It can be hard for fans to imagine how well a spin-off series will continue the beloved story established by an original movie or sequel. But when? To all the boys I've loved before spin off xo, kitty Announced in 2023, it only made sense that scene-stealer Anna Cathcart would set out on her own quest for love. Season 1 introduced viewers to a new cast of characters who would soon become the subject of Kitty's matchmaking (and mayhem) services. But season two just proves that teen K-dramas can achieve the same level of emotion and chemistry that Lana Condor and Noah Centineo reached time and time again in the trilogy — all thanks to Cathcart and Sang-Hyun Lee.
Lee's Min Ho Moon appeared in the first season as an unexpected love interest for Kitty. Their friendship seemed discordant and incompatible in every way, but it can be easy to forget that some of the best romances start out wrong. The first season ends with Min Ho confessing his feelings for Kitty shortly after she broke up with her boyfriend. Kitty, shocked and overwhelmed, rejects him, leading to the beginning of an arc in the second season in which Min Ho transforms from a naughty student into a young man willing to put his heart on the line for the people he loves.
Lee recently told Decider over a Zoom call that he's proud of how Min Ho has reconciled his rocky relationship with his father and his personal life drama this season.
Warning: This piece contains spoilers for the end of XO, Season 2 of Kitty.
“There's Kitty with the old relationship where he had to try to ignore the awkward past interactions he had with her on the plane, and at the same time, somehow, surprisingly, he had to confront his family.” He said. “I feel like he handled each one of them very well, and I think I'm very proud of him for having a really healthy relationship with his father, because it's not an easy thing to do. And I'm glad he's done it now.”
Kitty and Min Ho's love story remains on the back burner for most of the season as Kitty focuses her efforts on reconnecting with her estranged family, all while exploring her sexuality and fighting her hidden feelings for Yuri Han (Jia Kim). but xo, kitty Season 2 does everything it can to let viewers know that the chemistry is still there, even if Min Ho claims that his confession to Kitty was a moment of “temporary insanity.”
And Min Ho proved to be the perfect heartthrob to fill the Peter Kavinsky hole left by the movies. He is kind and confident, maintaining a calm sensitivity while helping Kitty “Queen of Chaos” Song Koufi in her schemes.
Season 2, Episode 5 goes all out for one particularly poignant scene showing Min Ho comforting Kitty in the pouring rain, which Lee admitted was actually “very difficult” to film. “Now I have a different eye, or the way I see people. Now, if they photograph something in the rain, I say, 'How does it not hurt your eyes? Does makeup not hurt your eyes? I don't know. How does it do that?'” he asked, laughing.
The feelings are definitely still there, at least for Min Ho. The scene hints at a possible kiss as he brushes her hair away, but there are more important matters at hand that force the friends to turn away from each other and focus on themselves again.
Min Ho even competes with Peter in Episode 6 when he visits Stanford University for a lacrosse tournament. Peter may be Lara Jean's boyfriend — and practically Kitty's brother-in-law, at this point — but Min Ho clearly sees him as a romantic threat to Kitty.
“Even though he knew that Kitty's sister was already in a relationship with him, he became kind of protective. “He kind of said, 'Wait, I need to be more masculine in front of him,'” he explained to me over Zoom. “He tried to confront him and tried to undermine him by saying, 'Why are you here, the ping pong tournament?'
“It was very nice of Min Ho to do that,” Lee admitted, adding that it was ultimately Peter who rose above Min Ho's digs to let him know that there was “no beef” between them.
“He's showing his age too, you know, he's at university and going through different things… There was a kind of chemistry that we had, which I thought was a lot of fun. We didn't really talk about it, that's what it is, but it just happened naturally.”
the Secret ingredient The star said he enjoyed sharing scenes with Centineo. “He's a great guy. We had some similarities too. We were collecting art, and yeah, we were just talking,” Lee recalls.
We'd be remiss if we didn't also mention that Lee's sister plays Kitty's other love interest Yuri on the show. But Lee denies there is any Team Edward/Team Jacob style beef in the house over who is the better choice for Kitty.
“You know, I don't think we've ever talked about this before, really,” he said. “I just hope the best for Katie. If I had to say this more frankly, I would say that I'm not someone that I ship a lot to because, you know, at the end of the day, it's a relationship… I feel like I kind of want to hope for the best for [Kitty]Regardless of her relationship with Min Ho or Yuri.
By the end of Season 2, Min Ho seems to have given up on love after the whole Stella debacle and swears off love, until Kitty finally comes to her senses.
“I don't think he closed his mind to Kitty,” he said of Min Ho's ending. “He just tried to tell himself and her that even though no one likes me or likes this other person, I'm going to try to find myself, too.”
He told me that he was “surprised” that Kitty asked to accompany Min Ho on a summer vacation with his family. “It also shows a lot of courage on her part, that she has mixed emotions, that it's okay to even ask,” he said, later adding: “But she literally did it. I rolled the dice and watched how she played the game. Again, that's great for her.” And for the growth on Min Ho's part and I'm really excited to see how things progress in season 3, if there is a season 3.
Stella may have been deceiving Min Ho and his family all along, but her schemes unexpectedly left Moon's family in a stronger place in the end making him a better partner for Kitty in the long run.
in the end, xo, kitty Season 2 thrives by focusing intensely on its characters, played by Lee and the rest of his charismatic ensemble. They're the ones Kitty turns to when she's going through adolescence and family drama, which makes her feel better.
But the show isn't over yet. Let's hope we get to see the lovebirds in action again xo, kitty Season 3.
xo, kitty Seasons 1-2 are now streaming on Netflix.
