Episode 4 opens with the events at the hospital from eight days earlier. Lieutenant Vega (played by Tony Dalton)—the officer revealed in the previous episode’s finale—enters the hospital dressed in black and takes the elevator, where Ji is also inside. The episode then shows Ji carrying out the drug theft. As he attempts to leave through the stairwell, he spots a security guard making his way upstairs. Ji quickly doubles back, heads to another floor of the hospital, and hides in the room of a patient: Jesus Alejandro Jaquez (better known as Chuy). Hearing someone emerge from the bathroom, Ji quickly hides in the closet. From his hiding place, he watches Lieutenant Vega clamp off Chuy’s airway tube, killing him. Sensing he isn’t alone, Vega approaches the closet and opens the door, finding Ji inside. He takes a photo of Ji, then tells him to run.

The episode then cuts to Sugar in an interrogation room, where he has been brought in for questioning. Sitting across from him are Lieutenant Vega and another deputy. After the deputy leaves, Sugar reveals that he knows Vega was responsible for Chuy’s murder and has been hunting Ji because he witnessed the killing. He also identifies Vega’s ties to the Ez4 gang, linking them to Fire Sale. Sugar makes it clear that he has no intention of backing down, telling Vega he will continue doing his job and searching for Ji.

A tense Sugar returns home and immediately senses that something is wrong. He checks the surveillance footage from his room and discovers that Charlotte had entered while he was away, snooping around. He heads to the hotel bar to confront her, but Charlotte explains that the housekeeper let her in and insists she only went inside to leave him a flirty note.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Vega meets with Hannah McDaniels, the hospital nurse who assisted Ji in carrying out the drug theft. He assures her that he is not there to get her into trouble and insists that he only wants to know Ji’s whereabouts. Elsewhere, Sugar meets with Danny, who admits that he has known the identity of Ji’s friend from the nightclub all along—Tyler Ko. Frustrated by the revelation, Sugar confronts Danny for keeping it from him.

Sugar heads to Tyler Ko’s home, where Tyler’s father answers the door. He tells Sugar that Tyler and Ji should be back soon. As he waits, Sugar suddenly puts the pieces together: Ji is meeting Hannah for a drug deal, and Lieutenant Vega is following her. He immediately calls Val, who has been keeping an eye on Hannah, and she informs him that Hannah has just arrived at a shopping mall. Ji and Hannah briefly meet before Ji quickly hurries away.

The episode then cuts to a deputy placing a tracking device on Ji’s car. Sugar arrives at the mall and meets with Val. While looking at a photograph inside the mall, Sugar realizes that Ji is heading toward the desert. He calls Danny and asks him to send the coordinates of a house they used to frequent in the area.

As evening comes, Sugar locates the house in the desert and finds Ji asleep on the couch inside. As he and Tyler attempt to wake him, Sugar notices headlights approaching in the distance—they’re coming. Thinking quickly, Sugar spots pills and needles on the table and immediately springs into action. When the deputies enter the house, they find Ji unconscious on the couch with a needle in his arm. They search the room but fail to notice Sugar, who is concealed behind a door. Believing it to be an overdose, they decide to leave.

The episode comes to a close with Sugar rushing to Ji’s side and attempting to revive him. He performs CPR, wrestling with guilt over doing this to Ji in the first place. After several tense moments, Ji finally wakes up and takes a deep breath.

Episode 4 of Sugar brings Sugar face-to-face with the story’s antagonistic force, creating an engaging game of cat-and-mouse, at the expense of sidelining the show’s other major thread. The reveal of Lieutenant Vega’s involvement in the larger mystery significantly raises the stakes, and his knowledge of Sugar’s connection to the situation creates a compelling dynamic between the two characters. However, at this stage in the series, Sugar’s personal investigation into Matt Pavich has yet to move forward, leaving that storyline largely untouched. Similarly, Sugar’s potential romance with Charlotte remains underdeveloped, making her purpose within both Sugar’s character arc and the broader narrative feel uncertain. Still, with Sugar having finally tracked down Ji, the episode sets the stage for an exciting next episode.

Rating: 6/10