The finale of Idol I is finally here, and it’s a reminder of how important fandom is to K-pop and the music industry in general. The show has navigated the trolls and “saseng” fans, but at the end of the day, it’s an unrealistic scenario, of course, for an idol to fall in love with his fan. Still, all that aside, I’m not the biggest fan of how the story turned out. Not only did they make the villain a woman, but they also made it so that she needed therapy, and despite that, she ended up more messed up (sigh). The 11th episode does make it clear that this show had good potential, but ultimately it faltered, and even with a happy ending, I think many people will be disappointed. But anyway, the main question we were left with has now been answered, meaning we’re left wondering what the final episode will give us. So, who killed Woo-Seong and why? Let’s find out in episode 11.
Spoiler Alert
What Does Jae-Hee Reveal?
Idol I episode 11 begins with Jae-Hee finally waking up again, and fortunately, he’s regained not only his consciousness but also his memories, too. The first thing he asks about when La-Ik visits him is where Hye-Joo is. It’s suspicious to everybody present there that Jae-Hee is asking for Hye-Joo. On the other hand, in a flashback, we see La-Ik tell Se-Na that the missing earring belonged to Hye-Joo, who gave it to him as a “couple piercing” present. La-Ik doesn’t immediately tell the police about it, though. He took the earring off when they broke up and kept it in the safe, but Hye-Joo continued to wear it.
Meanwhile, Se-Na goes back home to Chung-Jae, showing her some CCTV footage he dug up from the night of Woo-Seong’s murder. We see someone walking up to La-Ik’s house in the rain, and based on appearance, it does seem likely to be Hye-Joo. But in the meantime, despite having this evidence, Byung-Gyun is still stuck on his parents’ words. But he does visit Jae-Hee because that is obviously part of his job. Jae-Hee finally reveals what happened with Hye-Joo before his accident. Jae-Hee met Hye-Joo after his call with Geum. First, he asks her about being back after 3 years, and things quickly shift to the day of the incident. She says she was worried about both him and La-Ik, but she also mentions how people might be suspecting him because he was at La-Ik’s place that night. But this is not public information, and Jae-Hee was only confiding in her about how everyone was treating him like a culprit. Jae-Hee is surprised by what Hye-Joo says and freaks out a little bit. Hye-Joo offers him a meal, but by the time he gets to the car, he feels faint and goes unconscious as soon as he’s inside.
Why Does Byung-Gyun Do The Right Thing?
Before finishing his monologue, Jae-Hee tells Byung-Gyun that he had once told him that there’s no absolute truth and it changes depending on the situation. But Jae-Hee tells him he’s wrong and that his ultimate truth is that he never wrote a suicide note, and he never tried to kill himself. Additionally, Byung-Gyun is reminded of what happened to Se-Na’s father after she told him not to live like his own father. Byung-Gyun is so stuck on his dad’s words that he never once stopped to consider that the old man was wrong. Now, seeing what’s happening with this case, he comes to the realization that he might’ve been wrong about Se-Na after all. He should’ve believed her, and he should’ve trusted that her dad was not a murderer.
What Did Woo-Seong Record?
Interestingly, one of the younger guys tells La-Ik that Woo-Seong had the habit of always recording things (dude knew he’d be murdered, I guess). At the same time, Hye-Joo tells La-Ik she’s leaving, but fortunately, Byeong-Gyun gets her arrested in time before she heads out. Meanwhile, Se-Na goes to La-Ik’s place because he has been absent for a while, and she couldn’t reach him. He immediately takes her in for a hug because he’s just happy things are finally being resolved, and none of this would’ve been possible had Se-Na not been there for him. This is the kind of love he needed, all this time.
Now, lucky for them, even though they don’t have Woo-Seong’s phone, they do have cloud access; they just need a password to get in. Now, Se-Na is a fan of Gold Boys before all else, so she goes to the online forum to see if fans have any information that could help them. She learns about how Woo-Seong has been leaving special messages in the songs through code. Se-Na makes an attempt to figure them out, but they’re too long to be a password. However, when she’s together with La-Ik, she’s able to pick up on one important detail. The sentences all abbreviate to album titles, and the final message was supposed to be the title for the 10th anniversary album—”Remind.” Suddenly, they’re in Woo-Seong’s cloud, and it’s time to find out what happened on that fateful night.
How Did Woo-Seong Die?
Unsurprisingly, Hye-Joo visited the house that night after La-Ik went to sleep. She tried to barge in as usual, but Woo-Seong tried to stop her, saying she ruined La-Ik’s life and is determined to do worse. She asks him who he is to stop her from getting what she wants and even slaps him, but he refuses to let her go to La-Ik. He says she pushes people until they break because she doesn’t really know what love is, considering she never got it when she was younger (yikes). Upset, she grabs a knife and tries to kill herself, but Woo-Seong tries to grab the knife from her hand. Before you know it, she’s fallen on top of him, and he’s dead, blood pooling around him. She then cleaned the place up to make sure no one knew that she was there or that she had done this. But, in the middle of all of this, she also lost her earring. When Jae-Hee showed up, she grabbed Woo-Seong’s phone and ran, forgetting about the earring.
La-Ik tells Se-Na that he must bring the truth out for the people who loved him and the people who loved Woo-Seong. As for Jae-Hee, she also gave him drugs that made him unconscious that night when they met after the incident. But hey, at least Byung-Gyun has become an actual good person; he also hopes for Se-Na’s dad’s case to be resolved. So I think it’s safe to say that’s something that’ll get explored in the final episode. Se-Na is finally getting the closure she’s been waiting for.
In the ending of Idol I episode 11, La-Ik goes to Hye-Joo in prison looking for answers to why she did all this. She blames it all on him, saying that she was in the hospital for psychological treatment after they broke up (oh no) because she tried to kill herself multiple times. But she saw that he was happy, and all she wanted was for him to accept her again. She curses him to hate her and himself for the rest of his life (heh?). But he says he’s not going to waste time hating her. He wanted to know why she didn’t leave the knife behind, knowing La-Ik would’ve taken the fall, but he also tells her she shouldn’t tell him it was out of love, because real love is cheering someone on even if they’re really far away, i.e., fans loving idols, I guess. Wanting the other person’s happiness is all there is to love. La-Ik walks away while Se-Na stays back, almost like “This isn’t goodbye forever, but for now, we need to split.” Suddenly, a year has passed, and Gold Boys are releasing new music. You know, when you watch your favorite idol, it always feels like it’s a message directly to you? Look after yourself, and wait for us; we’ll be back soon. Well, in this case, it might actually be for Se-Na.
The preview of the next episode sees Se-Na winning tickets for the Gold Boys’ concert and also working hard to resolve her father’s case. Additionally, we’ll get a trial for Hye-Joo’s case, and everything will finally end happily, but the question remains, will La-Ik and Se-Na end up together? This I can’t answer, so let’s wait for episode 12 to find out.
