🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

In Sweet Tooth Season 2, a newly mutated strain of the Sick has made the stakes higher than ever, and turns humans into the best, worst and most morally gray versions of themselves.

The season starts off with things being particularly dire for Gus (Christian Convery), Wendy (Naledi Murray) and several other hybrid children after they’re imprisoned by General Abbot (Neil Sandilands) and the Last Men at the Essex Zoo. The main reason these mercenaries haven’t killed the hybrids is the children are being experimented on by Dr. Singh (Adeel Akhtar), who believes that a cure for the Sick will require hybrid blood — at the cost of the hybrids’ lives. Meanwhile, Becky (Stefania LaVie Owen) tries to infiltrate the Last Men to track down Gus, while Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) and Aimee (Dania Ramirez) join forces and work relentlessly to save the hybrids, a race against the clock that culminates in an all-out battle, first at the zoo and then in Gus’ beloved Yellowstone.

While the big clash that takes place at the zoo in Episode 6 results in long-awaited reunions between Sweet Tooth and Big Man as well as Aimee, Wendy and the rest of her hybrid children, it also leads to the separation of Dr. Singh and his wife Rani (Aliza Vellani), the latter of whom goes off on her own, repelled by her husband’s obsession with finding a cure. After Gus, Jepperd, Aimee, Bear and the other hybrids escape the zoo and head to Yellowstone, General Abbot and his soldiers follow them, wiping out the Animal Army on their way to Gus’ home, where a final clash filled with bullets, bison and some brutal losses ensues. Below, showrunner Jim Mickle helps break down specifics and digs into some of the big questions on our minds about this powerful season.

First of all, what even caused the Sick (aka the H5G9 virus)?

While the Sick has played a huge role in shaping the world of Sweet Tooth from the first season, we only found out its origins in Season 2, when we see Birdie (Amy Seimetz) and her colleague Dr. Gillian Washington working together on Project Midnight Sun. A flashback scene in Episode 7 reveals that an overeager Dr. Washington injected herself with the Midnight Sun serum, convinced it was the fountain of youth. “It could’ve revolutionized medicine,” she told Birdie. Instead, it sparked the spread of the deadly H5G9 virus, setting off the Great Crumble and making her Patient Zero.

Kirsty Griffin/Netflix

So, what exactly is Project Midnight Sun?

Project Midnight Sun was a secret organization and initiative whose mission was to create a cure for aging. The scientists working on it performed risky experiments on chickens which failed to produce a life-enhancing anti-aging serum, but did create the first hybrid — along with the Sick.

OK, so there’s no cure for aging, but is there a cure for the Sick?

Well, even though Dr. Singh has yet to find one, Birdie believes there is a cure and that Gus is the key to it. After listening to a cassette tape that Birdie left for him, Gus learns of his own importance in the process. “I think it really sets up a sense of responsibility in him,” Sweet Tooth showrunner Jim Mickle says about Gus. “He’s always been told that he’s the first hybrid and he’s the key to all this, and I think he understands that there’s a real responsibility that comes with that. I think he hears this sacrifice that his mom made, to give up the ability to have a family in order to save the world, and that ultimately sets him up to leave at the end of Season 2.”

Where is Birdie now?

Season 2 starts off by revealing that Birdie is in Alaska; by the final episode, Gus, Jepperd, Wendy and Becky venture off to find her. Oh, and Dr. Singh is also lurking in the distance, tracking the group on their journey. He’s still as focused as ever on finding the cure.

Wait, what happened with Dr. Singh and his wife, Rani?

At the start of the season, General Abbot used Rani as leverage to force Dr. Singh into performing fatal experiments on imprisoned hybrids in search of a cure. Along the way, the desire for a world-saving remedy became Singh’s sole preoccupation, creating a rift between him and his wife. Akhtar says about his character’s obsession, “It does start off as a well-intentioned pursuit, but he becomes so single-minded about it that it tips into a sort of mania, and you have him on the edge of his own sanity at times.”

