Summary
“The Beginning Is Also the End” gets the final season of Sweet Tooth off to a solid start by reminding both the characters and the audience of the stakes.
If you didn’t already know that Season 3 of Sweet Tooth is the last, you can tell by the familiar narration. Where once it talked about beginnings, here in Episode 1 of the final season, “The Beginning Is Also the End”, it talks about the story of Gus, the hybrids, and the Sick coming to a conclusion.
But it also talks about where that story began, so cue a literally cold open which finds Captain Thacker’s crew stranded in Alaska. Thacker has found something, a cure to end all cures, which is perhaps just as well since his entire crew has been struck down by a mysterious illness, recognizable to us long-time viewers by its chief symptom of hyperactive pinky fingers.
The cure is intimately tied to a cave. In there, the Sick had its beginning. It might also have its end.
All Roads Must Converge
This is why Birdie is in Alaska. With the aid of Thacker’s notebook, she’s trying to find the origin of the Sick so that she can hopefully find a cure. That’s the only way to save the world, and particularly to save Gus.
So, this is why Gus, Jepp, Bear, and Wendy are all on their way to Alaska. All roads must converge. But they’re presently stuck on the wrong side of the Rocky Mountains, running short of supplies, and racing against the doomsday strain of the Sick.
A Gambling Problem
A good chunk of Episode 1 of Sweet Tooth Season 3 is set in a casino where the gang try to find supplies like canned food and warmer clothing for the long trek north. The casino is occupied by a bitter group of old folks who used to play bingo there and never left. They’re reluctant to part with their supplies, even though judging by the look of them they won’t need canned chilli for much longer, so Gus suggests they use the roulette wheel to decide it.
The fact that Gus loses the wager and leaves with virtually nothing is a good indicator that things aren’t going to go very smoothly this season. Well, that and the howling of wolves that seems to follow them everywhere.
Birdie Is Kidnapped
When the gang get caught in an avalanche – don’t worry, they’re fine – it’s a good excuse for the action to shift back to Birdie in Alaska.
Birdie is living in a secretive community on the cusp of Alaska’s seasonally long night. She’s a little ostracised since everyone thinks she’s obsessive, which I suppose she is, but she has relatively staunch allies in her friend Siana and Siana’s arctic fox-hybrid daughter, Nuka. Birdie gives Nuka Thacker’s journal and sets out to find Gus alone.
However, someone – a man who one assumes is one of Zhang’s cronies – has tracked Birdie down by tracing Becky’s call to her. He wants to take Birdie in, but they fight and she flees. He manages to shoot her with a few tranquilizer darts during the chase, leading to Birdie collapsing alone in the snow, only for her unconscious body to later be dragged away by a hooved man.
A Long And Difficult Journey Is To Come
As we get towards the end of Sweet Tooth Season 3 Episode 1 the scale and seriousness of the quest are reiterated. Even Jepp, once he’s dug out of the snow, is reluctant to keep going. He’s getting old now, and he’s not confident that he can protect Gus throughout the journey.
And we know it’s going to be a difficult journey since Zhang and her minions are always close behind. In particular, her daughter Rosie is on the case and wanted posters of Gus are being disseminated far and wide. Almost everyone the gang meets on the way will be hostile. In a world all about survival, allies are few and far between.
The episode ends with Dr. Singh presenting himself to Gus and the others, telling him they need to talk about Alaska. But after what we’ve seen Singh get up to thus far, he can’t really be considered an ally, can he?
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