Netflix’s ‘Sweet Home’ has seen incredible success within the short time of its release and has even earned a top spot on Netflix’s ‘Top 10 Most-Watched Shows’ globally. With such an overwhelming reaction, there is also heightened expectation for a second season and what the plot of that season could possibly entail. The Netflix adaptation differs quite a bit from where the webtoon takes its characters while keeping the narrative's backbone intact. As such, it wouldn’t be wise to predict the major plot points of the second season (if there is one) based on the webtoon alone. Therefore, we will be discussing the ending of the first season and the possible premise of the second season based solely on the Netflix adaptation as a stand-alone series.

[Spoiler Alert]

The final episode of ‘Sweet Home’ sees Hyun Su at the edge of a moral precipice, swayed by Ui Myeong and his world domination plans. He plants the seed of differentiation between monsters and humans in Hyun Su’s mind, who had so long maintained a quiet reconciliation between the two. The very knowledge of the monster within allows him to retain his humanity and restrict himself from turning into a monster without. However, Ui Myeong insists, quite convincingly, that the two cannot, in fact, coexist and that the monster is most definitely and simply an evolution of the human race that not everyone can achieve.

The mutation/transformation is not caused by a virus but rather an excess of human emotion and desire. Most of the characters turn when they’ve reached an emotional peak point with respect to hunger, anger, pain, hurt, vengeance, sacrifice, love, and so on. The dominant emotion becomes the driving force of the now monstrous being; thus, depending on the emotion, the monster can either be harmful to humans or not. However, Ui Myeong insists that humans cannot be expected to understand this equation, and they will, at all times, be antagonistic towards any kind of monsters whatsoever. This, coupled with the propaganda leaflets from the Government asking for civilians to hand over infectees in exchange for respite, hammers the point home.

With the residents threatening both him and Ui Myeong and the latter preventing Yuri and Sang Wook from leaving Green Home, Hyun Su now knows that neither side is the good side but the only way he can protect his newfound family of strangers regardless of whether they accept him or not, is to leave with Ui Myeong. However, when Ui Myeong goes on a shooting rampage, not only shooting Sang Wook and Yuri but also some of the residents inside, Hyun Su is visibly teetering between humanity and monstrosity. Ultimately, unable to retain any semblance of “humanity” (partly not even wanting to), he transforms, taking down Ui Myeong. Right before he loses it completely, Du Sik embraces him despite all the spikes and tells him reassuringly that nothing is or was his fault. With this, Hyun Su is able to return to his human form, albeit completely breaking down from the experience. One thing is made clear; compassion is the answer. Hyun Su wakes up with his memory completely wiped out, but his heart remembers it all. He decides to surrender to the military when a booby trap is accidentally set off and the soldiers start shooting while the other residents make their way into the tunnel. In the meantime, Ui Myeong’s sludge monster escapes.

As the residents notice that Hyun Su wasn’t coming along, Eun Hyuk promises to bring him back and return safely. However, he decides to stay in the basement while the others leave through the tunnel and it looks like a suicide mission. Led by Bom, the residents find their way out of the tunnel and are escorted by the military. Yi Kyeong joins the special forces because her end of the deal wasn’t kept, and the residents are taken away on a different truck. Simultaneously, as Green Home comes crashing down, we see Eun Hyuk looking down at a family photograph with tears and blood falling on the same. This could mean that Eun Hyuk was beginning to turn into a monster, or he had already turned and he wanted to die as a human, which is why he didn’t return to the tunnel. Chances are, Eun Hyuk will probably return for the second season of ‘Sweet Home.’ Meanwhile, in the closing scene, we see Sang Wook driving Hyun Su away in an armored truck. The only explanation for this is that the sludge monster had now possessed Sang Wook’s body, granting him superhuman healing abilities because of which the prominent burn scar on his face was no longer there. With two of the most powerful special infectees on the loose, one antagonistic and one with no idea of who he is anymore, the special forces out on a hunt, and an unknown fate awaiting the Green Home residents, a second season can only be described as the biggest show-down ever.

Season 2, in all probability, will delve deeper into the experiments that claimed to remove the monster curse from humans and the origin of the sludge monster which took on Ui Myeong’s body, which would imply that separation was possible, but the monster took another victim hostage almost immediately afterward. The residents of Green Home are taken away with only one word of caution: “You must survive,” which could mean that they’re most likely not being taken to a safe haven but instead will probably be subjected to either Operation Golden Hour or will be experimented on. Yi Kyeong’s fiancé, who seemingly had unlocked the secret to the curse and had shared the same on his blog CRUCRU is also an ambiguous figure at this point, neither human nor monster. Yi Kyeong will clearly do anything to get to him, but whether that involves a reversal of her morals or not, will be an interesting thing to see.

At the same time, Hyun Su might want to try and extract the sludge monster from Sang Wook while still keeping him alive, and it will probably be the driving confrontation for the second season. Whether he can do it as a monster or a human is also an important concern. Eun Hyuk is more of a Schrodinger’s cat at this point, and there is no certainty as to whether he achieved what he wanted to and died as a human despite showing symptoms of monsterization or whether he transformed in time to survive the crash. If he is alive, there could be a possible alliance between Hyun Su and him as they embark on a final rescue mission, either as monsters or humans or neither. Either way, both Hyun Su and Eun Hyuk will be making a considerable sacrifice for the sake of humanity at large. On the other hand, whether humanity, as we know it, survives at all, is also a question that remains to be answered in the second season.