Breaking Down the Thrilling Ending of Bloodhounds Season 2

When Bloodhounds hit Netflix in 2023, the pandemic-set Korean drama about a pair of amateur boxers who take down a loan shark operation was as satisfying as it was violent. The series centers the bromance between Geon-woo (Mr. Plankton’s Woo Do-hwan) and Woo-jin (Good Boy’s Lee Sang-yi), injecting what is essentially a brutal crime drama with their sometimes silly, always heartwarming camaraderie. 

If these boys were left to their own devices, they would live out their days happily training for boxing matches and eating Geon-woo’s mom’s homecooked dinners. Unfortunately, the world does not want to leave Geon-woo and Woo-jin alone. They may have defeated Kim Myeong-il in Season 1, but there is always another villain. In Season 2, that villain is Baek-jeong (played by K-pop icon Rain). Baek-jeong is a vicious boxer who runs the IKFC, an underground fight club watched by millions of bitcoin-paying users on the dark web. 

When Baek-jeong becomes fixated on getting Geon-woo to fight him and Geon-woo refuses, things escalate. Baek-jeong spends most of the season’s seven episodes trying to kidnap Yoon So-yeon (Yoon Yoo-sun), Geon-woo’s mother, as a way to convince the honorable boxer to face him. Baek-jeong, and his gaggle of minions, finally succeed in the penultimate episode, setting the stage for a bloody final battle. Here’s how Bloodhounds Season 2 boxes its way to a brutal  conclusion. 

Bloodhounds, assemble

In Episode 6, Baek-jeong is captured by the police, made possible by the betrayal of his right-hand man Tae-geom (Hwang Chan-sung). But Baek-jeong has other allies, whose loyalty is mostly guaranteed by Baek-jeong’s very deep pockets. Man-bae (Lee Si-eon) uses his “bloodhound chatroom” to offer a reward for any mercenary who helps spring Baek-jeong from police custody. The tactic works, with a small army of bloodhounds surprising and overpowering the transport on the way to police headquarters. In the scramble, Baek-jeong kills Tae-geom and a police officer and leaves Detective Gang-yong (Choi Young-joon) in critical condition.

Meanwhile, another gaggle of bloodhounds successfully overpowers the bodyguards who have been tasked with keeping So-yeon, aka Geon-woo’s mom, out of Baek-jeong’s clutches. Woo-jin tries to fight them off, but Season 1 adversary Im-beom (Tae Won-seok) overpowers Geon-woo’s best friend. Rather than see Woo-jin beaten further, So-yeon agrees to go with Im-beom.

Heading into the final episode, Geon-woo and Woo-jin’s side has been decimated. So-yeon is kidnapped. Everyone is injured. Gang-yong, who had been leading the police operation, is in serious condition. Min-beom, Geon-woo’s chaebol ally and eventual friend from Season 1, is willing to do anything to rescue So-yeon and bring Baek-jeong in. He asks his uncle, who heads the NIS, for some help. This brings NIS agent Sin-hyeong (Gyeongseong Creature’s Park Seo-joon) into the mix. Sin-hyeong suggests that Min-beom lure Baek-jeong out with the promise of a winner-takes-all fight with Geon-woo. 

Du-yeong returns from the dead

In Season 1, Geon-woo’s sashimi knife-wielding comrade Du-yeong was seemingly murdered by Myeong-il, alongside his pregnant wife. As is revealed in Episode 7, Du-yeong survived—and, from the looks of his phone background, so did his wife and his kid. He has been living out the past four years as a bloodhound for hire. When an injured Moon Gwang-mu (Park Hoon) reaches out to Du-yeong to let him know that Geon-woo and Woo-jin need his help, he comes.

Du-yeong’s reappearance is a much-needed morale boost for Geon-woo and Woo-jin, who are still reeling after Geon-woo’s mom’s kidnapping. Du-yeong also brings a particular skillset that the group doesn’t have: the willingness to torture someone. He finds Baek-jeong’s doctor and forces information out of him—namely, the numbers for Man-bae’s burner phones, which allows  them to contact Baek-jeong. 

Baek-jeong agrees to the fight, and Woo-jin suggests they raise the stakes to a two-fer: Geon-woo and Woo-jin versus Baek-jeong and Im-beom. If Baek-jeong and Im-beom win, they get 100 billion won (roughly $66 million) in prize money and a private jet to Thailand. If Geon-woo and Woo-jin win, then his mother goes free.

A final showdown between Geon-woo and Baek-jeong

To train for the fight, Geon-woo and Woo-jin manage to track down the man who taught Baek-jeong everything he knows. The coach explains how to counter Baek-jeong’s ambidextrous fighting style, and the boys spend their remaining time training. Heading into the fight, Woo-jin suggests to Geon-woo that they surprise Baek-jeong by switching the matchup. Woo-jin will face Baek-jeong, and Geon-woo will face Im-beom. Woo-jin doesn’t expect to beat Baek-jeong, but he thinks he can wear him down enough to give Geon-woo a better chance to take him down after.

The crazy plan works. Woo-jin manages to hold his own against Baek-jeong, weakening him before Geon-woo takes over. Geon-woo, who is able to soundly defeat Im-beom first, is able to knock Baek-jeong out. Meanwhile, Du-yeong slaughters an entire building of bloodhounds in the search for So-yeon. He doesn’t find her, but realizes she is being kept in the building next door. The information allows cop Woo-jeong (Cha Ji-hyuk) to rescue Su-yeon, shooting and killing Man-bae in the process.

Baek-jeong is disappeared

Unwilling to leave Baek-jeong in the slippery hands of the police once again, Min-beom arranges it so that Sin-hyeong and his NIS comrades snatch Baek-jeong from the cops before they can get to the police station. Though Sin-hyeong sends Min-beom a photo of Baek-jeong with a bullet through his head, it is a ruse. As we learn in the season’s epilogue, Sin-hyeong faked Baek-jeong’s death. He wants the man alive so that he can facilitate an introduction with the man who helped start the IKFC. Word on the street is that this mysterious man, Paichit Chaichana, is planning on bringing a massive amount of drugs into the country soon. “You help me, I help you,” Sin-hyeong tells Baek-jeong, though it’s unclear what this “help” might look like.

Geon-woo and Woo-jin live happily ever after

Kind of. Until next season. The two are back home, with Su-yeon, but they are all still plagued by nightmares and the fear that something like this might happen again. Over a late night ramen, Geon-woo tells Woo-jin that he wants to start training to face bloodhounds. The assumption is that, one day, they will get pulled back into a high-stakes scenario in which they must protect their loved ones from a villain with an army of mercenaries at his disposal. And, if Season 2 of Bloodhounds does well on Netflix, something tells me that Geon-woo’s fear could come true.