After Sugar Season 1’s divisive extraterrestrial twist showed Colin Farrell turn blue before our eyes and revealed that John Sugar is actually AN ALIEN, I didn’t think this show could make me scream “WHAT!?” at my television screen again. But boy did Season 2’s finale prove me wrong…

Spoilers for Sugar Season 2, Episode 8 ahead.

Season 2’s penultimate episode saw Sugar (Farrell) collect the final Assimilation Infinity Stone. He’d already eaten a cheeseburger and had sex; all that was left to do was kill. Then, he’d have lost himself and become an honorary human. Despite that fear, to save Ji (Raymond Lee) and Danny (Jin Ha), Sugar stooped to the level of a mere mortal and fatally strangled Lieutenant Vega (Tony Dalton) following a Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul-worthy brawl in the desert.

In Sugar Season 2, Episode 8, Sugar told his pal Tom (Shea Whigham) that killing Vega wasn’t self-defense, and neither was Stallings’ Season 1 murder. Despite the bad the men contributed to the world, Sugar still feels immense guilt, in large part because of Vega’s daughter and Stallings’ mom. “Afterwards I was sick; I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I couldn’t even remember the moment. It was like a blind rage. Now I can’t reconcile who I thought I was,” Sugar told Tom.

So how does Sugar recover from crossing those major lines? What happens between Sugar and Charlotte? And what the heck is Season 2’s extraterrestrial twist? Decider’s Sugar Season 2 finale recap has answers.

Sugar Season 2 Ending Explained: Sugar Season 2, Episode 8 Recap “Like Sugar”

Sugar‘s Season 2 finale opens on a woman performing experiments out in the desert on Earth. Her assistant races over and summons her to Site 22, where she finds a small plot of land with lush green plants growing strawberries. She eats one and announces in Spanish, “It worked,” then switches to English to stress that nobody could know until the technology was ready; until they tested it in other environments. As vehicles approached in the distance, the woman stepped away worriedly to make a phone call. The recipient? Sugar. Turns out, this was a flashback. He excuses himself from a conversation with Peg Rosenthal (played by Laura San Giacomo) and tells the woman on the phone that she’s talking about sex and what a swell time she’s having. “I told you, even the best of us can get lost down here,” the woman replies before telling Sugar everything’s fine, and she loves him. When she hangs up, Henry Thorpe (Jason Butler Harner) arrives, shoots her assistant, and congratulates her on the technology’s success. When Sugar returns to Peg, he reveals it was his sister on the phone. We finally learn what happened to her in Season 2’s finale, and you absolutely won’t see it coming…

Before the big reveal, we return to the present day where Sugar is still reckoning with Vega’s murder. Two of the season’s biggest storylines are wrapped in a flash. With Vega gone, the Fire Sale goes down. There are a bunch of FBI arrests, but the biggest is a woman named Assemblywoman Spiro who helped secure government housing grants. Who is she? No clue! And we don’t find out! Sugar has bigger alien fish to fry. Danny and Ji also get a happy ending, with Sugar supporting Danny at his big Vegas fight, marking an emotional end to the case. Unfortunately, Sugar starts stepping into the ring — the underground fight ring!? — to beat men bloody and get wailed on to the point of needing more alien blood transfusions. “Is this what it is to be human?” he asks, exploring all the emotions — the guilt, the hatred, and perhaps the thrill — that come with violently letting loose.

His healthier (or so he thinks) vice, Charlotte, can see he’s restless without a case and having some sort of identity crisis, so the two go on a romantic beach date where she reveals she’s being reassigned to Milan soon and wants him to go with her. Sugar entertains the idea, but as Charlotte tries to use her powers of persuasion, reminding him that his own job is done and he deserves a break, she slips. In running down a list of reasons why he should up and leave, she says, “All your friends are gone.” In that moment, the deception Sugar feared is clear. Somehow, she knows who he is. What he is. And where his people went. She tries to play the comment off coolly, but the entire day’s energy shifts. Later at the hotel, after the two part ways and head to their respective rooms, Charlotte breaks down crying, calls someone, and says, “I slipped up. He knows. I’m sorry. What do I do?”

