The ending of Mercy For None is quite mellow in comparison to the rest of the show, but if you expected there to be any survivors, you’ll be heavily disappointed. This is a revenge show in which the protagonist does not care about surviving. He only cares about getting the guys who killed his little brother. Additionally, he’s a man with literally nothing left to lose. The only person he ever cared about was his brother, and with him gone, he’s got no inhibitions. In Mercy For None, there are two main gangs, Juwoon and Bongsan, named after the founding members of both gangs. They each have sons who secretly want to take over their dads’ organizations. Well, Jun-Mo, not so secretly. But the events of the drama begin when Jun-Mo targets Gi-Seok, Gi-Jun’s brother (because he humiliated him in front of his subordinates). While Gi-Seok does end up dead, nobody knows who actually killed him. So, Jun-Mo is long gone before the end of the show. Who’s the real culprit, and why was it important for Gi-Jun to end it all?
Spoiler Alert
Who Killed Gi-Seok?
The big reveal, nearing the end of the show, is that Gi-Seok was not killed by one of the kids who went after him that night. It was instead a half-Japanese man who goes by Kaneyama, an assassin that Interpol is after, who killed Gi-Seok. This man wasn’t hired by Jun-Mo, but he’s been working with Geum-Son, Lee Ju-Woon’s son, who is also a prosecutor. Geum-Son asks Yeong-Do, a corrupt police officer who has been working with Ju-Woon and Bongsan all these years, to help him get rid of Ju-Woon. Yeong-Do hires Kaneyama to kill Gi-Jun, who later tried to murder Gi-Jun in a car accident. Yeong-Do is the reason Geum-Son is able to act on his ambition. For the longest time, nobody believed Geum-Son was interested in taking over his dad’s position. In fact, Ju-Woon was determined to get his son out of the gang stuff because the experience was so nightmarish. Ju-Woon even offered the job to Gi-Jun, but of course, the man would never accept such a role. But Geum-Son is the most ambitious of the lot despite looking innocent as a lamb. He’s a silent killer, if you will, because there are no signs of him wanting to kill people or become all-powerful, yet he’s the one who really causes all the trouble in both gangs, starting a chain reaction for the destruction to follow.
In the present, Geum-Son tells Kaneyama that he will help him start a new life in Korea under his Korean name, Kim Gil-Lok, if he kills somebody for him. Geum-Son needs Yeong-Do gone because he has all the information that could incriminate him. Without Yeong-Do, he has nobody coming in his way. He needs both him and Gi-Jun gone, which is what he needs Kaneyama to do. Out of everyone on the show, Kaneyama seems to be the only person who could possibly come close to doing the deed. But of course, considering he is the man who did the actual killing, he’s taken down by Gi-Jun, too. Then comes Yeong-Do, the man who orchestrated this whole plan, bringing Geum-Son closer to his goals. Yeong-Do isn’t just the perpetrator here, but he’s the reason Juwoon and Bongsan became two separate entities too, only it looked like Gi-Jun was responsible. This is the kind of guy who pretends he’s got nothing and doesn’t want anything but secretly gets it all by stepping on the heads of other people. Yeong-Do is the mastermind behind it all, but he’s not valued hierarchically; instead, to keep everyone in check, he’s got voice recordings to catch them all if needed. Gi-Jun finds the one that proves that Geum-Son is the one behind it all. He hands it over to one of Hae-Bom (Gi-Seok’s pal), telling him to stay alive because all of the other guys are dead already. He doesn’t want any more people dying because of him. Despite everything, Gi-Jun’s quite a sentimental man, hence the respect for the gang leaders and also how desperate he is to get revenge.
