Escape of the Seven – Season 2 Episode 16 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

What Happens to K?

The final episode of The Escape of the Seven starts by giving the viewers a more profound overview of what happened before Min Do-hyuk showed up at TIKITAKA. Chul-woo and Ju-ran confront the police at the spot check scene, trying to talk some sense into them about the dangers of blindly following their superiors’ orders and disregarding their integrity. They insist that Min DO-hyuk is innocent and the police know about it, but they keep ignoring and condemning an innocent person just as they did six years ago during Da-mi’s case. 

At TIKITAKA, the billion-dollar family cuts the ribbon, and the MC invites K on stage to show the public the blueprint of the Gagok project. Myoung-ji sneaks into the room with Do-hyuk’s laptop and instructions to put the videos on screen on cue. Therefore, after K introduces LUCA and waits for it to show the blueprints of Gagok, Myoung-ji plays the recorded meeting of the billion-dollar family when they planned to frame Do-hyuk for Jin-mo’s murder.

The press asks for an explanation, but the prime minister intends to say that they are not connected to the video and leave, but Do-hyuk shows up, demanding that no one is allowed to leave the room until he allows them to. 

What happens at TIKITAKA’s press conference?  

Do-hyuk barges through the door and asks the billion-dollar family to explain how he murdered Yang Jin-mo. The prosecutor general calls in the police stationed outside the room, and they surround Do-hyuk. One of the reporters signals his assistant to secretly Livestream the scene in hopes that the truth will be revealed. Ju-ran and Chul-woo show up just as Do-hyuk asks K to explain how he killed Jin-mo since he is the eyewitness.

K is specific that Jin-mo is dead and cremated, so whatever he says, there will be no one to contradict, so he insists that he says Do-hyuk killed him brutally and gouged out his eyes. The prime minister fuels the fire by adding that Do-hyuk also killed Chan-sung, and the police have footage of him escaping his cell and breaking into Chan-sung’s house. He says this with confidence, unaware that Mo-ne is confessing to Chan-sung’s murder at the police station and has a bloody knife with her fingerprints as proof. 

Do-hyuk addresses the public, asking why he should provide proof when he did not commit any crime. He reminds them of Bang Da-mi’s case and how the killer has not yet been punished. Next, DO-hyuk exposes the private conversations between the Prime Minister and K, which infuriates the billion-dollar family, and they order the police to arrest them. However, the press, including Chul-woo, Ju-ran, and Myoung-ji, stand guard and insist they will not touch Do-hyuk and encourage him to continue revealing everything.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor Kang talks to his superior and demands an arrest warrant for K, which the superior approves. He gets Detective Sang from holding, and they prepare to head to TIKITAKA to make the arrest.

Min Do-hyuk stands in front of K and asks him one more time to clarify whether he saw him kill Jin-mo and gouge his eyes out. K insists he saw him and adds that he can still hear Jin-mo’s cries for a dramatic effect. The door opens, and Yang Jin-mo enters, accompanied by Mi-young and Kang Ki-tak. He is alive, and he still has his eyes. K is shocked to see Jin-mo since it proves he has lied about that and so much more.

Everyone in the conference room, including the billion-dollar family, turns against K, demanding an explanation, and he loses it. He grabs a gun from a nearby police officer and starts spraying bullets at the press and everyone around him. 

How does Jin-mo survive?

In a flashback to what happens after Jin-mo’s car crashes, Do-hyuk is in an ambulance rushing him to the hospital when he gets a call from Mi-young. She tells him they found another heart donor for Myoung-ji and that he should rush to Somang Hospital, where her assistant is waiting. Do-hyuk and the assistant plan to fool K’s man, who watches their every move. The doctor comes and tells Do-hyuk that a patient has been declared brain dead and the heart is ready for transplant.

K’s assistant thinks that the brain-dead patient is Jin-mo, so he reports the same to him. During the heart transportation, Mi-young’s assistant changes the nametag of the donor to Jin-mo. He then poses as a morgue assistant and shows K’s man another body prepped to look like Jin-mo, so he takes a photo and sends it to K, confirming that Jin-mo is dead.

Meanwhile, Jin-mo is in a private room at Somang Hospital but in a coma because the doctors are not able to get rid of all the shrapnel in his heart. Jin-mo is not in a stable state to undergo surgery, so any possibility of him waking up depends on his strong will and the possibility of a miracle from the skies. 

What happens after K’s arrest?

The government formed a committee to investigate K’s crimes and closed down Save, leading to media corruption. The senior government officials identified as the billion-dollar family resigned from their posts, and the legislation passed a new law to prevent fake news called The Bang Da-mi Fake News Prevention Law.

What happens to K?

After his arrest, LUCA hacks into all the internet devices and screens nationwide and starts a countdown to some revelation. Prosecutor Kang rushes into the interrogation room where K is being held and tries to force him to log in, but he is adamant that he will not go down alone but will reveal the secrets of people all over the country. He brags that Min Do-hyuk cannot stop what is coming and proudly watches the final ten-second countdown. However, LUCA does not function as K had hoped; instead, it reveals that Lee Hwi-so created it to stop fake news and ensure that no one else suffers from the same fake as his daughter Bang Da-mi. 

