Kdrama “Snowdrop” Ending Explained: Episode 16 Recap
“Snowdrop” last episode has aired today, here is a recap of the finale and the ending explained and why fans were heartbroken.
Has Snowdrop ended?
Yes, it is. “Snowdrop” has ended this month, JTBC confirmed in a statement that the drama will air its finale on January 30 ending a week earlier than expected, thus concluding its run officially.
Did Kang Chung Ya’s true identity as a North Korean spy get exposed?
It was, sort of. She took off with the remaining three spies at the beginning of “Snowdrop” episode 16, they wanted to flee with the 300 million dollars. However, they are hunted down by Haegeumsung No. 1.
She ends up making a promise to Su Ho to take care of their families for them with the 300 million dollars [explained why below], she escapes alone. Su Ho heads back to the dorm because he finds out that the dorm students will be killed.
Who is Haegeumsung No. 1?
Turns out, he was Mr. Kim who worked at the dorm. He’s dispatched to catch the four North Korean spies and kill them. He kills Joo Gyeok-Chan and Lee Eung-Cheol.
The next day, he finds Kang Chung Ya and Su Ho at the spot the four spies agreed to meet at in order to escape. After an altercation and some words from Su Ho who tells him Yeong Ro will die if he can’t go, Mr. Kim gets shot and dies.
Did Kang Chung Ya survive?
Yes, she does. After the death of Mr. Kim, she tries to convince Su Ho not to go back and save Yeong Ro. He declines it. He tells her to promise to provide for their families with the money she’ll use when escaping. She promises she’ll do it.
Did Joo Gyeok-Chan and Lee Eung-Cheol die?
Yes. They were hunted down by Mr. Kim who killed them on the spot.
Did the students at the dorm get saved?
Yes, they barely made it out alive.
The plan gets derailed after Jang Han-Na exposes the scheme to the public via radio. This creates an uproar and makes the situation worse. After some back and forth between the president and Eun Chang-Su due to the public backlash, the president decides to kill the students in the dorm. Eun Chang-Su continues to say they should save them all but his words go unheard. He’s basically let go.
Nam Tae-Il is recruited by the president to carry out the kill order on the students. He arrives with a tank at the dorm, he says he’ll kill the commies who hold the people hostage.
Armed officials arrive at the scene while Jang Han-Na barely escapes at the order of Eun Chang-Su, she was being questioned for her role in the exposing of their crimes. She drives a bus to the location and radios to Lee Gang-Mu that she’s there. They take the students out. Three people are missing including Yeong Ro, why? Because Ms. Oh goes back before escaping and a bomb defuses on her. Yeong Ro and the two help her out.
Meanwhile, Su Ho arrives and takes out all the people waiting outside at the bus location. Jang Han-Na is told to leave with the bus before its too late. she leaves.
What happens to Yeong Ro and Su Ho?
When Su Ho came back to save Yeong Ro, he manages to kill many armed soldiers, however, he gets injured, he tells Lee Gang-Mu to leave with the rest who are Yeong Ro, Miss Pi, Ms. Oh and Gye Bun-Ok. Yeong Ro hesitates at the last minute and goes back to check up on Su Ho. He’s already taken many bullets and is injured.
He hears more troupes are coming to the dorm and he sees Yeong Ro who tries to attend to his wounds, in a last-ditch effort to save her life, he talks via the radio to Nam Tae-Il and tells him he has the 300 million account nr. And password. He only gives him the account nr but not the password. He tells him only he and Young Ro know it.
However, when the soldiers arrive at their hideout, they shoot at them. Soo Ho gives his back to them and gets shot multiple times.
Does Soo Ho die in “Snowdrop”?
Yes, Soo Ho dies in “Snowdrop” last episode. He dies in Yeong Ro’s arms as he protects her from gunshots, he is shot multiple times in his back and dies almost instantly.
As he’s dying, he holds her hands and tells her, “you have to live. no matter how hard it is, you have to live. I’m leaving, but I’ll remember you for the rest of my life, Youngro, I love you.” He dies in her arms and before he passes away, he hands her a cassette tape and locks it in her arms.
What happens in the last episode of Snowdrop?
After the death of Su Ho, Nam Tae-Il shows up and yells at them, he drags Yeong Ro who is devastated and in tears, the lie Soo Ho told protected her.
