What Are Fan Theories About His Beautiful Korean Drama Ending?

I get why people are obsessed — that final scene is like a bookmark you can’t stop flipping. Fans mostly fall into a handful of camps: he actually dies and they reunite spiritually; he fakes his death to protect others and starts over elsewhere; the ending is a dream or memory (so it isn’t "real"); it’s a time-skip and he lives but under a new name; or it’s open-ended by design so viewers can choose their preferred closure.

A few folks noticed little continuity glitches — a watch shown earlier is gone, or a photograph’s background changes — and used those as proof for the "new identity" theory. Others focus on motifs: birds, doors, and the recurring melody, arguing those point toward an afterlife interpretation. Personally, I’m torn between the bittersweet-sacrifice and the gentle-new-life theories. Both feel emotionally honest and belong to the show's themes of forgiveness and starting over. I keep rereading the dialogue with a notebook, because sometimes a throwaway line becomes the smoking gun for someone’s favorite theory.

I was sipping instant coffee at 2 a.m. when I paused the last episode and thought: not everything ended, and that's why people can't stop talking about it. Watching that final scene with him standing by the river felt like reading the last page of a book that gives you a postcard instead of a full stop. Fans have spun so many threads — some hopeful, some heartbreaking — and I love how they read the smallest props as proof.

The most common theory is that the finale is intentionally ambiguous because it’s a bittersweet reunion in the afterlife. People point to the recurring white chrysanthemums and the way the camera lingers on the sunset as spiritual signposts, like in 'Goblin' when ordinary objects hint at otherworldly rules. Another crowd thinks it’s a time-skip: the man didn’t truly vanish, he simply moved to a new identity to protect everyone. Clues cited include a changed wedding ring and that throwaway line about starting over in a coastal town. There’s also the dreaming theory — the final sequence is someone’s dream or memory reconstruction, which would explain the soft-focus lighting and the sudden absence of supporting characters.

On forums I watch, there’s a scarier theory where his beautiful ending is a sacrifice: he survives, but his memory is erased so he can live peacefully away from the trauma he caused. That one always hits me hard because it ties into the show’s recurring motif of forgetting as grace. I’m leaning toward the idea that the creators wanted to give viewers a sense of closure without spelling everything out. It leaves room to imagine a quieter, kinder afterlife for him — which is exactly what I wanted as the credits rolled.

There are nights when I rewatch that last ten minutes and pick up something new, which is partly why the fan theories keep multiplying. From a visual-analysis perspective, people often trace signals in the mise-en-scène: the color palette shifts from cool blues to warm amber in the last montage, and costume continuity breaks at a crucial beat. Those changes suggest either a different timeline or an internal transformation for the protagonist.

One thread argues the ending is intentionally metafictional — the director uses unresolved plot threads to comment on storytelling itself. Fans compare it to 'It’s Okay to Not Be Okay' where the line between fantasy and therapy blurs, proposing that the ending asks viewers to choose what they need: tragic honesty or gentle healing. Another line of thought is logistical: some think the writers left the door open for a spin-off centered on secondary characters, which would explain the abrupt cutaways. Personally, I’m captivated by the small production choices: the background score reintroduces a lullaby from episode one, implying cyclical storytelling. Whether it’s an afterlife, a time-skip, or deliberate ambiguity, I appreciate that the show trusts its audience to fill in the blanks — and that’s a rare storytelling gamble these days.