Warning! Contains spoilers for Sweet Tooth season 3.
Summary
AlthoughSweet Toothseason 3 maintains an air of ambiguity surrounding the Caribou Man’s origins, it drops enough clues to let viewers deduce who he is and how he came into existence. Developed by Jim Mickle, Netflix’sSweet Toothseason 3 reinstates almost all the characters who led its first two seasons. While some, like Rani and Abbot, do not return in the finale because they meet with tragic fates towardSweet Toothseason 2’s ending, others, like Jepperd, Gus, Wendy, and Bear, again become the primary drivers of the show’s narrative.
Apart from marking the return of familiar faces, Netflix’sSweet Toothseason 3 also introduces some new ones, including a handful of endearing hybrids like Nuka and Theo. Among all the new hybridcharacter additions inSweet Toothseason 3, the Caribou Man stands out because he is the only adult half-human, half-animal character in the series' present timeline. His appearance inSweet Toothseason 3’s endingarc raises several questions about the origins of The Sick.
Sweet Tooth Season 3 Soundtrack Guide: Every Song & When They Play
While some songs in Sweet Tooth season 3’s soundtrack add more intensity to its upbeat tone, others bring more emotional heft to its poignant moments.
The Caribou Man Is The First Hybrid
He Was Born Soon After Thacker Found The Blood Of The Earth
ThroughoutSweet Toothseasons 1 and 2, viewers and the show’s characters are led to believe that Gus was the first hybrid. However, season 3 finally confirms that long before Gus was born, the Caribou Man, whose real name is Munaqsriri, was born as the first half-human, half-animal hybrid.James Thacker’s story inSweet Toothreveals that he traveled to Alaska in 1911 and found a cave with a mysterious Antler Tree. Blinded by his hunt for the fountain of youth, Thacker cut the tree with an axe and extracted “The Blood of the Earth” from its trunk, believing it would cure all illnesses.
Harming the tree and releasing its sap into the worldtriggered the spread of The Sick and the arrival of the hybrids. However, realizing how The Sick would destroy humanity, Thacker’s men killed themselves in Alaska and prevented The Sick from spreading by preventing Thacker from leaving. Before they met their tragic fates, however, a native woman, Ikiaq, was impregnated by a man, Nathaniel Burke, from Thacker’s crew. Although the woman also died soon after the men,she gave birth to the first hybrid, Munaq, before passing away.
Owing to his appearance, Munaq was labeled as “The Caribou Man.” Over a century after Munaq’s birth and Thacker’s death, Gillian Washington followed Thacker’s footsteps to find a cure for all illnesses. She, too, found “The Blood of the Earth” and brought it back to the United States, allowing The Sick to spread all across the globe. While Gus was created in a lab, all other hybrids emerged after The Sick infected the masses.
How Old Munaq Is & How He’s Lived For So Long
Munaq Was Alive For More Than 100 Years
Since Munaq was born around 1911,he lived for over a century inSweet Toothbefore dying from the injuries caused by the Wolf boys. As Munaq recalls, he struggled to coexist with humans after his mother passed away because humans always treated him like an animal. After losing faith in humanity, he moved to an abandoned church near the cave and spent the rest of his years protecting it from humans. AlthoughSweet Toothseason 3 does not explicitly explain how he lived for so long, the hybrids seemingly have longer lifespans than most humans because of their unique genetic makeup.
Sweet Tooth: 12 Huge Differences Between The Show & The Comics
Netflix’s Sweet Tooth has made many changes from the comic book source and some of them were done for the better.
The Purpose Of The Caribou Man In Sweet Tooth
The Caribou Man Is What Gus Could Have Become If It Wasn’t For The Kindness Of Some Humans
The Caribou Man serves as an analog for Gus, making him question whether humans truly deserve to be saved. By recounting his terrible experiences with humans, Munaq argues that Earth would be better off without them. However, since Gus has experienced the kindness of humans like Birdie, Pubba, and Big Man, he refuses to agree with Munaq. Much later in the season, Gus recalls Munaq’s words about humans and their cruelty when he sees what people like Zhang are capable of.
Fortunately for Gus, he gets to see the best of humanity when Dr. Aditya, Birdie, and Jepperd put their lives on the line to protect him.
As a result, he finds himself at a crossroads where hesees the good in humans like Jepperd, but also notices the inherent darkness in others like Zhang. Fortunately for Gus, he gets to see the best of humanity when Dr. Aditya, Birdie, and Jepperd put their lives on the line to protect him. If it wasn’t for these loving humans, Gus probably would have lived the rest of his years like the Caribou Man. However, as seen inSweet Toothseason 3’s ending, the older Gus always remembers how Big Man Jepperd treated him instead of turning resentful towards humanity like Munaq.
Sweet Tooth
Based on the comic series of the same name, Sweet Tooth is set in the not-too-distant future, post-apocalyptic United States in the wake of a devastating viral pandemic. After the disease decimated the world’s population, some children began to be born with human and animal hybrid characteristics. Many people are afraid of the hybrids, believing them to be the cause of the virus. When his father is killed, a young deer hybrid named Gus (Christian Convery) embarks on a quest to find his mother with the help of a traveler and loner named Tommy Jeppard (Nonso Anozie).
