“Sweet Tooth” is one of Netflix’s little gems that is equal parts adorable and substantive, making it a wholesome binge-worthy watch. The fantasy-drama is a delightful story that consists of the found family trope with endearing characters. The lead character, Gus, and his little ears are absolutely delightful to watch throughout. It’s a dystopian story infused with hope, some morals for young kids, and the overarching theme of climate change, but most importantly, “it’s okay to be a weirdo” is our biggest takeaway. With the second season just around the corner, here’s a little refresher on everything that went down in season 1.
Spoilers Ahead
Gus’s Baby Years
The world is crumbling, and nothing seems right, but one man carries a little baby deep into the forest, never turning back and destroying all evidence of the outside world to bring up this young baby. The young baby named Gus begins to call the man “pubba” (how adorable) and soon grows up to be curious. Now Gus wants to know what happened to the world, why he can’t step out of the fence, and most importantly, who his mother is. Pubba does all he can to satisfy Gus with his answers. The world was affected by what was called “the sick,” a virus that attacked the whole world and wiped out a big chunk of the population, but at the same time, babies were born with animal features known as “Hybrids.” Nobody knows which came first, the virus or the hybrids. Unfortunately, there was chaos because of the two appearances happening simultaneously, so the hybrids were seen as a threat, and there were dangerous “poachers” who caught hybrids and took them away to be experimented on or, worse, killed. Pubba and Gus had a great time living together in isolation until Gus turned 8. Gus even thought a deer was his actual mother. Now that he is older, Gus is more adventurous; he wants to push the envelope of rules as much as possible. On one of these days, though, a wandering man appears near the fence. Pubba grabs a stick and is able to pretend it’s a gun, but it’s too late and they have been found out. Now Gus is in danger, and Pubba must go out and defeat the man, making all the “last men” (those who kill to survive) aware of their existence in the woods. Pubba returns after defeating them but ends up with the sick. With no antivirus, Gus is soon left to survive on his own. He manages until he turns 10, making his own companions with dried grass, but one day he decides to be angry that nothing is going his way and sets everything on fire.
Big Man And Gus’ Journey Begins
Gus finds a box filled with things that Pubba left behind for him for a day like this. Gus finds a picture of his mother, a human named Birdie, some money, credit cards, etc. (which he quickly discards) and makes a decision. The photograph has Colorado written on it, so he will break Pubba’s most important rule and cross the fence. One of the poachers finds Gus, and he’s about to be taken by them before a large man comes to his rescue. Now that the man saved his life, Gus believes he’s a friend, so he must be his ticket to Colorado. The “Big Man,” who goes by Jepp, begins to make his way away from Gus, the talking hybrid. Jepp himself used to be a “last man,” but now he wanders around alone. He lets Gus tag along for a little while, but after spending a night together, Gus ends up eating all his food and medicine. The advantage is that Gus can find Jepp the food he needs, and they end up in what looks like a souvenir store where Gus can smell food. Gus ends up in a trap, and Jepp comes out of hiding to find a family of three in the store. They feed Gus and Jepp, even though the mother is not so sure about Jepp. Gus finds a friend in the son of the house, Ricky, and they spend a day together. Jepp realizes this is the perfect place for Gus to be safe and speaks to the mother about taking care of him. Before the plan is underway, the Last Men find Gus and Jepp. Jepp renders them all unconscious, saving Gus but getting the idea that they must stick together. Before they leave, Ricky apologizes to Gus for calling him weird, and they hug in the hope of meeting sometime soon again.
Gus’ Great Adventures Begin
The easiest and quickest way for Gus to reach Colorado is by train. But in case Gus will be caught if he’s seen by “humans” Jepp devises a plan to use a disguise and make Gus look like a fake hybrid. The plan works, and it’s almost time for him to get on the train. Jepp’s promise was only to bring him to the train. Jepp makes Gus wait while he brings the ticket, but Gus wanders away. When he gets afraid, a young girl catches hold of him and suggests he come along with her. Gus agrees, but Jepp finds him in time. Jepp needs the medications that Gus finished, but the vendor is nowhere to be found, and before they know it, it’s time to get on the train. But Gus smells the medicine in a crate heading onto a different train. Jepp thinks there’s enough time to get the meds and get Gus on the train in time. They manage to steal the drugs but get caught by the Last Men, one of whom realizes Gus is a hybrid. Jepp kicks him in the head, hoping to make him unconscious as they rush to catch the train. Finally, Gus doesn’t make it to the train because of Jepp’s little errand, and they get caught. As they are being taken away through the forest, they are saved by the girl Gus met at the station and her team, all dressed as animals. The girl, who calls herself “Bear,” is the leader of the group- the Animal Army, and they have pledged to keep all hybrids safe. They’re about to kill Jepp, but Gus stops them by protecting Jepp. It’s a family of teenagers who “hate adults” because all they know how to do is destruct, destroy, and take from the earth. Bear sets her team on the task of finding out whatever they can about Birdie in Colorado. A member of the team going by Tiger decides to go against Bear because Jepp, who was part of the “Last Men,” was spared. There is chaos, and a big fight breaks out, allowing Jepp to escape with Gus. Bear, too, makes her way away from the camp. She leaves her family behind because of Jepp and Gus. Now, on her way to find a new family, Bear joins Gus and Jepp and suggests they find the train in between the journeys. With no other choice, Jepp agrees.
