Mercy for None Ending Explained: Does Gi-jun Die?

The Netflix Kdrama’ Mercy for None’ (Originally titled ‘Gwang-jang’) blazes an action-heavy path to revenge and retribution, where a single man threatens to topple two empires. The show revolves around Nam Gi-jun, a man long retired from the criminal underworld of Seoul. However, he’s forced to come out of his exile when his brother, Gi-seok of the Juwoon Group, ends up brutally murdered. As a result, the surviving brother embarks on a bloodied rampage to deliver justice to his brother’s killer. Inevitably, this poses a huge problem for Chairman Ju-woon and Chairman Bongsan, who stand to lose their life’s work. Still, as Gi-jun becomes blinded by his thirst for vengeance, he unwittingly walks into a conspiracy that has been brewing in the shadows forever. This story about settling scores and protecting secrets remains ripe with mystery, as a one-man army delivers many to their bitter ends. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Mercy for None Recap

It all begins when Bongsan’s bratty young son, Gu Jun-mo, goes after one of the group managers with hired hitmen from overseas. His reputation in the company is already lacking in respect. As such, this blatant breach of tradition and rules doesn’t bode well for him. Since Bong-san can’t deal with the situation directly, he cuts a deal with Ju-woon to tidy up the issue for him. In turn, the other crime boss assigns the responsibility to his trusted successor-in-training, Gi-seok. In the confrontation that follows, Jun-mo is left humiliated and itching for a strikeback against the other company’s heir. Shortly afterward, Gi-seok’s dead body is found in his art gallery’s garage, with a delinquent youth arrested for the murder. However, Gi-seok’s infamous brother, Gi-jun, is reluctant to buy the same story.

Gi-jun used to be one of the most feared weapons in Ju-woon and Bong-san’s arsenal back when they worked alongside each other under Chairman Oh. Even though he had helped them stage a coup against the other man, he broke one of the cardinal rules of the company in the process. Although the punishment for his crime should’ve been death, they allowed him simple exile for everything he had done for them. Still, one of his Achilles tendons was slashed to incapacitate him as a fighter. Nevertheless, it seems that despite his limping stance, Gi-jun continues to be an incredible fighter. As a result, he’s able to uncover some of the truth, tracking Jun-mo as the benefactor behind the attack that is believed to have killed Gi-seok. Initially, he expects Ju-woon and Bong-san to respect the foundational rules of their company and deliver the young man to his rightful punishment: a life for a life.

Nonetheless, Bong-san is desperate to keep his son safe, and Ju-woon’s sense of justice is easily bought. Even so, Gi-jun doesn’t let that stop him and decides to go on a crusade of his own with Jun-mo as his target. Inversely, the latter, lacking experience and knowledge about his opponent’s history, remains cocky. Yet, no matter how many men he hires to go against Gi-jun, he cuts through each and every one of them. Meanwhile, Bong-san, who remains skeptical of the idea that a bunch of delinquents can kill Gi-seok, digs deeper into the matter. As a result, the Chairman discovers that even though Jun-mo’s hired men did attack Gi-seok, someone else delivered the man to his fate.

Still, his investigation bears fruit too late as his son dies at the hands of the vengeful brother. In the aftermath, Bong-san follows the money and finds a connection between the Juwoon Group and the detective who covered up the real cause of Gi-seok’s murder. This instills a full-blown war between the two groups, in which the latter prevails. However, little does he know that someone else has been pulling the strings from behind the scenes all along. As it turns out, the death of the Group’s successors and the all-out war between Bongsan and Juwoon have all been a part of an overarching grand scheme. In the end, Gi-jun’s death remains the last, impossible step to complete.

Mercy for None Ending: Is Gi-jun Dead?

Throughout the story, Gi-jun faces down almost certain doom on numerous occasions. He repeatedly goes up against an armada of skilled killers, and is even believed to be dead at one point. Nonetheless, it seems no force is strong enough to kill the guy, at least not before he finishes what he set out to accomplish. With Ju-woon’s help, he identifies the masterminds behind the entire plot, which began with Gi-seok’s death. Mr. Kim, a dirty cop who has been helping the Seoul underworld for decades, and Geum-Son, Ju-woon’s son, who became a prosecutor after being overlooked as a successor to his father’s business, have been orchestrating things behind the scenes this whole time. Much like how Gi-jun ferociously went after Jun-mo, he goes after these two men as well.

Ultimately, he finds himself in Ju-woon’s office, facing off against Geum-son, who is armed with a gun. Nonetheless, even though he should have the advantage in this scenario, he’s still left holding the short end of the stick. Moments before this confrontation, the prosecutor was on the proverbial top of the world. He had overtaken his father’s empire and merged with the only other competition in town. Therefore, he was all set to hark in the new age of criminality in Seoul, just as he had wanted to do his whole life. However, soon after, Gi-jun puts forward his winning move. In the end, he gets his revenge alongside various fatal blows, including a damning bullet to the chest. Ultimately, Gi-jun drags himself away from the guts and gore of the city and back to his campground, the last place where he and Gi-seok were together before his death.

All this rallying for revenge indeed hasn’t brought his brother back. Still, the people responsible for Gi-seok’s death have paid dearly for the slight with their lives. Along the way, Gi-jun has also inadvertently taken down the worst of the backstabbers and conspirators from the city’s gangs. Although violence and injustice will inevitably still prevail, Gi-jun has played his part and erased the sins of those who came with him. In the end, he sits in his camp, bloodied and bruised, reminiscing about the memory of his brother and the life they could have had if they had run away from things sooner. He dies in the same spot, mercifully surrounded by nature rather than dark hallways and alleyways where his enemies perished.

