“Reflection Of You” Finale: Recap And Ending Explained

Published Categorized as Kdrama Recaps
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Reflection Of You” finale has aired last night, here is its ending explained.

JTBC’s “Reflection Of You” ended its run on December 2 to a surprisingly shocking and unexpected ending, I am here to recap the ending and explain what happened after the dust settled.

Did Woo Jae die?

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Yes, he was stabbed in his neck, in a vital area. He was drunk a bit and when Hui Ju told him not to take out the pen from his neck, he took it out anyways, he bled to death.

Who killed Woo Jae?

Hui Ju isn’t the one who killed Woo Jae, it was her daughter Lisa. Lisa saw her mother being attacked by Woo Jae and stabbed him with a pen not knowing she would be the cause of his death, after stabbing him one time, she ran away back to her room.

How does Hui Ju handle his death?

She hides it. She cleans up her entire studio, she also takes his body and puts it in a bag, she dumps his body in the lake where she used to hang out with her best friend. After throwing away the body, she recalls what he said about a bell that fell into the lake, he says ’till this day, people with pure hearts and souls can hear the bell ring, can you hear it?’ She says there would be no way she can hear it.

She lies to Lisa telling her he’s okay and not dead in order not to traumatize her even more.

Does Hae Won find out about Woo Jae’s death?

Yes, in fact, she saw his body and was the one who retrieved the pen that killed him. When Hui Ju arrives at his apartment to clean up his stuff out of fear, Hae Won confronts her and she breaks down. Hae Won finds out it was Lisa who killed him, Hui Ju gets down on her knees and begs her to not tell anyone, she tells her she’ll disappear from her life and will leave her family if she had to, she just needs to keep silent and never utter a word about it, ever, to anyone.

Hae Won agrees to do so as long as Hui Ju leaves behind everything she’s cared about.

Does Hui Ju disappear?

Yes, she does. She begins preparing for her departure from the family in silence, she wraps up all of her activities and arranges everything in a way that hints she’s saying goodbye. She ends up disappearing as she promised.

She also leaks her photos with Woo Jae to the public as to stage it in a way that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

The rumors begin to fly around that the two ran away together. An Hyeon Seong at first is in utter shock. He goes to see Hae Won who contributes to the lie and shows him a message that says Hui Ju has left with Woo Jae and isn’t coming back, ever.

What happens to An Hyeon Seong and the kids?

An Hyeon Seong refuses to accept it at first, he’s very heartbroken, he continues to search for her but ends up giving up after he finds out she’s hidden her traces well out of her own volition. He stops looking for her.

Lisa and Ho Su both depart overseas to study, they’re accompanied by their grandmother.

Did Hae Won get stabbed to death?

Hae Won answers a call from Seon U who is at the airport, he isn’t told his sister has left everything behind. He calls Hae Won to tell her goodbye, after conversing for a while, Hae Won decides to go see him at the airport.

However, she’s then attacked by Lee Ju-Yeong’s father who stabs her at a crosswalk. She collapses.

Fast forward to a couple of years later, Hui Ju is hiding at a nursing home. One day, on the street she sees a sign that says ‘Hannah, Go Hae Won’s first solo exhibition.’ Hae Won has not only survived but went to become the artist she’s always wanted to be.

Did Hui Ju commit suicide?

It is unclear. Hui Ju lives a miserable life. She works as a nurse somewhere that isn’t specified. She has no life and no friends.

In the ending scene, she goes back to the lake where she dumped Woo Jae’s body and takes a look at her family’s picture from a social media update, they seem to be happy without her. In voiceover she says, ‘it is not hell yet. my story ends here.’ she looks at the lake in worry as she hears the bell ring [the bell Woo Jae talked about]. Does it mean she now has a pure soul because of her sacrifice or not.

It is unknown if she ends up taking her life or not but the bell suggests she might be holding on with her family in mind.

