For much of Sugar season 2, we’ve seen our hero, John Sugar (Colin Farrell), wrestling with the idea he was losing his way. That’s manifested in a vision of a fellow visitor (Laura San Giacomo) who went down a similar path. But as Sugar has faced off against Vega (Tony Dalton), he’s been pushed to break the unbreakable rules. It doesn’t help that he’s all alone, either.
In the penultimate episode of season 2, “What Else Can You Do?,” he is pushed past the breaking point.
Crossing the line
We begin at the end, with Sugar opining via voiceover that he had no choice. We flash back two days, and Sugar is weighing his options. Tom (Shea Whigham) returns to the option of taking Vega off the table, permanently. Sugar has resisted, but that resistance is breaking down. Still, he has one more card to play.
Sugar sets up a meeting with an old contact, Sergey (Daniel Zacapa). He rightly suspects that Sergey is pulling the strings behind the scenes, and he has a past with Sugar. He asks that Danny Moon (Jin Ha) be released, and Sergey agrees. Sugar hears from Vega, and it seems like he’s got the upper hand.
Then he doesn’t. Sergey dies in a plane crash. Turns out Vega has been in league with Sergey’s son all along, and now the son is making a power play. It leaves Sugar without any options, and Tom again suggests the permanent solution. But Sugar appears to have a bigger problem as Val (Sasha Calle) shows up and says Ji Moon (Raymond Lee) has disappeared.
Vega overhears the news and sets his team to work. He doesn’t need to try too hard, as Ji Moon reaches out and offers to trade himself for his brother. Vega accepts and grabs Danny out of custody, and he heads to the desert. He heads into the mobile home but finds it empty. He returns to the car, but it’s Sugar in the back seat, not Danny.
A fight follows, which leads to the car crash we saw at the beginning. It ends with Sugar choking Vega to death in the desert. And it’s followed by a reunion between Ji and Danny. It’s a happy ending of sorts, for the time being.
A new lead
Vega wasn’t the only challenge for Sugar. He gets a call from Stanley (Bernard White), whom he secretly befriended. Stanley is upset and needs a friend. He hopes to get that from Sugar, but Sugar doesn’t have time to keep up the ruse. He tells Stanley the truth of who he is, and he asks him about the Pavich family and the four circles.
It turns out the four circles aren’t what he thought. It’s part of a revolutionary new technology that could potentially change the world. It’s a technology that Stanley helped develop. The question is what that has to do with what happened to Sugar’s people.
The Charlotte affair
We see that Charlotte (Laura Donnelly) and Sugar are still continuing their affair. That was a big line Sugar crossed that might have led down the path to being totally lost. But he’s lonely, and she provides comfort and an outlet. But could she have her own motivations?
As Sugar grapples with what happened with Vega, he’s visited by Peggy again. He’s struggling to come to terms with what happened and trying to justify it in his mind. Meanwhile, Charlotte seems to be observing everything in a way that seems suspicious. It feels like she might have an ulterior motive for this connection, and something that could lead Sugar down an even more dangerous path.
We get a conclusion to some of the big stories. Vega is off the board, but does that mean the threat to Ji Moon is over? Perhaps, but if a man was willing to kill his own father, there’s no telling how he’d respond to what Sugar did in the desert. That could leave Ji, Danny, and Sugar in peril as we steamroll toward the season finale.
Sugar streams Fridays on Apple TV. Check back next week as we recap all the action of season 2.
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