The Korean Netflix show Sweet Home has a lot to unpack from it and throughout this post, we’re gonna be discussing the main plot points of the series, its ending and where things could be going for season 2.
Obviously, there will be Heavy Spoilers here so if you don’t want anything ruined then I highly recommend that you check out now.
Plot
Sweet Home is based loosely on the webtoon of the same name and the series follows the inhabitants of the Green Home apartment building as they battle against incredible creatures intent on tearing them limb from limb.
Predominantly we follow Cha Hyun-su who has just moved into the area and see as he unites with the other survivors to take down the monsters.
Cha Hyun-su’s History
Hyun-su suffers from depression and one of the first times that we catch the character, he’s contemplating taking his own life.
We discover that he was bullied in school and this made the character shut himself off from the world. No matter what he did it just caused more anguish and after he attempted to stand up to the bully, his father ended up losing his job.
This was also the catalyst for the death of his friend’s mother and thus he retreated inside himself, completely cutting himself off from most social interactions.
Sadly his family died due to a car accident and the grief and loneliness have hurt him to the point that he has vowed to end it all.
Disease Takes Over
However, those plans quickly change when Korea is racked with a seemingly mysterious disease that randomly turns people into monsters. Now Zombie properties are a dime a dozen at this point and in regards to Korea we’ve had several of them popping up over the last couple of years including Train To Busan, Kingdome and #Alive.
Where Sweet Home separates itself is that it operates with monsters rather than zombies and though many of the plot points are a bit by the numbers, it makes it stand out from the crowd because of this aesthetic.
As we journey through the work we discover that it’s not a virus causing these mutations but rather a curse that is based on an individual’s desires.
Thus the thing that ultimately drives a person becomes their downfall but beyond that, it’s not really explained how or why people fall victim to it.
Movie’s Message
However it does very much hammer home the motif that this show will focus highly on people and what their heart desires and though the CGI can be a bit hit and miss, the core plot elements actually do a really good job of fleshing out the key characters so that they are multi-layered.
Normally in Zombie stories, the archetypes feel very one-dimensional and whilst that could be the case here, Sweet home actually has a lot of people in it with distinct personalities.
I absolutely loved this idea as not only was it present in those that we encountered but the monsters also having individualist designs meant that you could read into a lot of the subtext and see why certain things were the way they were.
Every monster that emerges is as twisted as the person that became it and it really leads to a lot of interesting showdowns. We learn that they are at their most vulnerable during the Golden Hours and this means that they can be defeated even if it’s extremely difficult.
Hyun-Su’s Infliction
Now one of the main symptoms of the curse is a nosebleed in which the infected person gushes blood out all over their face. I still have no idea how they did that effect and it’s something that instantly alerts the person on the receiving end of it that something is wrong.
Hyun-Su actually comes down with the curse very early on but unlike the rest of those that we encounter he doesn’t actually transform and instead he gains what could be immortality.
Now why this is important is because the character actually had a strong desire to end his own life to the point that he planned out the day and date that it would happen. However, the curse in some ways reverses that and makes it so that the character cannot die which allows him to become an asset to the rest of the survivors.
These survivors as a whole all represent different stages of life and we have some that are in love, others that are old and some shady members who the less said about the better. I’m not gonna get into each and every one of them as we’d be here all day but the characters evolve over time and a lot of them go on their own arcs which a lot become almost polar opposites to how they were at the start of the season. We discover that they survive far longer than a lot of the other people set up in similar situations across the country and this is because they work as a team really well.
Human Gangs
Now as with most supernatural apocalypse shows we see that the real monsters are the bloody humans and the apartment block is taken over by a bunch of outlaws that will kill you just for looking at them.
The group are completely vile, nihilistic, blood-drinking sadists that completely change the dynamics of the latter part of the season. Mirroring this we see that all the monsters aren’t bad and that there’s actually one in the events that helps Yeong-Su.
The group manage to ambush the gang and take some of them out but during this Hyun-Su’s secret is revealed and they escort him in an elevator to the roof of the building.
Ui-Myeong Changes Everything
However, a big twist comes when one of the forces, a man named Ui-Myeong reveals himself as a monster and he switches sides after viewing the gang as crossing the line.
We discover he volunteered for several experiments in order to have the curse removed from him but that it failed because the monster isn’t in him, it is him. He sees himself almost as an Apex predator, a wolf in sheep’s clothing that exists amongst the humans and will strike if pushed into it. He promises not to harm the humans but doesn’t believe that the humans will show him the same courtesy and that one way or another they will be wiped out because of evolution.
Ui-Myeong thinks it’s impossible for normal people to co-exist with the cursed and that they will try and wipe them out no matter what. This is hammered home by the survivors burning up the vent one that saved Yeong-Su.
Operation Golden Hour
A special Military leaflet is dropped on the property. These offer sanctuary to anyone willing to hand over an infected person and thus they will be safe from Operation Golden Hour which involves wiping everything off the map, monsters and humans alike.
It really leads to there being a big predicament for the finale and it becomes clear that Hyun-su and Ui-Myeong are no longer welcome. After Yu-ri has an asthma attack, Sang-wook tries to leave with her but Ui-Myeong intervenes and stops them. Left with little option Hyun-su realises that he’s not good for the camp and agrees to leave with him to spare the others.
Sang Wook takes Yu-ri outside but Ui-myeong goes fully off the deep end and mercilessly shoots not only the pair but also indiscriminately at the other survivors. As we know Ui-myeong is invincible and this pushes Hyun-su into embracing his monster side which leaks to him growing a gigantic wing arm laced with spikes.
