Aahana Swrup
‘Sweet Home‘ Netflix’s post-apocalyptic action Kdrama depicting the battle between humanity and monsters delves into another exploration of the same’s moral and social implications in the show’s season two. In a world where anyone can turn into a monster at a moment’s notice, Cha Hyun-su is a special infectee with the ability to control his monstrous side, who fights for humanity’s survival above his own. However, humanity’s fears lead to death and destruction, pushing survivors, including the Green Home Apartments residents such as Lee Eun-yu, to seek safety in a stadium bunker under Sargeant Tak’s martial law.
As the monsters outside threaten humanity to the brink of extinction, so do their own fears and desires. ‘Sweet Home’s’ second season charts thrilling adventures unraveling new and old threads. Thus, Hyun-su and his friends’ predicament must have caught the viewers’ attention. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Sweet Home Season 2 Recap
Following Green Home Apartments’ destruction, its residents find themselves shipped off to an allegedly safe military shelter. Meanwhile, Hyun-su, who surrendered himself to be experimented on by the army, realizes his transport has been hijacked by Jung Ui-Myeong, who has possessed Pyeon Sang-wook’s body. Likewise, the military notices the truck going rogue and pursues them through the wrecked city. Despite an intense chase and a battle between Hyun-su and Ui-Myeong, the latter manages to escape with the special infectee in his possession.
Meanwhile, the apartment residents, including Eun-yu and Ji-su, join other survivors traveling to the shelter. However, on the way, a monster attack leads to chaos. As a result, Eun-yu manages to snag a gun and forces the soldiers to drive her group back to Green Home. Ji-su realizes Eun-yu is returning for her older brother, Eun-hyeok, who sacrificed himself for his friends. Although Ji-su thinks it’s unwise for Eun-yu to risk her life on a goose chase, she holds the soldiers at gunpoint while the girl ventures into the buildings’ rubble.
Inside, Eun-yu finds some of her brother’s memorabilia, but not the man himself. Soon, the two soldiers take control of the situation and try to leave Eun-yu and her friends tied up at the buildings’ ruins as revenge. Yet, Private Park Chan-young doesn’t wish to condemn them to such a fate. Therefore, when a monster attacks before the soldiers return, killing Park’s superior, he fights back and manages to flee the scene with all the survivors secure.
As these events unfold, Ui-myeong tries to convince Hyun-su to join his cause to unite the special infectees, or Neo-humans, as he calls them, in a fight against humanity. Nevertheless, once the man displays spectacular violence against humans, Hyun-su leaves his side and surrenders them both to the military. As a result, the research lab conducts physically and psychologically draining experiments on the boy. Still, the researchers and Hyun-su discover his ability to incapacitate monsters with a touch. Unbeknownst to the former, Hyun-su’s powers can remind the monsters of their human life, compelling them to stop.
Simultaneously, the former firefighter and Green Home resident, Seo Yi-kyung, goes rogue in search of her fiancé after striking a deal with the military. Her quest leads her to the Banseom facility, where they have Hyun-su and Ui-myeong imprisoned. Although she manages to find her fiancé, she realizes she has truly lost him after witnessing his state as a lab rat for the researchers.
As Eun-yu and the others arrive at the shelter, significant conversations occur inside the Prime Minster’s cabin, where he discusses launching the Golden Hour Operation that would obliterate all life, humans and monsters alike. Once General Tak catches the scent of the same, he and his Crow Platoon attempt to stop them by attacking the Banseom building. Nonetheless, they are too late to stop the missiles from launching toward the shelter. In the ensuing chaos, countless people lose their lives, including Ji-su, who sacrifices herself for Yeong-su, the 6-year-old kid.
Similarly, Ui-myeong manages to break out from his hold and approaches Hyun-su, resulting in an epic battle that ends with the latter’s defeat. Almost a year into the future, a group of survivors, including those who made it out of Golden Hour Operation alive, like Eun-yu, reside inside a stadium bunker run by Chief Ji. Still, after the survivors’ arrival, who are under the leadership of Tak and his men, including Sergeant Kim, the latter has taken over a bit.