On their way, Jepp and Bear fight a lot, and Gus isn’t very happy about it. They end up in a field of purple flowers. These flowers grow where “the sick” are, and Bear says that this area was a burial site for those who were sick. They don’t know if it’s contagious after the people are dead, but they can’t risk it, so Bear shows them a bridge that looks like a slight wind could bring it down. While the two older members of the team are fighting, Gus heads up on the bridge and ends up falling into the flowers. The flowers act as hallucinogens, and while Jepp and Bear find their way to Gus, he dreams about his pubba and gets directions to her mother. Jepp and Bear are able to save Gus, and they find the fast-approaching train. They get on the train with difficulty, with Jepp being reminded of his past as a great footballer. On the train, they meet one of Jepp’s former teammates. Everything seems to be fine as Bear and Gus talk while Jepp watches over them, but Gus realizes he’s lost Dog, a toy that Pubba had made for him. Jepp heads back to get the toy when the “Last Men” arrive on the train. Jepp’s friend and colleague stay back to fight as Jepp and his “new family” escape and jump off the train. They soon find Birdie’s house rather easily, and to the surprise of Jepp and Bear, there is actually somebody in the house. Birdie’s old colleague and best friend, Judy, is in the house, but there’s no sign of Gus’ mom. Judy welcomes them in and offers them some answers, but it is clear she is hiding something. There’s an attic in the house, and Judy hands Gus the key to the attic.
Pubba And Birdie’s True Story
In truth, Gus is an experiment titled Genetic Unit System 1, the first hybrid. Birdie was the head scientist who ended up engineering Gus with the microorganisms she was researching. Birdie called the hybrids and the sickness two sides of the same coin. Richard did housekeeping in the lab and had found a liking for Birdie. After seeing her fighting with fellow scientists, probably about Gus, he ends up meeting her in a bar at night. Richard and Birdie get along well because of their taste in music and shared need for whiskey after a long day. Richard walks Birdie back home, and as they’re about to drink hot chocolate and share a sweet moment together, Birdie gets a call from the lab. Richard quickly drives her there, and Birdie rushes to where she’s hidden Gus. When the lab found out what she was doing, they weren’t happy, but she continued the experiment with Judy, hidden from everyone else. Now, Gus is in danger because if the research Judy has been doing ends up in the wrong hands, humanity could be in danger. Even though they’ve just met, Birdie entrusts Gus’ life to Richard, who reluctantly agrees. From then on, we know what happens with Richard and Gus, but Birdie, who went in search of Gus 10 years ago, hasn’t returned to Judy or found Gus.
Dr. Singh And Rani
Elsewhere, Aditya Singh lives with his wife, Rani. They lead a happy life until Rani is affected by the H5G9 virus (the sick) and Adin needs to find a way to save her. A fellow doctor named Gladys was able to help Rani by creating an antidote shot that works for about 28 days. The neighborhood that the Singhs live in has a set of rules, including burning a person alive along with their home if they have the virus. Rani and Adi are happy to receive the shots as long as they’re doing fine, but one day Gladys tells Adi that she is done looking for the cure. She has terminal cancer and hands over her research to Adi, who takes on the project. Adi is shocked to see that the research is unethical and immoral, as Gladys was dissecting hybrids to create the “secret sauce”. Adi could not do something like that because it goes against all his values as a doctor, but one thing changed his mind: he would do anything to save his wife, Rani. While contemplating his next step, Rani gets worse, and he sends out a signal for the secret sauce, but he gets an empty box that says they are short of hybrids. A woman named Nancy gets suspicious of Rani after one of the members of the society ends up getting the virus. Nancy visits Rani and realizes the truth, but just as she’s going to tell the rest of the nieghborhood the truth, Trixie, Adi’s horse, kicks the woman in the stomach, killing her instantly. Rani makes Adi hide the body even though they didn’t really do anything wrong. Now, with Rani looking worse and Nancy missing, the neighbors realize she has the sick and the Singhs may be responsible for Nancy’s disappearance. Just as they are about to be set on fire, a bunch of Last Men save them. A military man named Douglas Abbot, who has taken over the job of “governing” the area, is now standing in front of Adi. All he needs is the book that Gladys left behind, but Rani is able to convince Abbot that Adi can find a cure for the disease, giving them both more time to survive. Rani is also the only survivor of the sick, so Abbot wants to observe her too.