After that, Park Mu Yeol gets elected. Aemin Party Leaders women get their belongings seized and their men arrested. Hong Ae-Ra escapes with loads of money from the safe.
Eun Chang-Su, Nam Tae-Il and Ahn Gyeong-Hui all get arrested and sentenced to jail.
A year later in 1988, the dorm is back to its old glory and back to business. Young Ro revisits the cafe she first met Soo Ho and remembers him, she listens to the cassette tape of his confession to her and cries.
Does snowdrop have a happy or a sad ending?
Sadly, “Snowdrop” does not have a happy ending. Fans were stunned to find out that Soo Ho died while trying to rescue his lover Young Ro. Many had hoped the couple would end up together even in the future but it didn’t happen.
Did Lee Gang-Mu and Jang Han-Na end up together?
Yes, in the final episode of “Snowdrop,” the two characters set off into the sunset in their cars together after the entire ordeal is over.
Will there be a season 2 of Snowdrop?
There will not be “Snowdrop” season two, the drama has concluded its run this week and the drama’s creators have never publicly stated it will ever have a second season. Considering how “Snowdrop” ending was a sad one, its highly unlikely that it will see a second season.
What did you guys think of “Snowdrop” ending? Did you like it or not? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
I am reading this because I do not want to watch the last episodes, It’s heartbreaking. Almost everyone were expecting a sad ending, I have a little hope that it would me a happy ending but it did not happen. It is a great drama with a tragic end. If you are prepared to cry and ready to be heartbroken this drama is for you. I will watch the last episode once I am ready.
Same here.
Hi Lala, it was a doomed relationship from the start, yet it was so pure and true.
The last scenes reminded me of the movie, Titanic. Love lost, yet celebrated and cherished.
Is true
sameeeeeeeeeeee
SAME HEEEEEEEEEERE
I understand
I like sad endings. I knew from the very start that it was impossible for them to be together.
Well for starters the ending is just soooo sad, I mean I did predict this to happen (Su Ho dying and Yeong Ro listening to the recording at the very end) but stillll I just can’t get over it. I cried so hard. I will definitely remember this kdrama. Btw Jisoo did an awesome job at acting! I can’t wait to see more of her work.
Stupid twists in the last 2 episodes I must say. The cook is the mum of the good looking North Korean spy. How did it happen ? The old caretaker became a North Korean spy all of a sudden and killed several spies??? All of a sudden he could walk properly and even aim a gun at his fellow colleagues. The various lovey Dovey scenes in the midst of fire is just so dumb. I skipped all those moments. She has only 1 expression through and the loud sobs are the hallmark of her poor acting skills. Jisoo deserves a better actress.
The cook was not the mom of the good looking North Korean spy, she had mental issues (maybe onset dementia idk) but she was delusional in thinking he was her son, in the couple of scenes where she tried to feed him and give him clothes, it touched his heart (maybe bcz she reminded him of his own mom) so he went along with it. As far as the old caretaker being a North Korean spy all of a sudden and going Rambo, uh yeah that didn’t feel right at all lol. The lovey dovey scenes at the end was a bit cringey but after he got shot several times you kinda figure he was going to die so they had to make it a bit lovey dovey I guess to tie up the whole forbidden love thing. As far as Jisoo expressions, give her a break it was her first movie, with that said I think she did pretty good, she’ll get better in time. Anyway set aside from the last two episodes feeling a bit rushed and all over the place, I enjoyed this drama and especially enjoyed watching Jung HaeIn.
No mum just that the cooking lady gives him a motherly vibes that reminds him of his mom
Its really heartbreaking …….I stopped watching the last episode cuz of suhoo is gonna b dead I hate sad endings…even at the very end there was a little hope that suho might make it cuz he was sad all along. there was no happiness in his life so if they let him alive this would worth it anyway I will watch the endings next before watching any kseries.very disappointing ending
I still refused to watch the remaining two episodes. My heart can’t take it, it’s so sad. I mean, tragic ending was already expected but I’m still caught off guard because the ending is very different from what I’m imagining. To be honest, I prefer them both dead. Yes. Su Ho and Yeong Ro both dead. I just think that it’s unfair that the other one will be alone specially Yeong Ro she doesn’t have anyone left to her, it’s heartbreaking. Atleast when they both died, no one is going to suffer from loneliness anymore. Anyway, the ending is still good. I like how, although we know that the ending might be tragic, the events is still unpredictable. And for Jisoo, she did a great job in acting considering it’s her first drama. Looking forward for more shows from her. And please give us another “Jisoo and Jung Hae-in” partners in the future! Their chemistry is really good.
completely agree… yeong ro is indeed left alone. I just hope she would have made up with her friends. She still had her grand mother (hopefully) as close relative and Ms Pi. and gye bun-ok too might be there for her.. she was anyway used to spend a lot of time with gye bun-ok.. so its ok I guess..
