At the time of writing this article, there’s no confirmation of a second season of Butterfly from Prime Video or the showrunners, Steph Cha and Ken Woodruff. But since it ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger, I have no option but to speculate about what might happen in the yet-to-be-announced Season 2. By the way, I have not read Arash Amel’s graphic novel series of the same name. So, whatever I am going to say will be based on the material that this season of the show has provided. Now, what did happen during the closing moments of the finale? After defeating Juno and bringing down the shutters on Caddis, David went to a restaurant to have dinner with Eunju, Minhee, and Rebecca. Things seemed pretty normal until Eunju and Rebecca went to the washroom and took too long to get back to their table. When David checked on them, he found Eunju bleeding out, and there was no sign of Rebecca. There are countless combinations of things that could have happened. Hence, allow me to go through the theories that seem the most plausible to me and then share my expectations for the future of the show.
Spoiler Alert
Rebecca Betrayed David
The first thing that came to me was that Rebecca betrayed David. Something about the way Rebecca looked at the waiter “got my Spidey senses tingling.” Yes, Rebecca has a very expressive face, but the manner in which she was “eyeing” the waitress made it seem like she was giving some non-verbal instructions to her to get the ball rolling. Once they were out of sight, Rebecca hurt Eunju in such a fashion that she would have enough life left in her body to die in David’s arms. Why would Rebecca do such a thing? Well, for starters, she is chaotic and unstable. Juno thinks she belongs to her. David thinks she belongs to him. But maybe she has been building her own clandestine outfit all this while; since the entire restaurant’s staff was gone, it’s possible that they were a part of Rebecca’s crew. And with Juno gone, she wants to get away from David and do her own thing. However, before doing so, she wants David to go back to square one—a widower with a young daughter to look after—and test if he’ll do anything differently than the last time. When Rebecca was young and motherless, and David felt that his daughter’s life was in danger, he faked his own death and hoped that Juno would take care of her. What will he do now? There’s an anonymous threat to Minhee. Eunju is probably dead. Will he stand his ground and take care of Minhee, or will he cut and run? Either way, if Rebecca has in fact “betrayed” David, it’s because she never actually liked the new family he made after faking his death, she never actually forgave him for abandoning her, and she wants him to introspect about the kind of man he actually is. In that case, Rebecca will be the big bad of Season 2, and we’ll see her going toe to toe with David. If Rebecca is unhinged enough to take such an extreme step, I don’t think she’ll get a redemption arc. Instead, the focus will be on David’s tragedy and the punishment he has to suffer for trying to balance espionage and family time.
Dootae’s Enemies Have Arrived
David got to assemble a squad and rescue Rebecca from Juno’s clutches because he entered an agreement with Dootae, Eunju’s dad. No, he wasn’t a simple guy who was in the business of importing and exporting goods; he was actually a gangster. Apparently he was so notorious that his own daughter warned David against making a deal with him. But David was desperate; he had no choice. Hence, he chose to owe Dootae a favor in exchange for some manpower. Now, Eunju getting injured, or worse, dying, will massively complicate things for David. It’s one thing to be in a dreaded thug’s debt, and it’s a whole other to fail to protect his daughter. If it’s in fact Rebecca who has hurt Eunju so grievously, then David has a really hard task before him: avenging his wife by killing his daughter or betraying his wife by letting his daughter live (which’d then attract the ire of Dootae). The only way David won’t have to make a choice is if it’s Dootae’s enemies who are behind Eunju’s injury and Rebecca’s disappearance. Yeah, Dootae made it seem like his offer to David was a very calculated move, but it’s possible that it was borne out of desperation. Maybe he knew that his enemies were tightening the noose around his neck and he really needed David’s help. So, as soon as he saw the opportunity to have someone as talented as David under his thumb, he took it. Dootae would have unleashed David on whoever is tormenting him, but I guess his enemies got the jump on him and hit him where it hurt. I suppose in this case, Rebecca tried to protect Eunju and was abducted in the process. And while David was tending to Eunju, it’s probable that they kidnapped Minhee too. Therefore, we might get to see David going full “scorched earth” mode in Season 2.
Juno’s Back
Caddis is gone because of Oliver’s confession to Senator Dawson about its activities, specifically about how Juno was selling intelligence to the Russians that was harming Ukraine. The South Korean armed operatives in charge of protecting Juno, including Gun, are dead. All that’s left of her “empire” is Juno herself and her right-hand man, Hollis. Yet, Juno had the gall to threaten David and Rebecca that, as long as she’s alive, she’ll keep coming for them. While boarding a plane to god-knows-where, she claimed that she doesn’t care if her pet project has been reduced to ashes; she’ll build a new private intelligence agency that won’t have to abide by any laws. Where does she get that confidence from? Now, I’m sure that she must have a lot of contacts and money stowed away somewhere that she can use to restart from scratch. I don’t want to undermine her ability to “girlboss” her way back into the world of espionage. But if she has done so in such a short notice just in order to get back at David and Rebecca for leaving her in the dust, I’m sure that she has received some help from her husband, Nick Barnes. I’m not exactly sure of Barnes and Juno’s marital status or the extent to which he’s willing to lend a hand to Juno. If I have to guess, I will say that it’s an open marriage, and Nick will bankroll Juno as long as she has a spot reserved for their son, Oliver. But Oliver is in protective custody? How’d Juno secure that paycheck? Well, Nick rarely met with Oliver, so it’s possible that Juno lied to him regarding Oliver’s whereabouts, and she’ll maintain that ruse until Nick figures out the truth. Why would Juno go to such lengths, hurt Eunju, abduct Rebecca, and probably also kidnap Minhee? Well, it’s pretty obvious: David has bruised her ego, taken her son away from her, and destroyed her business; she’s thirsting for revenge. I guess she is hoping for Dootae to kill David for failing to protect his daughter and granddaughter. However, if David manages to prove that Juno is behind all this and then convince Dootae to let him go after her, then Juno will need to prepare to deal with an unhinged David.
Better Hand-to-Hand Sequences
The only improvement that I expect to see in the second season of Butterfly is in the department for hand-to-hand sequences. I think the writing, the direction, the production design, the art direction, the cinematography, the editing, the costume design, the hair and make-up, the CGI, the VFX, the SFX, and, of course, the performances are pretty much perfect. But when it comes to the combat sequences, it all falls apart. From what I understand, the issue doesn’t lie in the choreography. The actors and the stunt doubles have also done a great job. But something went wrong in terms of the shot choices, which then impacted the editing. While you can excuse all the fight scenes, the choppiness of the final confrontation between David Dae Kim and Kim Ji-hoon’s characters is abysmal. In the recently released Diablo, a fight between the characters played by Marko Zaror and Scott Adkins took place in a similar setting. One look at that will make you realize how much better David and Gun’s punch-up could have been. I guess this would have gone unnoticed in the era of action flicks like Taken and The Bourne Supremacy. However, we live in a post-The Raid and John Wick world where the action is visible and not hidden behind the cuts. I’m not asking the showrunners to ape whatever is possible. I want them to find their rhythm and their voice, but ensure that the combat scenes aren’t a bunch of over-edited messes. The chase sequences in the show are perfect; they don’t need to touch that. They just need to focus on the moments of hand-to-hand combat. Anyway, those are just my expectations and theories regarding a potential second season of Butterfly. If you have any thoughts on the same, feel free to let me know through the comments section below.
