The Apartment Job Ending Explained: Directed by Jo Yong-won and written by Kim Yoon-young, 아파트 stars Ji Sung as Park Hae-kang and Ha Yoon-kyung as Kang Ha-ri, Park Byung-eun as Lee Chung-won, Moon So-ri as Jang Suk-jin, alongside Hwang Hee as Je Gil, Jung Soon-won as Gyeong Nam, Kim Won Hae as Lizard, Kim Kyu-won as Big Guy, Jung Seung-kil as Choi Yeong-jae, Ryu Hyun-kyung as Kang Ha-jeong and others.
The Apartment Job Ending Explained
Who Killed Park Yong-man?
Park Yong-man is murdered by Lee Chung-won following an act in which Hae-kang defies Lee Chung-won. At this time, Chung-won is aware that Hae-kang’s partnership with him is only a pretence. Hae-kang is investigating the mystery about the apartment reserve money and comes to realise that Chung-won is the mastermind behind the financial fraud. More importantly, Hae-kang will not become what Chung-won expects him to become.
When Chung-won commands Hae-kang to hit Ha-jeong to prove his loyalty, Hae-kang deliberately veers away from her and goes to war with Chung-won. It gets personal when Chung-won comes to visit Yong-man in the hospital. Yong-man realises that Chung-won is burdened by the fear and terror of childhood experience when his mother died in her struggle to protect their home.
Far from intimidating him, Yong-man says that he is still the scared little boy he used to be. Chung-won cannot bear the judgment of Yong-man and decides to turn off all of his medical equipment before leaving the hospital. It is too late for Hae-kang when he comes, as he sees that Yong-man is dead. At the time of his funeral, Chung-won lets Hae-kang know that he was there when Yong-man died, and therefore Yong-man’s death was intentional. This realisation hits Hae-kang, and he realises that his surrogate father had been killed by the person he had been battling.
How Did Park Hae-kang Find the Missing Money?
Hae-kang discovers that the cash which Chung-won has been transferring is related to the True Value apartment building, although pinpointing its location becomes an extremely difficult task. Upon learning that Chung-won was using his network to transfer money, Hae-kang and his associates begin to follow Taegowon and the trucks used for transporting money. As Chung-won begins to realise that Hae-kang is closing in on him, he tells his men to move the money. Hae-kang and his men, along with the young women who live in the True Value apartment building, as well as some of President Seo’s former allies, begin to chase the trucks in an attempt to discover what exactly Chung-won is doing with the money.
While one of the trucks is stopped, Hae-kang and his associates become the target of Chung-won’s men, who attack them. However, they are able to survive until Lizard comes to their rescue. Meanwhile, while Ha-ri and Ms Jang are waiting for the other truck, as per Hae-Kang’s directions, they find out that it was actually driven by Chung-Won himself. Rather than taking it somewhere else, Chung-Won brought the money in secret to True Value and hid it in one of its 9,800 apartments, which Hae-Kang finds through unusually low usage reports. Meanwhile, Je-Gil breaks into the old house of President Seo, where they find many boxes of the stolen money.
Did Lizard Really Betray Park Hae-kang?
At first glance, it definitely seems as if Lizard is betraying Hae-kang. When Hae-kang and his team finally find the boxes containing Chung-won’s money, they plan on using the money to expose Chung-won. However, when they go back to the boxes, all they find inside are flyers. Lizard disappears, and a message from Lizard makes it seem like he has taken the money himself. Furthermore, it seems as though things have become much worse due to the CCTV tapes, which seem to show Lizard leaving with Mr Kim, a man of Chung-won.
The reality is much different. In The Apartment Job Episode 12, we get to know that Lizard did not betray Hae-kang on purpose; Chung-won had forced him at gunpoint and kept him as a hostage. When Hae-kang gets to the location of Lizard’s phone, Lizard has been kidnapped and is now being tortured in a warehouse. Lizard had been used by Chung-won as a trap to catch Hae-kang himself, but the money went to Chung-won instead. Hae-kang came to save him, and even though his enemies tried to stop him, the help of his own people turned the tables. Therefore, Lizard’s abduction was part of Chung-won’s manipulation of Hae-kang.
Was Park Hae-kang Able to Return the Money?
Yes, Hae-kang finally gives back the money to the people. As Chung-won’s criminal enterprise begins to fail, Hae-kang finds himself given another chance to reclaim the money. In his last meeting with Chung-won, Chung-won offers him 17.8 billion won, thinking that Hae-kang is just as greedy as he is. According to Chung-won, he and Hae-kang are alike in that they both seek money. But Hae-kang does not agree with this view. Hae-kang takes hold of the money but will not let it be his own.
However, the next morning, the people running the apartments are still worried about the situation as though Chung-won has surrendered himself, but the money is not accounted for. In the ending of The Apartment Job, we see Hae-kang show up with the money and give it over to be returned to the people. Ms Jang makes sure that it is put back into the correct place.
What Happens to Chung-won At the End of The Apartment Job?
Chung-won’s downfall starts with the revelation by Hae-kang of the information that linked him to the corruption related to Taesan, the apartments, and Taegowon. It is through his understanding of the bribe networks set up by Chung-won that Hae-kang compels the police to cooperate, while at the same time, the authorities search Taegowon. It is during the search process that the bodies of several individuals who had been killed are found. Included among them is Mr Son’s body.
In The Apartment Job Episode 12, Chung-won is arrested, but there are repercussions for those besides him. Through Hae-kang, evidence of Chung-won’s crimes is made public, along with the confession of his murder of Yong-man and his involvement in further crimes. The investigation continues, revealing how the One Club members used their power and connections to help shield Chung-won from arrest. Those who aided in hiding the truth about the crimes are revealed as well, though there is an indication in the story that some of them did try to shield themselves from justice even to the very end.
Do Park Hae-kang and Kang Ha-ri End Up Together?
No, Park Hae-kang and Kang Ha-ri did not officially get together as a romantic couple in the finale of The Apartment Job. Despite the fact that the characters managed to get back on good terms and maintain mutual affection for each other, the finale did not make them a couple. After three years, Ha-ri graduates from the law faculty, starts to practice law, and becomes an attorney at Hae-kang’s Law Office Jeongsan, and Hae-kang manages to create a new life and career for himself, considering all that happened at True Value. Their meeting confirms their connection and support for each other, but there is no information about whether they will date or become a couple.
How Does The Apartment Job End?
At the end of The Apartment Job, the drama leaps three years ahead to show what happened to everyone. Ha-jeong now has the bakery that she has been dreaming about, with Mr Choi assisting her while the father of Gyeong-buk is her boyfriend. Je-gil has come back to finish his education, while Lizard has completed his jail time. More importantly, Hae-kang has opened his Law Office Jeongsan with the help of his previous crew, while Ha-ri is now a legitimate lawyer and not a fake one anymore. True Value has also replenished its reserve fund, Ms Jang continues to be the head of the tenants’ organisation, and the apartment construction issues have been sorted out.
The Apartment Job finale sees the story circling back to where it started: apartment corruption. After the residents of the building have been subjected to a fine worth 600 million won due to corruption in an earlier contract, they turn to Hae-kang and his gang to solve their problems. No longer is Hae-kang trying to become a debt collector who will be trying to extract money from the residents; he is now working with them as Jeongsan’s Chief of Apartment Corruption Investigation and protecting them from the fine.
He goes so far as to agree to work as a special auditor at True Value to expose any further corruption. In this respect, it is clear that the ending marks a full circle in the development of Hae-kang: from exploiting an apartment complex for his own benefit to protecting it.
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