Recap Korean Drama "Blind (2022)" Episode 16

Does Sung-Hoon kill his father?

Episode 16 of Blind starts this finale with Sung-Joon racing up to find his brother. With an open call from Sung-Hoon, sung-Joon is shocked to learn his father was complicit in what happened at Hope Orphanage. His mum was the ringleader in all this, deciding everyone should keep their mouths shut after meeting with the Director and Chief Yeom.

His mum, Na Kuk-Hee convinced Producer Bae to stop the broadcast. However, Sung-Hoon brings up the vacation home and how his dad received sexual favours from Yoon-Jung, so he’s not exactly a saint here. Sung-Hoon demands he ask for forgiveness but instead, he grits his teeth and tells his son he has no intention of doing so.

Sung-Joon shows up just in time as he holds a shotgun and shoots Sung-Hoon in the arm. He wants to try and make it look like a suicide to protect them all but Sung-Joon refuses. In fact, he tackles his father to the round and arrests him for attempted murder. As for Sung-Hoon, Sung-Joon holds his brother who admits that he never, ever saw Sung-Joon as family and only wanted him as an instrument of his revenge plan.

What happens to Chief Yeom and Sung-Joon’s parents?

Sung-Joon is angry and beats him down before eventually arresting Sung-Hoon. Eun-Ki happens to be outside and she shows him video footage from that meeting inside the restaurant. Unfortunately, it shows his parents complicit and knowing about Producer Bae’s murder. Eun-Ki is convinced that the whole world should know what’s happened, and as a result, it’s broadcast across the nation.

Chief Yeom is also arrested for his part to play in this too. Yeom is confident they have no evidence… until Sung-Joon plays the voice recording incriminating him completely from an earlier chat he had, ordering Bae to be killed.

Next, Sung-Joon turns his attention to his mother, who tries to bargain with Sung-Joon and even suggests they work together to cover this up. He’s had enough. After sustaining a slap to the face for his troubles, police show up and Sung-Joon does the honour of putting handcuffs on Kuk-Hee and arresting her.

What happened to Yu-Na? Was she part of the plan?

In prison, Sung-Hoon is questioned by Eun-Ki, where he admits that Yu-Na and Tae-Ho weren’t actually part of the plan, with Yu-Na in particular not meant to be killed. Yoon-Jae was the one who did this though and Sung-Hoon was not happy when he found out. The explanation does nothing for Eun-Ki though, who decides to go out of her way to expose all the horrific incidents that occurred in Hope Orphanage all those years ago. She speaks to Sung-Joon first, who’s not doing so well and clearly struggling.

In prison, Yoon-Jae finds Crazy Dog, who happens to be in the same prison. The pair end up fighting with their makeshift shivs but it’s Crazy Dog who comes out on top, stabbing Yoon-Jae several times and leaving him a bloody mess. As he begins cutting into Yoon-Jae’s mouth, just like he did to Ji-Eun, Yoon-Jae reaches up and stabs Crazy Dog in the neck. The pair both bleed out and end this saga.

As for Sung-Hoon, he attempts to commit suicide that night with a pair of scissors he’s stashed away. He almost dies from excessive blood loss, but he’s still alive. However, he has cuts and scars all over his body from self-harming, which Sung-Joon finds out about when he’s brought to hospital. Sung-Joon grits his teeth and tells his brother to live until the end – that’s the only way he repents for his sins.

What happens at Sung-Hoon’s trial?

Sung-Hoon’s trial takes place and he surprisingly requests a jury trial. There, Attorney Park defends him and brings up a story about how he was unfairly treated in the past and they even uncovered Yoon-Jung’s body too. He didn’t kill her after all. However, this was the catalyst for him deciding to start his revenge and kill all involved at Hope Welfare Center.

The nurse back then steps up and gives an impassioned and emotional statement to the courtroom, pointing out how she was raped by the manager (Crazy Dog) and of course, she fell pregnant with Eun-Ki. She was scared to actually give a statement 20 years back but now that most of the people have been arrested, she has the courage to step forward.

Sung-Hoon is not happy and points out that none of the kids ever felt seen in the Welfare Center and he was frustrated as a result. He only called a jury trial because he wanted a lighter sentence and to expose Hope to a larger audience. He apologizes but it’s no good. Sung-Hoon is sentenced to life imprisonment.

How does Blind season 1 end?

When Sung-Joon visits Sung-Hoon in prison, he smiles thinly and hopes his brother can escape the past. As he walks down the hallway back to his cell, we flash to the past in Hope Welfare Center with Sung-Hoon turning from a child back to an adult.

The final scene cuts to Eun-Ki coaching a bunch of kids playing football. And just like that, it poignantly changes so all the kids are those from Hope Welfare Center. Sung-Joon wonders what may have happened had the kids back then had someone like Eun-Ki to help, as we fade to black.

The Episode Review

A poignant and emotional ending bows out Blind on a high, with the show managing to do a great job with its mystery and thrills right up to the very end. It was perhaps inevitable that Sung-Hoon would get life behind bars, but seeing both Crazy Dog and Yoon-Jae kill each other feels like a sense of poetic irony give the pair have been arguably the most evil out of the bunch of characters here.

What’s particularly interesting though is the way Blind frames this idea of being mentally traumatized to the point of becoming a psychopath. You can completely understand the motivations of Sung-Hoon and Yoon-Jae, although as Eun-Ki said herself, there is absolutely no justification for murder. This really rings through across the season and these later episodes have definitely done a good job of capturing this.

However, Sung-Hoon’s parents and Chief Yeom don’t really get much in the way of punishment, at least not on screen anyway. It would have been nice to actually see them getting a trial and potentially be incriminated alongside Sung-Hoon, but that’s a minor point.

Blind has been one of the best thrillers this year and while some K-dramas tend to fizzle out, this one has maintained an aura of being an action-packed mystery with tinges of tragedy throughout. The final scenes only exemplify that, and although there is justice, it comes with a lot of bittersweet lasting feelings about how badly these kids were treated.

The show’s title “Blind” is obviously synonymous with how us, as the audience, have been kept in the dark for most of the show’s run, but also to the people inside the story, with so many adults blind to the horrors these kids had to endure at Hope Welfare Center, and how many turned a blind eye to the atrocities that occurred there. All in all, Blind is easily one of the best shows this year and tops things off with a wonderful finale.