The East Palace Ending Explained: Is Gu-cheon Dead or Alive? Who is the Pond Spirit?

Helmed by Choi Jung-kyu, Netflix’s ‘The East Palace,’ or ‘Tonggung,’ steps beyond and between the realms of the living and the dead, revealing a dynastic saga unlike any other. In the sprawling palace of the king of the Joseon kingdom, a curse seems to be culling down all the princes and feeding on the negative energy, or “Yin.” Desperate for a turnaround, the king summons an eccentric shaman by the name of Gu-cheon, who is tasked with vanquishing the evil, or face his own death. He is joined by Saeng-gang, a court lady gifted with the ability to hear the dead, but that has its own downsides. As they embark on this supernatural journey, many secrets unfold, forcing them to question who is in the right and who might be pulling the strings this entire time. By the end of this Korean dark fantasy horror series, Gu-cheon learns just how deep, terrifying, and unyielding the abyss can be if one stares in for too long. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The East Palace Plot Recap

‘The East Palace’ begins with the crown prince of the Joseon kingdom dying under mysterious circumstances. While the monarch, King Ju-sang, believes this to be a case of suicide, many in the court believe that it is connected to a 30-year-old royal curse, which also claimed the king’s other sons, as well as his brothers in the past. When Ju-sang’s last living son gets possessed by the spirit, he is left with no choice but to look for a skilled shaman. Enter Gu-cheon, a lazy, bratty expert of the supernatural, who allegedly survived his mother’s attempt to drown the two of them, and has since then been tormented with supernatural sight. Though skeptical at first, the king soon forces him into prison and declares that his only way out alive is to heal the youngest prince.

To keep an eye on Gu-cheon, the king summons his daughter, Saeng-gang, who was banished from the palace along with her mother. Saeng-gang also has the ability to hear the spirit world, but nothing can prepare her for how Gu-cheon accesses the realm. After tying himself to a rope, he descends down the pond and traverses to the other world, where spirits exist in a corporeal form and can be slain with the correct technique and weaponry. The spirit targeting the royal lineage appears to have once been a member of the court, and Gu-cheon learns that she was killed, along with her unborn child, after a guard framed her. Though the shaman and Saeng-gang are able to put the pond spirit to rest, the evil doesn’t quite go away, and the condition of the king’s youngest son only worsens.

Over time, Gu-cheon learns more about Saeng-gang’s past, and how her mother was banished, and later poisoned to death, for supposedly possessing a cursed object. Meanwhile, the mystery about the king and his past only deepens, as it becomes apparent that most of the king’s brothers weren’t killed by spirits, but as part of a political conspiracy. It is revealed that the Saeng-gang’s grandmother, whom she had come to trust, was the real mastermind behind all of this and had Saeng-gang’s mother killed after she refused to follow orders. However, getting to this truth still doesn’t stop the evil spirit from growing even stronger, especially after the king orders the slaughter of an entire village to stop a plague from spreading. As the vengeful spirit prepares for a complete onslaught, Gu-cheon attempts a life-threatening maneuver to save the day.

The East Palace Ending: How Does Gu-cheon Come Back to Life?

‘The East Palace’ ends with Gu-cheon sacrificing himself to defeat the pond spirit, before miraculously coming back to life. This is only made possible due to Saeng-gang’s persistent belief that he’s alive, even when his body remains motionless for three days straight. By all means, Gu-cheon’s physical form is actually deceased at that moment, and it is his soul that seems to be wandering the spirit world as per his deal with the Supreme Gwi-mae. However, with the link between Gu-cheon’s two forms effectively severed, it is nearly impossible to tell if someone is dead or simply in a state of suspended animation. For Saeng-gang, the supernatural hint doesn’t come from Gu-cheon himself, but the little ggeomeoksali that has bonded with him.

Upon noticing that the ggeomeoksali is still munching on things in its own little corner, Saeng-gang recalls that these creatures cannot link to a place, but only to a living being, and that is all the hope she needs. The second clue comes from Gu-cheon’s own words, as he previously expressed a wish to return to the pond where his mother passed away. For Gu-cheon, who still carries a survivor’s guilt and blames himself for the tragedy, it naturally comes to believe that his place is alongside the dead. However, Saeng-gang pierces through that self-destructive worldview and rushes down the lake pond herself, urging Gu-cheon to give her a sign. Much like within the East Palace, ponds function as liminal surfaces bridging the world of the living and the dead, and while Gu-cheon may no longer have a way back through the palace, his lifelong connection to this pond is likely strong enough to reawaken his consciousness.

By the time Saeng-gang returns to the palace, Gu-cheon is brought back to life and remembers everything that transpired in the past three days. While we aren’t made privy to his discussions with the spirits of the other world, it is clear that he makes some sort of contract to follow through on his promise in return for staying in the mortal world. It is not unusual for spiritual entities to make their presence felt in the real-world, and the fact that Gu-cheon often uses their physical bodies as bait indicates that most spirits likely carry an innate desire to return to their human form. For Gu-cheon, that desire is actually manifested, making him perhaps a true exception to the internal logic of this world, all thanks to Saeng-gang.

