any others out there who also stayed behind. He’s feeling lonely, so he goes to the hotel restaurant, where a woman eyes him from across the room. Later, in the hotel bar, the same woman introduces herself as Charlotte (Laura Donnelly), and while she claims to think she recognizes John from a conference in Zurich, I suspect that she has ulterior motives we’ll learn about later.
It’s not clear, however, how long Sugar will continue to live at the hotel, as he’s purchased a house in Hollywood Hills. His primary purpose isn’t to take up residence, of course. It’s to surveil Senator Tyson Pavich, who Sugar suspects (with some justification) is one of the muckety-mucks who betrayed John’s people, forcing them to leave the planet.
John doesn’t mention Miller (Paul Schulze), who was killed by a cop in the Season 1 finale, but it’s nice to see that he hasn’t given up on finding the humans who were persecuting his species, even as his fellows were willing to.
Thus, Sugar Season 2 is set to revolve around two mysteries. The first is what happened to Ji Moon. The second is what Pavich and whoever else have been up to, which is certainly nothing good.
Haunting everything in the background, of course, is the mystery of what happened to Djen, but we may or may not ever find out.
See you next week.
