The Price of Confession Ending Explained: Written by Kwon Jong-gwan and directed by Lee Jung-hyo, the drama 자백의 대가 tells the story of two women, one is An Yun-su, played by Jeon Do-yeon, who gets accused of killing her own husband, which she insists she did not do. In contrast, there is Mo-eun, played by Kim Go-eun, a woman who seems to be ruthless, hence killing a rich couple whose house she used to work at, poisoning their food. The Netflix drama series also stars Jin Sun-kyu, Park Hae-soo, Choi Young-joon, Nam Da-reum, among others.
The Price of Confession Ending Explained
What Was An Yun-su Deal with Mo-eun?
The life sentence handed to An Yun-su after being found guilty of her husband’s murder seemed unshakable. But in prison, all turned around when she met Mo-eun, a girl who had confessed to killing a rich couple, and who, in a rather awkward situation, was interested in Yun-su’s case. Through the gap in the wall separating cells, Mo-eun told her that she was going to confess to Ki-dae’s murder too: she would ask for a jury trial, take media attention as her ally, and then openly take the responsibility for Yun-su’s case.
First, Yun-su did not believe her, but when Mo-eun gave minute details of the crime scene and pre-arranged their mock fight during transport, Yun-su knew Mo-eun was dead serious. By following Mo-eun’s step-by-step plan, which was to include hiring a neglected lawyer who would build up empathy in the press, Yun-su finally transformed her image from “murderer” to “wrongly accused mother,” and the court finally granted her bail.
But such aid from Mo-eun was not without its terrifying price. She had one more unfinished business outside the prison walls: ridding herself of Ko Se-hun, the child of the couple she had killed earlier. Because Mo-eun could not reach him, she proposed to set her free in return for doing the killing on her behalf.
It was only after Yun-su accepted to do the dirty work that Mo-eun made her confession in court, causing the public uproar that helped to reopen Yun-su’s case. When Yun-su finally came out on bail and got her daughter back, the actual price of her deal became apparent: she was already bound in Mo-eun’s elaborate scheme of revenge, her temporary freedom being given up for a deadly mission she never expected.
Why did Mo-eun Want to Kill Se-hun?
As the saying goes, sometimes monsters are not born; they are created by society, and that was the case with Mo-eun, too. Her real name was Kang So-hee, and she used to work as a nurse in Thailand, but everything went upside down when her sister living in Korea got sexually assaulted by Se-hun. An MMS was recorded and leaked to all her contacts, and even the court and police did not help them, which led her sister and father to commit suicide.
And because it all happened during COVID-19, So-hee couldn’t even come back home. Since Se-hun’s family had people in high positions and he was underage, he was released, and the case was shut. This made Kang So-hee desperate for revenge, and when her friend Mo-eun got sick, she asked Kang So-hee to take her identity, return to Korea, and complete her revenge. For that, Kang So-hee burned the real Mo-eun in the car and took her identity. When she returned, she was able to kill Se-hun’s parents, but Se-hun was not at home, so she wanted Yun-su to complete her unfinished business.
Was An Yun-su Able to Kill Se-hun?
No. The moment Yun-su stepped out, she became tense because of the deal, as she did not know how she would do it. All she knew was that she did not want to leave her daughter Sop alone again. When she returned home, she felt she was being watched; she even saw someone stalking her and received messages blackmailing her that if she didn’t kill Se-hun, Mo-eun would reveal the truth.
She thought all these were being done by Mo-eun; thus, she started researching Se-hun. When she went to his house to kill him, she almost did it, but in the end, she couldn’t stab him, so she decided to fake his death. She told Se-hun that someone wanted him dead, so he needed to pretend to be dead for some time, and he agreed. In the end, she could not kill Se-hun.
Who was the True Killer of Ki-dae and Se-hun?
But the real killer was one of the most unexpected, and that shocked me; it turned out to be Jin Young-in, along with his wife. Jin Young-in was Mo-eun’s lawyer, who took her case after several lawyers rejected it. It seems he killed Ki-dae over a painting that he and his wife had donated to the college where Jin Young-in was also a professor.
One day during the exhibition, Ki-dae called the painting plagiarism, which bothered Jin Young-in in his professional life. He wanted Ki-dae to apologise, but Ki-dae refused. Because of this, he and his wife went to Ki-dae’s studio, and in anger, Young-in’s wife ended up killing Ki-dae. To protect her-since she did it for him-he cleaned up the crime scene, removing all traces of their presence.
They panicked when they learned An Yun-su was out of jail, knowing she would try to figure out what happened to Ki-dae, and that would put them in danger. So he took Mo-eun’s case, pieced together the dots connecting the two women, and found out that Mo-eun had asked Yun-su to kill Se-hun. He and his wife kept tailing Yun-su so that when Yun-su killed Se-hun, they could record it and get her back to prison again. But Yun-su didn’t kill him, so Jin Young-in went there after she left and brutally killed Se-hun, which was ultimately recorded by a web camera.
What Happened to Mo-eun at the End of The Price of Confession?
The moment An Yun-su found the real killer, she uploaded a YouTube video saying that she killed her husband, but not Se-hun, and she claims that police, too, had proof that someone else did it, though they wanted to blame her in order to create chaos for the real killer. Upon hearing this, Mo-eun ran away from the hospital where she was admitted.
Both of them went to the studio in order to find evidence of the real killer, which was hidden in the painting made by Ki-dae, since the killer’s fingerprint was there too. They found Young-in there, who was trying to remove the print by scratching it. While attacking them, Young-in was killed by Mo-eun, who then killed herself, leading both of them to their death. She told Yun-su it was to atone for her wrongdoings.
How does The Price of Confession end?
At the ending of The Price of Confession, we see Yun-su gets acquitted of the murder of her husband, and due to the webcam, it is clear that she didn’t kill Se-hun. On the other hand, the wife of Young-in was also called for interrogation in regard to Ki-dae’s murder. Although she had denied doing it, she had to face it since the police had evidence. Later, we see Yun-su and Sop going to Thailand and placing the real Mo-eun’s watch where she died. Finally, they are ready to start a new life.
