For those who have already seen episode 6, it is no surprise that [Spoiler Alert] John Sugar is an alien or a humanoid. But some can argue that these visuals on the mirror aren’t real and are a mere hallucination caused by a drug that John injected inside his body. Well, just to confirm the theory, I watched all six episodes again and found some intriguing details that might support the alien or the humanoid theory, so without further ado, let’s get into it.
1. John Drinks Like Bukowski, Yet Doesn’t Get Drunk
While following a potential lead in Olivia Siegel’s disappearance case, John came across her stepmother, Melanie, with whom he spent a lot of time in a bar. While ordering drinks at the table, John told her that he couldn’t get drunk as he had a strange metabolism. His body processes alcohol at a rate that’s 50 times faster than normal, yet he likes to drink because of the romance in it. This particular line reminds me of a similar exchange between Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers, who tells his lady love about his strange metabolism. Even Wolverine and many other superheroes with healing abilities have the same relationship with alcohol. Also, John’s middle name is “Steven” if you consider it an Easter egg. It implies that John Sugar might be the product of a lab experiment, a humanoid or an alien, if we want to over-stretch.
2. John is a quick learner
Davey, or David’s right-hand, Kenny, visited a national security officer, Everett Roberts, who told Kenny that John Sugar attended a Defense Language Institute in Monterey in 2001. For those who don’t remember, it was an Army language school for future spies, military officers, State Department officials, and the Marine Corps. But what was strange was the fact that a regular person usually takes years to excel in a DLI course, while John Sugar finished in weeks. Well, that’s kind of a superpower, isn’t it? Now, John Sugar is also part of a polyglot club with a French name called Societe Polyglotte Cosmopolitaine, which seems like a secret spy agency on the outside, but I’ll come back to that later.
3. John has psychic powers
Initially, I believed that John Sugar was just friendly with dogs. I mean, there are certain people who can befriend humans and animals alike. I happen to be someone who never really understood the secret recipe. Nevertheless, the sixth episode made it abundantly clear that John isn’t just friendly; he can also “control” or “calm” down the speechless creatures. A brief scene outside the Byron Stallings safehouse confirmed the theory, as one can see John dealing with his two canines almost effortlessly. Also, John Sugar’s real look in episode 6 reminds me of Martian Manhunter, which can give away the fact that he is an alien from a nearby planet who arrived on Earth after their settlement was destroyed. And for those of you who already know but see this as an easter egg, Manhunter’s Earth name is John, too.
4. John doesn’t sleep
Insomniacs and sleep-deprived detectives are nothing new in the world of cinema, which might be the reason why I wasn’t initially suspicious about this particular habit in John Sugar, but after watching the end of episode 6, it seems like John literally cannot sleep. Either he is a humanoid, which explains why he couldn’t just shut down his thoughts, or he is an alien struggling to adapt to the new planet, which is why he needs a special serum or drug to calm down his nerves that eventually transforms him into the true form that he has been hiding from the human world. Also, he had a sister named Djen (quite an unusual name), about whom we know nothing. It might be that she was an alien too, someone whom John lost after their planet was destroyed like Superman lost his family. Maybe we’ll find out eventually.
5. John knows nothing about life except through cinema
I am sure John, being a cinephile, might have heard Jean-Luc Godard’s famous quote. But that isn’t the point here. As normal human beings, we often make decisions based on our past experiences. In simple words, our memories affect our present actions. But it feels like John doesn’t remember anything except for movies. He constantly refers to cinema as anecdotes in a conversation or to communicate what he is feeling in a given situation. Playing the detective made him feel like Humphrey Bogart and the great betrayal was reminiscent of L.A. Confidential. It wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that anything John Sugar knows about humans is through movies, perhaps, which is why he often acts like a conflicted protagonist who isn’t very sure of his actions. John doesn’t want to hurt people, but when he loses his mind, he ends up killing people. John’s entire life is a reference to cinema because he remembers nothing else.
6. John needs special medical treatment
In the initial episodes, it seemed like John Sugar avoided the hospital because he didn’t want to get involved with the police and give away his private life. But when he got severely stabbed in episode 6 and still chose not to go to the hospital, you can sense that something isn’t right here. Well, there might be a reason why John only visits a particular doctor named Dr. Vickers, who is recommended by none other than Ruby. Additionally, his friend Henry brought in a special blood packet filled with visible microorganisms for his treatment when he lost a lot of blood. On a closer look, these cells also seemed like rapidly moving nanobots which might suggest that he is a humanoid. Whatever the case might be, the entire scene served to clarify one thing for sure: John isn’t human, and therefore, no human doctor could treat his wounds. He has a different anatomy, which only an alien doctor or scientist like Dr. Vickers understands. Also, it was quite interesting when John Sugar made a John Carpenter’s The Thing reference during his visit to Vickers’ clinic, maybe to suggest a similar feeling while lying on a man-made stretcher.
7. The Secret Polyglot Society
I am not sure of this part because there are still two episodes left before the Sugar finale, so I’ll just throw in my theories. I believe Ruby is a middleman working for an alien agency that does have a sinister purpose on Earth, maybe like the shape-shifting Skrulls, who are planning a secret invasion. But then why did they kidnap (or kill) Olivia, and how could she be a threat to these extraterrestrial beings? Ruby’s low-light dark chamber and that big box placed on the table have already given away a lot we needed to know. It seemed like a communication device that she used to deliver the minutes of the mission to the higher-ups who had sent these soldiers or aliens to Earth to “keep an eye” on the humans and their activities. However, their true motive is still unclear to us.
Additionally, John Sugar is “feeling” too much, which might be a serious threat to his mission. Eventually, it could become one of the reasons why these aliens would turn against their own and try to kill John Sugar in the upcoming episodes. I mean, Ruby already tried to give John Sugar fake aspirin to either calm him down or capture him. So, John has indeed turned his friends into enemies, and the entire network of spies or aliens from the Secret Polyglot Society would be hunting him down like he is John Wick. Hollywood, indeed, has too many Johns. Nevertheless, it would be interesting how John, against all odds, finishes the work, finds Olivia if she is alive, and protects Melanie because he has developed a soft corner for her.
Final Words
Now, these are the few plot points that I picked up during a second watch of the six episodes of the series, and I am sure there might be many other hints throughout these episodes that suggest John Sugar is an alien or a humanoid. Well, he did make many alien and UFO references throughout the runtime, so if you caught any of those details, feel free to share them with us in the comments section.
