Despite all the new chaos Kitty brings to KISS in Netflix's second season xo, kittythings ended in a much calmer manner compared to the end of the first season. Showrunner Jessica O'Toole, who also worked with Jenny Han on Season 3 of The summer she turned beautifulchalk it up to the timing.
Season 2 of To all the boys I've loved before The spin-off series saw main character Anna Catchcart and Song Kofi's younger sister returning to the Korean International School in Seoul to finish her year abroad there and track down the mysterious Simon mentioned in her mother's letter. Of course, the love triangle dynamics came back with a vengeance this season as well because despite her best efforts, Kitty still has feelings for Yuri (Jia Kim) and Min Ho's confession to her in the season finale. Season 1 is on her mind, too.
Trying as much as she could to get over Yuri by following the advice of her older sister Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and writing a letter to get all her feelings out, Kitty's letter was revealed to their entire group of friends and Kitty and Yuri's kiss was pulled public, leading to Juliana and Yuri's breakup.
“I just wanted to honor what might actually happen, and not just think of the characters as puzzle pieces or pieces of plot, because I never think of characters that way,” O'Toole told Deadline. “[Kitty and Yuri] It started out like this – with everything that happened at the end of Season 1 – Yuri was in a real relationship with Juliana. I wanted to respect that. I didn't want it to be part of a love triangle and how we dealt with that. It really felt like they were real. I felt like Kitty herself knew when she kissed Yuri that “this isn't going to end [well]”Because there was betrayal, and then he lied, and she started to get to know Juliana. Juliana didn't deserve this.”
This left Yuri, Kitty, and Juliana adrift for a while, but they were also stuck in a tension of sorts because Kitty and Juliana lived together and Yuri still wanted to be friends with Kitty.
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“I didn't feel like it could really work because it started off wrong, like Min Ho confessing his love right after. [Kitty and Dae broke up]O'Toole continued. “This is all about timing. When you're in relationships, it's important, and when you're that age, you often do things at the wrong time.”
Minyoung Choi as Dae Hyun Kim in the movie XO, Kitty
O'Toole couldn't say much about the importance of those matters To all the boys I've loved before The callbacks are mostly with Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee), but she admitted to being excited about that potential match for Kitty. Sang Heon Lee's playboy and Dae's best friend (Minyeong Choi) wanted nothing to do with Kitty at the beginning of Season 1 before they fell in love with her.
“I can't spoil things, but Kitty is on a journey of figuring out and exploring her feelings for Yuri, and Min Ho, and her past with Dae, and all that stuff. Obviously Min Ho is the character that everyone's impressed with, and they've been on this fun journey together, and they're enemies.” “Very much for the lovers and all the K-Drama archetypes that are so fun to play with.” But their chemistry is also great, and it feels so real. What I love about what we do with them this season is how we see their friendship. You see him accepting her at face value and that she's not in the same place, and you see him deal with that in a really mature way where they can be friends, and that's what was most fun for me.
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Both Cathcart and Lee commented on their characters' final scene together, a scene that strikes a precarious balance of hope and leaves the audience wanting more for their potential love story. Cathcart enjoyed all the insinuations and longing looks she shared with Lee, which she felt was a good ending for them at that moment.
“Whatever happened in that last moment between Kitty and Min Ho was probably best directed because they both just talked about what they were going through and what they might do,” he told Deadline. “So maybe it's good that they're not rushing things. A kiss is actually kind of a rush, so maybe slow it down a little.”
LR: Sang Hyun Lee as Min Ho Moon and Anna Cathcart “XO, Kitty”
Min Ho also helped Kitty reconnect with her grandmother (portrayed by Jenny Han's mother Ae Eun Han) and her grandmother's sister Soon Ja (Hye Sun Jung) through letters from her mother to the mysterious man Simon, who turns out to be Eve's cousin. In an act of true love, he lent her his private plane to fly Kitty's older sister Margot (Janel Parrish) and Kitty Halmony to Bukjeon to reunite with her older sister after their decades-long feud.
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“We were all crying, they were really crying. Jenny's mom was amazing. It was a real moment for all of us on set, and for Anna and Janelle. I love that story and I think there are endless places you can go with that story. I mean it's “You can't keep finding secret relatives.” “But I love family secrets. I also think it's really interesting that we live in this time where you can't keep family secrets anymore, necessarily because everything is online. The idea that these people who [had] One of those conflicts that didn't have to get as big as it did, a misunderstanding, and then, just because it was a long time ago, and they went their separate ways, and they didn't have Facebook, they completely lost touch with each other. And I love how it reflects the theme of brotherhood that has been present in the franchise since the beginning.
LR: Hojo Shin as Jeon, Jung Hye Sun as Soon Ja, Anna Cathcart as Kitty Song Coffee in XO, Kitty
As for season 3 hopes, O'Toole sees a lot of possibilities with the show's growing ensemble and the coming-of-age aspect of the K-drama.
“It will be a pleasure to continue with these characters and the world. I've been mostly thinking about what we can see in Korea so far. There's a lot more to Korea than just Seoul,” she said. “And we have all these characters that have families. I love the idea of expanding the world and getting deeper as the characters mature, no matter how many seasons we throw at things. That's what's great about coming-of-age shows is that the show grows up along with the characters.
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