Welcome back, Multiversity readers, for an action-packed episode recap of Sweet Tooth. Last episode had a lot of doom and gloom vibes that felt like nothing could go right for Gus or any of our heroes. This time we got a 180, and everyone got a good dose of confidence, but their time to shine to help get out of the zoo. So let’s stop wasting time and see what’s happening in “How It Started, How It’s Going.”
1. Air Lords Attack
The mercenaries with the planes finally show up to Essex (kinda funny since Jepperd beat them in a broken down ice cream truck and on foot) and put General Abbot and his army on the defense right away. They start dropping flower bombs to spook the soldiers with chemical warfare, so they scramble around, trying to get to their weapons and fight out their next move. One of the general’s key soldiers reminds him that they no longer need the zoo, so it would be better to abandon the base and save face. However, Aimee knows precisely how to get under the general’s skin and reminds him how she and 12 of her children nearly stopped his whole army, and it keeps his focus on winning and taking down the planes.
2. Becky’s True Mission
Another move from The Air Lords is what Becky calls a “junk bomb,” meaning all of the items that were useful before the virus hit but are now just junk gets thrown out of the plane simply to crash and cause chaos. The prime example is when they throw an old refrigerator out of the plane, which lands on one of the trucks transporting Jordan, Becky, and Tiger to The Last Men’s base. In all of the chaos, the kids get out of the truck and get left behind. Jordan starts to panic and decides to kill Tiger with a crossbow because they will do that anyway, so it would be no different. Becky sees his panic and steps up to protect her old friend and admits to once being a part of the animal army and may have been the one to kill his father. Becky and Tiger escape Jordan, who is weaponless and emotional as he deals with what he’s just learned. The history between the two help breaks the tension as Tiger realizes that Becky’s mission to find Gus and reunite him with his mother is a way of giving herself some hope of one day seeing her sister. I’ll admit it was a forgotten detail about her past since I thought she’d only just lost her parents, but the idea that another family member is out there gives Becky a new fire that even Tiger can admire and be willing to help.
3. Obsession Leads To Death
Back in the zoo, while the bombs are being dropped, Johnny gets put in charge of a special mission to get Dr. Singh and his wife to safety so that he can continue his quest to make a cure. Johnny has to nearly drag him out of the lab for his own sake and gives both of them a chance to escape somewhere, anywhere that isn’t there. The doctor becomes confused, almost like he is coming out of a haze, and wonders, where they could go that, would be safe, but Rani is begging him to come along just for the sake of being together. She knows her previous request to find a cure has poisoned his mind, but she remains hopeful that he will share her last days. However, just as the two are on their way out, he makes a mad dash back to the lab grasping the broken antler that came from Gus’ head in hopes that it would be the missing ingredient in his research. To his dismay, the lab is on fire after Aimee finds it, sees the samples from one of her children, and damn it all to hell. The doctor officially loses everything when he returns to the exit, and his wife is no longer there. It’s sad because Rani repeatedly tried to rescue her husband from this obsession, but he would never take the bait and be too focused on a cure that no longer mattered.
4. The Kids
The kids had already escaped their cage in the previous episode, and with the focus on the planes above and scrambling around, it’s a perfect opportunity for them to escape. The kids break out of their fear state and find a rope they can use as a pulley system to get pulled to the top away from the remaining soldiers. It’s great to see the kids in action because up until this point, they only seemed to scold Gus and “plot” their escape without thinking of the dangers surrounding them. Gus and Jepperd find the kids struggling to pull the last elephant-hybrid child to the top and provide some much-needed distraction for the guards. Jepperd leads the kids to a bus outside the zoo and sees Aimee and Wendy running toward them at the perfect time. Aimee gives a teary thank you to Jepperd, even though she had tried to abandon him back at the Air Lords base.
5. A Mothers Love
Aimee’s plan went better than she ever thought. Since she riled up the general with a walkie-talkie, once the planes flew over, she knew that would be enough distraction for him to get his soldiers out of the zoo and focus on taking them down. During that time, she walked right into the zoo and made her way around, searching room to room without any interference, thus giving her ample time to burn down the lab and eventually find Wendy. It’s a heart-warming moment that is truly needed for her since this whole season has been nothing but problem after problem. Her victory is short-lived, of course, and in all of the excitement of being reunited and plans for Yellowstone, her pinky begins to shake, and the doomsday variant hits home for our characters.
