Plot: The final leg of Gus and Jepperd’s journey finds the duo traveling to Alaska in search of answers to the origin of the Sick and the location of Sweet Tooth’s estranged mother, Birdie. As Wendy and Becky nurture their past connection, survivors guard a sacred region with mystical powers. With Helen Zhang hot on their trail, Dr. Aditya Singh desires to correct his past mistakes while fighting the urge to give in to dark voices haunting his guilty conscience. With an end to the madness in sight, sacrifices, death, and destabilization carve a path toward salvation.
Review: Before the world can heal, humankind must reckon that they’re no longer the dominant species, nor will they be ever again. The final season of Sweet Tooth is a tale of vengeance, redemption, and hope. Gus and Jepperd’s odyssey through impossible odds, hecatomb, and renewal nears its end, but not before the show’s creator, Jim Mickle, delivers a season that includes a Game of Thrones-like body count and the potential for deep conversations about humanity and whether or not we deserve to remain the dominant species.
Like any epic worth its salt, Sweet Tooth Season 3 goes to great lengths to make audiences feel the laborious trek to Alaska, where the source of the Sick, a virus that wiped out a vast majority of the human population and ceased the birth of human babies, resides. Along the path fraught with peril, pit stops, and startling revelations, Gus, Jepperd, and their friends encounter a villain to rival Neil Sandiland’s General Abbott in Helen Zhang, an opportunistic warlord hellbent on controlling a cure to the Sick and exterminating the Hybrid population worldwide. Helen believes that Gus is the key to humankind reclaiming its place as the prevailing populace, and she’s willing to strip herself of all compassion to spill his precious blood.
Among the outstanding performances is Rosalind Chao as Helen Zhang. She terrifies me. Chao manages to drain all sympathy from Helen’s cold, selfish heart, resulting in a calculating, ambitious villain you love to hate. There’s a moment when Helen wields a penetrating captive bolt gun that’s particularly chilling. I suspect this scene will remain with audiences long after the series’ final credits roll. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. When I think of Helen, I think of that gun.
Christian Convery and Nonso Anzoie, as Gus (Sweet Tooth) and Tommy Jepperd (Big Man), respectively, anchor the Sweet Tooth experience. Their chemistry is so refined by Season 3 that it’s difficult to think they’ll separate from one another after the show is over. As a fan of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth, the Vertigo comic book series that started it all, Convery was born to play Gus. He evokes everything Gus is in the source material but adds depth and nuance to the character, elevating his contribution to the story. Mirroring the effort to bring the emotional house down is Anozie, whose Big Man has evolved by leaps and bounds since the show’s start. Resentful of his tragic past, Jepperd searches for solace in Season 3 and accepts Gus as a surrogate son. The bond shared between Gus and Jepperd drives Sweet Tooth because it’s a dynamic that never stops getting better.
Sweet Tooth Season 3 takes us away from the Preserve, transporting us to the frigid cold of Alaska. The new, picturesque landscape evokes a different post-apocalypse with breathtaking vistas, icy waters, and receding foliage. It’s the perfect venue to reflect the hearts of the show’s villains and host the mysticism tied to the origin of Gus’ species.
Beyond its powerful story, dazzling practical effects, puppetry, and dedication to the source material, Sweet Tooth spoils audiences with the series’ best performances from its supporting cast. Stefania LaVie Owen’s Bear finds her new place, becoming someone who changes the world with compassion instead of weapons and warpaint. Naledi Murray’s Wendy discovers her cunning and learns when to let go. Dr. Singh takes a villainous turn in Season 3 while haunted by voices and the sins of his past. Dr. Singh’s devolution throughout Season 3 is something to behold, with Adeel Akhtar giving the character impressive depth and malice.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for another standout act in a show with fantastic performances, please give your full attention to Kelly Marie Tran as Rosie, Helen’s daughter, and mother to a pack of ferocious Wolf Boys. Feeling forced into a life she never wanted, Rosie sacrifices aspects of her soul for the benefit of her pack. While she detests her mother, Helen offers security in a fractured and dangerous world. Tran’s portrayal of Rosie paints a picture of a desperate and lethal woman unable to make peace with her inner demons. I would not want to meet Rosie in a dark alley or brave the apocalypse without her nearby.
Cara Gee is Siana, and Ayazhan Dalabayeva is her hybrid daughter, Nuka. New to the series, Siana and Nuka offer warmth in the Alaskan chill. They’re damn good at what they do, and if you aim to survive, you’ll want them leading the charge. When reading a room, Nuka is young but quick, stealthy, and savvy. If subterfuge is your goal, Nuka can help.
Finally, Amy Seimetz plays Birdie, Gus’s mother, and the reason for Gus and Jepperd’s odyssey. We’ve spent nearly all of Sweet Tooth searching for Birdie, and Season 3 offers a conclusion to that thread that will tug on your heartstrings and have you drying your eyes. Seimetz gets some of her best screen time in Season 3, making Birdie much more than an absentee mother for much of the series. She’s a researcher, warrior, and beacon of hope for Gus. She’s the lighthouse in the fog.
If I can offer you one piece of advice for your Season 3 journey, it’s this: Don’t get attached to anyone. The death toll for Sweet Tooth Season 3 is immense, with even some of the series’ pivotal characters taking a turn for the worse. I gasped with surprise when characters I expected to survive the tale met an untimely (or justified) end. Sweet Tooth Season 3 doesn’t pull any punches, letting the weight of every loss linger like a smash hit by The Cranberries from 1993.
Sweet Tooth is a post-apocalyptic cautionary tale with fantasy elements. It asks audiences to commune with nature, remember their place, and understand that “the natural order” of world events can change. We just lived through a global pandemic, didn’t we? It’s not impossible to think something like the Sick could come along and take 98% of the human population off the map. It’s a grim thought, but here we are. Sweet Tooth also addresses themes of prejudice, with the hybrids representing marginalized peoples othered and actively hunted by a society of frightened fools. While humans are motivated by an instinct to survive, Gus and the hybrids long for equality, wishing for peace in the face of segregation and slaughter. There’s a reason they’re better than us.
I’m not going to lie. Sweet Tooth series creator Jim Mickle had mountains to climb while adapting Jeff Lemire’s bizarre fairytale for live-action. As a diehard fan of the source material, I would have been one of the first to call the Netflix show out for misrepresentation or failed messaging. Thankfully, Netflix’s Sweet Tooth honors the original story and puts some more meat on the bone. Don’t let the adorable hybrids fool you; Sweet Tooth is a brutal bit of fiction with valuable lessons to teach us all. I never could have imagined this level of care and quality going into a live-action adaptation of Sweet Tooth, and here I stand, gobsmacked and tipping my hat. That’ll do, Gus. That’ll do.
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