Inside the Sugar Twist: E.P. Simon Kinberg Breaks Colin Farrell’s Episode 6 Reveal — ‘It’s a Big Swing’ (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers from episode 6 of Apple TV+’s Sugar.

If Sugar were a straightforward noir-laced drama about a private investigator looking into the disappearance of a producer’s granddaughter, it would be more than enough. But a huge plot twist in the final moments of episode 6 expands the show into a daring mash-up of genres.

Sugar revolves around John Sugar (Colin Farrell), an empathetic P.I. tasked by Hollywood titan Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler). Sugar is quickly immersed in — and emotionally attached to —the case.

As the show heads towards episode 6, Sugar drops some hints, suggesting a big reveal is coming for his character. Earlier in the season, he tells Melanie (Amy Ryan) that he processes alcohol 50 times faster than others. In another scene, he admits to her he has a “big secret.”

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Executive producer Simon Kinberg explains to PEOPLE that those hints were part of a “continuous modulation of different ideas.”

“As we got closer to the end of episode 6 and [the] reveal, we could drop in just a few more breadcrumbs and a little bit more of a supernatural touch, because we wanted the audience to, at the very least, unconsciously be prepared for this very hard swerve we take at the end of the episode," he adds.

Colin Farrell in 'Sugar' episode 6.

Apple TV+

What actually happened?

After a showdown with Stallings and his sex trafficking crew, an injured Sugar made his way back to his motel and sent Amy to buy iodine from the local pharmacy. He retrieved a bulky cell phone from his bag and asked Melanie to call his friend Henry. “He’ll know what to do,” Sugar added.

He then passed out, falling over on his chair. When Henry (Jason Butler Harner) arrived, he and Melanie made quick work of carrying Sugar into the bathroom and laying him down. Henry grabbed several instruments, including scissors and tweezers from his bag, and sent Melanie to the drugstore to buy more Betadine, a topical antiseptic that kills germs once it’s applied to cuts, scrapes and burns.

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At that moment, Henry pulled out a blood transfusion bag emblazoned with a hexagonal logo and non-English symbols. The blood in this bag had small bits floating in the fluid: it was clearly not the same viscosity as human blood.

After injecting Sugar with medication, Henry moved him to the bed. Henry went to leave, telling Melanie that Sugar shouldn’t “move” or “go anywhere.” “He stays in that bed,” Henry demanded.

When Sugar finally woke up, he slowly emerged from the bed, grunting and grimacing, speaking via voiceover. "It hurts. Serves me right for what I did,” he said. “Long day… and it's not over yet.”

Colin Farrell and Kirby in episode 6 of 'Sugar.'.

Apple TV+

During a visit with Ruby (Kirby) in which Sugar realized she had betrayed him by giving his attackers a heads-up he was coming, he snatched something from a kitchen drawer when she was elsewhere in the house and returned to the motel room where Melanie was quietly sleeping.

"Maybe tonight, maybe it's okay to take a little break. Just a tiny little break,” he said via voiceover.

After sliding the bathroom door closed, he pulled out a needle and kit from a strange, crystal-like box. "Go home. Go home,” he said before injecting himself...

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So is John Sugar an alien?

After the injection, Sugar’s face and head transformed into something alien. His eyes glowed a bright blue, his dark brown hair disappeared, and his face and scalp took on a lighter blue hue with long, almost veiny, striations.

The camera lingered on him for several moments while Angel Olsen's song "Go Home" played and the credits rolled.

Too blue, or not blue enough?

Managing Sugar's plot twist was a huge undertaking, which involved discussions that at one time or another included Apple, Kinberg, Farrell, creator Mark Protosevich and other producers like Adam Arkin, Sam Catlin, Audrey Chon and director Fernando Meirelles. In addition to figuring out when to reveal Colin’s form — at one point, the producers deliberated over it happening in either the first or final episode — there were many conversations around how Sugar’s alien should look.

“We shared a common vision on the intention of the look,” Kinberg recalls.

Arriving at Farrell's final alien visage was a process that involved “hundreds” of different versions and iterations from the concept phase to post-production, where the visual effects department played around with color and lighting.

Jason Butler Harner and Amy Ryan in episode 6 of 'Sugar.'.

Apple TV+

“Nobody wanted it to be wild and make him suddenly creaturely, and everyone understood and recognized when it was too human and too subtle that [audiences] weren’t actually getting the full impact of the gear shift,” he says.

“In the early tests, I would say Colin’s [alien look] was too subtle,” Kinberg continues. “They were barely changing the color of his skin, very subtly changing his eye color. We all loved the notion of it being subtle, but if it was so subtle the audience wouldn’t get it — and it’s obviously critical that the audience understand what it is they’re looking at. We worried that just a sort of pale Colin with dark eyes, which we initially had, might look like a vampire. So it went through a lot.”

The producer is incredibly pleased with the final result.

“He [Sugar] has a sort of delicate, elegant quality to him, and we felt like the final look retained or even enhanced some of the delicacy and the elegance of John Sugar,” he adds.

The twist concerned potential networks

Viewers will surely be talking about Sugar’s big plot twist, which Kinberg admits was a big concern for buyers when the show was being shopped around.

“There were a lot of people that loved the writing. They loved the character, because Mark Protosevich had written a beautiful script, and John Sugar was such a unique and beautiful character,” Kinberg remembers. “But there were a lot of places that were scared of this reveal, that it felt like the blending, or mashup of the genres, was too risky. There were some places that said, ‘Why can't it just be a detective show? It's a really good detective show.’"

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"It was a big swing,” the executive producer adds, but one that was well worth it.

“We felt like taking that reveal out took something away from John Sugar, the character,” he says. “So it was not an easy thing to get everyone to agree to, among other places, but Apple was the strongest in supporting that vision that not everybody saw. And now I think once people see this episode, it will be hard to imagine this show without this element.”