The second season of Hellbound explores the deadly mixture of influencer culture and extremism.

Hellbound Season 2’s look at influencer culture

Of course, the idea of ​​fervent followers rallying around toxic internet influencers is not an exclusive American phenomenon and serves as a prominent element within the country. Hellish. Arrowhead is introduced in the first season as a live broadcast, calling out those named for condemnation, inciting its followers to violence, and comprehensively proclaiming itself to be the true path to salvation as hell descends on Earth. In contrast, the New Truth Society represents a more traditional form of fanaticism, as an extremist religious sect that, while not as overtly violent, is no less vile in its methodologies for advancing its cause.

Since the conflict between two organizations determines much of the Hellish In its second season, the series takes on a narrative of old world extremism versus new wave extremism, with a fearful population forced to choose sides or keep their heads down and stay out of the way—literally. It’s not necessarily the hellish monsters that are to be feared, although whenever they appear they are always tense with fear and some of the most horrifying scenes in the series, but the overwhelming crowd rules with violence that permeates every incident. In a world where crowds blindly follow charismatically fickle public figures and bad behavior is just as likely to be rewarded with extra attention, the real parallels in Hellish impossible to ignore, despite the supernatural stakes.

Infernal Season 2 and the premise of “The Altered Man”

All of this makes Jung Jinsoo’s return even sweeter; This season is all about consequences, with no one having to face the sins of their actions more than Jeans, considering everything he has unleashed and inspired. Before his apparent resurrection, Jinsu sees first-hand the point of view of either those who have caused the greatest pain in his life or the people he has caused the most pain in his life. This ordeal leaves Jinsu with a new outlook and resentment of what has happened to the world since his death; the world does not actively avoid sin, but uses fervor as an excuse for outrageous violence and chaos.

Hellish The first season was, among other things, about persevering in the face of persecution and a seemingly inevitable cruel fate of fire and blood. Hellish The second season not only continues the series’ tradition of changing main characters every few episodes, but now develops the story from a redemptive perspective, as Jinsu and the Presence no longer loom over the proceedings as manipulative and hostile as they once did. The idea of ​​a changed person is inadvertently reinforced by Jinsu’s recasting: Kim Sung Chul replaces original actor Yoo Ah In this season; the story itself helps sell the swap.

Even with a three-year break between seasons, Hellish avoids its sophomore slump by not only following the standard sequel formula of upping the spectacle and scope, but also by becoming sharper in its social commentary. This season thematically covers not only online influencers and religious fanaticism, but also the media and how modern society deals with social tragedies. Hellish combines heartbreaking twists with plenty of plot twists, and in its pursuit of redemption, season two effectively builds on that hellish foundation.