After over a year’s wait, the second season of “XO, Kitty” has finally made its debut. On Jan. 16, viewers finally got answers to what happened after the major cliffhanger of season one.
Many may already be familiar with the character Kitty (Anna Cathcart), as she is the younger sister of Lara-Jean Song-Covey (Lana Condor) who had her own popular film franchise, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” This crossover is one of the most interesting and fascinating things about this series, even more so in the second season. In this season, Kitty is able to mend relationships, settle old feelings and become closer to her Korean family.
All throughout season two, there were a variety of new problems and conflicts that arose from newer characters. That being said, a lot of the love interests Kitty had last season are finally able to let go. Kitty is finally able to complete her original mission from the first season and even starts a new chapter for herself in South Korea.
Throughout season two, so many more parallels and similarities to Lara Jean’s love story are apparent. For example, there’s the memorable hot tub scene where Minho (Sang-Heon Lee) comforts Kitty and the scene on the track where he rushes to Kitty’s side that makes it painfully obvious as to who Kitty’s very own Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) is. These are parallels because Lara-Jean and Peter experienced these scenes as well during the start of their very own love story.
Towards the end of the season, two well-known characters from “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” appear in their separate episodes. Peter Kavinsky, Kitty’s sister’s boyfriend, makes a short appearance and helps boost Kitty’s spirit after some rough conflict. Meanwhile, in a later episode, Margot Song-Covey, Kitty’s eldest sister, helps reunite the family.
This season allowed the viewers to familiarize themselves with completely new characters and even learn more about characters who were in the first season but who were not as significant to the storyline at the time. One of my favorite characters that got more screen time this season was Eunice (Ryu Ha-bin). Eunice was a funny and unexpected character who was relatable and relieved a lot of tension from certain scenes, switching her bubbly personality that was effortlessly endearing.
While some newer characters were introduced, many characters from last season were still there. For example, Kitty’s ex-boyfriend, Dae-heon (Choi Min-young), was still a pillar for her throughout all the unexpected drama. Another character from last season that I enjoyed in season two was Q (Anthony Keyvan), who always gave the best advice and helped Kitty navigate her emotions and relationships.
A lot of the soundtrack consists of K-pop songs that are currently trending all over social media and are hits on the chart. Although most of the soundtrack was songs in Korean, this season also had songs from artists like Troye Sivan and Chappel Roan. One of my favorite songs I heard throughout this season was “BIBI VENGEANCE” by BIBI because of how strong and catchy the beat of the song was. Overall, there was such a wide array of songs and artists which was a contributing factor to the quality of this season.
The plotline of season two was centered on Kitty finishing much of what she was hoping to accomplish last season ,but with new, unexpected problems and disturbances. The constant plot twists and uncertainty left me on the edge of my seat for all eight episodes. Usually, I find it challenging to sit through shows, but with this show it flew by so quickly that I actually felt disappointed it was over.
In conclusion, this season was full of expected and unexpected twists. The ongoing and developing relationships between Kitty and her love interests provide an engaging and entertaining show that evokes all kinds of emotions and reactions from the audience. Even though some parts of this season were difficult and frustrating to watch, the new cliffhanger we were left with definitely showed potential for another season.
“XO, Kitty:” ★★★★☆