Welcome to the Couch Club, our recurring column devoted to all things #DCTV! In this installment, Joshua Lapin-Bertone considers whether Sweet Tooth’s Jepp and Dr. Singh have redeemed themselves.
 

SPOILER ALERT: The following column contains spoilers from the final episodes of Sweet Tooth.

The very last episode of Sweet Tooth, “This is a Story,” finds Gus making it to the mysterious cave he’s been seeing in his dreams all throughout the season. As the cave begins to collapse, Dr. Singh pushes Gus out of the way, saving the young hybrid’s life. It’s meant to be a redeeming moment for the doctor, after spending the last two seasons as an antagonist.

While this act of sacrifice was nice, it wasn’t enough to fully redeem Dr. Singh for me. I’ll never forget the way he killed and experimented on Roy and Peter, two hybrid children from season two. Singh also lied and manipulated Gus on multiple occasions. Prior to the final act, Singh had been planning on murdering Gus in the cave.

In the end Singh did the right thing, but my heart wasn’t ready to forgive him. However, this got me thinking—how was Singh any different from Jepperd? Both men have done unspeakable acts of violence against hybrids. Why was I so quick to hate Singh, while I viewed Jepp as a hero?

To recap, prior to meeting Gus, Tommy Jepperd (aka Big Man) was once a member of the Last Men, a group that hunted hybrid children. Jepp caught so many of them that he was given the nickname Hybrid Catcher. The kids he captured would be tortured and killed by the Last Men. Jepp was fully aware of this as he continued to round up young children, many only a few years old.

It’s pretty hard to come back from that, yet as Sweet Tooth viewers, we’ve rooted for Jepp since the earliest episodes, while we view Singh as a villain. Why is that? The easy answer is because we never saw Jepp’s dark days, while we saw Singh’s. As television viewers, it was easier for us to disassociate Jepp’s crimes, because they all happen offscreen.

If Netflix were to ever do a prequel series on Jepp’s years with the Last Men, how successful do you think it would be? It would be hard to tell a story where the protagonist hunts innocent children. I doubt the show would get a second season. It’s amazing what a difference a few years in the timeline makes in a desperate world like that of Sweet Tooth’s.

With that in mind, do we feel that Jepp has redeemed himself for his days as a hybrid hunter? This is hard to say, because there is nothing scientific about redemption. It’s a subjective and nuanced thing. Gus and Bear are aware of Jepp’s past, and they’ve certainly forgiven him. In fact, when an elderly Gus tells the story of his past to his grandchildren, he speaks of Big Man in nothing but glowing terms. What Jepp did as Hybrid Catcher didn’t matter. The only thing that was important was what Jepp did as Big Man.

For Aimee Eden, forgiveness was harder to find. When Jepp told Aimee about his past, she reacted with horror. Years earlier, some of the hybrids she was caring for had been taken by a hunter. Jepp admitted that while he didn’t know if he had been that hunter, he couldn’t rule it out. Aimee broke ties with Jepp, telling him that he should never see Gus again.

However, Aimee’s attitude warmed when Jepp saved the hybrid children from Abbot’s army. She smiled at Jepp, thanking him for saving her kids. For Aimee, that was enough. When it’s the end of the world and your children are in danger, there is no time to hold hatred in your heart.

If Aimee felt Jepp was redeemed, then maybe that is enough. The question is, did Jepp ever forgive himself? As you watch Sweet Tooth, it’s clear that Jepp has never fully come to terms with the mistakes of his past. Not only as a hybrid hunter, but as a husband and father. When his son was born, Jepp turned his back on him. He couldn’t accept the fact that he was the father to a hybrid. By the time he pulled himself together, his wife and son were gone.

The next time he saw them, they were nothing but bones. According to General Abbot, they died waiting for Jepp to return home. He never had a chance to apologize and do right by them, and that reality haunts him. It’s also one of the reasons that Jepp took such a fatherly interest in Gus. It was a way to make up for not being there for his own son. It finally gave him a chance to be the father he should’ve been.

Did Tommy Jepperd redeem himself? Can anybody redeem themselves, no matter how heinous their crimes? This might seem like a cop out, but I don’t have the answer. As I said earlier, it’s all subjective and nuanced. Whether Big Man was redeemed or not, I think the final scene is an important statement on his legacy. The hybrids have grown and started families of their own. Gus is an elderly man and sharing stories of Big Man to his grandchildren. Jepp will live on as a hero through family stories for generations. In the end, that’s a legacy he can be proud of.

Sweet Tooth, based on the Vertigo comic by Jeff Lemire, is now streaming in full on Netflix.

Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, "Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Twitter at @TBUJosh.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.