Same here . Wanted both to die so that both will have their own happy ending . But this ending is just too cruel for them as well as us. Worst !!!!!!!!! I still cannot get over this . My heart feels so heavy . I am not sure how I am going to sleep after this heartbreak . Next time definitely gonna watch ending before any Kdrama.
This is another great kdrama. It leaves you hanging until the end. I must say the writer is very good and Disney picked a good material for their first kdrama. I love it when writers leave it to the audience how the story ends.
This my take on the ending:
I think Yeong Ro was not left alone. Either ANSP must have killed her after learning that she really didn’t have the password or she died of a broken heart. She may have also gone crazy because of the trauma – hostage taking, brother died, father imprisoned, first love died, and she blamed herself for all of that. The last scene where she was watching Soo Ho singing at the cafe (which they talked about when they were making coffee and erasing their memories) says it all. How else could that have happened if Yeong Ro was still alive or mentally well.
I think the actors portrayed their characters very well. You can nit pick on their acting if you must but I think they were appropriate.
This drama justifies that it s not always a happy ending…it showed that two worlds can’t be reunited its good to have a drama twist and break the cycle of a happy ending in a k drama series…It showed life must go on no matter what happened from the past..A love story with a tragic ending..
Excellent acting by Jung Hae Inn and all in the drama.
I really like the ending this drama is going to stay in people’s hearts forever ♡♡♡
Jisoo (BP fan)was superb – but the whole cast and drama was excellent.
Tearing at your heart, comical scenes of politicians ( it’s the same all over the world) . Gripping, frustrating and heartbreaking – it had it all so congratulations from all involved.
I’m a westerner and watched through Disney+ , Koreans should embrace this wonderful local product.
No matter what ending would have been we would have wished for other… Great work from writers and team of Snowdrop. With that said I hope yeong-ro would have just left with Mr Lee. Or else atleast they must have shown yeong ro with her friends and gye bun-ok at last, at this point I think she is left with noone except her grand mother.
What was the point in showing that Hong Ae-Ra escaped with a ton of money?? why didn’t she too sufferred just like other wives?
Yeah, I’m so appalled by that scene. She and the other 2 wretched ladies deserve to be caned and jailed!
While it is appalling, I think the writer expected us to sympathize with her a bit more because she is the stepmother of Young Ro and the wife of Eun Chang Su who at least tried to protect Young Ro.
Also packing the money is consistent with her strong/sly character (she married Eun Chang Su as an actress and was constantly plotting and supporting him)
I am devastated. Yeong Ro and Soo Ho went through a lot! They deserve to be happy. What’s more heartbreaking is that Yeong Ro was the one went through and suffered the most. I really hate the fact that Yeong Ro had to suffer and Soo Ho died because of Mis Oh. Otherwise, they would all be in the bus with Han Na. Ae Ra does not deserve a happy ending at all!
I cried.. I cried a lot…when he said “You’ll have to live no matter how hard it gets, I’ll always remember you, I love you Yeong ro” my tears weren’t (no,aren’t I’mstill crying). stopping…….. I wasn’t expecting that so hoo will die even though it’s just a drama but how Yeong ro will live?those political leaders….. I wanna kill them
Same here
I do not know if this type of comment has already existed or not on this platform, but I just wanna say… I am very disappointed by the last 3-4 episodes of Snowdrop. And no, it’s not because of the sad ending boo-hoo (honestly we all expected it and even though I’m a happy ending kind of guy, a GOOD sad ending is also acceptable in my book). It was because of how they delivered those final episodes that frustrates me so much until I had to stop watching a few times either because it was too predictable (boring) or too aggravating because of how the story went.
