[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Sugar Season 1 finale “Farewell.”]
Well, let’s just say we definitely need a second season after that!
And the Sugar finale certainly sets up one, with Colin Farrell‘s PI, John Sugar, choosing to stay on Earth while the rest of the aliens return home. That’s because he’s realized that the one he thought was his friend, Henry (Jason Butler Harner), is actually the Big Bad, with a connection to Olivia’s kidnapping and Sugar’s missing sister. In fact, he leads Sugar to believe that she’s on Earth!
Below, executive producers Audrey Chon and Simon Kinberg break down the finale and share their hopes for Season 2.
When did you know that Henry is the ultimate big bad tied not to just where Olivia was, but also Sugar’s sister?
Simon Kinberg: I think that the goal always with this show was that it would operate at the very least on two levels equally effectively, so that there would be the alien plot that had been running secretly and then ultimately not secretly the entire season, and there’s the mystery plot that’s been running the entire season. And we wanted to make sure that both of those things were fully serviced, and it didn’t feel like all of a sudden we just jumped the rails from one plot to another plot. And so I think bringing those two plots together in a singular villain made a lot of sense to us from early on in the process. And we felt like that would be the most satisfying plot reveal, was that these storylines are not accidental, that they actually do converge.
Was the plan always for all the other aliens to leave?
Audrey Chon: We talked about the aliens leaving, but the plan of them leaving in that moment was because of the pressurized situation where Sugar uncovered the conspiracy and the alliance between the aliens and this human cabal. So they felt they were in jeopardy and had to get off planet, but Sugar decides to stay to find Thorpe and figure out what happened to his sister.
Can you confirm that Ruby (Kirby) did leave, too? Because I could also see her staying, given Sugar.
Chon: Yeah, we can confirm Ruby did leave.
Sugar says, “I’m like them,” referring to humans, and that he likes Earth. What was the appeal of having Sugar’s sister possibly be the same place where he’s kind of making a new home?
Kinberg: It gives him the larger mystery, and the larger motivation of his character continues. So many different things have inspired the show and obviously the show is also a very original being, but we did talk about X-Files and the motivation of the sister, and that somehow took something that was science fiction, very science fiction, and made it really human and dramatic. And so for us, I think that the notion that he continues here, and he continues one of the mysteries and maybe the sort of fundamental emotional mystery of his life continuing on was really important.
Is there anything you can say about Sugar’s sister, what happened to her, and if Sugar is right to hope that she’s still alive and on Earth?
Chon: Nothing. [Both laugh]
This clearly sets up a second season. What can you say about any conversations you’ve had about one?
Kinberg: Well, we’re super focused, obviously, still on this season, and we’re very thrilled with the fact that people are liking and really connecting with [it]. We would love a second season. Colin would love a second season. We all love this character so much and this tone and this sort of melding of genres so much that we feel like we would really be able in the second season to take the gloves off because we wouldn’t be hiding as much. So that’s the hope. Ultimately, it’s out of our hands and it’s in the hands of audiences really. But Apple’s loved of the show and they’ve been super supportive the entire time and so far it’s been received really well. So if that continues, then the show will, too.
Then there was reveal that Olivia is Jonathan’s (James Cromwell) daughter. So did that reveal play at all into the way you had Jonathan and Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris) react to her disappearance throughout the season?
Kinberg: Yeah, for sure. I think with any well-drawn mystery, we knew the answers before we started plotting the show. And so that was all of those clues, both in terms of dialogue and plot, but also performance clues were laid in throughout the season.
Apple TV+
What was the last big piece that you kind of worked out for the show for this season?
Kinberg: There were so many pieces that were flying around as we were working. I don’t know what the last piece was. Audrey, do you know?
Chon: I think part of it was a little bit who stays and who goes in terms of the aliens.
Kinberg: I will say there was a lot of talk—I don’t think this was the last thing, but maybe was toward the end because it required visual effects—of how much of his home planet we would see and how much of the sister and things like that, those flashes, we would see. Those weren’t really writing questions so much as they were production and post-production questions. So in my mind, they’re late questions to answer because they’re late in the process naturally because they involve visual effects.
Chon: I would just add to that in terms of what Simon’s saying, there is this interesting balancing act of, we just gave the audience a massive reveal in Episode 6. And so to Simon’s point in terms of how much of this show is about his experience as—he’s an alien, but he’s pretending to be a human and how much of him being an alien, that old planet, how much of that are we going to show? And so clearly we’re leaning more into him as a PI on this planet versus going back to his planet.
Were there any major parts of any of the mysteries that you ultimately decided to scrap or change in the writing process?
Chon: I would say one piece that was notable was the relationship between Sugar and Melanie, Amy Ryan. We played around with that being romantic or not. We thought there was something really profound about that being purely platonic, but them understanding each other on a fundamental level. There’s that shared vulnerability and just revealing to someone else who you really are.
Sugar does show Melanie part of himself because he’s preparing to leave, but then he decides to stay. So would he still have done that if he had known he wasn’t leaving at that point?
Kinberg: That’s a really good question. Yeah, I think so, maybe. I do think that their connection is a very real connection, and I think that he has been yearning to share his secret with someone. I do feel that way. And so she is the first person he’s been able to do it with, and I think there’s a real relief when he’s able to do it. We talked a lot about that—whether he would do it, how he would do it, would she be conscious? Would she be not conscious? But yeah, I think that’s, in a way, the most human thing you can do, is show someone the part of yourself you’re most afraid to show.
Sugar, Streaming Now, Apple TV+