“Reflection Of You” review- final thoughts

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“Reflection Of You” is the most toxic kdrama I’ve seen in a while and that’s actually not a bad thing. I think this is definitely not for everyone but I lived for the drama and the toxicity exhibited by all of the leads.

“Reflection Of You” ending was…. At first, I didn’t like it or understand it much. After giving it some thought, I understand it but don’t like it that much. “Reflection Of You” ending was definitely among the most surprising kdrama endings of 2021. I didn’t expect it to be so anti-climatic.

My biggest shock wasn’t the death but how it was handled. I just couldn’t believe that Hae Won let Hui Ju get away with it, like, she just saw the body of the man she wanted to keep to herself so bad and thought to herself, ‘its ok. I don’t care to call the police or save him.’ Added to that, this would’ve completely ruined Hui Ju just like she’s always wanted.

That was my initial judgment but then I recalled what her character had been until now. Her actions were to be expected. She used him to her advantage. She is by no means a nice woman or a woman that looks out for others. She was never that type and she never claimed to be one, she is also well aware of her issues and her wrongdoings.

What irked me with the community this time was how people were actually rooting for Woo Jae and Hui Ju whilst hating on Hae Won. This infuriated me and I am glad most see Woo Jae and Hui Ju for what they are now, even if it took them a while.

I am not gonna camp here and pretend that Hae Won’s actions were justified but the fact that many were actually defending the cheating couple upset me and angered me. The drama creators even go out of their way to show you how crap both Woo Jae and Hui Ju are. Hae Won is not a good person but she once was and she was ruined completely by those two, they took everything from her. For people to expect her to have a better approach and be the bigger person while rooting for Woo Jae and Hui Ju rubbed me the wrong way.

The character I hated the most was Hui Ju. As much as I thought Woo Jae was in the wrong, Hui Ju takes the cake, she’s one of the most annoying and awful female leads in kdramaland, ever. First, she’s a terrible mother to her children, I couldn’t believe she actually let go of her life for the sake of Lisa but I guess the death of Woo Jae woke her up. She isn’t raising her younger son, and she can’t even begin to see beyond herself and worry properly about her daughter who is suffering because of her.

She refuses to admit her wrongdoings and it takes her the death of her lover to finally wake up and be on her knees. She treats Hae Won as a leech but continuously interferes while giving an attitude as though she’s holly and Hae Won is a mere stalker. Her baldness and refusal to admit fault annoyed me to no end and I found myself sympathizing with Hae Won a lot. The mere audacity to act so holly and so above everything while having let go of your family once for a man is just… I can’t even with this woman.

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You know what’s kinda sad and a bit scary? The fact that no one will ever look for Woo Jae. This in itself is honestly scary but I am sure such things do happen in real life, when you have no family and do a bad thing, no one assumes to check after you. Granted, it was his own wrongdoings that led him to this but the thought of it still scares me, no one is likely to ever find his body or care to look for him.

How Woo Jae changed and became a deranged man took me by surprise, but then I get it, those two took a lot from him and then distanced themselves from him once they were done. the dude clearly had an obsession with her.

“Reflection Of You” ending stays true to the entire story, if you pause to think about it, it all makes sense. I would have loved for Hui Ju to be punished but this punishment is likely even worse, I think she would’ve either served minimal jail sentence or given probation for that because it still counts as self-defense aside from the concealment of the body. Creating a prison to trap her in it was the most genius evil idea, ever.

I was still surprised by the ending but it wasn’t the worst ending I’ve seen. I get why people would either hate or love it, it depends on how you viewed this drama, if you viewed it for it was truly was, then you likely understood the ending.

So what did you guys think “Reflection Of You” ending? did you like it?

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By Jass K.