Luca reveals how K tried to use it to collect people’s DNA and blackmail but failed and collected people’s private information without their knowledge. It turns out that Min Do-hyuk had separated K from LUCA, and the AI no longer listened to his commands. Therefore, LUCA deletes all data except that of K before shutting down. K is left without any allies, and he cries in pain of abandonment since even LUCA decided to leave him. 

K’s sentencing happens three months after his arrest. He asks the judge for a chance to make a statement and tries to use Han-na to plead for a lighter sentencing, saying that he needs an opportunity to be a father. His words infuriate Kang Ki-tak, but he calms down later. However, the judge reads between the lines and is even more agitated that K does not show remorse for his actions but tries to manipulate the public to the last minute. Therefore, she orders that K’s final statement be stricken from the report on court proceedings, orders the reporters not to report anything about what he said, sentences K to death, and says that he is not allowed to appeal. 

In his prison cell, K keeps writing letters to Han-na to make her visit him. he intends to use Han-na to somehow get himself out of his predicament. However, he ends up dying in Ki-tak and Do-hyuk’s hands with a bullet to the leg and another through the heart, and then they set him on fire just as he did to La-hui, Da-mi, Lee Hwi-so, Bang Da-mi’s adoptive mother, and Min Do-hyuk’s family. 

What happens to Chul-woo and Ju-ran?

Chul-woo is shot during K’s angry shootout, and he dies at the hospital after encouraging Ju-ran to be the coolest mom ever and take care of their kid. On his deathbed, he felt that he deserved it to pay for his crimes and hoped that his debt towards Lee Hwi-so had been paid. We see Ju-ran after a time leap of ten years as she and her son visit Chul-woo’s memory shelf and talk to him about how their lives have been the past few years.

Ju-ran explains that she spent a few years in jail for her role in Da-mi’s death, and she now works as a midwife. While helping a pregnant woman whose water suddenly breaks, she says she is always determined to make sure the mother and the baby are safe as penance for the wrongs she did to Da-mi and Han-na.  

What happens to Myoung-ji and Jin-mo?

Ten years later, Myoung-ji and Jin-mo run a restaurant in the countryside. Philip, Erica, and Han-na are in high school. Philip gets called back to school because his sisters Erica and Han-na get into a fight with other girls who claim that Han-na seduced someone’s boyfriend. The boyfriend is a player; he hit on Han-na, and she turned him down, so he came up with the story.

The girls come to Han-na saying that she is adopted and does not know her mother, which infuriates Erica since she hates Fake news the most, and they get into a fight. Myoung-ji is called to the school, and she punishes the girls by braiding their hair together, and they have to walk that way all the way home. When they arrive home, we see Myoung-ji and Jin-mo’s happy family. They also spent a few years in jail and paid for their crimes. 

What happens to Han Mo-ne?

After confessing that she killed Chan-sung and is the teenage mother from six years ago who framed Da-mi, Mo-ne spends five years in jail. After her release, she disappeared from the public. She spent time taking care of her mother at the remote place where her mother stayed with Han-na to keep her safe from K. One day, while picking flowers, Mo-ne mother falls down a cliff, Mo-ne rushes her to the hospital, and that is when the public learn about her whereabouts from photos posted online.

She receives backlash from the public, cussing her as a murderer and for abandoning her child. A few days later, her mother, who has Alzheimer’s and only remembers Han-na, dies peacefully in her sleep. Mo-ne calls Han-na to tell him about her death. She says she feels like she can finally let go, which worries Han-na, who thinks Mo-ne is saying goodbye, so Han-na calls Do-hyuk.

What about Min Do-hyuk?

Min Do-hyuk cleared his name and brought down K and the billion-dollar family. He honours Lee Hwi-so by taking back LUCA and telling the world why he created AI. After ten years of working as the CEO of Sungchan Group, he decided to quit since the company was stable. He leaves the company under the care of Kang Ki-tak and his aunt Shim Mi-young, who are now in a relationship. He learns about Mo-ne’s whereabouts and gets a call from Han-na, who worries about her. Therefore, Min Do-hyuk picks up Han-na and heads to Sampyeong together to look for Mo-ne.

How does the episode end?

Min Do-hyuk and Han-na arrive at Sampyeong to look for Mo-ne, but she is away from the house. They head in different directions, calling out her name, and Mo-ne, deep in the woods looking for flowers for her mother’s grave, hears Han-na calling her name, so she rushes back to follow the voice.

Mo-ne finds Han-na crying, saying she does not blame her and should stay alive. Han-na looks back and sees Mo-ne. She runs into her embrace and calls her “mom” for the first time, saying she misses her so much. The episode ends when Do-hyuk arrives and watches the mother and daughter’s tearful reunion with a smile. 

The Episode Review

 The final episode gives a bittersweet ending to the narrative. K is given a befitting punishment for his sins, and Min Do-hyuk and Kang Ki-tak are satisfied with being the ones to hand him his punishment. K was not remorseful until the end and still tried to find ways to manipulate the system in his favour, but he failed. The minions all pay for their crimes by spending time in jail, and then the script gives them a second chance at life after a jump to ten years later.

The finale had some plot holes, but it was a good ending. The story is much better than the first season as it keeps the viewers engrossed in the story due to the unexpected plot twists. The actor who deserves the award this season is Lee Yoo-bi since her portrayal of Han Mo-ne’s different layers was impeccable. Do you think the episode provides a satisfactory conclusion to the plot?