“The Golden Spoon” Ending Explained- Episode 16 Recap And Review

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MBC’s drama “The Golden Spoon” has ended its run earlier today, here is a recap of its finale and its ending explained.

“The Golden Spoon” Episode 16 Recap

How did Seo Joon-Tae die?

Seo Joon-Tae died by suicide, he confronts Hwang Hyeon-Do [in episode 15] and he points a

gun at him. Hwang Hyeon-Do tells him she’s actually his mom and he can’t handle that. He goes up to his mom who is holding a party and asks her if its true. She refuses to answer until the end, he shoots himself.

She’s devastated and hates his guts now.

How was Hwang Hyeon-Do arrested?

Hwang Hyeon-Do continues to avoid responsibility and pin it on his son. Police follow his son around. Meanwhile, Taeyong goes to visit the grandma who sells spoons and Taeyong finds out there was another person who never came the last time.

Later, he finds out it was Hwang Hyeon-Do, thus, he tells Lee Seung-Cheon, who is on the run, that his father is probably unaware the person who eats with the spoon can recall the other’s memory. Thus, he does just that, he finds the spoon, eats with it and confronts him.

He asks him to turn himself in for old time’s sake. However, he refuses and proceeds to strangle Lee Seung-Cheon. Taeyong stops him and as he was about to kill him while he’s down, Taeyong stops him again from hurting him anymore.

Meanwhile, Na Ju-Hee finds the original tape her father kept of the murder Hwang Hyeon-Do committed. Oh Yeo-Jin helps air this footage and police arrest him at the scene.

How does Seo Young-Sin handle the scandal of her husband?

She helps him get arrested by stalling until police came.

Did Lee Seung-Cheon die? How?

Yes, technically, he died. After he gets questioned by police and freed from the murder charges, he returns home to get his luggage. A maid poisons his drink, he drinks it and it appears he died.

Note: the drama then flashes to 3 years later.

What happened to Oh Yeo-Jin?

3 years later, Oh Yeo-Jin is revealed to have gotten married to Park Jang-Gun and they have a child together. Karma catches up to her as one of the workers [who is Oh Yeo Jin’s real father] who works for them ends up convincing her ‘father’ to take the child out on a stroll.

He’s short on cash and has to pay up debt collectors, he will likely threaten them with the child and it will cause trauma to everyone involved.

Did Jang Mun-Gi and Lee Seung-A get married?

Yes, three years later, its revealed they’ve gotten married and moved in together with her mother and live happily ever after. They’re watching Taeyong’s interview.

What happened to Hwang Tae-Yong?

Hwang Tae-Yong becomes a successful webtoon writer who is getting interviewed and is now famous and loved by many. He speaks about his parents and such. Na Ju-Hee comes to visit him, they’re still friends. They dine together and remain in contact.

Why did Hwang Hyeon-Do get out of prison?

3 years after it happened, he gets released on the application for suspension of execution of the sentence for him. He’s now in a wheelchair, he’s paralyzed.

It turns out Seo Young-Sin poisoned him similarly to the way he did to his son but didn’t quite kill him. He’s now unable to do anything on his own, he can’t drink or even lift a finger. She tells him she won’t kill him until something with the business gets sorted out.

She tells him Joon Tae was Yohan’s son which means Joon Tae was actually his son and he just broke him like that instead of handing out the business to him.

He cries knowing he’s f**ked pretty bad and will die soon.

How Does “The Golden Spoon” End?

The final scene of the drama shows Na Ju-Hee going to interview a Gardener who is very successful and teaches kids about stock investment on the side. She goes to see him and waits for him by the sea. When the gardener comes out, its technically Lee Seung-Cheon. They talk together about life, the webtoon and he prays for something the old Lee Seung-Cheon prayed for once.

She tells him he reminds her of someone she knows.

Does “The Golden Spoon” Have A Happy Ending?

Not really, its a bittersweet ending about people paying the price for what they committed. Eventually, everyone’s past catches up to them and they face karma even Lee Seung-Cheon.

“The Golden Spoon” Ending Explained

Lee Seung-Cheon in his old self is actually not dead. Turns out, the gardener [cameo played by Na In Woo] had met the grandma and took a spoon, he exchanged his life with him in that critical moment, the spell kicked in before Lee Seung-Cheon was supposed to drink his juice.

When the switch happens, an oblivious Lee Seung-Cheon returns to gardening unaware of whats going on. It turns out the gardener drank the juice and died instead.