The last episodes felt… rushed / abrupt, cramming quite A LOT of plot points into 3 episodes, and they felt loose, the story was all over the place, imho. Bun-ok and Ms. Pi’s story is brought up almost at the climax of the ending, where I was already not giving a damn anymore towards Bun-ok because of how she is (props to the actress btw, great acting). If it was brought up a bit earlier, where I still had hope for her, that would be fine. But nooo, they (the production team) want to put it in with all the other mess that is also going on in the story and put it where we already hated the character nearly to oblivion (at least me). Which just doesn’t make sense to me.
And the epilogue, oh the epilogue…. Honestly it. is. a. sorry excuse for an epilogue. It’s very short, only “vaguely” telling us what happened after, but it’s really annoying how little the portion of it is. Throughout the story, we learned about the other students and their portion of side stories. Seol-hui and Hye-ryeong’s love triangle, Jeong-min who was wise and brave and always stood up for Young-ro. The stuck-up girl who always worry about her exam. The closeness and solidarity of room 207, fighting against the world. Well, if you’ve watched the last 3 episodes, you know that that is all for nought. When the whole dorm finally finds out that Young-ro is Chang-su’s daughter, EVERY. SINGLE, ONE. instantly hated Young-ro, including her own roommates, EVEN the wise Jeong-min and soft-hearted Seol-hui. What. The. Heck… And there was NOO closure whatsoever about that whole debacle. Everybody just hates Young-ro now except for the other “main-supporting” characters.
Young-ro always was a bit of a damsel in distress throughout the story because of… well she was the main character, after all, but she was also usually witty and brave with her actions throughout the course of the story. But sadly, she just went full-on helpless in the finale because God-knows-what or maybe because it’s the end, it’s the climax, so she should be helpless so that Soo-ho can come to her rescue one final time before he eventually dies.
God, I’m starting to ramble endlessly… In conclusion, it’s okay that some of you didn’t watch the last 3 episodes. Honestly, you didn’t miss much. I loved the start and about until 3/4 of the story, but the ending is just… typical, loose, felt-like-it-was-running-out-of-budget, Korean romance tragedy drama.
Snowdrop had the worst ending ever….. like, I’m not asking for a happy ending coz there can’t always be a happy ending but I’m angry with the fact that bunchan couldn’t end up together……. I mean if they weren’t going to be together why did they even show us connections of them and try to fool us? I really liked this series in the start but when I got to know that gyeok Chan died and bun ok and gyeok Chan just had a 2 sec scene in the last episode. ….. That was so dumb I mean why does the director wants to break our hearts??
The ending is disturbing. It is not only sad but also traumatizing. Tragedic, unfair and rush ending. 7 days past but I still can’t get it off of my mind. I forgot all of the beautiful side after saw the ending where sooho who desperated to stay alive, tried his best to save his team and all people, should brutally died.
I know, because of the controvercy, they had to exposed how dictator ANSP is more than the romance story. But, with this kind of ending, where all people that tried to be kind was brutaly killed, I forgot about the main point of the drama. I started to regreted watched it, no, I already regreted it. It was gave a negative energy to the audience and problably a trauma for fans. They gave happy ending hints in the drama that made several people gain a hope of it. But, unfortunately, they betrayed fans hope at the end. Ep 6-15 was full of suffered, so I though it will be different in ep 16. The ending also felt so rush. Many plot twist at the last 2 episodes and many questions hasn’t answer yet. Yesterday, #snowdropep17 was trending world wide on twitter. Sadly, fans are desperated to the unclear story and wishing a season 2 or special episode to get a little happy ending.
For anybody who read my opinion, to be honest, I won’t sugest you to watched it. Sorry snowdrop.
I agree with you when you said ‘was gave a negative energy to the audience and problably a trauma for fans. They gave happy ending hints in the drama that made several people gain a hope of it. But, unfortunately, they betrayed fans hope at the end’
I felt it was cold and cruel to fans building them up with hope just to knock them down with cruel negatively, like they enjoyed the fans pain , so yes the ending was lousy just like ‘Game of Thrones’
I think the fans should write an alternative ending
i wish there is a season two that it was a plot that soo ho died soo ho did the planning with kang chung ya and lee gang mu knows that soo ho is still alive
Can anyone tell me what the last paper plane stuck in the fence say??!
I wasn’t expecting that ending!! I somehow always hoped he’d make it out alive and find her years later… I cried my eyes out!! Had to go and watch some of my fave scenes from something in the rain
Ho su and Young ro deserved more happy moments together