The ending of Sweet Home Season 3 is a climactic battle between monsters, humans, and neohumans, but unfortunately, the battle for the show’s quality has already been lost. After waiting for three years, Season 2 turned the post-apocalyptic K-drama into a mess of ropey CGI and convoluted plotting. Season 3 continues the trend, and Episode 8 is redolent with these things, though it does mercifully build to a fairly cathartic climax.
The main thrust of the drama in this final season revolves around the fight against Sang-wook, or more accurately the monster that was living inside him and has subsequently transitioned over to his daughter, Yi-su, imbuing her with enormous power. Behind her (though really “it”) a legion has formed, and monsters, humans, and neo-humans are at war.
Humanity Triumphs Through Self-Sacrifice
Ko Min-si as Lee Eun-yu in Sweet Home S3. Cr. Kim Jeong Won/Netflix © 2024
There’s a lot of subtext in the eventual defeat of the Sang-won/Yi-su monster. Throughout the series, humans and monsters have consistently been pitted against each other, not just in dodgy-looking action sequences but in the sense of their very natures. The concept of the neohumans is an extension of this conflict, designed to muddy the waters.
So, it’s quite fitting that the most calamitously evil and powerful monster in the series is ultimately defeated by humanity from within. Self-sacrifice is a quality unique to us, it seems.
The human-within-the-monster idea is reflected numerous times. You see it when Yi-su allows Eun-hyuk to attack her, forcing the monster out of her body and leaving her gravely injured. She was attempting, in a way, to commit suicide. Her will to be reunited with her late mother overwhelmed the monster’s control. She made a sacrifice.
It’s the same with Sang-wook, who finds himself controlled by the monster again. His decision to burn himself and the monster together is martyrdom at its finest. It spares Eun-hyuk from having to do the same.
The Line Between Human and Monster Is Blurrier Than Ever
Ko Min-si as Lee Eun-yu in Sweet Home S3. Cr. Kim Jeong Won/Netflix © 2024
Despite this “victory” for humanity, which does indeed end the war, the question of whether humans and monsters can coexist doesn’t vanish, especially with the neohumans knocking around.
Again, this idea is reflected in multiple ways, such as Sergeant Tak’s enduring helpfulness as the soldiers take care of the survivors, and Hyun-su’s fate. She transitions into a monster, plagued by her darkest thoughts and memories, but Eun-hyuk reassures her that she will be reborn as his kind. Becoming a monster isn’t a death sentence, since it’s no longer a clear-cut transformation into mindlessness. Humanity endures.
For all this season’s faults, the theme is resonant, since at its core it champions understanding, togetherness, and compromise, which are things we could all use more of. The ending of Sweet Home Season 3 is steeped in these ideas.
Home Sweet Home
(L to R) Jinyoung as Park Chan-yeong, Song Kang as Cha Hyun-su in Sweet Home S3. Cr. Kim Jeong Won/Netflix © 2024
The end of the season crystallizes this theme. With Hyun-su, the soldiers, and the other survivors moving on from the stadium, they encounter a group of neohumans whom they accept into their ranks. After a war with clearly delineated sides, acceptance and understanding win the day.
Atop a building, Hyun-su and Eun-hyuk survey the beginnings of a new world of coexistence, which includes Eun-yu, presumably now a neohuman and still possessed of some essential humanity. This is the group’s “Sweet Home”, finally bringing the meaning of the show’s title into starker focus. It’s perhaps too little too late for a series that went so badly off the rails, but it’s the thought that counts.