Aimee And The Preserve
In the same 10 years, Aimee, a young woman who found freedom in living in the zoo on her own, was left a baby-pig hybrid. Aimee brought up the baby as her own, naming her Wendy. Wendy and Aimee survived in the zoo comfortably, and Aimee was able to use a radio service to contact other people who may have saved hybrids. Together, Aimee and Wendy created a safe haven for all abandoned hybrids in their zoo, which they dub the preserve. Abbot is in search of this preserve, and finally, he is able to find it. Abbot closes in on the zoo, but Aimee has a way out for the hybrids. They escape underground as she distracts Abbot, but alas, they’re caught by Abbot’s men before Aimee can come to take them to safety.
Abbot And The Military
Douglas is the big bad man with sunglasses and a big beard, representing all the bad things about society. He sets Adi on the task of finding the cure if he wants Rani safe. Now Abbot has been putting out fake flyers about the preserve to get hybrids to cut it open. If Gus happens to find one of these flyers, will he be taken by Abbot’s men or will Jepp be able to save him?
‘Sweet Tooth’ Season 1: Ending Explained – How Do Gus, Jepp, And Bear Get Split Up?
Gus gets upset after finding out he’s essentially an orphan and that his whole life has been a lie. He runs away, leaving Bear and Jepp in the house with Judy. Gus finds a broken-down airplane with a broken radio in the middle of the forest. He comes to the realization that now he needs to find his real family—other hybrids like himself. He fixes the radio and calls the preserve on the flyer. While he waits for them to come, Jepp leaves Bear with Judy and heads to the forest in search of Gus. If Gus returns, at least one of them will be there to meet him. Jepp finds Gus and realizes that Gus is his new family after all the times he saved his life and the incredible journey they have been on together. Back in the day, Jepp had a pregnant wife who gave birth to a hybrid baby. Jepp’s fear of having a hybrid baby makes him run away, but in the elevator, he meets Adi, who tells him that he can never know how things will turn out until he tries. Jepp decides to face his fear and go back up, but his wife and son are nowhere to be found; someone has already taken them away. Now, he can’t lose another person dear to him, so Jepp asks if Gus and he can be together and do everything he loves, like a happy family. But their dreams are quickly shattered as Jepp is shot by one of the Last Men and Gus is taken away by Abbot’s men, leaving Jepp for the dead.
Back home, Bear worries for both of them as it begins to get dark. Judy asks Bear about her past, and we find out that she was a foster child whose parents had another baby. The baby was a pig hybrid. The baby was Wendy, who was taken away by the doctors after Bear’s parents had died from the illness. Bear’s name used to be Becky, and Becky was probably in search of her sister the whole time, saving all the other hybrids along the way. While Judy and Bear wait for Jepp and Gus to return, they are able to reconnect with Birdie after all these years. Birdie is alive and well in a snow-covered place where it looks like she’s doing more experiments on her own, maybe to find a cure.
Jepp is saved by someone and survives the wound. It was Aimee who saved him, and now she plans on using Jepp’s help to get their kids back together. In the meanwhile, Gus is about to be taken into the research facility for Adi to cut into, but Gus speaks, something other hybrids do not do (Wendy talks too, but Adi doesn’t know this yet). Adi realizes Gus is special and older than the other hybrids, meaning he could be the first hybrid. Gus is saved and put into a kennel where all the other hybrids are kept too. Wendy and her friends step out, and Wendy says hi to Gus. Gus says hi back, and Wendy gives him a big hug, later joined by all the other hybrids. Sometimes, your family chooses you. Now the trio is split, but we know they will be able to make their way back together; after all, they are family.
