Progressive elements appear through two prominent supporting characters and their arcs: Ma Hyun-yi, the transgender woman chef who saves for and undergoes sex reassignment surgery, faces public outing during a national cooking competition, and openly claims her identity on television with the team's support; and Kim Toni, the half-Korean half-Guinean part-timer who encounters repeated racial discrimination, including club denials and assumptions he is foreign rather than Korean. These subplots explicitly address trans acceptance and anti-Black racism in Korean society, with Saeroyi hiring and defending both without regard for identity and framing the bar as a space of merit-based belonging.

The multicultural Itaewon setting reinforces themes of challenging conformity and prejudice. While the main revenge and entrepreneurship plot remains traditional, the identity-focused character stories and discrimination conflicts occupy multiple episodes and serve as key emotional drivers for the ensemble, elevating the score beyond incidental diversity.