Who Killed Gi-Seok? Why?

Gi-seok’s murder is the central mystery that holds the entire story together. Initially, it seems like Jun-mo can be easily connected to his death. He had a bone to pick with the man and even sent out a hit on him on the same night that he died. Therefore, as the police catch the same guy who responded to the Bongsan heir’s assassination order, it’s easy to connect the dots together. Nevertheless, there’s more to the scene than meets the eye. As numerous people speculate, Gi-seok is indeed too strong to be taken out by a bunch of teenage criminals. When the attack happens, he manages to fight off his attackers and walk away with his life intact.

However, another hitman awaits him on the other side of the door. Apparently, Gi-seok’s death has always been a part of a bigger conspiracy. Mr. Kim has helped Juwoon and Bongsan Groups maintain their business without getting in legal trouble for a long time. As a dirty cop, he has been able to supply them with insider information and maintain peace between the two groups as a neutral consultant. Inevitably, with time, he grew greedier. Simultaneously, Geum-son, Jwoon’s son, also grew antsy about his continued existence on the sidelines. His father patently refused to let him be a part of his illegal business, even though all the son has ever wanted is to be like him. Eventually, this drove a wedge between the duo as Geum-son became a prosecutor and began resenting his father.

Thus, Geum-son and Mr. Kim started working together to bring down Juwoon and Bongsan and herald in a new age for Seoul’s criminal underworld. Yet, instead of directly waging an ill-advised war against the two gang leaders, they devised a manipulative plan. They puppeteered things to set up a rivalry between Gi-seok and Jun-mo. Afterward, they got the former murdered and used the latter as a scapegoat. This effectively brings Gi-jun out of the woods to go on a revenge-fuelled killing spree that gets rid of the crucial players in the game. As a result, Geum-son is able to take over his father’s company and merge it with the leaderless Bongsan Group to take full control over the city. Nonetheless, the duo faces their pitfall when it finally comes for Gi-jun to be removed.

Does Gi-jun Kill His Brother’s Killer?

Gi-jun’s desire for vengeance takes him on a long journey soaked with the blood of his enemies. Ultimately, it brings him to Mr. Kim, Geum-son, and Shimane, the hitman who carried out the killing. It doesn’t take long for him to take out the hitman and the cop, who both receive their just deserts at his hands. Finally, the prosecutor is the last one who remains. With the help of Hae-Beom, Gi-seok’s loyal subordinate, he leaks the recordings of phone calls between Geum-son and Mr. Kim, retrieved from the latter’s secret office. These recordings directly incriminate the prosecutor for conspiring and facilitating the murders of various individuals.

As such, when Gi-jun goes up against Geum-son, the latter has already lost everything he holds dear in his life. His father is dead thanks to the work of his backstabbing coup partner. Furthermore, his reputation is also forever tarnished both as a prosecutor and a crime boss. Worse yet, despite taking a bullet to the chest, his opponent still stands before him alive, burning with the desire for revenge. In the end, Geum-son attempts to take his own life to give himself a quick and easy death. Nonetheless, Gi-jun can’t allow for this to happen. Thus, he uses his own blade to slit the prosecutor’s wrist and his neck, leaving him to choke to his own death, all alone in the office of his dead father.

Why Did Gi-jun Turn Down the Chairman Position?

The crux of the matter that compels Geum-son to plot his father’s demise stems from Ju-woon’s unwillingness to train him as his successor. All his life, the son had only ever wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Nonetheless, the crime boss knew the taxing nature of his work. He didn’t want Geum-son to bear the same burdens as he. Instead, he wanted the young man to have a life of his own outside of the world of crime. Yet, all this does is create an unbridgeable distance between the father-son duo as the latter grows bitter in his contempt for Ju-woon.

Geum-son is desperate to wield the same power and command the same respect that his father does. He has plans to revolutionize Seoul’s criminal underbelly, and he wants to do it as the head of Ju-woon’s company. For the same reason, he decides to take the title by force once his father refuses to grant it to him willingly. Alternatively, this is also the reason he holds a grudge against the Nam brothers. Gi-seok was Ju-woon’s chosen successor, but he was still reluctant to receive the title with pride. In fact, he was thinking of leaving the company entirely. Likewise, Gi-jun has also turned down the offer multiple times. Unlike Geum-son, the brothers knew the real cost that came with the chairman position. They knew the blood, sweat, and tears that went into leading a cartel. Therefore, they were reluctant to make these sacrifices, instead preferring the life of an anonymous camper. Nonetheless, in the end, despite their efforts to avoid a cruel fate, their link to the underworld inevitably delivers them to a brutal demise regardless of their acceptance of the Chairman position.

Who Really Killed Chairman Oh’s Son?

One of the things that remains suspicious about Gi-seok’s murder is its resemblance to another killing that overturned the city’s underworld 11 years ago. Back when Chairman Oh presided over the singular gang that ruled Seoul, Ju-woon and Bong-san staged a coup against him. However, this takeover stemmed from one specific death. Oh was incredibly fond of his two right-hand men, who helped him keep his business in check. Therefore, he was considering handing over the company to them in his retirement. Naturally, this didn’t sit well with his son, Oh Seung-won.

Consequently, a rumor spread that he was planning on killing Ju-woon and Bong-san. Simultaneously, Kim, who was looking to broaden his financial horizons, supplied some misinformation to Gi-seok. The cop told Gi-seok that Seung-won was also going to target Gi-jun. As such, the former ended up killing the Chairman’s son to save his brother’s life. In the end, Gi-jun took the fall for the incident, unwilling to let his brother pay the brutal price for the crime. As such, Mr. Kim uses the two brothers to control the gangs to his own benefit.