It would be easy to write off XO, Kitty as being another fluff show about teenagers struggling through romantic entanglements. That is mostly what the second season is about, anyway. While season 2 does offer constant plot lines outside of romance, it does fall into the trap of focusing more on love squares than it does on the storylines it wants its most emotional moments to surround.
Kitty had two original reasons for attending KISS. While one of them was about her then romantic relationship with Dae, the other was about finding a connection to her mother, who passed away when Kitty was a young child.
In season 2, XO, Kitty tries to devote more time to Kitty striving to connect with her estranged family and unravel the secrets of a 50-year-old mystery. However, romance, or the direction XO, Kitty wants to take with romance, fairly quickly gets in the way. To start, in season 1, one of the things that connected Kitty and Yuri was that their relationship grew from schemes upon learning that their mothers had been close friends when they attended KISS together as teenagers. It was a revelation that helped bond Kitty and Yuri. It gave both of them a stronger connection to their pasts and each other as friends. This storyline, which had been so integral to their bonding experience, is shifted to try and heighten and justify the brewing romance between Kitty and Minho.
Rather than allowing Kitty and Yuri to continue down this path together, even if they do get a few nice moments, such as watching the video of Kitty's mother in the dorm room, it is still mostly designed for plot development for Kitty and Minho when it has nothing to do with Minho's storyline at all. To a degree, it comes across more as an excuse to keep Minho in close quarters of Kitty, seeing as Minho's other main storyline is so separated from Kitty that had they not paired Minho with Kitty for this plot line, they may never have crossed paths all season.
Outside of helping Kitty with her family, Minho's main plot is entirely about his estranged relationship with his father and how his new girlfriend Stella helps try to repair the damage. Of course, Stella has her own ulterior motives, which are slightly more advanced for a 16-year-old girl to accomplish on her own, as certain aspects like putting a spy bug in a gift are left to the audience's imaginations as to how she pulled it off. Of course, XO, Kitty is not one for subtlety and quickly revealed that Stella had some sort of suspicious intentions not long after her initial arrival. Whether or not her roommate placement with Kitty, Yuri, and Juliana was purposeful or plain luck is not offered to the audience either.
The romance between Kitty and Minho, which was hinted at since season one, is either beloved or confusing for various reasons. In season 1, audiences get to watch Minho's trajectory from meeting Kitty and their initial antagonistic dynamic to friendship to realizing he has romantic feelings for her. While Minho's confession in the season one finale may have been surprising, especially given the timing, the audience got to watch him make the realization. But, where XO, Kitty goes a little too far is how she determines she has fallen in love with Minho after showing she is aware of having romantic feelings for him for approximately one episode.
Kitty is very romantically distracted throughout the season, going from Yuri to Parveena to Minho, and Minho is an emotional crutch in many ways as they navigate unraveling her family secrets. There may be something to be said for falling in love with someone and realizing it later, but with the way XO, Kitty presents the situation, it comes across as a bit forced.
Kitty initially rejects Minho's advances, even if she does smile at his confession. Still, upon arrival back to school, while Kitty still cares deeply for Minho and their friendship, she is still actively hung up on Yuri and not really paying attention to Minho in a romantic light. XO, Kitty does a good job of keeping them stuck together in the narrative, but Kitty's moment of realization that she may have romantic feelings for Minho is introduced through a dream, which she never questions and just basically accepts that she has romantic feelings for Minho now.
Kitty having romantic feelings for Minho is an expected development and not necessarily a bad one. But, the way the series goes about it—having her realize she likes him and then jumping so quickly later on within the same episode and having her decide that she is actually in love with him—is too far-fetched for any relationship.
Buried under all of Kitty's romantic drama, Yuri and Juliana's relationship issues, Q's new boyfriend, and Dae's new girlfriend, is the best emotional root of the season, which is the reunion of Kitty's family—more specifically between Kitty's grandmother, Young Ja, and her great aunt, Soon Ja. The entire season, which also features guest star appearances from Noah Centineo and Janel Parish reprising their To All The Boys I've Loved Before roles as Peter Kavinsky and Margot Covey, respectively, is meant to lead up to Kitty learning the truth about her mother and why she came to KISS. It led to the realization that there was more going on with her mother's side of the family than she ever knew.
The reunion between Young Ja and Soon Ja is emotional, as Kitty, Margot, and their cousin Jiwan bring their family full circle decades after Young Ja and Soon Ja's initial falling out. Kitty, Margot, and Jiwan's achievement helps her mother, Eve, and Jiwan's father, Simon, accomplish what the reunion they had set out to fulfill before Eve's tragic, untimely death.
Other interesting plot lines that do not get the deserved attention are how Dae, Minho, and Yuri all undergo emotional issues with their parents. Minho's dynamic with his father gets the most attention, as he is often pushed aside for his superstar brother. But, even that relationship is basically sewed up in a neat little bow by the conclusion of the season as Minho agrees to go on tour with his family and his father admits to learning his lesson just in time. Dae's worries about his father's work schedule and their financial concerns could have been very interesting, had the narrative given it more time. Instead, it is a nice excuse to show Dae's singing ability when he chooses to perform to try and win money to help pay off his father's stay at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Yuri's concerns with her mother are all handled entirely off-screen, as Yuri goes from admitting she has not spoken to her mother in a while, to having a conversation and patching things up all without the audience being able to participate in viewing the storyline.
XO, Kitty has left the door open for a return for season three as Kitty's scholarship has extended to allow her back to KISS for another year. So, what does that mean for Kitty's family? Will Kitty's relationship with Jiwan remain a strong storyline? Will XO Kitty actually put Kitty and Minho together? Will Lara-Jean ever make a guest appearance? Only a potential season three has the answers.