The stadium remains a safe haven, avoiding monster transformations and attacks for a long time. Nevertheless, within its walls, Eun-yu develops a bad reputation for trouble due to rumors about her killing Ji’s husband. Moreover, while others stay inside, the woman routinely sneaks out in search of something— or someone. Eventually, she runs into a teenage girl with intriguing abilities. The same night, Eun-yu discovers that the girl is Yi-kyung’s daughter.
However, the relationship between this mother-daughter duo remains taut. The kid is a born monster with the ability to control other humans and turn them into monsters through touch. As such, Yi-kyung remains torn between keeping her daughter safe and also saving others from her. Therefore, the kid realizes her mother is afraid of her and would rather have her disappear. In the end, setting fire to Yi-kyung’s boat, the kid flees.
Sweet Home Ending: Does Yi-kyung Die?
Yi-kyung’s story comes to the forefront toward the season’s end as her daughter’s identity reveals itself. Once Eun-yu realizes the same, she escapes from the stadium in the dead of the night to follow the kid and her mother, Eun-yu’s old friend. Private Park, who is also at the scene, can’t help but follow after Eun-yu due to his own sense of duty. Nevertheless, their trip only ends in an argument as they find themselves trapped in a hunting pit. Although the two manage to escape from the hole, they are soon met with the survivalists who set up the trap, Ho-sang and his companion, Ha-ni.
Ha-ni becomes particularly fond of Park and tries to keep him, which lands the duo inside a shed, tied up for the night. Still, Eun-yu manages to escape and leaves the man behind. However, after her escape, Eun-yu runs into the kid, who pushes the woman down a cliff after she mentions her mother, with whom the kid has just had a monumental fight. As Eun-yu falls to her death, the monster who has been looking over her the entire time comes to her rescue. Although she had been hoping it was Eun-hyeok, her brother, it was actually Hyun-su.
As it would turn out, Hyun-su was able to escape from the Banseom facility after his fight with Ui-myeong. Afterward, he ran into Yi-kyung, who was clinging to life after the taxing birth of her baby. The mother was on the brink of murdering her own child due to her monstrous nature but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Therefore, upon Hyun-su’s arrival, Yi-kyung turns the kid over to the boy who raises her. Soon enough, Yi-kyung begins regretting her decisions and tries to return to the kid’s life as her mother.
Nevertheless, their peace is short-lived. Soon, men come knocking on their doors to hunt the daughter in their blind hatred for monsters. Although Yi-kyung tries to keep her daughter safe, the men outnumber her. As a result, they chase the kid down, shooting bullets and arrows at her. After a particularly nasty shot, the kid collapses before rising into her new form as a grown teenager. Afterward, she kills the men with her power.
Yi-kyung witnesses the kid’s abilities and becomes afraid of her, pulling her own gun at her. Thus began their contentious relationship where both parties continue to hurt and misunderstand each other, with Hyun-su, half-human half-monster, fittingly caught in the middle. Now, after rescuing Eun-yu but offering her no warm words of reunion, Hyun-su follows after the kid to talk some sense into her. Yet, he only learns about the destruction she has caused at her mother’s boat.
As a result, Hyun-su rushes to help Yi-kyung. At the boat, a baby monster, who is close friends with the kid, tries to rescue her mother as well despite its fatality to fire. Although Hyun-su rescues Yi-kyung from the burning boat, her condition remains fraught. Hyun-su seeks out help from Eun-yu, who has returned to Park now. Although Ho-sang has an adverse reaction to the boy, Eun-yu manages to stand her ground and help him.
Park, Eun-yu, and Hyun-su carry the dying woman to an abandoned and ill-equipped hospital, where the soldier deduces Yi-kyung is suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning and needs an emergency oxygen supply. Nonetheless, the hospital holds no full tanks. Consequently, Hyun-su and Eun-yu have to accept their friend’s imminent death.
In the wait for the same, Hyun-su leaves to collect the kid, believing she would regret not being with her mother in her last moments. Yet, the kid, a born monster, barely understands the concept of death. Still, she doesn’t want her mother to leave the world. Therefore, she agrees to come with Hyun-su. However, at the hospital, when she sees Yi-kyung, the kid subtly uses her powers on her.
