Netflix K-drama Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow – season 2 of fantasy romance epic returns with new lead Go Yoon-jung
- Mere months after the first season ended, Alchemy of Souls returns with Light and Shadow – this time with Go Yoon-jung as the lead, taking over from Jung So-min
- Jung’s presence is missed (no knock on Go) and the narrative is still setting up, but the second season looks set to provide more of what made the first a hit
Set three years after the explosive events of Alchemy of Souls’ season one finale, which aired only 14 weeks ago, the second season of the fantasy epic, Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow, now streaming on Netflix, returns us to the land of Daeho.
Unusually for a new season of a major show, there are no new characters in the first two episodes, and one huge component of season one is missing: actress Jung So-min.
Jung played the formerly blind palace servant Mu-deok, whose body also housed the spirit of a vengeful soul-shifting warrior named Naksu. Mu-deok’s fate was unclear at the end of season one but she has returned in this new season in a new form.
She is now Jin Bu-yeon, the long-lost eldest daughter of the Jinyowon mage clan, but she has lost her memory. Mu-deok was, in fact, already Bu-yeon but the spirit of Naksu that possessed her did not know that.
Bu-yeon’s mother, Jin Ho-gyeong (Park Eun-hye), is forced to make a choice to save her daughter’s body – she must let it be consumed by the magic of Naksu’s spirit within.