The bigger twist is, before it all happened, Lee Seung Cheon actually walked out with his own spoon in his hands, if he ever ate with it, he likely remembers everything which explains why he never agreed to do any interview with anyone but agreed with Ju Hee years later.

He even meets her at the spot they had a date in and even recites things similar to what he said years ago, hinting at the fact that he knows he’s Lee Seung Cheon.

Its hinted that he remembers everything but chooses not to disturb the people he loves knowing well that they’re better off with thinking he’s dead. He also likely still has feelings for Ju Hee and plans to see her again through his efforts as she meets him as a new person, a different person entirely. He gets to start from scratch with her.

“The Golden Spoon” review- final thoughts

First things first, I need to tackle the death of Seo Joon-Tae which came out of left field so hard to the point it was laughable…. Also, the fact that Hwang Hyeon-Do leaves an obviously dangerous man with a gun roaming around the house is peak lazy writing in my opinion. So many moments in episode 15 and 16 were just lazy.

I didn’t like Lee Seung-Cheon at all and I didn’t feel the need to particularly do that either to enjoy the drama. I appreciated that, at first, his character was more of a cautionary tale and someone who isn’t shy about admitting to wanting money. The screenwriter didn’t mind not particularly portraying him as this ‘nice’ character, whats shocking is that despite the screenwriter full realization that he’s not a nice character, he still gets the treatment of the regular kdrama ‘nice’ character such as having Ju Hee by his side despite it making zero sense, the entire character of Ju Hee is honestly cartoonish and feels like a prop rather than a well fleshed-out female character which is such a shame.

The character I liked the most was definitely Taeyong whom I felt so sorry for, his life was flipped upside down so many times without his feedback or permission, and despite that, he was still happy to have a lovely family. His perspective is EVERYTHING.

Sungjae’s likability definitely helped in me not hating his character but its still truly unlikable and I commend him for playing something different.

The ending was, in a way, fitting, very fitting. At least, they got that part right after a drawn out 16 hours that is.

Lee Seung-Cheon deserves worse than the fate he ended up with, I think his death would have been fine by me as well, I think it would have been fitting, a bit harsh, but fitting of the fate he chose messing with the horrible people he messed with and disrupting everyone’s peace in the process.

Its also annoying how he still ended up rich despite all that, I mean, it makes sense, but he got off too easy in my opinion. The fact that he still has his spoon and invited Ju hee to the spot they went to previously explains he’s actually ate with it and remembers everything which is not fair in my opinion.

The irony in the last scene was astounding and this scene will likely leave an impression on viewers. One of the best written scenes in the series, so sad the rest couldn’t have been just that.

The mess that was “The Golden Spoon” is over, I have such conflicting feelings about it. I wished so bad it was written better. Its so sad how it all came crashing down.

At least we got to see our Jong Won shine here.

So what did you guys think of the crazy “The Golden Spoon” ending?

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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~

1 comment

  1. I actually do not quite agree on your analysis of Lee Seungcheon. I liked the character fine to be honest, he’s not a nice character by any stretch but he’s not cartoon evil either. The story began with him as a kid, doing stupid kid shit but he reacted to it pretty realistically in my opinion. He’s not good, but he’s not bad either; he’s just someone who tries to do the best he can and makes mistakes along the way.

    I’m not sure if he ate with his spoon or not; If he did, I think he wouldn’t act so nonchalant around Na Juhee. I think he genuinely forgot his past, and that’s his punition basically, which is quite ironic : The only Golden Spoon user who ever asked the other party (Tae) if they wanted to go back to being themselves or not, ended up being switched with someone else and losing their memory.
    Seungcheon has always been smart, even as a teenager; so I don’t think him becoming rich is because he remembers; but rather simply because he has a talent in finance; just like Taeyoung kept his talent for drawing and piano even when he became Lee Seungcheon.

    The only one who had a completely unfair punition was that poor gardner; He died without even living a single hour as a rich guy lol. To be fair though, he must’ve been pretty stupid to change with Tae knowing the legal trouble he was in.

    As for Na Juhee, I agree. Her devotion to Seungcheon is just weird, like, what the hell? In this I prefer the webcomic version, where Juhee was genuinely in love with Taeyoung and stayed with him even when he became poor, whereas Seungcheon ended up with Oh Yeo-Jin, the only person to really understand him as she used the golden spoon too.

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