While Singh was working relentlessly on a cure with General Abbot, Rani was developing a friendship with the General’s kind, empathetic brother, Johnny (Marlon Williams). Amidst chaos during a battle at the Reserve, Johnny offered Rani and Dr. Singh an opportunity for freedom. Rani took him up on it, but Dr. Singh? He prioritized returning to his lab to retrieve his research, stunned to find the building engulfed in flames (courtesy of Aimee, who set fire to the lab upon seeing how they were using hybrids in their research). By the time Singh accepts that his work is actively being scorched and heads out, Rani has already left him behind and gone off on her own. Rather than seeking her out, it appears Singh chose to track and follow Gus and his friends.

What happened to Johnny Abbot?

Johnny was shot in the back and killed by his brother after trying to stop the cruel General from invading Gus’ home. Marlon Williams, who plays Johnny, is a musician, which inspired the Sweet Tooth writers to include a scene in which he performs a heartrending a cappella version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.”

And what happened to General Abbot?

After murdering his own brother — and a lot of kids in the Animal Army — General Abbot attacked the Yellowstone home where Gus was hiding with Aimee and Jepperd. The evil general was defeated, though — first, he was injected with H5G9 by Aimee, and then he was trampled by a bison stampede that Gus summoned. But Abbot survived the trampling just long enough to shoot Gus in the back with an arrow before collapsing again. So — did he die? Mickle answered that question with a single word: “Maybe.”

OK, did anyone else die?

Gus survived Abbot’s arrow to the back but Aimee, who already had the Sick when she mustered up the strength to take part in the final battle at Yellowstone, eventually died from the virus. Aimee unequivocally refused to take any treatment made from the blood of hybrids, and was accepting of her fate. Mickle described the “huge moment” when we learn that Aimee is sick via her twitching pinky. “We were never quite sure if it was going to work and I remember we went back and forth on it so many times. I love the way that it’s pulled off. I love how Toa Fraser, our director, shot that moment, and then how Dania plays it in that final scene, that look on her face is like, oh my God, it’s so good. Really proud of that moment.”

Did Gus die after being shot by Abbot?

No, Gus survived, but was in a tenuous state for long after his injury. Luckily, he was looked after by Big Man, Bear and Wendy. 

Abbot is gone, but what about that group he was working with, the Three?

In Episode 5, a trio of powerful leaders from across the country meet with General Abbot to discuss his plan to create the Evergreen, an ultra-exclusive society of their own selection. The other members of the trio are Voss, Dutch and Zhang, but they’re also referred to as the Three. During Abbot’s big pitch, Gus escaped from his cage and caused chaos around Essex Zoo, embarrassing Abbot in front of his power-hungry warlord friends. One of the Three, Zhang, wanted to move forward with Abbot’s plans sans Voss and Dutch, so she has them killed.

What was  Zhang of the Three up to in Season 2’s ending scene?

In the closing moments of the finale, Zhang, who is violently chopping chunks of raw meat, learns that Abbot is dead. She’s given a cassette player and tape that were left in Dr. Singh’s scorched lab, insisting that she wants the audio transcribed immediately. “I’m just going to have to take care of this myself,” she says, swiping the cubes of meat into a cage, feeding snarling, ravenous unseen creatures in a cage. “Eat up boys, you’re gonna need it,” Zhang declares before the episode concludes. But who are those boys? It’s hard to say anything other than that they’re hungry. 

What comes next for Gus and friends?

Last we see, the newly formed family of Gus, Jepperd, Becky and Wendy are heading to Alaska to find Birdie. Mickle spoke on the difference between the long treks in search of Birdie that Gus has set out on. “Season 1 was a journey from Wyoming to Colorado. Now going from Wyoming to Alaska to find his mom, Gus realizes that it isn’t just about being reconnected with family, but it’s actually to help her do what she set out to do, which is save the world from the Sick. Season 2 ends with Gus on the beginning of that journey.”

A journey stretching thousands of miles with the weight of the entire world on one’s back sounds like a tall task, but it’s one that a rapidly maturing and evolving Gus has proven capable of meeting head-on, antlers first.

Will there be a Sweet Tooth Season 3?

Check back here for all info about the future adventures of Gus, Jepperd, Wendy and the rest of the hybrids and their allies.