The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling -ReAwakening– and the Solo Leveling manhwa.

Solo Leveling‘s new film, -ReAwakening-, is a huge moment for fans of Sung Jinwoo’s story. It not only signifies the long awaited and highly anticipated continuation of the series with season 2, it also signifies the growth of the overall franchise from a light novel to the big screen. Never is that growth for both Jinwoo and the Solo Leveling franchise as a whole more apparent than in the ending of ReAwakening.

Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- provides a recap of the series’ first season, followed by the exclusive premiere of the first two episodes of Season 2. Those two episodes are incredibly well produced, showing improvement even from the start of the series. Of equal importance is Jinwoo’s immense growth as character, and that’s exceedingly clear in a newly added anime-only scene that serves as the conclusion to Solo Leveling’s big screen debut.

What Arc Does Solo Leveling Season 2’s First Two Episodes Cover?

Season 1 Starts With a Short But Fast-Paced Arc With Heavy Action

ReAwakening’s first half consists of an extended recap of Solo Leveling Season 1. It then concludes with Jinwoo completing the Job Change Quest just as in the first season’s finale, at which point the film leads right into the first episode of Season 2. With the first two episodes of Season 2, ReAwakeningcovers the entire Red Gate arc of the manhwa. This encompasses chapters 46 through 55, in the Manhwa, picking up right where Season 1 left off. This arc follows Jinwoo as he enters a routine mission with the White Tiger Guild into a C Rank Gate.

Some of you have already figured it out, but we’re inside a Red Gate. That means no one can enter or leave until we all die or the Gate expires and there’s a Dungeon Break.

Jinwoo also asks his sister’s friend, Songyi, to attend the raid him, in hopes of showing her how difficult a higher-ranked dungeon can be in order to scare her out of pursuing work as a Hunter. Also accompanying them is A-Rank Hunter Kim Chul, an overly confident Tank who leads the raid. As soon as the group enters the Gate, it transforms into a Red Gate, trapping the entire Raid Party inside. As Jinwoo reveals, a Red Gare leads to a “different world” that’s “blocked from all external forces”. The only way the group can leave is by either clearing the dungeon or by waiting until there’s a Dungeon Break. In order to clear the dungeon more quickly, Kim Chul puts together a “strike team” to join him in pursuing the boss, while Jinwoo stays behind with the rest of the weaker Hunters of the party.

In the dungeon, the party is attacked by Ice Bears, Yetis, and – worst of all – Ice Elves. While Jinwoo is able to keep his group alive, Chul’s strike party doesn’t have the same luck. After Chul barely escapes only to find Jinwoo’s group thriving, he blames the death of his strike party on Jinwoo, and attacks the Shadow Monarch. With no other choice, Jinwoo orders Igris to slay Chul, and then raises Chul as the newest member of his Shadow Army under the new title “Iron”. In the end, Jinwoo is able to slay the dungeon boss along with Iron’s help, and those who stayed behind with him leave the Red Gate with their lives.

While a lot happens in the Red Gate, the entire arc is fast-paced enough that it comfortably fits into the allotted two episodes that make up the second half of the ReAwakening film. In the manhwa, this leads quite smoothly into the Demon Castle arc, as Jinwoo is shown driving home after the raid. In the film, however, the ending of the arc is slightly expanded with an additional scene that adds a vital bit of characterization to Jinwoo.

Solo Leveling ReAwakening’s Ending Hints That Sung Jinwoo Still Has Room to Grow

Jinwoo’s Arise Ability Finally Fails at the End of the Red Gate Arc

Much of Solo Leveling’s first season was about Jinwoo overcoming his weakness and navigating Hunger Society as a False Ranker. It saw him overcoming not only his physical weakness, but also overcoming his fears to face down increasingly powerful challenges. By the end of Season, Jinwoo finally overcame the Job Change Quest to become the Shadow Monarch and gained the power to resurrect his fallen enemies as part of his undead Shadow Army. Jinwoo uses this ability to raise a number of dungeon monsters to become his minions, but inside the Red Gate, he uses this ability in a particularly unethical way: to raise a human being to join his army.

The System’s Description of Barca’s Dagger:

ACQUISITION DIFFICULTY: A

“A dagger used by the great warrior Barca. A powerful spell of weightlessness imbued in the dagger allows the user to be more agile while wielding it.”

After successfully escaping the Gate, Jinwoo reflects on the events of the Red Gate and what he’s learned about his powers. While Jinwoo wasn’t able use Arise on Igris with his first try during the Job Change Quest, he was able to pull it off in the end. This contrasts with Barca, the Red Gate’s boss monster and leader of the Snow Elves. Try as he might, Jinwoo was unable to turn Barca into a Shadow Soldier in the three tries allotted by the System.

This forced Jinwoo to contend with the harsh truth that he simply may not have been strong enough yet. Even though Jinwoo overcame Barca, a major contributing factor to his victory was the fact that his Shadow Soldiers – and particularly the newly risen Iron – were there to help. Had Jinwoo fought Barca alone, he may not have actually won, which was likely why he couldn’t subjugate Barca to join his army. Jinwoo had come a long way since he was a mere E Rank who was considered the Weakest Hunter in the World, but he was still not quite an S Rank.

Sung Jinwoo Comes to Terms With His Actions at the End of ReAwakening

Reawakening Ends With an Anime-Only Scene That Exemplifies The Anime’s Biggest Strength

The anime has done an excellent job of improving on one of the manhwa’s biggest shortcomings: Jinwoo’s character arc. While it has remained faithful to the source material, the anime has continued to add extra scenes that expand on Jinwoo’s character an make him more realistic and relatable. In the manhwa, Jinwoo is shown driving home the night of the Red Gate, and the scene then immediately cuts to him meeting up with Jinho the next day. In contrast, the ending of ReAwakening consists of a brief added scene that showcases Jinwoo after arriving home that night.

In it, Jinwoo laments failing to raise Barca to become one of his Shadow Soldiers, though he notes that he didn’t walk away completely empty-handed. After all, he did gain one powerful new ally: Iron. The scene then cuts to Jinwoo looking in the bathroom mirror, as though he is literally reflecting on who he has become amid all that’s happened. With his last words in the film, Jinwoo solemnly muses “that makes three times. This “third time” refers to how the Red Gate was the third occasion where Jinwoo had to kill another human being (the first being Hwang Donsuk’s gang and the second being Kang Taeshik) during what should’ve been a routine mission inside the Gates.

A lot of effort for almost no gain. Almost… I guess, that makes three times.

This added scene not only adds something extra to Jinwoo’s personal arc, it also just makes for a more dramatic ending to the film. It shows that Jinwoo is struggling with his humanity as his not only continually finds himself in situations where he has to kill another human beings, and he’s growing numb to it. Not only that, but just before fighting the Ice Elves, Barca even noted that Jinwoo isn’t the same as other humans. When monsters meet humans, they ordinarily can hear voices that tell them to kill the humans. When Barca met Jinwoo, though, he didn’t hear those same voices.

This implies that Jinwoo may not even be human anymore, adding to the mystery of the system and the truth of Jinwoo’s Second Awakening. Aside from the fluid animation, great score and solid vocal preformances, the Solo Leveling anime’s greatest merit has always been how it adds small scenes and pieces of dialogue that improve on the storyline and character arcs from the source material. ReAwakening’s ending is just the latest example of this. ReAwakening definitely hints at an exciting second season for Solo Leveling that will hopefully continue to level-up the story in compelling ways.