Parasyte: The Grey – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Final Fight

Parasyte: The Grey episode 6 begins this finale with Won-seok in the past. He shows up to see Pastor Kwan and finds him sitting on his sofa whispering “tidal flats” and “Professor Yoon”. He’s killed his wife and Won-seok finds himself at the mercy of this parasite. To save his own skin, Won-seok agrees to work with the parasites. The Pastor explains that he wants to govern an entire human organisation and become their leader, explaining Won-seok’s involvement here.

Back in the present, Chul-min (who has the pastor’s parasite inside) gives a press conference and an update on the task force. He puts out a report to try and find and apprehend both Su-in and Kyung-hee, who are both wanted men. He doesn’t mention Kang-woo though, who gets him and Su-in some snacks before leaving.

Do Kyung-hee and Su-in team up?

Kyung-hee rings Kang-woo and decides that they should meet. He’s not sure it’s a good idea but when he passes the phone to Su-in, she tentatively agrees that they should team up and form a loose coalition to take out Chul-min. While Heidi does not want to do this and unnecessarily risk their existence, Su-in may comply.

Kang-woo happens to be watching all of this take place and he loses his temper. He rushes out with a knife but Kyung-hee stops him and throws him down on the floor. Now, she does this in full view of everyone else at this garden but nobody bats an eyelid, especially when a family with a pram pass by a few seconds later.

When things calm, Kang-woo points out the plan that Chul-min has, which includes going after the mayor. Things are tense and a tenuous alliance is formed for the time being. As for Junkyung, she finds out that the knife used on the Hunting Dog could have been fabricated to make it look like a parasite did it. As we know, it was.

What are Jun-kyung’s orders? What does she choose to do?

Jun-kyung receives orders from her superiors that they have intel on a new set of parasites over in Gangwon-do and she’s told to leave. With Team Grey out of town, Jun-kyung is concerned, especially as Chul-min and Won-seok are part of the security team providing assistance for the mayor’s arrival and this coincides with the plan to take him out.

On the way out of town, Su-in rings Jun-kyung, while in control as Heidi, and informs her about the music festival. She brings up that she’s en-route and going to kill Chul-min no matter what. And just like that, Jun-kyung decides to believe her and turns the van around, ditching this plan and believing Su-in and Kang-woo. 

Meanwhile, Kyung-hee and Su-in wait for the opportune time to strike. Eventually Su-in gets a tip-off when Chul-min shows, and Kang-woo also gets visual on him. Chul-min isn’t exactly stealthy, and he immediately starts killing people, showing that he’s a parasite, and moving in to attack the Mayor.

What happens during the final fight?

In the chaos, Chul-min manages to infect one of the mayor’s guards but jut before hitting the killing blow and taking control of the Mayor, Kyung-hee arrives to save the day. Kang-woo protects the mayor while a fight breaks out between the two parasites. Unfortunately, the Pastor’s parasite is too strong, and takes control of Kyung-hee from the inside, killing her outright.

Before it disappears, it takes control of Won-seok. Kang-woo and the mayor escape, while Su-in and Won-seok fight. However, mid-skirmish Won-seok offers them to team up and take out the organisation. Jun-kyung shows and makes a big decision. She notices that Won-seok is one of the parasites and shoots him in the chest, killing him outright.

As for Su-in, she manages to kill the stray parasite that sneaks up on Jun-kyung from behind, impaling it and killing the creature. Heidi reveals to Jun-kyung that Su-in is trusting despite what’s happened to her in the past and decides to leave her fate in the officer’s hands. She passes out on the floor, as Jun-kyung and her subordinates show. Jun-kyung decides that Su-in is just a normal woman and the parasite is of no threat, so she lets her go free.

Meanwhile, Kang-woo and Su-in form a bond after everything they’ve been through. We cut forward with them some time later, and it’s clear that he likens her to Jin-hee, given he looked out for his sister for so long. As they walk together, Kang-woo explains that he’s recently joined a new organization. Specifically, he’s joined Team Grey with Jun-kyung. Given he has a military background with the marines, it makes sense that he would use this as a way of getting his life back in order.

How does Parasyte end?

As they stand together, Kang-woo brings out a note that Heidi wrote to her. She wanted him to speak to her but he’s not able to finish the letter. Just before he leaves, he points out that there’s space on the team for her too. Su-in reads the rest of the note to herself, where Heidi has told her “whether she likes it or not, she’s not alone.”

We then cut to The Grey. Su-in has a visitor who’s apparently an expert in all matters of parasites. The Japanese man stands, and turns to reveal that he’s… Shinichi! He holds out his hand to shake hers, and the first season comes to a close.

The Episode Review

For those unaware, Shinichi is the name of the protagonist from Parasyte: The Maxim so it’s a nice way of paying homage to the original source material and tying the story together.

Unfortunately, the finale, like episode 5 before it, is sloppy and there’s a lot of contrived writing here that makes the motivation of our characters – and the world as a whole – unbelievable. The idea that these parasites want to be stealthy makes sense, but then that entire plan goes out the window as soon as Chul-min shows up at the festival. Wouldn’t he have lured one of the guards away in secret then taken him over? Why go in all guns blazing? How is this going to help his cause?

We also don’t get the full explanation over exactly how the Pastor would have ruled over humanity and what their master plan is, leaving us to basically fill in the gaps ourselves. And that’s before the bizarre way that after the big news announcement, everyone just goes about life like normal without even batting an eyelid to what’s going on.

It’s a shame too because there are parts of this series that are quite good. The idea that Su-in, who has always been alone in her life, is now guided by a parasite is a lovely touch but it’s not really explored in as much detail as it could have been, especially with more episodes and a tighter bond between parasite and host like in the source material.

It’s not an outright awful show but similarly it’s not a particularly good one either. It’s a mediocre thriller, if you can switch your brain off to the contrivances, that has a lot of holes in the writing and character motivations. All in all, this is not a winner.