XO, Kitty – Episode 1 “XO” Recap & Review

XO

The first episode of XO, Katherine Song Covey (Kitty) starts with Kitty trying to enjoy summer break with her long-distance boyfriend Dae-han (Dae), who is in South Korea. She misses the distance between them and the connectivity issues that come with it. She gets a call from K.I.S.S, (Korean Independent School of Seoul) a high school in South Korea regarding her application there as an exchange student.

Kitty is shocked to hear that she has been accepted and has one week to get to South Korea. She sits with her father, Dr Covey, and her step-mother Trina, for an intervention and tells them about K.I.S.S. Kitty explains that after losing her mother, Eve Song as an infant, the high school her mother went to was her only chance of learning about her mother and their culture.

After some intense discussion, Dr Covey gives in and agrees to let Kitty go to Korea to be with Dae and relive her mother’s teenage years. Kitty makes it to Korea and runs into another student named Minh0 who’s going to K.I.S.S as well. Minho is rude to Kitty at the airport but Kitty ignores him and texts her sisters, telling them that she’s going to surprise Dae at the welcome party later that evening.

Once in Korea, Kitty misses her bus to school and decides to make her journey to K.I.S.S by public transport. She is about to cross the street but runs into Yuri’s car. Yuri is a rich spoiled brat who tells Kitty that she studied at K.I.S.S as well. Yuri is shocked to learn that Kitty has moved from the US to South Korea for the person she loves.

Yuri tells Kitty that she’s seeing someone too and is excited to be with them. Yuri drops Kitty at the school but she’s annoyed that her partner isn’t responding to her texts. At the same time, the school admin tells Dae that he’ll have to drop out if he does not pay his fees for the next academic year. Dae manages to convince the admin to give him until that night to arrange money for the tuition fee.

Meanwhile, Yuri is called in to meet the principal of K.I.S.S, Mrs Lim Jina who happens to be her mother. Jina tells Yuri that she was caught by the maids being rather close to her female friend – Juliana. Yuri shuts her mother down saying that she was just friends with Juliana and that Jina should trust her.

Yuri also tells her mother that she was dating someone Jina and her father would not approve of it. She promises to introduce them to the person during the welcome party. Kitty runs into Jina and tells her about her mother Eve Song, stating that Eve and Jina were friends during high school. Jina avoids discussing Eve with Kitty which the latter finds odd.

Kitty is escorted to her dorm room which is surprisingly empty. Kitty talks to her dad, informing him that she’s landed safely and she intended to surprise Dae at the welcome party that evening. Kitty somehow dozes off and wakes up just in time for the party. She gets dressed and arrives.

At the party, Kitty runs into Minho and his friend Q. Minho is still rude to her but Q is kind to Kitty. Minho and Q happwn ro be Dae’s friends and Kitty sees Dae for the first time in four years. Kitty runs to Dae and they hug. Dae is happy and surprised to learn that Kitty had transferred to school but Yuri joins them all of a sudden. Kitty is heartbroken as she runs out of the party after Yuri tells her that Dae was her boyfriend.

The Episode Review

The number of popular K-pop songs on this show really makes this a very exciting drama for me. From BTS’ Telepathy to Seventeen’s Hot and Darl+Ling, the OST to this show is an absolute banger. I think XO, Kitty will be a K-pop fan’s dream TV show and I can’t wait to see how the story turns out.

It is obvious that Kitty and Minho will have a thing because they are manifesting the enemies-to-lovers trope so well. Q is kind too but I am not sure what to make of him for Kitty yet. It is obvious that Yuri is dating a girl named Juliana and is trying to use Dae to fake-date him in front of her parents.

Dae is probably doing this because of his tuition fees and I hope Kitty doesn’t break up with him before he has a chance to explain himself. This show has a lot of K-drama cliches and I love seeing the fact that there are Korean dialogues when there is a conversation between Korean characters, keeping it very real. I can’t wait to see more of this!