Walking on Thin Ice Ending Explained: The Korean series 은수좋은날 finally ended on October 26 after its twelve-episode run, and we must say, it left everyone of us shaken by its tear-jerking conclusion. Directed by Park Hyun-suk and Song Hyun-woo, both skilful in creating dark and suspenseful slow-burning thrillers, and written by Jeon Yeong-sin, the series stars Lee Young-ae as Kang Eun-soo and Kim Young-kwang as Lee Kyeong, Lee Tae-hwan, Park Yong-woo as Jang Tae-gu, along with Do Sang-woo, Kwon Ji-woo, Kim Shi-ah, and others in supporting roles.
Korean Drama Walking on Thin Ice Recap
Walking on Thin Ice follows the journey of Eun-soo, a woman who is forced to make decisions that are impossible given her circumstances when her husband Do-jin is diagnosed with a deadly illness. She is indebted and desperate and becomes embroiled in the dangerous world of drug trafficking, where her wit is her tool but is her curse as well. Her entry into that dark world puts her directly at odds with Kyeong, whose history is a searing vengeance against the rich elite who had destroyed his life years earlier.
Kyeong’s obsession with revenge is the cohesive thread of the story, connecting him and Eun-soo in a survival-and-deception relationship. Their relationship is not so much one of loyalty as one of hurt; each is trying to mend something un-mendable. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, alongside them, the drama exposes the collusion of corruption in the world of police and business through figures such as Jang Tae-gu, a smart detective with a foot in the police station and another in the Phantom gang underworld kingdom, and on another level, Gyeong-do, another police officer, attempts to do what is ethical in the world where truth costs money.
Over the course of the twelve episodes, the betrayals mount. The web that entangles Eun-soo, Kyeong, Tae-gu, and Hwi-rim becomes increasingly complicated until one cannot distinguish the victim from the oppressor.
Walking on Thin Ice Ending Explained
Who From the Police Was Helping the Phantom Gang?
Among the police, it was Jang Tae-gu who was clandestinely helping the Phantom gang. His double life is revealed step by step through the way in which he dictated investigation findings, erased evidence, and used his badge for criminal interests. Tae-gu’s cooperation was not out of loyalty to the gang but rather greed for power and money. It was with the Phantom network that he was accorded power, riches, and a feeling of invincibility for things the system had otherwise denied him as a low-ranking officer.
But Tae-gu’s violation of the law was not based on sheer covetousness; it was the result of an unconscious psychic wound. Years before the drug issue, Tae-gu’s son’s custody was taken away in a bitter divorce. His ex-wife, who knew his character and immoral practices, found it difficult to stop him from accessing the child. The court decision shattered what little family life he had left.
The guilt and loneliness that followed caused him to justify every poor decision on the basis of attempting to reclaim “what was taken away from him.” He began justifying that money and power could fill the void for love and family. This loss was the emotional root of his corruption; he was not greedy for greed’s sake but control, pride, and revenge against a system that he felt was humiliating.
Lastly, his motive for helping the Phantom gang was self-interest. Tae-gu saw that the justice system could not protect good individuals, so he chose to survive in its corruption rather than fight against it. He is, in the truest sense of the word, the series’ most pitiful villain-a man who became what he once despised, believing that was how one would achieve success.
How Did Hwang Dong-hyeon Die?
Dong-hyeon’s murder was no spur-of-the-moment act but an elaborate plot hatched by Jang Tae-gu, who thought Dong-hyeon’s divided loyalty would be too much to keep under wraps. Finding out from Tae-gu that the drugs were stored at Eun-soo’s residence, he orchestrated the situation and sent Dong-hyeon and his younger brother there to retrieve them. What was to be a quiet recuperation turned into a massacre as the brothers attacked Kyeong and Eun-soo, and the outcome was chaos: Kyeong was stabbed, and in a moment of raw terror and desperation, Eun-soo shocked both attackers, including Dong-hyeon, believing she had no choice.
It’s vicious and suffocating, not owing to the brutality itself, but because it was the first time Eun-soo had ever tried to kill anyone. In desperation, she and Kyeong tried to erase their tracks, dragging the stunned men into a warehouse. But matters got worse still when Dong-hyeon’s younger brother attempted to make a run for it with Dong-hyeon’s body and call their gang leader on a PCO booth nearby. Before he even had a chance to say a word, Tae-gu showed up and, in ruthless calculation, drove the booth over twice, killing Dong-hyeon and leaving his brother half-dead.
No revenge, no investigation, and no cataclysmic unravelling of fates would have been without the death of Dong-hyeon. His murder was the pivot on which the whole story turned-a moment of betrayal, of fear, of manipulation that set every surviving character onto a path of destruction.
