Full spoilers ahead… you’ve been warned!
To all my fellow CatGlass shippers: once again, we lost. And honestly? I’m tired of the egregious way Netflix continues to fumble queer romances.
Yes, yes, I knew going into the season they were building up Kitty and Minho to parallel Lara Jean and Peter, but honestly, I think the story would have been significantly more interesting if we didn’t get the exact same To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before format, just made for TV instead. The writers should trust that they’re writing something worth seeing, regardless of the nostalgia factor.
That’s not to say Kitty and Minho don’t work. They’re… fine. Cute, even, but you have to really push past the same tired trope: boy finds girl annoying, girl is “quirky,” annoyance becomes charm, suddenly it’s love. We’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it.
What’s more frustrating is what they sacrificed to get there.
I think they completely watered down Minho’s character this season by turning him from someone who teases Kitty every five minutes into someone who is mostly quiet, rarely comments on the constant embarrassing things she does, and overall just doesn’t have much of a role. I’m fully aware they’re trying to show a new sensitive, soft side that only Kitty brings out, but in turn, you lose his sass, which is the majority of his characterization.
And Minho isn’t the only casualty.
Q, the literal voice of reason, the grounding force to Kitty’s chaos, gets one of the most baffling character turns of the season. This is the same person who broke up with Florian over cheating on an exam, and yet we’re supposed to believe that over the summer, he cheats on Jin? By sending an intimate picture to Marius because Jin didn’t visit him? It doesn’t track.
Which brings me to the broader ongoing issue: the way the show handles its queer storylines.
Kitty and Yuri, Q and Jin, and Juliana and Praveena; all ruined for the sake of some drama.
Juliana and Praveena’s breakup exists almost entirely to re-pair Juliana with Yuri, and it feels painfully obvious they didn’t know what to do with these characters. Instead of letting queer relationships develop with the same care and longevity as the main heterosexual pairings, they’re constantly rearranged for convenience. Especially when a far more interesting pairing was right there with Yuri and new-cast addition Gigi. And yes, I’m saying it: justice for Praveena.
Now, onto the things I loved.
Seeing Lara Jean visit Kitty at KISS was such a fun moment, and it tied the show back to its roots in a way that actually worked. After three seasons of not seeing the Covey sisters, it felt like payoff as a viewer.
Jiwoon and Alex being together and expecting a baby was another highlight, and their storyline ended up being one of the most heartfelt of the season. The moment between Alex and Professor Lee was especially touching, when Alex tells him that even if he didn’t get to be a father to him, he can still be a grandfather to his child. I loved getting to see Alex and Professor Lee develop their relationship further.
I also loved that Kitty got more in touch with her roots. Watching her learn Korean and have a full conversation with her halmoni in Korean felt like real growth, and it added an emotional depth that the show sometimes misses.
Another highlight was seeing Yuri and Dae’s friendship develop even more. There’s been a lot of build up to their relationship, and this season really lets us see them have each other’s backs, especially with their financial roles being flipped.
Overall, the season stays in the same vein as the first two, and I did genuinely enjoy it, but I don’t know if it would stand on its own if it weren’t copying the Peter and Lara Jean storyline so closely. It feels like a mix of missed opportunities and genuinely great scenes, no in between. When the show focuses on true character growth and organic moments, it works. When it falls back on recycled tropes and inconsistent writing, it doesn’t. And unfortunately, this season did both.
All that being said, I will absolutely be seated when Season 4 comes out, and I really do hope we get the chance to come back to KISS for one final semester.