Hi, I am Jass k. I discuss some of the hottest currently airing kdramas on this site in form of reviews an/or recaps, join me in the discussion~

16 comments

  1. Hi! It seems you missed a very integral part of the last episode. When Hui Ju is dumping Woo Jae’s body in the lake he “tells” Hui Ju about a silver bell that fell into the lake and that “even to this day, those with pure hearts and souls can hear the bell chiming, Do you hear it?” To which Hui Ju replies “there’s no way I’d be able to hear that” due to everything she’s done. However at the end of the episode when Hui Ju goes to the fishing spot to kill herself, she stops and looks out at the lake and hears the chime from the bell. This leads me to believe that Hui Ju does not kill herself because she realizes that she has a pure heart and soul since she can now hear the bell chiming. I think it shows that people can grow from their mistakes and they aren’t simply defined by them; That even though you’ve hurt and wronged people, you still deserve to live. You should definitely watch it again, it’s a lot deeper than the cheating scandal.

    1. Just as you said, I believe the cheating scandal wasn’t really the main point of the drama. Both Hui Ju and her husband are somewhat not nice people so I bet it wouldn’t have posed much of an issue in their relationship. But the fact that someone who’s done so many evil deeds has been able to hear the bell chiming proves that, as long as you change your ways, you’ll be forgiven. The drama is so confusing and requires a lot of thinking. This is the first Kdrama that I haven’t been able to somewhat predict how it ends‍♀️

  2. Knee-jerk reaction was to not be satisfied with the ending, but then it made sense to me. Nothing in this drama was straightforward, hence the character’s revenge and karma are also convoluted. Btw, I was also scratching my head with comments (directly or subtlety) giving so much leeway for the cheaters and condemning HW to eternity of hell. HW’s initial lash-out revenge (approaching the bro, Lisa, Hosu, etc) made sense to me considering the rawness of the knowledge of the betrayal, but she was still wrong in involving Lisa and Hosu. But her owning up and apologising, gave her the chance to start fresh. And weirdly enough, even if HW’s life was spiralling, even then she was still sticking with facts when she deals with HJ. What the bar owner said pertaining to HW’s mom should be learned by all the characters here… even if she is a victim, but she still committed wrong doings So, she should pay for it, only then can she start anew. I think HW’s long years of deadness was her advance payment, and HJ’s was just starting.

  3. The ending completely made me disappointed. I am disillusioned by the writer’s style, as initially she wrote Gu Hae Won as a vengeful and slow-burn emotionally torturing Jeong Hui Ju (while tormenting herself in the process), but the ending showed Gu Hae Won as suddenly letting it all go as Hui Ju said that she would disappear and leave everything behind. Just didn’t make sense.

    Mr. An suddenly lost his grip in the final episode, not being able to track Hui Ju, when all he had to do was track the relevant neighbor dashcams, security cctv or hire investigators. Maybe he thought that it was time to give up on her. I am a great fan of Choi Won Young’s work (especially in Sky Castle) but here, I wished his character was given more emotions rather than someone who just kept it inside and burst in the end.

    Seo Woo Jae was the most unfortunate character. He was totally like an empty shell, walking around aimlessly most of the time, looking like a zombie despite that handsome face. When he died, nobody looked nor reported about him going missing, nobody questioned his missing for 3 yrs of absence (except Hae Won), shoving himself into Hui Ju’s face when he should have realised that he is chasing illusion.. etc. I was wondering what made him fall for Hui Ju so madly, when I can’t see anything attractive in Hui Ju’s mannerisms except looking like a complete mess everytime, even when she was problem-free. The writer failed to create a cohesive story as to answer the 5W1H questions that would pop up in viewers’ minds while the story is advancing.

    Well, i have many more complaints about this drama, but I guess some might be ok with the ending. I just hate that feeling of being left high and dry with questions unanswered after investing my time watching with expectations (the first 4 episodes were quite ok actually).

    Well, this is the risk of watching on-going dramas. I suppose watching in marathon manner would be safer as the reviews and ratings would be a great guide for viewers to “watch or skip”.