Why did Kyeong Want Revenge Against Hwi-rim?
Kyeong’s vengeance is close, its roots running many years deep into his past. Even before he was an adult, Kyeong was accused of having murdered his friend after a night of compulsory drinking that Hwi-rim had organised. The latter, as he came from a robust line of family, incurred no charges for the crime but was forced to live with the stigma of the act, one which ultimately ruined his life, taking away his freedom, family, and honour.
When Kyeong returned from prison, he did so not as a victim but as a tactician who would destroy all that Hwi-rim represented. His revenge was not violence; it was humiliation-merely to make Hwi-rim experience the same sort of powerlessness he had forced him to suffer. To that purpose, Kyeong struck at Tuen Holdings, the conglomerate owned by Hwi-rim’s family, by taking it over in its corporate structure in the black market.
Throughout the series, Kyeong’s obsession is his greatest priority, but at the same time, it is also a curse. He is convinced that justice is his greatest goal, and he is unaware of the collateral damage to the people around him, like Eun-soo’s suffering and Hyuk’s. Disappointment.
What Happened to Jang Tae-gu at the End of Walking on Thin?
It is following months of corruption and cover-ups that his pride finally brings down Jang Tae-gu. In Walking on Thin Ice Episode 11, Detective Gyeong-do, who throughout had been putting together the pieces of evidence, finds cached money and illicit documents hidden in the walls of Tae-gu’s home. It is this tangible evidence, bolstered by the testimony of Kyeong and a trove of electronic evidence, that brings down Tae-gu’s entire ring.
But Tae-gu will not be silenced. Swept for reassignment, he kills the escorting officials en route and escapes, which starts the blood-drenched finale of the final episodes. His vendetta leads him to the home of Eun-soo, where he kills her husband Do-jin in front of her and their daughter, and then runs away, but his own death is a foregone conclusion.
The authorities appeal to Eun-soo and Kyeong later as a last resort, in trying to lure him into a trap by pretending that his son has been kidnapped; once he gets baited, there is a brutal fight along the lake, where Tae-gu is repeatedly shot and shoved into the lake. Later, his decomposed body is pulled out, which is the effective demise of the Phantom gang’s reign.
Did Kyeong Succeed in His Revenge?
Yes, but not in a way that brings him peace. Kyeong ultimately exacts his long-awaited revenge on Hwi-rim in the last episode of Walking on Thin Ice and his crooked empire. After the death of Tae-gu, Kyeong presents evidence of Tuen Holdings’ criminal involvement to the authorities, initiating a grand collapse in the business and reputation of Hwi-rim; he manipulates the stock market, destroying Tuen Holdings from the inside out and ending Hwi-rim’s fortune and reputation.
In the end, he does manage to achieve what he first attempted: proving his innocence and exposing the corruption up top. But this victory is one that he cannot bear since the underlying implication of his father, having helped frame him all those years ago as a means of safeguarding their firm, breaks Kyeong’s as yet unbroken spirit. The same person he so desperately needed validation from is the exact same individual who initially wronged him.
In the end, Kyeong’s vengeance is hollow: he may have dismantled Hwi-rim’s power but lost everything else in the bargain-his family, his honour, and his will to live. The final few episodes of the show show him sitting by the river, praying for suicide-a tragic image of a man who bested his enemies but was unable to vanquish his past.
Were Eun-soo and Kyeong’s Lives Stable by the End?
Walking on Thin Ice Episode 12 leaves in doubt the outcome for Kyeong and Eun-soo, summing up the show-long message that redemption is always as difficult as it can be. Eun-soo has served her sentence in prison and tries to start over by doing odd jobs and lying low. Her peace is tenuous at best. She lives in isolation from her daughter, Su-a, who is staying with Yeo-ju and refuses even to speak to her. Do-jin’s grief and the burden of her decisions have her stuck in endless quiet despair.
Kyeong, on the other hand, stays behind in prison for a while longer, his conscience tormented not so much with vengeance but with guilt as well. When he is finally released, he looks up at Eun-soo and insists on giving her part of the spoils as compensation for what she went through. She rejects it, opting instead to lead a decent life, one that condemns her botched attempt at forgiving, even if the world won’t forgive her.
The story comes full circle in these final moments when Eun-soo finds a box of Mint, the exact thing that destroyed her life, and the implication is that temptation and sin never truly disappear. Both she and Kyeong are still haunted by what they’ve done, standing on the edge of salvation but never quite taking that step. Their lives are more serene, but stability is still an illusion. The ending of Walking on Thin Ice feels like it makes the point that any vengeance comes with a price, and any redemption carries with it injuries that never heal.
