The Believers Season 2 Ending Explained: Does Dear Die?

Netflix’s Thai crime drama show ‘The Believers’ revolves around three resourceful friends, who find a way to exploit the cracks in the faith industry for their own benefit. In season 1, the narrative finds Win, Game, and Dear, overtaking the Phummaram Temple and embezzling money from its thriving donation boxes. Although this lands them in trouble by the end of the season, Ae, a politician’s daughter and businesswoman, rescues them only to present them with an even worse predicament. Thus, in season 2, the trio finds itself indebted to the woman and forced to work their marketing magic on a much larger project.

For her own menacing reasons, Ae wants to help a provincial temple, Nong Khan, build a hospital using their merit donations. Thus, she wants Win and his friends to whip up a scheme to squeeze one billion bhat out of the holy patrons in a matter of a measly six months. Even though Dear manages to save her skin before the walls begin to close in, as the plot progresses and her friends’ land in graver danger, she has no choice but to return despite the perilous path ahead of her. SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Believers Season 2 Recap

In the aftermath of Win, Game, and Dear’s release from police custody, the trio finds themselves facing an uncertain future. Although they have evaded the past disaster, a new one looms over the horizon in the form of Councillor Ae. However, while the former two have family in the city to think about, Dear has nothing of the sort keeping her tied to the place. Naturally, her immediate response is to flee the country, a feat she manages to achieve despite some trouble, thanks to Win, who convinces Ae to let her go. This leaves him and Game to deal with the Councillor’s demands, which involve finding a way to skyrocket the merit donation at the Nong Khan Temple to the point where they can rake in one billion bhat in a matter of months. As insurance, the businesswoman subtly puts her dangerous employees around the duo’s family to keep a threatening hold over them.

Even so, Win continues to collaborate with police officer Yod, sharing information through late-night rendezvous. In turn, he tries to find some answers of his own regarding the clues he had recently unearthed regarding his father’s death. Meanwhile, he also tries to devise a grand money-making idea for the temple. Unlike his last endeavor, he wants to focus on a singular idea so that they can control the cash flow in accordance with their deadline, giving them enough space to concoct an escape plan as well. Finally, he comes up with the idea to build the world’s biggest Pho Tree. Exploiting the tree’s spiritual symbolism, he wants to build a program where patrons can buy different tiers of leaves or Pho tokens in order to partake in merit donations. These leaves would be hung up on a giant symbolic gold and silver tree on the temple’s grounds, encouraging temple-goers to continue making donations toward the hospital construction.

Although the idea remains brilliant from he start, it runs into some complications in the beginning. From construction issues to the discovery of Win’s collaboration with Yod, Ae finds many holes in her plan. Nonetheless, she manages to put out each fire as it breaks out, while Win and Game fine-tune the Phoken strategy, adding a tempting lottery element into the mix. Meanwhile, Dear continues to successfully strike out on her own as she gets back in contact with Dol, who has recently left the monkhood. She employs his help with her own retreat business and plans on becoming an investor in an American endeavor soon. Nonetheless, as the Pho tree continues to bring in more and more donations, Win and Game’s lives come under increased danger. It’s evident to both men that once the goal is met and the hospital’s groundbreaking happens, Ae would no longer require their help. As a result, the easiest force of action for the Councillor would be to simply kill them.

In order to evade this very future, Win concocts a plan that involves transferring the entire billion bhat pot out of the temple’s account before maneuvering an escape plan for his mother. As a result, he ends up reaching out to Dear again for her help and offers her a lucrative cut of the profits in return. Nonetheless, all his plans fall apart when some malfunction leads to the felling of the Pho tree, which results in numerous deaths. As this jumpstarts his plan into motion, Ae manages to get her hands on Game and his family, which compels his friend to execute another, riskier rescue mission. In the end, a confrontation at a warehouse results in a shootout, where Ae ends up shooting her own brother, Aun, as well as Win. In the aftermath, her father, Wut, strongarms his way into overtaking her entire plan, holding the protagonists as his own hostages, while Win recovers from his injury. As a result, while the latter and Game remain confined in a hospital, Dear becomes their only hope at survival.

The Believers Season 2 Ending: Is Dear Dead? Who Killed Her?

After the warehouse confrontation, Wut becomes Win and Game’s biggest adversary as he takes over his daughter’s business endeavors, particularly the ones revolving around the Nong Khan Hospital. From the get-go, it remains evident that the latter doesn’t know much about the scheme that stole the one billion bhat from the temple’s accounts. Nonetheless, after Ae shoots Win, leaving him on the doorstep of death, nothing is left to do but fast-track the young man’s surgery and wait for him to wake up. Win himself is aware of the same. He knows that the only reason his friend and mother are still alive is that Wut wants to extract the crucial information about the merit donations from him. Therefore, once he awakens from he surgery, he continues playing the part of a passed-out patient to buy them some time. Meanwhile, Game finds a way to contact Dear and get her to smuggle a phone into the hospital for him. As such, he’s able to communicate with her and make one instrumental request.

Win and Game’s only chance at survival relies on their ability to have Wut arrested before he finds the donation money. As a result, they need to get their hands on the former Abbot’s ledgers that allegedly hold written evidence about all the illicit dealings between the temple and the politician. Since the two men are trapped within the hospital, Dear is the only one who can collect these files and present them to the authorities in time. Even though she has been out of the loop for the past few months, free of Ae’s menacing influence on her life, she knows she can’t leave her friends behind in their hour of need. For the same reason, she decides to help the out one last time. Fortunately for her, she has Dol by her side to help her in this mission. Together, the duo manages to sneak into the Nong Khan temple and snoop around the library in the dead of the night.

