Warning! Contains spoilers for Sweet Tooth season 3.

In their quest for answers surrounding the origins of The Sick, Gus and the team learn about the Antler’s Tree and the Blood of the Earth in Sweet Tooth season 3. Picking up where season 2 left, Sweet Tooth season 3’s opening arc is about the challenges and setbacks Gus, Jepperd, Wendy, and Bear face during their journey to Alaska. However, the closer they get to finding Gus’ mother Birdie in Alaska, the more they learn about James Thacker and how his actions brought sickness to the world.

Sweet Tooth season 3’s ending arc unfolds inside a cave in Alaska, where a final showdown ensues between Zhang’s men and Gus’ team. During this climatic conflict, the Netflix series reveals how James Thacker’s encounter with the Antler’s Tree and the Blood of Earth triggered the events of the entire show. Although Sweet Tooth season 3 still keeps some aspects surrounding the Tree and its origins shrouded in mystery, it drops enough clues to encourage viewers to speculate.

The Blood Of The Earth Started The Sick

James Thacker’s Actions Exposed The World To The Blood Of The Earth

James Thacker’s story in Sweet Tooth reveals he arrived in Alaska to find a cure for his degenerative disease. His quest led him to the cave, where he found the Antler Tree. Realizing that the tree was connected to all life forms on the planet, Thacker chopped it with an axe and extracted its sap. Touting the tree’s sap as “The Blood of the Earth,” James Thacker stored it in a bottle, believing it would be humanity’s fountain of youth and cure all illnesses. However, things took a grim turn when Thacker and his grew increasingly sick after his encounter with the tree, hinting that the tree’s sap started The Sick.

In Sweet Tooth‘s present timeline, James Thacker’s axe is found stuck in the tree’s bark, and Gus wonders if removing the axe would cure the Sick. Although no one initially dares to remove the axe, Zhang eventually pulls it out of the tree, allowing more of “The Blood of the Earth” to pour out of the tree’s bark. As a result, with more sap flowing out of the tree, all humans around it instantly start succumbing to the Sick, confirming that James Thacker’s exposure to “The Blood of the Earth” first unleashed the illness on humanity.

How Destroying The Antler Tree Cures The Sick

The Blood Of The Earth Is Portrayed As A Curse

After interacting with Pubba on the astral plane, Gus realizes he must turn the page and embrace the uncertainties ahead instead of fearing them. As a result, he burns down the tree, hoping it will also cure the Sick. To everyone’s surprise, destroying the tree does the job and rids everyone of the Sick. From a scientific standpoint, destroying the source of a pandemic may not suddenly neutralize the pathogen responsible for spreading it. However, since Sweet Tooth inclines more towards fantasy, the tree’s destruction seemingly severs the connection between the sap and the disease.

In a more mystical context, “The Blood of the Earth” can be seen as a curse that infects Thacker after he attempts to selfishly defy the laws of nature and disturb the natural order. Since the curse originates from the trunk of the tree, burning it down also leads to the cessation of the curse. However, even though hybrid births and the spread of the Sick are supposed to be correlated, the Antler Tree’s destruction only stops the Sick but not the emergence of the new species.

Gus Let Nature Choose Between Humans & Hybrids

Nature Restores Balance Instead Of Completely Eradicating Humans

After talking to Pubba, Gus realizes it is not in his hands to determine whether humans will get to live or the hybrids will inherit the planet. Therefore, he burns down the source of the Sick and lets nature decide whether that should mark the end of humanity or the termination of hybrid births. Nature does the unexpected. Since humans, too, are mere participants in the planet’s grand ecosystem, “nature” does not destroy them. Instead, it restores balance in the world by preventing the spread of the sick but also sustaining the births of hybrids.

With this, the remaining humans become temporary observers of an evolutionary change where the young hybrids take over as the worthy successors of the planet’s future. By highlighting how nature always prioritizes balance, Sweet Tooth presents a profound real-world metaphor for how humanity’s actions could lead to its downfall if it does not stop and think about its relationship with nature and the impact of its actions on other living beings. Other than being a cautionary tale, Sweet Tooth also uses the hybrids as a narrative device to portray how the younger generation can still trigger change and restore balance in the world.