The Ending Of The Worst Of Evil Explained

Arriving on Hulu at the end of 2023 is "The Worst of Evil," a gritty South Korean crime drama that turned heads with an engrossing story surrounding an undercover drug sting. The series, written by Jang Min-suk and directed by Han Dong-wook, stars Ji Chang-wook as a patrol officer who takes on a new identity as a small-time gangster to ferret out an illegal drug-smuggling ring.

Deep undercover in one of the nation's most dangerous emerging gangs, Officer Park Jun-mo (Ji) becomes Kwon Seung-ho and infiltrates Gangnam Union, a notorious gang run by DJ-turned-kingpin Jung Ki-cheol ("Squid Game" star Wi Han-joon). But the stakes ratchet up when Jun-mo's wife, Yoo Eui-jeong (Im She-mi), is drawn into the investigation and her life is put at risk. To take down Ki-cheol, Jun-mo will not only have to pose as a criminal himself but become part of an escalating gang war between rivals inside and outside of Korea, all while attempting to gather hard evidence of an international drug operation.

A taut, gripping thriller full of shocking twists in nearly every episode, "The Worst of Evil" shows how the toughest detective work can destroy the lawmen as much as the criminals they hunt. In its stirring conclusion, lives hang in the balance, but unraveling all the threads may take a little work. This is the ending of "The Worst of Evil" explained.

When Park Jun-mo is sent undercover into the Gangnam Union, he poses as Kwon Seung-ho, the unseen cousin of their leader Jung Ki-cheol's right-hand man, who was killed in a fight with another gang. This identity helps earn Ki-cheol's trust, and in time, Jun-mo works his way up through the ranks by showing unfailing loyalty to the organization. Eventually, he becomes Ki-cheol's driver, bodyguard, and confidante. But when Jun-mo's wife learns of his dangerous assignment — and that Ki-cheol is her former high school boyfriend who had left town when he was young — she insists on becoming part of the investigation by rekindling her romance with the gang leader.

At the same time, Ki-cheol's lieutenant and longtime friend, Choi Jeong-bae (Lim Seong-jae), becomes suspicious of Jun-mo. He also objects when Ki-cheol begins dating Eui-jeong — a police officer — leading to his violent expulsion from Gangham Union. All the while, Jun-mo is attempting to press Ki-cheol toward a massive impending drug deal with their Chinese suppliers, whose liaison Lee Hae-ryeon (Kim Hyung-seo) has become smitten with him, giving him added leverage. When the deal nearly falls apart, though, Jun-mo and Eui-jeong must use their new romances to push Ki-cheol and Hae-ryeon into the trade or risk the entire investigation going up in smoke. When Ki-cheol too becomes suspicious, he sends his most dangerous henchman, the knife-wielding Chief Seo (Lee Shin-ki) to get to the truth.

With so many emotional moments at the end of "The Worst of Evil," there's a lot that can be read from the jaw-dropping conclusion, but not all of it is as cut-and-dry as it may seem. For starters, Ki-cheol's escape amid the drug deal was no lucky maneuver: Jun-mo intentionally allowed him to get away, giving the appearance of a bust by handcuffing him to the steering wheel of their car, but purposefully leaving him the keys in the ignition. It would seem that the brotherly relationship forged between them during the undercover operation may have been more real than Jun-mo would like his superiors to believe.

Still, some may question why Jun-mo shot Ki-cheol when he was ready to end his life in that final scene — after all, the result was the same. But with his wife Eui-jeong with them in that moment, Jun-mo may have been attempting to spare her the guilt of his suicide by being the one who pulled the trigger. The irony of this, of course, is that killing Ki-cheol may have been the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. During their investigation, Jeong's romantic relationship with Ki-cheol — though a ruse — stirred up powerful emotions in her, and she began to push the gangster into leaving a life of crime behind, undermining the entire investigation. 

So when Jun-mo murdered the man she once called a lover — whom she still felt was deserving of a second chance — it pushed her further away from him, and the two couldn't reconcile their differences.

At the beginning of "The Worst of Evil," Park Jun-mo and Yoo Eui-jeong are in a loving marriage, with the only problem seemingly being Jun-mo's frustration over his low rank on the police force. By the end of the series, however, their marriage has crumbled, and Jun-mo walks away from his wedding ring after getting his big promotion, with Eui-jeong on the outside looking in. So what led to their deep bond breaking? 

The first cracks begin to form after Eui-jeong discovers that Jun-mo is undercover, and she's livid that he's even accepted such a dangerous assignment. She refuses to let his police comrades put him in danger alone, though, and quickly becomes a part of the active investigation. Learning that their target is an ex-boyfriend, Eui-jeong initiates a relationship with Ki-cheol while Jun-mo — in his alias as Kwon Seung-ho — claims to have been friends with her as a young child. But working together under false pretenses creates new problems, as Jun-mo is forced to watch her become romantically involved with Ki-cheol and isn't happy to discover that they had once been lovers.

Eui-jeong, meanwhile, is uncertain of Jun-mo's romance with Lee Hae-ryeon, and the trust between them begins to break down. The real problems surface when an attack on Gangnam Union forces Jun-mo to become a killer in front of Eui-jeong. She is disturbed by his potential for violence, a side of him Eui-jeong never knew, and finally, Jun-mo's murder of Ki-cheol pushes her away for good.

It's actually something of a major plot twist when Jung Ki-cheol first meets Jung-Mo's wife. An accidental meeting that almost exposes Jun-mo's cover, it stuns him to learn that his wife was once the high school sweetheart of the very man he's trying to put away for drug smuggling. Throughout the season, repeated flashbacks show more about their past relationship, and how Ki-cheol had promised to one day marry Eui-Jeong after becoming a successful business owner. Reconnecting years later, Ki-cheol now has everything he ever dreamed of, and he attempts to fulfill that promise.

Eui-Jeong then begins dating Ki-cheol as part of the police investigation. But as the two become reacquainted, it becomes clear that she still may harbor some romantic feelings for the leader of Gangnam's most notorious gang. As a police officer, she couldn't ever actually be involved with him, but the resurfaced emotions create problems, and instead of attempting to put him behind bars, Eui-jeong tries to push Ki-cheol into going straight and leaving a life of crime.

Jun-mo, meanwhile, is forced to act out a romance with Lee Hae-ryeon. And in what might be the most unexpected romantic twist, Hae-ryeon actually helps protect Jun-mo even after she discovers that he's an undercover officer, proving that her love for him is very real.

"The Worst of Evil" is the story of a husband and wife who must compromise their marriage to go undercover and stop drug kingpin Jung Ki-cheol. Jun-mo leads the investigation from the inside, and he sees a fair amount of action and gets involved in some violent encounters, one of which leaves him close to death. His wife, Eui-jeong, plays more of a passive role, psychologically manipulating Ki-cheol — but actor Im She-mi, who plays Eui-jeong, says that she actually filmed her own fight scene that got cut from the ending. 

"I had one action scene," she told Screen Rant. According to Im, the epic hallway fight between Gangnam Union and a rival gang, which occurs while Eui-Jeong is visiting Ki-cheol, originally saw her taking part in the fighting. "It was edited out in the end, so Eui-jeong was portrayed as being protected by the two men. But it did not disrupt the overall flow of the story, so it turned out well." Though Im approves of the final cut, she seems disappointed that they chose to downplay Eui-jeong's strength and ferocity. "I do hope to have the opportunity to do a proper action project with a female-led story," she said.