Geum-Son says goodbye to his father, takes the pipe Gi-Jun left on the old man’s coffin, and keeps it for himself, I suppose as a sign of embodying his father. Something he was never capable of. Geum-Son manages to merge the two gangs (and companies) thanks to the help he receives from everyone, particularly the right-hand men of both Juwoon and Bongsan. But his victory is short-lived, because soon after the merger is announced and all of the subordinates are starting to see Geum-Son as their leader, it is revealed on the news that he’s been suspected in a murder and that he will no longer be a prosecutor. Without the prosecution behind him, Geum-Son is a nobody. His father’s dead, killed by Yeong-Do, and Yeong-Do is dead thanks to Gi-Jun. Everything is over for him just like that, so what can he do in such a situation? He takes out his rage on the people around him, but it is Seong-Cheol, the man who served his father for so many years, who knocks some sense into him. In a different situation, if Geum-Son had escaped, I’d imagine Seong-Cheol would’ve been by his side till the end, because he served his dad, and he’d serve him next. This is just how these organizations work.
But instead, Seong-Cheol is the next line of defense for Geum-Son, who still manages to escape yet again from Gi-Jun. The two friends, who were once probably close, battle it out before Gi-Jun finally kills Seong-Cheol too. With nobody left in line, Gi-Jun finally gets to the real perpetrator, Geum-Son. It’s also important to point out that Geum-Son is a lot like Gi-Seok, because Gi-Seok was the one who killed Oh’s son in order to get the empire split in two (even if he did it because he believed Oh was after his brother). He was driven by his ambition, too.
How Did Geum-Son Die?
Geum-Son and Gi-Jun talk first before the fighting actually begins. While Geum-Son believes he’s meant to enjoy his dad’s position because of the respect and power he commands, Gi-Jun tells him that it’s not respect or power; it is simply fear. It’s interesting, because Gi-Jun was offered that spot too. I suppose you could say Gi-Jun and the chairman could’ve felt the same way because everyone feared Gi-Jun too. Despite it looking golden on the outside, it’s a living hell, truth be told. But I think you could call Geum-Son a sociopath, because he claims he likes the fight; he liked the process of stepping on 100s of people to get to the chair right on top, where he thought he’d be invincible. He doesn’t even get to spend a good half an hour there before things go belly up.
Geum-Son’s ambition stems from being sidelined as a nobody. Rather than understanding that his dad was trying to protect him, he believes his dad just didn’t want him to take up such a difficult responsibility. He felt neglected and belittled, so he chose to take matters into his own hands. Neither man ever spoke to the other about how they felt. Why would they? They’re men in gangs; they’re only meant to be brooding and not trusting. But somehow everyone trusted Yeong-Do. Geum-Son’s inevitable death is satisfying, especially because he tries to kill himself, an escape from Gi-Jun. Geum-Son’s biggest issue is that he doesn’t want to be controlled; his whole life, the decisions have been made for him. He never chose to not inherit his dad’s organization/business; that’s what made him yearn for it more. This is what ultimately leads to Gi-Jun giving him a terrible death. Geum-Son tries to shoot himself, but Gi-Jun slits his wrist, so he drops the gun. Gi-Jun tells Geum-Son to go ask for forgiveness, but despite having a knife lodged in his throat, all he can gurgle out is that Gi-Jun shouldn’t tell him what to do. Geum-Son dies in the same seat he had dreamt of taking from his own father. I suppose he doesn’t need to ask for forgiveness there; in truth, his father is at fault. It’s interesting to note that Gi-Jun kills all 3 perpetrators in the same way that Kaneyama killed Gi-Seok, with a knife in the throat that’s pulled out to make the person bleed.
Is Gi-Jun dead?
In Mercy For None’s ending, a defeated Gi-Jun sits by himself in front of a fire, but Gi-Seok is next to him. Of course, like many would tell him, all of this fighting would not bring his brother back, but it ended everything, meaning nobody else could end up in his brother’s place, i.e., nobody else would feel compelled to do what he did. I suppose this is a conversation he wishes he’d had with his brother a long time ago: quit everything and join him in running a small business and being safe, outside, with nobody to come after them, because they’d have been unimportant. Even if he killed everybody, he still has regrets. But I guess he’s the one who gets mercy because we can see he ends up dying out there, all by himself, having ended what he and his brother once started. Yes, I think Gi-Jun is dead, because there is now nothing left for him to do.