  4. Hae won should rot in hell, there is no justification for her convoluted darkness, she had a choice to move on and live her best life but chose to drown in her own self made hatred/prison. Hui jui’s choice to disappear does not make sense considering the fact that her character has always been a smart survivor and I am sure she knew she would have walked out of the whole situation unscathed. Terrible ending as far as I am concerned.

    1. Agree with you!!
      When somebody you love do sonething wrong to you, you have two options: 1)Make yourself as a victim and fill with hate and revenge wishes or 2) Forgive them and move on. I think the last option is the healthier one, even if it is the most difficult path.
      I think Hae won wanted to blame her ex and her friend for her failure but it was her responsability to learn from that and move on.
      I didn’t like the ending at all
      I was hoping that at the end she would forgive Hui Sun and let her stay with her family…. So sad

  5. Terrible ending. I thought it was totally out of character for Seo Woo Jae to attack Hui jui. I also thought that Hae Won was an awful person who should have been punished for all the manipulation she did and the terrible things her actions caused. If she just left others alone, she would have had Seo Woo Jae all to herself but that is obviously not what she wanted. She wanted to cause pain because the man she was in love was not in love with her. She manipulated him into marriage the first time and the second time as well and her actions pushed him into his death. She then she gets a big art show? I wanted to see her dead not thriving. I guess this drama shows that sociopaths get what they want in this world.

    1. I didn”t like it either
      Hae won was a very awful person and she deserved to be death not succesful at the end. I really dislike her. She caused so much pain to everybody.
      Huí Ju on the other hand, made a mistake and learnt from it. She deserved to stay with her family and her family needed her.
      Woo was crazy and obsessed with her, he needed to let her go and achieve his profesional goals
      Very dissapointed ending

    2. Someone finally said it! The whole series I was like hello he didn’t want to go thru with the marriage in the 1st place. It was also only for the Visas so what was her malfunction? Not condoning cheating but you can’t help who your destined to fall in love with. Kdramas often have alot of scenes that drag out. So many questions but I did watch the series 2ce lol

  6. I like the alternative review… I also believe Hui jui didn’t deserve to walk away COMPLETELY unscathed. Even though I see her as somewhat a victim…Someone who made a mistake and the past came back to haunt her, She still doubled down on her past affair, seemingly unphased that she was once hae won’s friend and adored her. Neither of them wanted to end the stubbornness. Woo jae included.

    Didn’t hae won say, “If only you apologized, I wouldn’t have gone so far”.

    Crazy story but I cherished every bit of it.

  7. Absolutely awful ending. The series as a whole had a lot of cohesion problems, the start was even more confusing than the end, but I started enjoying it in the middle- until this very disappointing ending. It seems the author suddenly decided to make Woo Jae the main villain and kill him off. I can accept someone condemning Hui jui’s actions (even though they showed many times her life was far from perfect as everyone thought and she was trying to do the right thing now, overall a very human character), but he was more like the victim between the two. Sure he went after Hui jui many more times than he should, but he was always in love with her and was always very straightforward about it. It happens. His obsession/impulsivity was the main problem.
    At first I hated Hae Won, then I started sympathizing with her, but in the end she was just the worst really. She didn’t love anyone. Maybe she did it once but she knew he didn’t feel the same and even so, she forced him to marry. Twice now, and in the present she made it clear she was only using him for revenge- that’s what she lives for, and a lot of times involving people who has nothing to do with her problems, like Hui jui’s kids, and she gets away with all of it? So what, the show wants to prove you can screw lives and be happy ever after? Unless you’re a cheater of course, that’s the only sin that counts apparently.
    In the very end, she should either let Hui jui go or at least stay dead (why did she even had that falling scene then? So unnecessary).
    The only way I can accept the absurd ending is if they intended to give an idea of looping- Hui jui is the miserable one now, so she’ll try to ruin Hae won’s life now that she’s achieved success (?). The way they show she finding her exhibition is exactly how Hae won once did, as shown in flashbacks.

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