“Fractured and separated.” That’s how Sweet Tooth showrunner Jim Mickle describes the state of Gus (Christian Convery), Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) and Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen) when last we saw them, in the Season 1 finale. After the trio’s long journey to Colorado, they wind up on vastly different paths: Gus is held captive by General Abbot (Neil Sandilands), along with several other hybrids, Jepperd joins forces with Aimee (Dania Ramirez) to try to rescue the kidnapped children and Bear makes contact with Birdie (Amy Seimetz) in what was the show’s very last scene… until today. While the entirety of Season 2 will launch on April 27, Tudum is showcasing the first 11 minutes of the premiere episode right now.

The engrossing opening scene shows Birdie trekking through harsh arctic conditions and arriving at a deep hole, down which she descends to investigate an abandoned ship. There, among the skeletons of long-dead bodies, she makes an interesting discovery: a notebook, its cover reading “Dr. James Thacker, 1911.” We only get a glance at the journal’s pages, but could that sketch of a deer and another silhouetted figure have significance for the history of the hybrids?

As for Gus, he’s in Essex County Zoo, imprisoned along with Wendy (Naledi Murray) and a group of other hybrid children captured by General Abbot, who intends to experiment on them in his search for a cure. We get an idea of their cruel living conditions in the form of one of the Last Men shouting, “Breakfast time, you little freaks,” before dumping a mountain of kibble into the hybrids’ underground holding cell. If you think that sounds sinister, brace yourself, because Season 2 is no less ominous than its predecessor. 

In fact, Mickle says, “I think it’s a little darker. It’s a little more mature than Season 1.” The showrunner continues, “Some of that is the subject matter, but part of that is the characters themselves. Everyone's starting to grow up a bit. Christian Convery is a different actor and Gus is a different character, so the show gets to grow up along with them.”

It’s not just the tone that’s shifting. Executive producer Susan Downey says the new installment of Sweet Tooth will contain crossovers between characters who hadn’t interacted before. “Going into Season 2 we wanted to expand on all of it,” she tells Tudum. “We wanted to push these relationships further. We wanted to push the world and explore what other people are doing post-Crumble. We wanted to heighten the stakes with our antagonists, and we obviously wanted more hybrids.”

See a more grown-up Gus explore the mysteries of his complex world when Sweet Tooth Season 2 premieres on April 27.