In Sugar, John Sugar, a private investigator, investigates the disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a high-profile film producer. The series is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
John Sugar is a private investigator working for the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society, a clandestine group of operatives.
Sugar primarily picks up missing people’s cases, as it rarely involves violence. After returning from Tokyo, being a movie buff, Sugar picks up the case of Olivia Siegel.
Olivia Siegel is the granddaughter of film producer Jonathan Siegel, a Hollywood royalty. Even though Ruby, who manages him, wants Sugar to take a break, Sugar is adamant.
Sugar is suffering from some ailment, and he is too lazy to seek help for that either. Ruby and Sugar agree that Olivia’s case will be Sugar’s last until she says otherwise. Sugar then begins investigating the case.
While on the case, John meets all the Siegels. They include Olivia’s half-brother, David “Davy” Siegel, who, for some reason, is keeping an eye on Sugar, Olivia’s father, Bernie Siegel, who thinks Olivia is a junkie who will show up sooner or later, and Melanie Matthews, Olivia’s ex-stepmother.
Sugar spends an entire night with Melanie because he discovered a picture of Melanie and Olivia together, which is recent.
Since Melanie is too drunk to give the right answers, Sugar circles back to Olivia’s apartment. In her car, he discovers the body of Clifford Carter.
Clifford Carter is a thug who is a prime suspect in the case of the rape and murder of a woman named Carmen Vasquez. The navigation system of Olivia’s car suggests that Olivia frequented Carmen’s house.
On the other hand, Clifford Carter’s boss, Byron Stallings, is also looking for his man. He threatens Teresa, Carmen’s sister.
He is looking for Melanie too, because Clifford sent Melanie’s picture to him after sending him the picture of Carmen. Those were some of Clifford’s last texts before disappearing.
Teresa and Melanie are friends. Stallings gets Teresa to bring Melanie. Sugar comes to their rescue, and it’s then that Melanie tells Sugar everything.
Melanie works for a shelter and helps women escape abusive men. She had saved Teresa from her husband. A month ago, Teresa’s sister, Carmen, contacted her too.
Olivia loved working with Melanie, so she joined her on this case. Olivia and Carmen grew close. One day, Olivia visited Carmen to find her body at her home.
There, she came face-to-face with Clifford Carter. Out of fear for her life, Olivia used the gun nearby to protect herself from Clifford.
A terrified Olivia contacted Melanie for help. Together, they hid Clifford’s body. That’s all Sugar learns from Melanie.
Later on, Melanie remembers Olivia meeting someone with whom she had an intense conversation. This person, Taylor, admits that she did meet Olivia.
The two talked about the behavior of Olivia’s stepbrother, Davy, who has used sexual blackmail against many women, including Taylor.
Taylor’s confession hints that Davy had a reason to get rid of Olivia. Once Davy’s behavior comes to light, he shares with Sugar what could have possibly happened to Olivia.
Olivia was after Davy, and back then, Davy was meeting Byron Stallings for women. He went to Stallings only a few times, but in one of the conversations with Stallings, Davy mentioned Olivia.
Davy thought that Stallings would only threaten and scare Olivia, but he is not sure anymore.
Sugar now goes after Stallings, who is a very dangerous man. However, it’s his own organization that is stopping him from doing so.
Ending explained:
Aliens infiltrating the Earth
Sugar tracks Byron Stallings down and kills him and his crew. However, he learns a harsh truth during this struggle. Someone messaged and tried to warn Stallings about Sugar.
It is Ruby’s number. Sugar is conflicted about why his organization is protecting Stallings. Sugar finds himself on the run from his own people until he bumps into a meeting of the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society.
It is revealed that Sugar and the other members of the Cosmopolitan Polyglot Society are aliens infiltrating the Earth. Their job here is to observe, report, and preserve their peaceful way of life.
Lately, they have been crossing lines by murdering people because their secret has been compromised. Someone has found out about them and is threatening them with exposure.
This person is very powerful and a client of Stallings. Hence, Ruby was stopping Sugar from going after Stallings and investigating Olivia’s case.
The conclusion of Olivia’s case
Since everything has blown up into proportion, the aliens have been called back home. Sugar is not ready to leave without solving Olivia’s case.
Ruby continues to keep things from Sugar, but Sugar’s friend, Henry Thorpe, who is an alien too, lets Sugar in on the information he has.
For Henry, it doesn’t matter because they are leaving anyway. He hands Sugar an address. It takes Sugar to the house of Ryan Pavich, the client of Stallings.
Ryan Pavich is also the son of the US Senator. Hence, the aliens are too afraid to deal with him.
Sugar manages to rescue Olivia, whom Pavich has kept captive in his basement. Pavich kills himself during the struggle between him and Sugar.
The real villain
Even though Sugar is successful in bringing Olivia back home, there is something that keeps bugging him.
He listens to Pavich’s recordings. Pavich was into torturing his victims and used to record his voice. Sugar suspects that someone else was with Pavich.
Olivia confirms it. When she was kept captive, she could hear this other person taking notes. After listening to Pavich’s words again and again, Sugar realizes that Henry used these same words with him once.
Henry Thorpe was working with Pavich. Henry had claimed that by being among the humans, they have started becoming humans too.
It’s true in the case of both Henry and Sugar. While Sugar has grown more attached to humans by observing them, Henry has gone past that.
The humans who know about the aliens are hunting the aliens down. Hence, Ruby and the other aliens are leaving.
Henry is not, and he intends to observe humans more. Henry thinks he belongs here, and Sugar does too. Since Henry won’t be leaving, Sugar is not going either.
What’s worse is that Sugar finds Djen’s clothing in Henry’s closet. Djen is Sugar’s sister. One of the reasons Sugar was obsessed with Olivia’s case is that Olivia reminded him of Djen.
Sugar now suspects that Henry had something to do with Djen’s disappearance, giving him another reason to stay and hunt Henry down. Hence, all the aliens leave, including Ruby, except for Henry and Sugar.
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