The kid doesn’t understand death and has never had to reckon with it. Furthermore, since she has been a monster her whole life, she doesn’t see the harm in swapping out one’s humanity for the same. Therefore, with her powers, the kid turns her mother into a monster. Once Hyun-su realizes the same, he mourns for her friend, who turns into a monster in his arms. After Yi-kyung’s revival, a fight breaks out between her and Hyun-su.
In the fight, Hyun-su ends up using his own powers, peeking into Yi-kyung’s soul and witnessing all her shortcomings and regrets. In the end, Yi-kyung flees from the scene, alive but at great cost. Although Park returns to his duty, Hyun-su and Eun-yu stay behind to prepare for their journey to save their friend.
What Happened to Yong-seok?
While Hyun-su, Eun-yu, and Yi-kyung’s storylines unfold outside in the wilderness, another narrative occurs, which centers around the stadium’s military men. During a supply run, one of Crow Platoons’ members, Yong-seok, had gone missing. As such, the soldiers had grown restless under Kim’s leadership. They believed Tak to be working outside of their favor by making brash choices. Therefore, their negative sentiments grow when the man refuses to sanction a mission to rescue Yeon-seok.
Nevertheless, Kim receives a radio signal from the missing soldier’s radio and attempts to go on a covert mission on his own. Still, Tak catches on and delegates multiple men from the Platoon to go on the mission alongside Kim. Yet, unbeknownst to them, Tak agrees to the mission because he wishes to send Dr. Lim to the area to investigate for his research. Tak has become infected and is on the verge of turning into a monster, having already started showcasing symptoms.
As such, Tak had no reason but to comply when Lim asked to be sent out for research so that he could find a way to turn Tak into a special infectee. Once the platoon arrives at the abandoned building from where Yong-seok sent out the signals, they disperse to look for him. In the meantime, Lim stays behind in a room full of monster cocoons waiting to be hatched.
Kim and his comrade, Seok-chan, come across a girl who knows about Yong-seok and agrees to take them to him. However, after arriving at the dungeon, Kim realizes the soldier is kept locked up. Thus, leaving Seok-chan on watch, Kim takes the girl to take him to her leader. Upon Kim’s meeting with the leader, he realizes that the building is not actually populated with humans, with symptomatic people quarantined in the dungeon. Instead, neo-humans reside here, keeping humans as experiment subjects.
Meanwhile, in the cocoon room, Dr. Lim meets his own demise when an old test experiment of his, Ui-myeong, from his Banseom days returns for him. The man is a member of the underground neo-human society who have flipped the script and are now experimenting on humans to make more half-monster, half-human hybrids like them. In the end, Eun-hyeok, Eun-yu’s presumed dead brother, emerges from a cocoon as a neo-human.
Is There a Monster At The Stadium?
Back at the stadium, fears run high as the military picks up a signal about a monster’s proximity to their bunker. As a result, Tak puts everyone under surveillance for rollcall to learn which of the survivors has turned into a monster. Even though the soldiers all cut themselves to showcase their humanity, Tak refrains. Nevertheless, Ji calls him out on it, but their interaction is short-lived as the lights go out across the stadium.
Upon investigation, Take discovers that Ji’s daughter, Ye-Seul, has a hand in the same. Although the mother had coaxed the daughter to do her bidding for her, she refuses to have any knowledge of the same, condemning her daughter to a cruel fate. Meanwhile, Ji tricks another survivor, Seung-wan, a former Green Home resident, into going down a basement. Ji knows the man has started to show symptoms of monsterization. However, her helping hand is a farce, and she only pushes the man down a pit. As he falls, loud growls echo from the pit that can only belong to a monster.
Thus, we can conclude that the stadium has a monster. Worse yet, it’s kept under Ji’s watch and secrecy. Since we know Ji’s husband turned into a monster before Eun-yu killed him, a possible theory remains that the woman is keeping her husband locked in the pit in his monster form.
Read More: Netflix’s Sweet Home: Where is the Korean Thriller Series Filmed?
