Colin Farrell breaks down Sugar's crazy episode 6 twist

Billed as a noir detective series, the show (which premiered to mixed reviews) has followed private investigator John Sugar as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of a Hollywood producer's granddaughter. Simple, right? Wrong!

At the end of episode 6, we see Sugar look in the mirror after a long hard day of being a private detective, before suddenly turning blue and revealing his true self. Oh yes, he's an alien.

Thankfully, Farrell is on hand to break down what exactly is going on here, exclusively telling RadioTimes.com: "Yeah, aliens. That was a twist!"

He added: "There's a sweetness to them. I mean, its hard to do character research for what life would be like in another planet!

"But it kind of explained, to a certain degree, this childlike innocence, and also his leaning into the history of cinema, and being so, kind of, enamoured and enraptured by the moving image in film, particularly noir."

Farrell went on to say: "The term alien, which is completely not politically correct now, has been used to kind of signify an outsider and the American experience, which, even though I've made America my home now, and I've raised my two kids here, I've obviously come from distant shores, [director] Fernando Meirelles has come from distant shores, and this character, John Sugar, has come from even more distant shores.

"So I think it's part of how he sees the human condition. And he sees Los Angeles as a very broken place, but a place that plays consistently on his heart, and a place that he has an enormous amount of empathy for.

"It meant that he didn't have the jadedness of a human being, he saw the darkness and he saw the violence and he experiences it very regularly by virtue of the job that he does as a private detective.

"But that's not the totality of his experience when he looks at human beings. He sees what the potential of human beings are. And he sees that they're capable of great acts of love and tenderness and generosity. So it was really interesting lens through which to see this story unfold."

That twist could have been completely different, however, with Farrell also revealing that an initial version of the script saw the revelation come in episode 1, instead of episode 6.

"In an initial version, it was revealed in the first episode, and I'm really happy that we ended up, kind of, navigating it and orienting it in another direction that it's revealed down the road, because I think it might have just let the audience off the hook a little bit sooner," Farrell added.

Still recovering from that twist? You're not the only one – and now it's time to see where those final two episodes will take John Sugar.

Sugar is available to stream on Apple TV+ now.

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