‘Gyeongseong Creature’ season 2 ending explained: All your burning questions answered

With a show as complicated as Netflix’s Gyeongseong Creature, the ending of season 2 is anything but easy to follow. The South Korean drama, which heavily relies upon the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1940s, a plethora of monstrous experiments and its aftermath as its central narrative conceit, manages to outdo itself in the finale of season 2 — leaving a slew of new questions in its wake. Is Maeda finally dead? Is Ho-jae able to save Chae-ok? Did the duo’s love survive in 2024 Seoul? Let’s untangle what befalls our Gyeongseong residents at the end of season 2.

A genre-bending Korean drama directed by Jung Dong-yoon, Gyeongseong Creature season 2 is laced with pining romance, horrific monsters, fast-paced action and extreme gore. The Netflix series is set eight decades after the events of season 1 and focuses on star-crossed lovers Ho-jae (played by Park Seo-joon) and Chae-ok (played by Han So-hee) as they fight to save Seoul from an army of Najin-infested superhumans in 2024.

Talking about the shift from 1945 Gyeongseong to 2024 Seoul in season 2, director Jung said in an interview with TheKoreaTimes, “When we were planning, we talked about transcending time. Many things have improved over the past 79 years. But I wanted to say that there are still people who commit terrible acts for their personal gain. I wanted to deal with the irony of the times.”

Spoilers ahead!

Gyeongseong Creature season 2 ending: How does Seung-jo redeem himself? Is Maeda dead?

The second season of Gyeongseong Creature is filled with new Najin-infected superhumans, multiple betrayals and of course the end of Maeda (played by Claudia Kim).

Episode 7 of season 2 titled ‘Marginal Man’ opens with a flashback. Viewers see a deep and meaningful conversation between Seung-jo (played by Bae Hyeon-seong) and Ho-jae aka Tae-sang. For context, Ho-jae is Tae-sang from 1945. He survived all these decades because he too had injected the Najin parasite in 1945. In the flashback, when Seung-jo asks Ho-jae why he keeps fighting the monsters when he knows it’s impossible to win, Ho-jae tells him that he is not fighting to win. It’s his way to get revenge upon Maeda and the likes “because as long as we fight, they will never forget what they did to us and more”.

The narrative of the apocalyptic horror K-drama then shifts to the present where Seung-jo is on his way to meet Maeda. He recalls his conversation with Ho-jae and laments meeting him because if the duo hadn’t met, he would have been perfectly fine with becoming a monster. The very next moment, Seung-jo’s car gets into an accident but he somehow survives. After crawling out of the wreckage, he meets Chae-ok who informs him that his so-called “mother” Maeda is using him for her experiments and that he is nothing but a tool for her. While Seung-jo acts indifferent about the fate of his biological mother Myeong-ja in front of Chae-ok, their conversation leaves him unsettled. However, taken over by evil, Seung-jo captures Chae-ok and takes her to Jeonseong Biotech where she is suspended above a Najin-transfer water tank. Eventually when they drown her, either the Najin inside will be extracted along with her memory, or she will meet her end.

Elsewhere, Maeda offers Ho-jae a proposition — either he saves his business partner Yong-gil (played by Heo Joon-seok), detective Myung-jun (played by Lee Sung-wook), and Antenna’s grandson or his lover Chae-ok. Ho-jae chooses to go for his friends first as viewers see Chae-ok holding her ground by eliminating her attackers and delaying the drowning process.

When Ho-jae turns to Chae-ok after saving his friends from the nitrogen-filled chamber, Seung-jo confronts Maeda about what Chae-ok told him earlier. When she accepts that she never loved him and wanted him solely for her experiments, Seung-jo stabs her with his tentacles and throws her into the nitrogen-filled room to die.

Gyeongseong Creature season 2 ending: Is Ho-jae able to save Chae-ok? Do they get their happy ending?

Chae-ok puts up a brave fight against her superhuman attackers but is eventually drowned in the freezing water tank. As her heart stops, the Najin parasite leaves her body as expected and the Kuroko captain (played by Lee Mu-saeng) prepares to leave with it. However, Ho-jae arrives on time and eliminates all the superhuman Kuroko soldiers. He then tries his best to set Chae-ok free, all the while reminiscing their love story from 1945 Gyeongseong. He punches the tank repeatedly to break it open and eventually saves Chae-ok.

While our hero’s lady love survives, the Najin inside her is now seen lying on the ground in a puddle of water.

The finale episode of the 2024 K-drama then takes a time jump. Viewers find that Chae-ok has lost her memory because of the prior events and now lives a normal life. She also no longer remembers Ho-jae. However, she still wears an old bracelet from 1945.

Gyeongseong Creature season 2 ends with Chae-ok walking down a street in Seoul as her voiceover shares, “Sometimes… I have this dream. A dream where I chase someone every night. But I don’t know who it is, nor can I remember what he looks like. But by the time I wake up, my heart aches and yearns for him.” Her voiceover then goes on to share the recurring motif of the series: “Spring will soon pass, and it will be summer again,” as she looks back and notices Ho-jae in the crowd. The two stare longingly at each other before getting teary-eyed and exchanging a familiar smile as Ho-jae’s voiceover completes Chae-ok’s thoughts, ” and we will be together again.”

All seasons of Gyeongseong Creature are now available to stream on Netflix.

(Hero and featured image: Courtesy Netflixkr/Instagram)