XO, Kitty season 1 recap guide: All 10 episodes explained

XO, Kitty episode 9 recap: SNAFU

As the episode opens, we discover Kitty is failing almost every one of her classes and could flunk out if she doesn’t pass her finals. Dae, Q, and Min Ho all agree to help her out so that she can pass her finals by tag-teaming in tutoring her in different subjects.

While the study session commences, we cut to Alex approaching Principal Lim where he reveals he knows she is his mother. He tells her he took an ancestry test which led him to Professor Lee and KISS. Principal Lim reveals Professor Lee doesn’t know anything and quickly figures out that Kitty was the only other person who might have been able to put two and two together which is when Alex shows her the hospital bracelet Kitty had given him.

After the exchange, Principal Lim tells her husband about having a son and that he found her today. She reveals that her American friend, Kitty’s mother, helped her to cover it up and that it happened when she was only 16 — thus why she put the baby up for adoption. Rather than show any support, her husband tells her to pay Alex off in order to make him go away. Little did they know Yuri was listening in on the whole conversation.

The punches just keep coming for Principal Lim as Yuri confronts her mom about sending Juliana away. She comes out to her mom and confesses the truth about her relationship with Dae being a ruse to ensure her mom would keep loving her. Yuri says she’s tired of living a perfect fake life and runs away leading her to Kitty’s doorstep.

Yuri tells Kitty she came out to her mom and is moving in with them, before confiding in her everything she overheard about having a brother. While Kitty wants to come clean and reveal the truth about Alex, she holds back knowing that it’s not her secret to tell.

Later, Yuri catches Juliana up on everything which is when she questions whether something is going on between her and Kitty. However, Yuri makes it clear Juliana has nothing to worry about as Kitty is straight — a comment Kitty overhears.

To help with the push to help Kitty pass her finals, Yuri offers to help reach her with a traditional Korean dance to perform at the talent show for extra credit. The romantic tension continues to build during the dance lessons with Kitty almost kissing Yuri before being interrupted. It’s starting to become unclear where things might go in the finale, but we’re here for Kitty’s self-discovery and the amazing love stories the show explores.

At the talent show, Principal Lim shows up just before Kitty and Yuri are to take the stage and says she wants Yuri to come home and that she can help her get to know Alex. Yuri is initially confused, which is when Principal Lim says she assumed Kitty told her the truth. Oof.

Yuri confronts Kitty during the dance and asks her how she could have kept the secret from her. Kitty tries to say she forgave Yuki for keeping the secret about Dae and they’re friends, so why can’t she do the same which is when Yuki says they were friends — past tense. This leads to a literally fiery end to the routine when Kitty’s dress catches fire from pyrotechnics and Min Ho races to her rescue to put it out.

After the chaos, Kitty tells Dae she has feelings for someone else but before she can say who, Dae jumps to the assumption that it’s Min Ho and races off to confront him.

Odds & Ends

• Between helping Kitty study, Dae and Min Ho catch Florian out with some mysterious guy. They later share what they saw with Q and show him the photo they snapped of Florian and the mystery man. When Q confronts Florian, he reveals that his grades have slipped and he cheated on his finals so that he didn’t flunk out of class.
• Before the dance, Kitty catches up with Alex and discovers he’s planning on leaving because his dad doesn’t know he even exists and his mom has ghosted him. Kitty asks him to consider staying and tells him how excited Yuri is to meet her half-brother — a conversation  Principal Lim overhears.
• At the talent show, Principal Lim tells her husband she’s done working to keep painting a picture of a happy family when none of them are happy. When she sees Alex is still there, she grabs him, Yuki, and Professor Lee, and says they need to talk — hinting that secrets about to finally come to light in the finale.