Although they get caught by Ekichai, who is expected to take over as the new Abbot in the coming weeks, the monk decides to help them out. Consequently, Dear obtains the incriminating files and prepares to share them with Officer Yod. In the early hours of the morning, she and Dol wait in the agreed-upon meet-up spot when the latter decides to get some flowers for an early morning offering. Tragically, during this time, an armed woman locates Dear and shoots her point-blank inside the car. This attack is a planned assassination orchestrated by Ae, who put one of her many employees on the job. After everything, the Councillor harbors a deep hatred for Win and Game, blaming them for the chaos that has erupted around her professional life in the past few days. Yet, since the duo themselves were out of her reach, under her father’s lock and key, she decided to exact revenge on them through other means. As a result, Dear becomes an innocent victim of the feud between her friends and the Councillors.

Why Does Ekachai Help Dear and Dol? Does He Become the Abbot?

One of the more intriguing parts of Dear and Dol’s heist from the Nong Khan Temple remains the unlikely ally they find within the building’s walls. Yet, Ekachai’s decision to help the two out in their mission to reveal Wut’s corrupt connection to the temple isn’t without its own reasons. Throughout the show, the monk has proven himself to be deceitful and dangerous in his ambitions. In fact, all this time, he has been collaborating with Ae in her hospital construction plans. He’s the one who initially came up with the idea as a means to save his own skin in a confrontation against the Councillor. Ekachai is eager to spread his influence as a monk and gather as much power as possible. Therefore, he has been vying for the Abbot’s position at the Nong Khan Temple for a long time now.

The temple’s connection to the hospital and its one billion bhat donation in particular promise a lucrative future for the next Abbot. Fortunately for Ekachai, the opportunity for ascension comes sooner than expected when the previous Abbot passes away during the falling of the Pho Tree. In the aftermath, he emerges as the favorite candidate for the position. That is, until sketchy footage of him surfaces thanks to Wut’s efforts. Earlier, during a Pho Tree event, a woman, Jum, had approached Ekachai with an indecent proposal. As it turns out, she was somehow aware of his involvement in the death of Abbot Ewi from the Phummaram Temple. As such, when she blackmailed him for her own monetary gain, the monk briefly tried to choke her out on the temple grounds. A younger monk catches him in the act and even manages to film the altercation.

Consequently, the video emerges now to cast a dark shadow over Ekachai’s reputation and takes him out of the running for the prestigious position. This is all a part of Wut’s elaborate plan to ensure the chain of command within the provincial temple remains in his favor and control. Thus, he inadvertently makes himself the biggest adversary in Ekachai’s path. For the same reason, the monk is all too happy to help Dear and Dol out in their endeavor to bring the politician down. Once Wut is out of the picture, the monk can once again use his influence and power to erase the footage and cement himself as the most eligible candidate for the position of the Abbot. However, in the end, once he obtains that title, he realizes that it doesn’t come without its attached strings. Now, the other higher monks have a perfect tool in their arsenal to control the Nong Khan’s Abbot, steering him to make decisions regarding the hospital in their favor.

Is Win’s Dad, Anuwat, Alive?

Along with the incriminating temple documents, Win also has another ace up his sleeve to use as evidence in his case against Wut. Years ago, the politician was a part of the Trai Burin Temple Foundation board. The temple itself was really a front for money laundering. As a result, when Anuwat, the revered local teacher and fellow board member, learned about the same, he was eager to put an end to this exploitative practice. As a result, Wut had him killed to keep his secret. Nonetheless, while his death remained a mystery to others, including his wife and kid, Win, someone else knew the entire story. Back in the day, Wut used to employ the help of the temple’s resident undertaker to get rid of his enemies’ bodies away from the public eye. However, after he brought Anuwat to the same place, the undertaker’s grandson, Sue, realized the teacher was still alive.

Therefore, instead of burying him alive, the undertaker decided to take him to the monks in the mountains, who helped heal his near-fatal wounds. In the aftermath, Anuwat’s survival became a secret since the undertaker was eternally scared of what Wut might do to him if he learns the truth. Nonetheless, now that Sue’s grandfather is dead, he’s ready to come out with the truth, which is why he approaches Win’s mother with the information. Afterward, the mother manages to trick Wut’s guards into letting her travel around the mountains to pray for her son, allowing Sue to ask around about Anuwat. In the end, he’s able to find the man, who has been living as a monk in the mountains for years.

Do Wut and Ae Get Caught?

In the end, Win has to give up on his charade and officially wake up from his extended post-surgery sleep. The minute this happens, Wut arrives to extract the password from him that will help him access the merit donation funds and transfer them back into his own account. However, this proves to be a fatal and final nail in his proverbial coffin. After the politician gets the money, he plans on having his men execute Win and Game on the spot. Nonetheless, there’s little time for any such homicides since the police quickly break down the door to the hospital ward. Ever since Win started cooking up this scheme, he has been in cahoots with Yod. Win knows that Wut has bought some of the police force and even has the highest-ranking local officer in his pocket.

Even so, he knows he can put his trust in Yod since his refusal to be bought off got him transferred in the first place. For the same reason, he instructs Fear to pass the incriminating files to Yod. Although she dies before the meeting can happen, Dol still successfully makes the drop through his grief. Additionally, they have Anuwat and Sue’s testimony against Wut, as well as the inexplicable one billion bhat in his account to build a case against him. However, while the cops have the politician in their grasp, his daughter, Ae, manages to evade the authorities by fleeing the country before the bust goes down. The daughter has no love lost for her father, especially after he begins discarding her in the light of Aun’s death. Therefore, she happily leaves the country and sidesteps a huge loss. Ultimately, justice is served, even if only to Wut.