Early this year, we’d witnessed ABS-CBN Studios’ quest for a new breed of artists who would star in its youth-oriented reality series “Zoomers,” which revolved around the lives of senior high school students, whose friendship formed during the pandemic got tested as they faced challenges and issues as individuals and as a barkada.

After going through a scrupulous audition process in which they had to impress the panel of jurors comprised of Star Magic and ABS-CBN TV Production Head Laurenti Dyogi, acclaimed film and TV director Theodore Boborol, and seasoned director Chad Vidanes, ten (10) promising Gen Z artists made it to the cut. They were Harvey Bautista, Criza Taa, Luke Alford, Ralph de Leon, Krystl Ball, Luis Vera Perez, Kei Kurosawa, Erika Davis, Hadiyah Santos, and Zabel Lamberth.

And months after the first season concluded, which was helmed by Direk Chad Vidanes and written by Charisse Bayona and Michael Transfiguracion, it was announced that it’s going to have a sequel, which is about to premiere this coming July 1!

But before we get to see the continuation of the exciting and relatable story of our favorite Gen Z barkada in the upcoming Season 2 directed by Direk Kevin Z. Alambra, let’s have some recap first on the highlights of Season 1 in this feature.

The narrative commenced on the first day of the in-person classes at the school where the characters were studying, which also served as the first-ever real-life meeting of the “Zoomers”, a study group-turned-online barkdahan basically comprised of Jiggs (Harvey), Hope (Criza), Kokoy (Luke), Tania (Krystl), and Atom (Ralph). Since they’d agreed to keep their online identities anonymous by using random usernames on their group chat, they were initially unaware that they were already speaking with one another as they did community service together.

Due to the bad blood that they had, Atom instantly left the group chat upon learning that it was Jiggs who created it. But the two of them were able to talk things out the following day, and Atom was onboard again. He even introduced to them his new friend, Dino (Luis), a Grade 11 transferee at their school who’s also his buddy in his peer mentorship program.

With how fervently concerned Hope was for Jiggs, especially when he began to get discouraged in pursuing his passion for filmmaking, their friends couldn’t help but tease them about the brewing romance between them. In pursuit of further honing his craft after getting rejected for the third time from a competition, Jiggs sought the help of young filmmaker Martin Geronimo (Zach Castañeda) by becoming his apprentice. However, instead of making him do errands related to filmmaking, Martin and his team asked him to deliver illegal substances, which prompted Jiggs to reconsider his decision.

Thus, Jiggs met up with Martin and his group the following evening, returning the item and telling them that he’s withdrawing from the apprenticeship. That didn’t sit well with Martin, so there was an altercation almost between them if, not for the Zoomers barkada, who immediately came to the rescue to stop their quarrel.

Drawing inspiration from the last rejection letter that he received stating that the entry he submitted lacked depth, Jiggs came up with the idea of creating a time capsule documentary featuring themselves and the untold stories of each one of them. Since Hope was not really keen on celebrating her 18^th birthday, Jiggs and their friends mounted a surprise party for her. It was through that event that Jiggs found out about Hope’s side hustle as an online girlfriend for hire and foot-picture seller after answering one of her clients’ call. This resulted in a heated argument between them the following day, as Jiggs asked her to stop it, which she declined since she had no other sources of income.

With the help of Hope, Kokoy discovered that he only got catfished by his online girlfriend, “Katya,” who pretended to be a young woman living in Moscow, Russia. Devastated by what happened, Jiggs’ older sister, Mika (Erika), invited Kokoy to go to the bar with her to hang out with her friends in order for him to get over his heartbreak.

Raised by a strict mom since he was an only child, it was Kokoy’s first time to drink liquor, so he really got wasted and was brought by Mika to her condo. Yet he still could clearly remember the morning after Mika kissed him so passionately in front of the other girls on the dance floor who turned him down. Kokoy returned to her condo later that day, spruced up and with a bouquet of flowers for Mika.

They talked about what transpired the night before, and he finally mustered the courage to confess to her that he had had a crush on her for quite some time. The feeling was apparently mutual, and their conversation resulted in an intimate moment between them. Notwithstanding, they agreed not to let their relationship prosper and just maintain the closeness that they had.

The sixth episode zeroed in on Tania’s personal problems, especially when it comes to content creation, as her online channel struggled to recover after her break-up with her boyfriend. Aside from the dwindling number of followers and viewers that equated with the decrease in her earnings, she also felt pressured about her college and future plans, as well as having trouble unleashing her authentic self.

And she found renewed hope with her first-ever collaboration with her ultimate idol, beauty influencer-slash-makeup brand owner Faye Miranda (Kei), with whom she immediately got smitten. Sparks seemed to instantly fly between them, as Faye wasn’t able to help herself from kissing Tania on their second meeting. This was when their talking stage began.

Her inexplicable connection with Faye encouraged Tania to finally embrace her truth and come out as bisexual to her followers. Unexpectedly, this enraged Faye and caused a rift between them, which got Tania depressed. Thankfully, her friends were there to console her and help her get back on her feet.

After avoiding each other for quite some time due to their misunderstanding, Hope and Jiggs finally made amends. The Zoomers barkada agreed to celebrate it and take a break from their academic work by hanging out at Jiggs’ place, with Atom tagging Dino along. What was supposed to be a jovial night turned out chaotic after Dino exposed the secret that Tania told him regarding the alleged romance between Kokoy and Mika during their “Spin-the-Bottle” game.

This left everyone dumbfounded, especially Kokoy and Mika, while Jiggs got infuriated by the revelation. Another commotion ensued when Atom confronted Dino, in which it was found out that they actually used to be friends in grade school, until both of them became each other’s bullies. Dino revealed that everything he did was part of his revenge scheme against Atom, which included taking his friends away from him.

To further make Atom suffer, Dino slashed his own wrist and made it appear that it was Atom who did it. He even released a video wherein he tried to malign Atom by telling lies and making him appear to be a dangerous person. Upon learning that Atom was on the brink of not only getting overthrown from being the student council president but also getting completely expelled from the school, the Zoomkada were determined to help Atom get out of the situation and redeem himself after being condemned by their schoolmates.

They might not be able to have any solid evidence in hand, but they’re still able to put Dino into their lair through Jiggs’ compelling storytelling and acting that made Dino ‘fess up about his misdeeds. Unbeknownst to him, Jiggs recorded their conversation via livestream for the entire school to see. Dino attempted to put on the act again, but Atom refused to give in and just apologized to him for whatever happened between them in the past.

In the last episode, Tania formally introduced her bestie Beth (Zabel) to the barkada and implied that her talking stage with their schoolmate Juniper (Hadiyah) had already started. Mika, Kokoy, and Jiggs were able to iron out the mess among them and apologized to one another, with Jiggs wishing his sister and bestfriend to not break each other’s hearts. Hope told Jiggs that she finally found a more decent job as a virtual assistant and teased us that her and Jiggs’ ship would continue sailing.

Just when we thought that the series would end on a heartwarming note as Jiggs’ time capsule documentary was shown, the Zoomkada and the viewers alike found ourselves bewildered when they received similar notifications on their phones that a mysterious user named “@lone_wolf” was able to infiltrate their group chat and leave a threatening message to them.

Are you one of those who are looking forward to finding out who “@lone_wolf” is and what will happen next to our beloved Gen Z barkada? Well, the waiting game is going to be over as Season 2 of “Zoomers” will finally premiere this coming July 1, Monday, at 10:15 PM on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, A2Z and TV5! So, don’t you dare miss it, Kapamilya!