Pandora: Beneath the Paradise (2023) Episode 16 (Final Episode)

Pandora Beneath the Paradise episode 16 begins with Jae-Hyun at his house with the police (remember he was arrested in the last episode). He looks around the house and discovers there’s no sign of Tae-Ra or Jiu. Jae-Hyun asks where they are, but he is told there are no such people as Tae-Ra and Jiu. As he’s being led out of his house by the police, he meets Do-Jin and Hae-Soo and confronts them about hiding Tae-Ra and Jiu, but they also say Tae-Ra and Jiu don’t exist and that he was never married.

Jae-Hyun begins a cycle of being tortured in prison by other prisoners. Sung-chan visits and tells him Kyojin took over Hatch, seeing on the news that Tae-Ra got married to Kyojin, but she is going by her real name, Mun Hagyeong. Jae-Hyun breaks out of prison with Sung-Chan’s help and goes to the house that Kyojin now owns and lives in with Tae-Ra. He confronts them, and Tae-Ra shoots him. He wakes up and finds himself at the shore, where he and Tae-Ra were after they plunged into the river when the police were chasing them in the last episode. He checks Tae-Ra and realizes she isn’t breathing. Then, he sees a man approaching them when he loses consciousness.

The cycle begins again, and Jae-Hyun is in prison, being tortured by other prisoners; they even mock him for insisting that he has a wife and daughter. He even meets Kummo in prison, who takes that opportunity to mock him about his current situation. He is then hanged as a punishment for his crimes.

But, before he is hanged, he is given a box with the “best dad award” badge Jiu made and gave him the day of his inauguration in the last episode and a picture of him, Jiu, and Tae-Ra. He shows the police the badge and picture and tries to convince the police that he does have a family, but he is hanged. He wakes up again and finds himself at the shore with an unconscious Tae-Ra. This time, a man injects him with something, and he goes unconscious again. Why is this happening to him? Is this a dream? And if so, where is he, and what happened to all the other characters?

What happens to Jae-Hyun?

After they plunged into the river when the police were chasing him and Tae-Ra, Jae-Hyun managed to swim to the shore with Tae-Ra but they were subsequently caught by the police.

At the police station, Tae-Ra confesses to everything Jae-Hyun did and agrees to give all the surveillance camera footage at their house and Jae-Hyun’s campaign office. It turns out the police thought Jae-Hyun was dead, but Tae-Ra knew what had happened. So she requested to take Jae-Hyun’s “body” and bury him. But, he actually took him to Kyojin (who’s still alive), and it was Kyojin who was making him have the continuous dream of Tae-Ra and Jiu not existing at the beginning of this episode.

Unfortunately, he manages to escape from Kyojin’s lab and pretends to kidnap Hae-Soo so Tae-Ra can come to him. Tae-Ra goes thinking Jae-Hyun has Hae-Soo, but he doesn’t. He ends up shooting himself, and he falls into a river.

What happens to the other characters?

After all that happened, Tae-Ra and Jiu go to Switzerland with the help of Do-Jin and Hae-Soo. Meanwhile, Do-Jin and Hae-Soo finally decide to divorce and remain friends. Of course, this is hard for him and Leo, their son, but they saw it as the best move for them after all that had happened. It’s also worth noting at this point that Sung-chan doesn’t show up in this episode either.

Speaking of which, Ms Min managed to escape after stabbing Sung-Chan in the previous episode. After some time, Eun calls and tells her that Kyojin is alive. She goes to see Kyojin at his lab, where he is torturing Jae-Hyun. Kyojin refuses to talk to her, and they have an argument, which leads to some liquid accidentally pouring into the sockets. Jae-Hyun regains consciousness and tries hitting Kyojin with a chair, but Ms Min jumps in, gets hit instead, and dies. That is when Jae-Hyun escapes and lures Tae-Ra, and shoots himself.

Fortunately, Kyojin escaped Jae-Hyun’s secret lab before it exploded in the last episode but half of his face is burnt. He seemingly later gets facial reconstruction surgery and visits Tae-ra in Switzerland. However, in the last scene, it looks like the man acting like Kyojin is actually Jae-Hyun. We never learn what happened to the real Kyojin.

What Happens to Kummo, Yoo-Tae and his men?

Kummo is still in prison but adjusts quite well to the environment as he stands up to other prisoners who try to bully him. After Do-Jin captured Yoo-Tae and his men in the last episode, Yoo-Tae takes them to Kyojin and asks him to erase all the memories of Tae-Ra from their brains. Kyojin also programmed their brains, making them confess to everything Jae-Hyun ordered them to do to the police.

Did Dr Yang and Pilseung make it out of Jae-Hyun’s secret lab?

Unfortunately, Dr Yang (who we know is Sujeong) didn’t make it out of the secret lab alive. But before she died, she gave Kyojin the camera footage of the secret lab that Hae-Soo revealed in the last episode. Pilseung also didn’t make it out alive. It turns out Dr Yang knew a secret passage out of the lab when it began to explode but on their way out, Pilseung pushed Kyojin out and locked Dr Yang and himself in the lab, and he died when it exploded.

How Does Pandora: Beneath The Paradise end?

A few years later, Kyojin visits Tae-Ra and Jiu in Switzerland. Tae-Ra shows him to the guest room. Tae-Ra then remembers she hasn’t given Kyojin a towel, and when she takes it to him, she sees the scars Jae-Hyun had when he was struck by lightning. The episode ends with Kyojin’s face changing to Jae-Hyun’s face, and Tae-Ra is shocked by what she’s just seen.

The Episode Review

The final episode has answered many questions I had from the last episode. I’m content and sad at the same time that Do-Jin and Hae-Soo decided to divorce, but it was the best decision for them. I’m also glad Kyojin made it out alive but sad that Pilseung and Dr Yang didn’t.

For a minute, I thought Tae-Ra and Jiu would have a happy-ever-after ending after Jae-Hyun shot and killed himself. But, we see what appears to be Jae-Hyun disguised as Kyojin in Tae-Ra’s house in Switzerland. So, what happened to Kyojin? And didn’t Jae-Hyun die? Like other episodes, this final episode has given us a twist that leaves us with more questions than answers, which is a tad frustrating.

This show really was Pandora’s box. A lot kept happening and even in the finale, we are left with as much confusion as when we started . Nonetheless, the twists have kept us at the edge of our seats and our curiosity piqued.