Netflix’s Hellbound received mixed reviews when it first came out. The show, which focuses on the dangers of religious fanaticism, transforms into a political drama in its second season just as every other dystopian K-drama we’ve seen before. I will admit that I was slightly disappointed by the second season because we didn’t really get any answers to all the questions we were left with at the end of the first season, which means it’s possible that a third season is in the works, though nothing is confirmed. Hellbound season 2 takes place 8 years after cult leader Jung Jin-Su’s secret demonstration in front of Detective Kyung-Hun. The show begins with a recap of Jin-Su’s fatal demonstration. It then switches over to a sequence of Jin-Su’s fears playing out visually. It seems this is Jin-Su’s hell, and he’s reliving old negative memories until suddenly he’s resurrected. On the other hand, Jung-Ja was already resurrected a year ago, and “The New Truth” has kept her hidden all this while. Kim Jeong-Chil is trying and failing to have any sort of impact on the country as the Arrowheads have taken over. The country’s in anarchy, and the government needs a new plan. Jeong-Chil decides to team up with Secretary Lee, i.e., the government, to regain his power. Here are the main takeaways from season 2.
Spoiler Alert
Who is Cheon Se-Hyeong?
Hellbound season 2 introduces us to a couple of new characters who play an important role in the shaping of the new world. Detective Kyung-Hun has been in hiding for all these years because his daughter Hee-Jung has cancer and “The New Truth” wants to extract information about Jin-Su from them. “The New Truth” finally finds a weak Hee-Jung and tries to take her away before Kyung-Hun shows up and starts to fight them. Fortunately, Hye-Jin shows up at the same time and beats them up, saving Kyung-Hun and Hee-Jung. Hye-Jin wants one thing only: to know where Jin-Su had his demonstration, because she wants to make sure Sodo’s around when he gets resurrected. After some deliberation, Kyung-Hun tells her it’s the orphanage in which Jin-Su grew up. Hye-Jin then sets up cameras on the spot, but Sodo needs somebody there to be vigilant at all times. This is when Cheon Se-Hyeong comes into the picture.
Back when “The New Truth” first started taking over, right before Jung-Ja’s demonstration, Se-Hyeong’s wife Oh Ji-Won became an avid follower of “The New Truth’s” doctrine. She would listen to Jin-Su day and night, making her husband worry for her. When Jeong-Chil took over, she decided to follow the Arrowheads and began joining their public demonstrations. Nah, that’s an understatement. She became Miss Sunshine, one of the Arrowhead leaders, urging people to confess their sins and sacrifice themselves. This is essentially like jumping into a funeral pyre because you join the sinner who is being dragged to hell right before he’s eliminated. The first time Ji-Won tries to “confess her sins and sacrifice herself.” Se-Hyeong barely manages to save her, but she loses an arm in the execution and believes she’s been forgiven. However, the second time she ends up jumping, Se-Hyeong isn’t there to save her, and she ends up losing her life. Of course, Se-Hyeong needs some sort of closure for watching his wife literally burn and go to hell, so he’s determined to make sure Jin-Su gets investigated properly and gives Sodo all the answers they need to figure out what in the hell is actually going on here. So Se-Hyeong watches as Jin-Su comes back to life and brings him to his house near the orphanage.
Why Does Jin-Su Tell Se-Hyeong To Take Him To The Arrowheads?
When Jin-Su’s back, he feels very strange, almost as if he’s not real. When he looks in the mirror, though he sees himself, he also sees one of the executioners come at him. This terrifies him, and so he tries to avoid looking at mirrors. Se-Hyeong then sedates Jin-Su to make him unconscious to take him to Sodo. However, when Jin-Su wakes up and Se-Hyeong reveals his wife’s story, Jin-Su decides he can only escape this situation by going to the Arrowheads. Jin-Su needs to confirm that Jung-Ja is seeing the monsters too, so he tells Se-Hyeong that Sodo is simply going to kill him and not get any information that he needs, so it’s best if he’s taken to the Arrowheads. In the last moment, Se-Hyeong believes Jin-Su and ends up fighting Sodo and taking Jin-Su to the Arrowheads. Jin-Su then gets the Arrowheads to kill Se-Hyeong just before Se-Hyeong understands the purpose of God. He thinks that God’s creating hell on earth so everybody can atone for their sins.
