What Happens to Big Man at the End of 'Sweet Tooth'? His Fate Revealed
Jepp certainly has his fair share of close calls with death throughout the 'Sweet Tooth' series. What happens to him?
Published June 6 2024, 3:01 a.m. ET
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 1–3 of Sweet Tooth.
There are a lot of fans who tend to love shows that have been adapted from comic books, and one that has done an excellent job at grabbing their attention is Sweet Tooth. Based on the comics from Jeff Lemire, the Netflix fantasy series follows Gus (Christian Convery), a boy who was born a hybrid, or half-animal, half-human. His birth coincides with the outbreak of the deadly HFG9 virus, often referred to as the "The Sick," which then triggered "The Great Crumble."
After living in Yellowstone park for years and watching his father, aka Pubba, die from The Sick, Gus one day encounters a wandering human named Tommy Jepperd aka Big Man (Nonso Anozie).
The two strike up a friendship, and become inseparable for the remainder of the series. While we see Jepp nearly die in the Season 1 finale, he survives only to come in full contact with The Sick at the end Season 3. So, does Big Man die?
Does Jepp, aka Big Man, die in 'Sweet Tooth'?
Big Man doesn't die at the end of the Sweet Tooth series. Instead, he goes on to live out the remaining years of his life with his friends and new "family" until it is only the hybrids that are left. But Jepp certainly heads toward "the light" in the Season 3 finale.
Shortly after he and Gus locate the cave where Dr. James Thacker simultaneously unleashed The Sick and triggered the birth of the hybrids during his Arctic voyage in 1911, they all fall ill just as Dr. Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar) predicts. After Zhang pulls out the original ax Thacker attempted to hack into the tree with, she releases The Sick inside the cave. However, Gus isn't about to let the last people he cares about die.
Instead of sacrificing himself to cure The Sick, as Dr. Singh believes he must based on Thacker's journal, Gus cuts his hand and presses it against the tree's gash, which is leaking the blood of the Earth. Just as everyone around him are about to take their last breaths, Gus then burns down the tree, which produces an immediate cure for The Sick and they are no longer ill.
Shortly after, the scene cuts to Gus, Becky, and Wendy returning back to Yellowstone where they had left behind the remaining hybrids, but Jepp is nowhere in the picture. And just when viewers thought they lost Big Man (that empty chair nearly made us shed a tear!), he joins Gus with two bottles of maple syrup while the others work on building their new home.
Big Man and the other humans who survived The Sick are presumed to have lived out their lives. Through Gus's stories, he lives on, with Gus himself reaching an old age by the end of the finale.
What happened to Big Man's baby and wife in 'Sweet Tooth'?
In the eighth and final episode of Season 1, which is entitled "Big Man," viewers finally find out more about the human's backstory. During "The Great Crumble," Big Man and his wife were expecting their first child together.
Since the HFG9 pandemic was ongoing at the time, Big Man couldn't be in the delivery room when his wife went into labor. His son ended up being a hybrid. Because of this, both his wife and his newborn child were taken away, and later killed, with Big Man never seeing them again.
That's why he's been so intent on watching over Gus in the present. He doesn't want to be separated from the boy after everything he's been through. That, and he has made it his mission to help Gus find Birdie and potentially find a cure for The Sick.
Who plays Big Man in 'Sweet Tooth'?
Before he played the beloved fan favorite human in Sweet Tooth, Nonso Anozie appeared in a slew of top TV shows and films. The British actor was Frank Mace in the 2007 period piece Atonement.
He acted as Sergeant Jeffreys in the 2010 Nanny McPhee sequel, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Nonso was a Captain of the Guards in the 2015 live action remake of Cinderella.
He had roles in Ender's Game (2013), Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Get Santa (2014), and Pan (2015) as well.
As for his TV work, many may recognize Nonso from his work on Game of Thrones. In 2012, he played Xaro Xhoan Daxos in five episodes of the HBO fantasy series.
Season 1 through 3 of Sweet Tooth are available to stream on Netflix.