Everything in Sweet Tooth comes back to Birdie. And yet Birdie, aka Gertrude Miller, aka Gus’s mother, is barely even in the show. Season 3 gives her more of a presence, and a tragic farewell, but compared to characters like Gus, Big Man, and Bear, she’s hardly ever on-screen. And yet she’s by far the most vital character.
Let me explain.
Why is Birdie so important in Sweet Tooth?
It is through Birdie’s actions that the Sick infected humanity. She is also responsible for the creation of Gus, believed to be the first hybrid, although Season 3 reveals that he was predated by the Caribou Man, Munaq.
Dr. Gertrude Miller was a talented geneticist working at Fort Smith Labs, where Richard Fox — otherwise known as Pubba — was a janitor. The loss of her husband due to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused her to become a devoted careerist, and in the course of her work, she discovered microorganisms from a cave in Alaska.
Using these microorganisms, Birdie created Genetic Unit Series 1, aka Gus, believed to be the first crossover between animal and human. When the Sick broke out and its origins were traced back to Fort Smith, Birdie rescued Gus and left him in the care of Richard while she went to retrieve the project research, which she thought could be dangerous in the wrong hands.
Birdie connects the past to the present
The microorganisms Birdie’s team discovered were found in the same cave in Alaska discovered by Captain Thacker, a demented seaman who had discovered the tree at the cave’s center and believed it to be the Fountain of Youth. He discovered instead that its red-colored sap, known as the Blood of the Earth, was even more powerful, and embedded an axe in the side of the tree to reach it. This unleashed the Sick, and the sap ran into the ice.
Thankfully, Thacker’s crew, led by his First Mate, Burke, committed suicide once he realized that they were infected. As a result, the spread of the Sick was contained until Birdie took the microorganisms back to Fort Smith. The location of the cave continued to be guarded by Munaq, the son of Burke and Ikiaq, a native Inupiaq woman who was pregnant when Thacker unleashed the Sick.
Amy Seimetz as Birdie in Sweet Tooth Season 3 | Image via Netflix
Birdie Fulfills Her Purpose In Sweet Tooth Season 3
Despite Gus not actually meeting Birdie until Season 3, both of their respective adventures are carried out with complete focus on the other. Gus is trying to find his mother, while his mother is trying to save him by curing the Sick.
Because of this, we don’t actually see Birdie acting in a motherly way until the final episodes of the final season. Until then she’s quite aloof, and it isn’t always easy to buy into her love for the hybrid baby she knew for five minutes before handing him over to someone else.
However, Season 3 gives Birdie the opportunity to right the wrongs she had inadvertently committed by helping Gus put an end to the Sick, and then directly sacrificing her life to save him when Dr. Singh tries to sacrifice him. This is obviously a bit traumatic for Gus, but Birdie’s final words are “No regrets”, reiterating that she had found her true calling in finally meeting and bonding with Gus and giving her own life so that he could have a happy and safe future.
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