What Happens to Jung-Ja?
In the meantime, Secretary Lee tells Jeong-Chil that they need to use Jung-Ja as their new leader and bring to the world a new doctrine called the “New Will.” This will specifically be focused on Jung-Ja, essentially making everyone believe they’ll be able to come back after being executed too. The New Truth finally announces that Jung-Ja is alive, and they’re going to introduce a new doctrine. However, he struggles to convince Jung-Ja herself to show up in front of the whole country because all she can think about is her children. Jung-Ja’s a changed human being; there seems to be something off about her, and she says some random words during her interrogations. Later we find out this is because she can see the way people will die. Or at least, parts of their death. Jeong-Chil manipulates Jung-Ja into executing the New Will to meet her kids, and she finally agrees. However, when Jung-Ja’s brought up on stage in a fancy outfit that makes her look angelic, it looks like she’s almost having a seizure because she’s seeing everybody’s death. This is what makes her realize that the world is ending soon.
Is Jaehyeon A Monster?
Jin-Su knows exactly what Secretary Lee is planning: use The New Truth and Sodo against each other to make two teams and eradicate the Arrowheads. However, he can manipulate the Arrowheads to act up, so he tells her that he needs to talk to Jung-Ja and he won’t turn the Arrowheads against the government. However, by this time Jung-Ja’s already being kidnapped by Sodo, and somehow Jin-Su manages to get a hold of her in the basement. He was never going to help the government anyway. When Jin-Su asks Jeong-Ja if she sees the monster, she says no and that the monster is inside of him, which is why he’s the only one seeing it. Jin-Su is shocked by the revelation. He asks her if she knows who she is or if she feels any different from before. She says she remembers who she is—the mother of her children. Jin-Su then realizes what this means and watches the monster come up to him in the parking mirror. Hye-Jin steals Jung-Ja away as Jin-Su starts turning into an executioner himself. Before he converts fully, he grabs onto Hye-jin’s car as she’s trying to drive away with Jung-Ja and desperately asks her to save him. She ties his hand with her seatbelt to hold him to the car and tries to drive away, but the tendrils that have grabbed him are too strong, so she can’t save him, and he becomes an executioner, running into nothingness and disappearing for good.
Does Hye-Jin succeed in reuniting Jung-Ja with Her Kids?
In all of this mess, one person hasn’t wavered in her thoughts. Min Hye-Jin is focused only on one thing: keeping the baby she rescued safe and making sure Jung-Ja can see her kids again. She seems to be the only righteous person in the whole country. While she’s the perfect aunt for Jae-Hyeon, i.e., Toughie, she hasn’t told her the truth about her parents. She’s also kept her locked up, or rather Sodo has, because they’re afraid she’ll be dragged out by Arrowheads.
Near the end of season 2, Hye-Jin safely reunites Jung-Ja and her kids after she has to fight one of her colleagues, Sung-Jib, who had secretly been working with Secretary Lee. Finally, a sliver of hope as Jung-Ja meets with a grown-up Eun-Yul. On the other hand, Kyung-Hun watches his daughter Hee-Jung die, and now he’s lost all his purpose in life. Before departing, Jung-Ja tells Hye-Jin a couple of important things. She tells her that she’s going to die where there’s a children’s toy, i.e., with Jae-Hyeon around, and that the world’s going to end, so she should just do the thing she’s been holding back on. This leads to Hye-Jin taking Jae-Hyeon and quitting Sodo for good. Her dream is to be Jae-Hyeon’s mother, and she promises to tell her what happened to her parents.
At the end of Hellbound season 2, we’re taken back to the scene where Jae-Hyeon was apparently saved by the love of her parents from execution. However, it is now revealed that Jae-Hyeon was resurrected in that same moment, making it seem like she didn’t die. At the time, nobody knew of resurrections anyway. I suppose what we can make of this is that nobody’s born a sinner, but it’s nature vs. nurture. Jin-Su grew up with no love, while Jae-Hyeon grew up with a lot of love from Hye-Jin and the protection of the Sodo group. This is probably why she didn’t turn out to be a monster like Jin-Su and turned out more like Jung-Ja. So it’s possible Jae-Hyeon has a power too, and if there’s a third season, it’ll be revealed to us then.
