I say this every time but it’s so much harder to put into words how you feel about something you love than the opposite. I don’t know why that is true for me, but I’m going to try my best.

This show is so spectacular. I’m so glad it shines a light on something I rarely see talked about. It is obviously a follow-up to the previous season and it doesn’t hesitate to get right into the cliffhanger it left the viewers off on.

This show is not an easy watch, hence why the rewatch value is not as high. Its deals with extremely dark topics and while it has its lighthearted moments, this season doesn’t have as much as the first. I think that was for the better though considering we really get into the systemic oppression and how prevalent it is this time around. Despite not being easy to watch, it is all the more worthwhile.

The abuse of power in the South Korean military and how the government plays a role in that is highlighted in this season and really makes the viewer think. An incident may be singular to a specific base, but the system that built the environment that caused said incident has a lot of the blame to take. This is what I think is one of the overall messages of the show. The system is what is flawed not the people put into it.

The other message I believe this show has is that even if you can’t beat the system, you can damn well try. And try as hard as they can these characters do. None of them are perfect, each making their own mistakes along the way, but that is what is driving them to do better. I understand some people didn’t like the lack of justice by the end of it, but this show hasn’t sugar-coated anything before, and they definitely aren’t going to now. The true reality is that a few people can’t take down a decades long way of doing things especially when backed by the government. It’s their willingness to try that matters.

This show is undoubtedly more so about the people that make up the system than anything. The deserters, the ones pursuing them, the ones left back at the base. All of them have a part to play.

The cast in this is once again fantastic. The main four were just as good if not better than last season. Seeing Junho’s progression as a character was amazing and Jung Haein acted his ass off. Koo Kyuhwan was also great, especially when we meet Hoyeol again and it’s clear he has been greatly impacted by what happened last season. I really liked that the characters of Park Beom-gu and Lim Ji-seop were given more screen time and depth this season. Both of the actors who played them respectively were great. The actor who played Kim Ru-ri was also superb.

The guest cast was also amazing. My love for Choi Hyunwook is strong, but he was genuinely really good here. Definitely the darkest role he’s had thus far in his career. But the real standout for me was Bae Nara as Nina. He absolutely broke my heart and was the story that for me was most emotionally impactful.

The ending of this season was also a tear-jerker but in a bit more of a positive way. I don’t see them doing another season, despite Junho still having a year left of his service, I think they said what they needed to say and will leave it at that. The purpose of this show is poignant and I hope everyone whether they liked this show or not at least comes away from viewing it with that in mind.