Well, it looks like there will be a sequel to IRIS (or a Season 2, as they call it).

http://www.allkpop.com/2009/12/iris_season_2_2010

Quote:

A representative for TaeWon Entertainment that worked on IRIS said, “Starting in the first week of January 2010, we will unveil the line up.” Talk about moving on fast. They continued, We can’t reveal too much for now. We want to have a completely different storyline. As soon as the cast is done, we will reveal things step by step. We are keeping our eyes on top stars and we will definitely have a A-lister who is comparable with Lee Byung Hun. We will have the same characters as season 1. The second season maybe will take place 2-4 years after where the first season left off. You can get your hopes up. We also have plans to have a proper sequel 3-4 years later with Lee Byung Hun and Kim Tae Hee. IRIS put a lot of money into keeping the show as good as it was and it all paid off because they had a regular viewer rating of at least 30%. So, are you excited as much as they want you to be?

http://blog.ningin.com/2009/12/21/iris-season-1-ends-and-season-2-starts-in-3-weeks/

Quote:

IRIS season 1 ends and season 2 starts in three weeks The epic drama IRIS finally takes a break. I’m just glad they continued the film, despite their goal of only 20 episodes. Well, Lee Byung Hun left IRIS to film G.I. Joe 2. I know I started a recap of this drama, but it got so confusing, I didn’t want to provide false information. What I do know is IRIS season 2 will bring someone who is equivalent to Lee Byung Hun. They say the story will start a few years from where season 1 ended. They also mentioned Lee Byung Hun and Kim Tae Hee coming back together for another sequel. Boy, this drama does not disappoint! No wonder this drama has the highest viewer rating.

http://allkoreangossip.com/2009/11/iris-season-2-will-be-produced/

Quote:

Iris season two will be produced! But wait, Lee Byung-Hun won’t make it. The producing company of Iris have confirmed that Iris season 2 will be made, and the shooting of the drama will start from May 2010. The season two will be shot from locations including Italy, New Zealand, Japan, and China. However, it was reported that Lee Byung-Hun won’t make it because of his conflicting schedules for G.I.JOE sequel movie. Other actors and actresses, including Kim Tae-Hee, are expected to reappear. The producing company was pleased with the TV ratings (above 30%) of the first season and overseas interests and stated that they had no reason not to produce the second season.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/12/135_56396.html

Quote:

Season 2 of 'Iris' Due Next Year A second season of the KBS 2 TV drama ``Iris'' will be produced next year. Yonhap News Agency Monday quoted an official with the production company of ``Iris'' as saying that the shooting for the drama will begin in May next year. The official was quoted as saying, ``location scenes will be shot in Italy, New Zealand, Japan and China.'' But Lee Byung-hun, the hero of the first season, won't appear in season 2 because he is scheduled to star in a follow up to the ``G.I. Joe'' movie. Other actors, including Kim Tae-hee, are expected to reappear in season two. ``We have no reason not to produce season two because the viewing rate of the first season has topped 30 percent and its overseas sales were brisk,'' the official said. sahds@koreatimes.co.kr

EPISODE 19

Hyeon-jun and Seon-hwa follow Vick to his apartment, where they end up fighting, and Hyeon-jun kills him in self-defense.

An NSS investigation of Vick leads them to a golf course backed by an anonymous foreign organization that deals in arms and has a private army. Hyeon-jun sneaks into the golf course, which happens to be the location of the fortress (clubhouse) where Baek-san and Sa-woo are staying with their small private army (which appears to be composed primarily of English-speaking mercenary soldiers). These soldiers are planning the military strategy to disrupt the summit, and they aren't very happy taking orders from Sa-woo.

Hyeon-jun enters the house alone, and dispatches an army of guards with his sole gun, without getting hurt himself (!) He finally finds Baek-san. Outside, the NSS swat team finally arrives and faces off with the rest of the guards. Just as Hyeon-jun is about to kill Baek-san, Section Chief Park arrives with the NSS swat team and takes Baek-san away. Sa-woo and his men had already escaped.

Sa-woo is taken to meet someone code-named "Black" (he doesn't see the man's face, but only hears him from behind a door). Now that Baek-san is injured and in custody, the man tells Sa-woo that he will protect him. Sa-woo will now rise to Baek-san's position. We are to assume this man is the head of IRIS, maybe?

Hyeon-jun learns that during the days Seung-hee was missing, she had actually gone to the clubhouse/fortress to meet with Baek-san and the leader of IRIS. Seung-hee later confides in Hyeon-jun that Baek-san had always been like a father to her, so she couldn't refuse his requests. But this time, he asked her to join IRIS and kill Hyeon-jun, but she said she couldn't!

(This is very weird; the head of IRIS doesn't show himself to anyone, not even other members of IRIS, yet he shows himself to Seung-hee, who supposedly isn't a member of IRIS??? Why was her dossier in the IRIS files to begin with?)

