The 8 Show – K-drama Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Coup

Episode 8 of The 8 Show begins with 4F planning a coup as she tells 2F, Jin-su and 7F her plan to switch rooms with 8F. 

Jin-su wonders why they are sneaking around instead of head-on attacking 8F as he doesn’t believe she will pull the trigger. Really, Jin-su? She doesn’t seem psychotic enough to pull the gun? Well, 4F explains how 8F loves shooting, almost shoots 4F and then dreams about killing everyone.

As for her routine – 8F rarely sleeps as she watches the CCTVs at night. She golfs during the day with 4F as her caddy. Then she bathes which is the only time she lets go of the gun. 

4F then finds a drunk 5F and exaggerates a tragic tale of how the participants are on the brink of death. Convinced, 5F gets on board to free the tortured participants.

How do the participants take down 8F?

The plan almost immediately goes wrong as 8F doesn’t feel like golfing on D-Day. 4F somehow convinces her and once they are outside, 5F frees 2F. But as she heads to the third floor, Coco, 8F’s dog spots her and starts barking. 4F distracts 8F and 5F frees Jin-su. They slowly head up but his stiff limbs make it difficult.

Coco goes berserk and this time 8F notices them. 5F and Jin-su hide in 6F’s room but he starts screaming. 8F hears it and barges in but 4F knocks her cold with a golf club. As for the forced kiss, 5F takes her revenge by castrating 6F.

What are the remaining participants’ back stories?

8F is a faded performance artist by the name of Song Se-ra. On the day of the game, she is playing in front of an art gallery and someone insults her by giving her some coins.

7F’s real name is Mr. Yu and he is a washed-out scriptwriter. No one is interested in his realistic scripts as they are not entertaining. 

6F is a famous baseball player but he is kicked out for illegal gambling. He works as a car salesman but his manager is annoyed that he spends his time signing autographs. 6F gets angry and beats him up.

5F is rich and married to a successful doctor. But her husband often disrespects her and cheats on her, so, she too starts having an affair. But the man scams her of all her money and runs away.

4F is a valet and is unable to stand up for herself. At one point, two girls park in front of the entrance. To make it worse, one of the girls is a former classmate who mocks 4F’s former dream of being a K-pop idol.

2F is working on a construction project where a co-worker is injured. The hospital will not operate unless the co-worker’s bills are paid. 2F has no money but she offers to handle the bill.

1F is a clown and his daughter has a rare disease. However, he doesn’t have the money for her surgery so the hospital kicks her out. 1F signs a life insurance policy and then tries to kill himself on a busy street. But the car in his path stops as it turns out to be The 8 Show’s limo.

Why can’t 1F switch rooms?

Once 8F is tied up, 1F decides to switch with 6F first followed by 4F switching with 8F. He purchases the switch for 1 billion, leaving him with a couple of grands. But it turns out, for 1 billion, he has bought the instructions on how to switch rooms. The actual rates to switch rooms are much higher with 1st floor being priced at 10 billion while 8F is at 340 billion. This means 1F spent a billion on an envelope.

2F offers to share her prize money with him but she cannot stay in the studio any longer. The rest agree but as they head to the square, 1F suddenly pulls the gun on them. He has to increase his prize money for which the game must go on. He has the participants tie each other and watch him.

To increase the timer, he starts jumping on tightrope. He touches the projector on the ceiling but it falls and bursts into flames. 1F misses the rope and he falls down as well, right into the fire. With the lower floors tying each other loosely, they quickly escape and try to put off the flames. 1F is badly burnt and Jin-su intercoms for help. However, the timer changes to 1440 hours aka 60 days.

How do the participants win the game?

7F loses his composure as he asks the showrunners what else is there for them to see. Jin-su gets an idea and shoots all the CCTVs. 2F joins him and they create a digital blackout by shooting the last CCTV camera – in the chute. With no way to entertain the audience, the timer resets to 0.

The door finally opens but it is too late. 1F apologises to his daughter and then dies. But because he died after the game ended, the participants have won. 8F tears up because she thinks it is a great ending for the game.

Do the participants reunite in the real world?

Following the mental and physical torture, Jin-su wastes away his life in his home. The only reason he knows the game is not his imagination as his bank account shows the prize money. Despite the game deducting half his money for destroying the CCTVs, he still has over 1 billion won. He also learns that the game went on for 2 and half months, and was never televised for a public audience.

He finally decides to pay his respects to 1F and advertises the funeral date. 2F, 4F and 5F are the only ones who show up. Jin-su tracks down 1F’s wife by looking up Seoul circuses and he learns that 7F gave some of his earnings to her and claimed that 1F is working overseas. 6F doesn’t show up but he sends a condolence wreath.

The funeralgoers also see in the news that 8F destroyed the art gallery. For this, she had to use all her money to pay damages and now she is in prison. Satisfied with her ending, the funeralgoers go their separate ways at the end of The 8 Show Episode 8.

What happens in the mid-credit scene?

7F aka Mr. Yu goes back to the network exec and gives him the script of The 8 Show. The exec asks why he hasn’t mentioned much of the top floors in the ending and 7F explains that the audience wouldn’t want them to do well. The exec suddenly jokes that he was part of the game too that is how he became so rich.

7F looks surprised but the exec clarifies that he is joking and wonders if it is even real. He asks if 7F has actually gone through everything in the script. 7F claims that it is all fictional while looking a little shaken. The exec loves the idea anyway and suggests there is also room for a sequel. 

The Episode Review

And with The 8 Show Episode 8, the K-drama comes to an end. It gets a little messy in the end as it tries to fit in too many resolutions – there’s the coup, the switching room plot twist, 1F’s betrayal, the ending of the game and the closure. A lot is happening but none of it has any impact except 1F’s desperate attempt after he gambles away his prize money. At least the bad guys get their due though we’d say 8F is let off a little too easily as it doesn’t seem like prison or loss of money affects her.

But it is quite surprising that they don’t show us the behind-the-scenes of the game. It is as if we are the participants ourselves, only aware of what is on our screens. While we are definitely interested in peeking behind the curtain to get into the twisted mindsets of the game runners, that would be another show.

This is where the mid-scene credit could come into play if we want to believe that the whole show took place in 7F’s head. However, he looks a little worse for wear which makes it seem that the show is real. If it is all in his head, he also wouldn’t have looked shocked when the exec jokes about being in the show. We can also take it as the exec being honest about playing the game but just laughing it off to mess with 7F.

Well, apart from that mini ambiguity, Netflix decided to give us major closure as this one is labelled as a limited series. But with a wealth of material untapped, we won’t mind getting a spin-off that looks at the game from the game runners’ perspective.