Why is Gu-cheon Chained to the Palace?

Though Gu-cheon survives and is even allowed to escape the palace unharmed, it appears that the spirits of the other world aren’t quite done with him yet. As he steps out of the palace, accompanied by Saeng-gang and his ggeomeoksali, a chain tied to him seems to be extending straight from the palace, tethering him to its dark secrets. It is likely that the chain is limitless in length, meaning that Gu-cheon has all the freedom he wants in the real world, but can still be dragged back at any point. The entity holding the other end of the chain is likely the Supreme Gwi-mae itself, and given that their deal is for Gu-cheon to serve as an ak-gwi, or a malevolent spirit, this stirs a lot of trouble into their dynamic.

As Gui-cheon’s sight has returned, it is likely that he can see the chain as well and is merely keeping it a secret from Saeng-gang. The show tricks the audience by hiding the chain all the way until the final scene, and only then do we realize what predicament he is now in. The ggeomeoksali also seems to notice the chain, but not even in its true form can the beast do any harm to it. While Gu-cheon is unlikely to ever commit an act of evil himself, there lies a very real threat of the Supreme Gwi-mae using his body as a vessel for other spirits. Something similar has already happened with Saeng-gang, and compared to the primordial being’s powers, not even Gu-cheon’s defenses are likely to stand a chance.

Compared to the rest of the Gwi-mae and other supernatural entities, the Supreme Gwi-mae seems noticeably different, not just in size and scale, but also in appearance. To begin with, it is almost entirely constructed of root-like structures, which, while denoting age, also suggest that it is a lot more immune to Gu-cheon’s magic than the other spirits. It is no wonder that the Supreme being’s own body becomes the base for the most powerful sword we have seen in the show yet, but in retrospect, that only makes the chain more menacing. The primordial Gwi-mae can also be described as the source from which all suffering emanates, and in a scenario where Gu-cheon has quite literally made a deal with the devil, the future isn’t looking particularly bright.

Who is the Pond Spirit? Is it Defeated?

Despite Gu-cheon being met with a cruel fate, the one thing he can confirm at last is that the pond spirit has been vanquished for good. After defeating the original pond spirit in the earlier episodes, Gu-cheon is left wondering about her weak resistance before realizing that it was only half of the mystery. In reality, the tragic events being attributed to the spirit are actually the work of an entity far more powerful and malicious, that being the deceased crown prince himself. We see him die in the very first scene of the show, and while we are initially led to believe that he is merely one of the victims, in reality, his death is the trigger that sets the haunting in action.

The fact that the king waves away the crown prince’s death as a suicide should have been our first hint towards something more sinister going on, but the scene quickly gets buried under all the details introduced later. In reality, the crown prince had to take his own life after it was discovered that he had killed his two brothers to inherit the throne. As it turns out, he, just like Saeng-gang, could hear the spirits talking, and eventually learned about how his father became king. Eager to take power for himself, the crown prince killed his siblings and let the myth of the pond spirit shoulder the blame, until the king learned of the truth. The king then forced his son to drink the same poison, unwittingly turning him into an ak-gwi upon death.

As the crown prince proclaims his return as a vengeful spirit, he also vows to turn the myth of the pond spirit into a reality. In a way, this is when things come full circle for the king and his mother, as their ruthless bloodbath in the name of a lie is now manifested as something real and very hostile. To complicate things further, the crown prince siphons energy from the won-gwi of the slaughtered village, becoming almost too powerful for Gu-cheon to defeat. At the end, the king has to perform an elaborate ritual and ask for the villagers’ forgiveness to cut off the crown prince’s power supply. Following this, Gu-cheon uses the supreme Gwi-mae’s sword to put an end to the ghostly spirit for good.

Will Gu-cheon and Saeng-gang End up Together?

With the crown prince dead, the curse that lay upon the village is lifted almost instantly, and what follows are several days of peace and rebuilding. Once Gu-cheon returns to his physical form, it is time to say goodbye to the palace, but this time, he’s not alone. Saeng-gang, having fulfilled her duties with the king, decides to join Gu-cheon on this supernatural journey, knowing that he needs her set of abilities if he is to ever descend into the spirit world again. While Gu-cheon has mostly led a vagrant lifestyle for years, that cannot be sustained any longer, especially since news of his feats is likely to spread far and wide in a world where many powerful people will be needing his abilities.

Though neither Gu-cheon nor Saeng-gang even brings up the prospect of love in the show, it is apparent that the two have come to value each other deeply, possibly even romantically. For Gu-cheon, Saeng-gang is on the same level of importance as his mother, which is shown in how he refuses to put her life in danger even for a second. Saeng-gang, on the other hand, has openly admitted that Gu-cheon is the only person in the world she can trust, which makes this a powerful bond between people who have now connected in both the real and supernatural worlds. However, the journey ahead is one fraught with supernatural scares, and just a shared insight into the spirit world might not be enough for the two of them to survive.