As the summit nears, Sa-woo and his men have taken over a busy mall, sabotaged all the entrances, and taken more than 100 people hostage. They have in their possession several canisters of poison gas.The mall is surrounded by the NSS Team Members, but when they try to pass through the booby-trapped entrance, there is a large explosion.

END OF EPISODE 19.

Screencaps for Episode 19 (Courtesy of SOOMPI):

 

This is it--the last episode!! I'll venture to say that just about everyone has seen the last episode by now (after seeing Episode 19, I'm sure everyone jumped right into Episode 20 to see how it ended) so I'm posting this early today to give everyone time to discuss their ideas on the drama, now that we have all finished it.

EPISODE 20

The IRIS agents make their demands to stop the summit, or everyone in the mall will be killed, and they'll disperse the poison gas, which will kill many more people.

The President authorizes Hyeon-jun to agree to all of IRIS' demands, but they must release the women and children and leave just the men. Sa-woo agrees, but his men don't obey him. They said their orders were to kill all the hostages. Sa-woo asks who gave the order. They answer "Mr. Black". (Nice guy. Not only does he want to kill a bunch of innocents, he had promised to protect Sa-woo and already he's betrayed him. Sa-woo should be having second thoughts right about now).

They start shooting, and Hyeon-jun and Sa-woo shoot back. In the end, Sa-woo's men all get killed, and Sa-woo falls. Seung-jun walks in as Sa-woo asks Hyeon-jun for forgiveness, and he dies in Hyeon-jun's arms. (Now we'll never know why he joined IRIS; he seemed to be a good guy caught up in something he couldn't avoid).

The summit is scheduled to go on as planned. Hyeon-jun goes to the press conference escorting the President. Seung-hee goes to press conference on her own.

When NSS performs the autopsies on the dead terrorists (Sa-woo's men), we learn that Sa-woo's men dressed up the hostages as guards, and the people who were actually killed were the hostages, while the terrorists escaped! The terrorists are now actually mixed in with the people at the press conference, and several snipers are located at strategic places. In a close-up we see that Seung-hee is one of the snipers, with her rifle pointed directly at Hyeon-hee and the President below. She shoots, but instead of shooting below, she shoots at the other snipers and kills them. There is another shootout below and this time, most of the terrorists die. One of the terrorists shoots at Hyeon-jun, but Seon-hwa interferes and she gets hurt instead.

Suddenly, Hyeon-jun realizes that the President is missing. As his guards take him away to safety, his female secretary kills the guards and is about to shoot the President. Hyeon-jun arrives just in time and kills her.

The NSS team saves the day, and the summit will supposedly take place at a future date.

WARNING!!!!! THIS CONTAINS A BIG SPOILER!!!! DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE DRAMA.

Spoiler (Click here to reveal) :

Three months later... Hyeon-jun and Seung-jee have both quit NSS and are away on a vacation. He proposes to her, and goes off to buy an engagement ring. She is waiting for him by the seaside; but he never returns there; while driving back, he is shot in the head (and presumably killed). The worst part is that if he does in fact die, his death is horrible. Instead of a quick death, he is slumped over the steering wheel for quite some time with a head wound, in terrible pain, seeing Seung-jee from a distance, remembering their beautiful times together, with tears rolling down his eyes knowing that all of that will be finished now. We see flashback after flashback of their times together. And they focus on his face for so long! It's an agonizing death. I hope he survives this, but from what I've read, Lee Byung-hun will probably not return for the sequel, so his character of Hyeon-jun will probably die. I'll be very upset if this is the case.

I was very disappointed with the ending of this drama. Too many things go unexplained; we never do find out who "Mr. Black" is, and there are tons of loose ends that were left hanging. We have to wait for the sequel to see if all of the loose ends get resolved. I'll watch the sequel when it comes out just to get some answers, but I'm really not looking forward to it that much.

I know some of you loved this drama, but I can't count it among my favorites. My rating: It's OK if you like action/adventure dramas, but just watch it for the action and don't expect a neat ending.

To those who like this type of drama, I can recommend another action drama by the same writers, that had several similar themes to this but, in my opinion, was much better: LOBBYIST.

LOBBYIST involves the legal and illegal trading of weapons, including nuclear arms; North Korea vs. South Korea; several big organizations with big bucks (governments, the mafia, well-funded guerilla groups); guerilla warfare; the trials and tribulations of being a foreigner is a strange land; backstabbing and betrayals; romance, a love triangle, several beautiful exotic locations, and a lot of action, all tied up and fully explained in 24 episodes. I saw it last year and raved about it. If you are interested, you can read about it here: http://forum.koreandramas.net/topic/8903/

SCREENCAP OF LAST EPISODE (EPISODE 20):

 

Thank you Maria for being a wonderful moderator for this forum. Thanks for all of your hard work on the summaries and screencaps.

I enjoyed IRIS up until the last scene. What a freakin let down.
But I'm glad they killed Sa Woo I couldn't stand that guy. What a weasel. I was just mad they didn't have Hyun Jun do it!

Yes, I too, was enjoying this drama until the last scene. I couldn't believe they ended it that way. It wasn't so much shocking as disappointing and unnecessary.