Traditionally in anime, half men/half bird-like creatures represent someone who is walking the line between humanity and being a beast. I loved this scene and seeing him take down the villain to a final fantasy-esque heart-pumping moment was amazing.
Hyun-Su’s Recovery
Du-sik arrives and embraces him which allows the character to return back to normal but he’s completely broken by what he’s been through. I think the line” it’s not your fault” has a lot of significance here as Hyun-Su blamed himself not only for his family’s deaths but also the ones that Ui-Myeong caused by possessing other characters and so on.
However, this “it’s not your fault” reminds us that all the things that he blames himself for aren’t and it’s quite a touching moment.
Outside Sang-Wook and Yu-ri pass away holding each other’s hands which too feels like one of the perfect ways for them to close out their arc but it isn’t over for one of the characters. We’ll discuss this more in a bit.
Escape Time
Hyun-su wakes up looking more like how he did in the flash forward that kick-started episode one. The character has complete amnesia and can’t remember Du-Sik or the events that transpired.
We join Mr. An who throughout the latter part of the series was digging a tunnel. Unfortunately, the character passes away in his sleep but the group uncover the door he was trying to locate and this provides them with an escape in the end.
Unfortunately, things aren’t over though. Ui-Myeong slides out of the corpse he possessed and he takes the outlaw’s truck and escapes. The military arrives and demands that the infected are handed over and though they don’t initially fire, they’re soon given cause to fire on the area after the last outlaw sets off a bobby trap in the tunnels.
The survivors flee there and Hyun-su decides to face the military head on which brings everything full circle to the scene from the opening.
Hyun-su heads into a barrage of bullets as the rest of the group make their way into the tunnels to escape. Though they initially become lost, after little rescue dog Bom arrives, he leads them to the outside which allows them to exit. Though they’re surrounded by soldiers I see this as a rescue rather than them being escorted away and I think that going forward, we will follow this group as we see how the military operation has secured other areas of the country.
Clearly, this curse has ravaged a lot of things and I think that the survivors will provide insight into the operations beyond what we saw. The building has also been destroyed and I got a lot of Resident Evil vibes here with it potentially opening up the possibility that season 2 will be set in the city rather than at one key location. I’ll talk about the deal Yi-Kyeong makes in just a bit as I think that ties in heavily with Hyun-su’s fate.
Eun-hyeok Changes
Now an interesting thing that happens is that we actually see Eun-hyeok (wan hu-uk) remain behind in the apartment building and though he would likely die due to the bombardment, the character has a nosebleed, indicating that he has become a monster himself and will survive this encounter.
However, it’s a big change for him and if he doesn’t return I think that this is a fitting end. Throughout the season, many people viewed him as having no empathy because he was willing to make the tough choices in order to save the group.
However, I actually think that he’s the complete opposite and he understands that everything must be sacrificed for the greater good. This was demonstrated in his actions in which the character ended his education so that Eun-Yoo could continue training as a ballerina and I see this moment as a self-quarantine by himself so that he can save them from potentially being gunned down due to him being amongst them.
However, I do think that the character will return down the line at some point and this is why we close on him with a nosebleed rather than his body. To me, he seems like a Special Infectee similar to Hyun-su so he may return looking normal and be more open to working with the other monsters.
Sang-wook’s Fate
Now the finale ends with Hyun-su’s memories coming back to him as he heads toward the military. Though it initially seems like they took him captive as we find him in a military vehicle, being driven by what appears to be Sang-Wook.
Now there are two possibilities here.
Either Sang-wook transformed and became a monster, or Ui took him over.
Now the first is possible because we know very little about the character and though he initially appeared to be a criminal, I think it became more apparent throughout the series that he actually wasn’t. There was a lot of talk about spies and so on and I think that Sang-wook may have actually been one. He did pretend to be unable to do a lot of things to hide certain secrets and this only really seems plausible if there was a greater mission at play that he wasn’t willing to discuss.
So this could indeed be Sang-wook revealing that he is special ops and the military could have captured Hyun-Su which then allowed him to break out of the character for the finale.
However it could also be Ui-Myegon and due to Sang-wooks apparent death, this would allow the perfect opportunity for him to sneak in and take his body. It would also explain the truck and lack of burns as these were key things that took a lot of focus in the end.
Personally, I side more with that theory as it just seems the most plausible and he of course would want to save Hyun-su because he views them as both being wolves.
Clearly, he has big plans for the character and I think that their fates will become interlinked with the key characters and the deal.
Yi-Kyeong
Now Yi-Kyeong in the end was forced to join back up with the military and because she didn’t use the beacon, the commanding officer cancelled their deal.
However, she still has her uses and obviously, they want to know what happened to her fiance as well as what’s going on with Hyun-su.
I think that going forward she will become pivotal in tracking him down and whichever theory you take in regards to Sang-Wook the military is clearly aware of him. She goes off on her own, likely to take care of them, now brokered into a new deal.
Ui-Myegon is wearing one of their outfits which the Sang-Wook we saw die wasn’t so he’s likely came face to face with them at some point.
I actually think that the Military is trying to weaponise the monsters and this is why they were experimenting on Ui-myegon. They might potentially end up carrying out the same sort of procedures on the survivors and this will lead Hyun-Su and both Ui-myegon to team up against them. Clearly, the latter hates them because of what they did to him and the former wants to take them out to save his friends.
Now I’d of course love to hear your theories on the ending and what you took from it.
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