A Killer Paradox – K-Drama Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Final Showdown

Episode 8 starts with Bin’s letter to Tang. He apologises to Tang and tells him to go on his own and trust his instincts, his power will save him. Tang finally makes a choice of his own and decides to go back to help Bin.

Nan-gam arrives at the hospital to see his father’s dead body. His mother is okay. He then rushes out of the hospital, gets into his car, where Roh Bin is waiting. The other cops know he’s going after Chon but Nan-gam gets away before they can do anything. Bin tries to convince Nan-gam that Tang is special and has killed people for the right reason. Bin claims that Nan-gam is doing the same thing now by going after Chon himself.

What happens to Roh Bin?

Tang meanwhile steals a car and follows Bin’s live location. Bin reaches the meet-up spot and sees that Chon is already there. Chon figures out that Nan-gam is hiding nearby as well. Nan-gam points a gun at Chon but then Tang turns up. Finally, Chon says, things are exciting. Chon takes the first shot and a shootout begins. In the midst of the struggle, Roh Bin gets shot and Tang tries to save him but fails.

He asks Chon why he showed up at all. Chon says the world needs people like them who serve justice. He had seen reports of Tang’s crimes and wondered if he could really tell the good people from the bad. When Nan-gam tells him to stop, Chon turns on him. He reveals that Nan-gam thought his mother had an affair with Chon but actually, she had an affair with his father’s other subordinate — Nan-gam’s old captain.

Does Song Chon survive?

A flashback shows a young Chon handing out energy drinks to a team of officers who are searching the woods. Nan-gam’s father, Detective Jang Gap-su, tells him off since he’s in a different department. Over time, Chon keeps trying to impress Gap-su but fails. When a woman working at the cafeteria is going to her hometown, Jang gives her a package to deliver to someone in China. It turns out to be drugs and Gap-su turns out to have been dealing confiscated drugs for five years. The woman gets caught and commits suicide too. Chon confronts Gap-su but gets a beating in response. The latter accuses Chon of being the son of parents who were murderers. They get into a fight and Chon kills Gap-su.

As Nan-gam listens to the story, his demeanour changes, and Tang’s neck prickles. He offers to kill Chon but Nan-gam wants to do it himself. By this time, Chon’s pulled out the knife lodged in his side and attacks Tang, but Nan-gam shoots him dead.

Later, Nan-gam saves Rex from being put down. His father’s funeral takes place and Nan-gam then visits Yong-jae in the hospital, who seems to be healing.

At the police station, Chon and Roh Bin are given the blame of all the murders. A flashback shows Roh Bin told Nan-gam that he was going to take the fall for everything. He did it because he truly believed in serving justice. Roh Bin even got his teeth changed to match Tang’s. Because the only evidence pointing to Tang was a bite mark from a fruit that he left behind when he killed the Professor in Busan.

Nan-gam speaks with the woman profiler from earlier in the season, who says that Roh Bin probably turned out this way because of the emotional abuse he suffered after his parents’ death. She then asks Nan-gam about Tang.

What happens to Lee Tang?

A flashback takes us to the site where Bin and Chon died. Nan-gam asks Tang why he came back. He says if he didn’t, what he started would never end. He then asks Nan-gam to kill him. He wants to stop running away. Tang pulls the trigger but the gun has a blank. Nan-gam tells him to do whatever he wants and leaves. An electrical spark sets the whole place on fire soon after. Tang tries to pull Roh Bin out but isn’t able to. After one last look at his friend, he leaves.

Tang’s mother comes home to find the snow shovelled by the front door. Her husband says he didn’t do it so she goes back out to look for the person who did. But Tang is long gone. He goes to the seaside. Chung-jin, who is with his family, sees him there but doesn’t say anything.

How does A Killer Paradox end?

Tang seems to move to a warm country and live a normal life, working hard labour to make ends meet. But he soon gets caught for being an illegal immigrant. However, he hears that his record is clean with no prior crimes which surprises him.

A flashback shows the profiler ask Nan-gam if Tang has anything to do with this case. We don’t hear his response but we see that Tang is officially dismissed from being a suspect. Tang comes back to Korea. One day, Nan-gam is walking with Rex when he hears that a murder victim turned out to be suspected of abduction and murder himself.

Tang is walking down the street when someone knocks into him while passing by. Tang’s neck prickles and he turns around…

The Episode Review

The season finale of A Killer Paradox is well-written and well executed, wrapping up most of its storylines with a neat bow. Roh Bin stays true to his ideology right until the end, making a sacrifice that is surprisingly emotional. Nan-gam gets his revenge but also contends with harsh truths about his father. Chon gets a backstory that is more nuanced than the rest of his characterization and then meets a well-deserved death.

The ending is left open, with Tang getting back to his murderous habits. It’s a good ending but would have served better if the attention was never taken away from Tang in the first place. Because we don’t spend enough time with Tang, his transformation from being suicidal and begging Nan-gam to kill him to going back to killing people feels jarring. It’s like we’ve missed something in the middle.

Overall, while this has been a good show, the story became too much about Chon and took away from its most interesting aspect, which was Lee Tang.