While we don’t hear the orders Charlotte receives from whoever she called, we see her hop in a car. Sugar tails her to a luxurious mansion bash, the Acalica Gala, where she apologizes and says someone inside wants to see him. Seconds later, Senator Pavich (John D’Aquino) is shaking his hand and welcoming him to his home. But Charlotte informs a confused Sugar that’s not who he’s there to meet. She leads him to a long hallway and says that although what’s about to happen will be hard, she’s happy for him. And at the opposite end of the hall, his sister Djen (Mireille Enos) appears. Alive. Well. Human.

The two share an emotional embrace and Sugar blubbers like a baby, begging for answers. Djen reveals that Henry didn’t harm her. In fact, she asked him to make Sugar believe she was dead, because she could see he wasn’t ready. For what? “You didn’t know this place yet. You’d just arrived, and you hadn’t seen what I’d seen. Not just the beautiful, but the horror too. The cruelty. Their disregard for their sanctity of nature. I just couldn’t pull you into that work. It was too soon.” When Sugar reminds her that “observe and report” was their sole mission on Earth, she tells him she couldn’t stand by and watch the planet die, so she created the four-circle technology. Henry supported her. Ruby and the others protested. So she exposed and sent them back home. Uh oh… “This is wrong,” Sugar protests, but before he can unpack her lack of morality, it’s time for her presentation. “I’m scared, sister. You’ve changed,” he says. “But you’ve changed, too,” Djen replies, kissing his cheek.

Charlotte, who not only knows everything about Sugar but has been working for his sister the whole time, takes him out to a crowded back patio where Djen addresses her wealthy guests about global warming. “I started the Alcalica project so many years ago to protect the riches of this incredible planet, and to defend against those who would carelessly destroy it,” she explains, sounding like a hero. Then, she summons her four flying saucers and puts on a show. The metal disks hover above the crowd, and Djen uses them to manipulate the weather. Over the course of two minutes, she makes it rain and snow on her guests, then summons bright sunlight in the night sky. As the crowd cheers in hopeful delight, a concerned Sugar locks eyes with her from afar. Djen sees he’s still not ready, so she nods at Charlotte, who follows orders and takes him out with a blow of cinnamon to the face. (Remember, he and his kind are severely allergic!)

As Sugar starts to lose consciousness, Djen tells him she’s leaving again but wants him to find her when she’s ready, menacingly adding, “They think that this is for them. They have no idea this is for us.” Charlotte attempts to explain that although she was on a mission, the love they shared was real and true. And just like that, the cinnamon knocks him out until morning. He wakes, alone on Pavich’s back patio, and the show fades to black and white, making him the star of his own classic neo noir. In his mind, his life mirrors the final scene from The Third Man.

“The case is over. Arrests have been made. The hero’s won. All that’s left is he waits by the side of the road for the girl he loves to rush into his arms. So he thinks. But the hero is a fool, an American abroad in a world he doesn’t understand. And his love walks by without even a look,” his voice explains, as he runs through recent events in his mind. “Maybe I wasn’t completely surprised. Maybe somewhere inside I suspected all along. My sister. Charlotte. This place. Maybe I knew, and just wanted to believe something else.”

As Sugar feels more alone than ever, he reunites with two old pals. The first is Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell), who reveals that Melanie (Amy Ryan) told him Sugar’s an alien, but he doesn’t care! Sugar admits he’s done things he never thought he was capable of and asks if he seems different; assimilated. “How do you seem to me? You seem like Sugar,” Siegel says, before reuniting our protagonist with his old pal Wiley the dog.

Season 2’s final scene shows Sugar and his furry friend driving back to the hotel. “My sister said to find her when I’m ready. I don’t even know what that means, but for now I’m settling in,” Sugar’s voiceover explains. “I’ve got my buddy back, and we’re gonna meet some new people. I’ll see some movies, we’ll go to the dog park. That’s the plan. Maybe find a new case, maybe not; we’ll see how it goes. All I know is this place, these people…it’s good to be home.”

Eventually, if a Season 3 allows, we imagine Sugar will have to face all his family drama and try to save the world from his sister’s evil plans. But for now, our boy is assimilated and proud. He’s accepted his life on Earth, and he doesn’t just like it; he wants to make the most of it, at least for a while longer.

And naturally, because he’s finally content with being on his own, the box that connects him to his people finally starts to glow, reminding him he’s not alone. That’s just the way the world works!

Sugar Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV.