The ending of S Line has left me utterly confused in terms of why this show was only 6 episodes long. But this isn’t a review, and while I have loads of thoughts about how this show was terribly edited, especially in the final episode, where the whole thing changed genres out of the blue, it also leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions, one being, what was the point of it all? Given that the series is based on a Webtoon, I can’t help but imagine it’s like a teaser trailer for the Webtoon itself, to get us to go back and have a look at it to truly understand what’s going on here. But since we’re impatient and here simply to discuss the drama’s ending itself, let’s get through some of the major questions we have about the show. If you’ve got your own theories, do let us know in the comments down below.
Spoiler Alert
Who Is Kyu-Jin Really?
The biggest question I’m left with after watching the final episode of S Line is who Kyu-Jin really is. The teacher with no lines was already a bit strange to begin with. She was also telling people to put the glasses on, as we saw earlier in the show. It was almost as if she wanted bad things to happen at the hands of, well, the “S Lines,” or at least because of them. I think, from what I gather, Kyu-Jin could be a personification of revenge or justice. While she enables people to kill their partners and other sexual deviants, it’s all so that they can be “reborn” with no lines and a clean slate again. Kyu-Jin’s purpose is to give the world a sky of red. She intends to enable Hyun-Heup’s power and give it to everybody else around her. At the beginning of the show, Hyun-Heup tried hard to kill herself because she did not appreciate the power she had, which made her different from everyone around her. It made her feel cursed, but it was Kyu-Jin who forced her out of the house and gave her purpose. That purpose was basically to die at the end and give everybody her power? How strange.
But Hyun-Heup started living for real after she came to school. She made friends, then she fell in love, but that lasted for all of about 5 seconds too. Kyu-Jin took away everything Hyun-Heup had but gave her the one thing she always wanted: freedom to live a “normal” life. But that normal life came with a price; now she’s still the only one living differently from the rest of the world around her, covering their eyes and hiding from the redness of passion. I wouldn’t say Kyu-Jin is a god, because she’s kind of evil. She makes people kill each other, she forces them to sin, and she also takes them to a purgatory-like upside-down world at the end of the show, before she nearly kills Hyun-Heup to “save” the world. I guess you could say she’s like a weird angel who wants justice but has fallen.
Who Killed Joon-Sun?
On Hyun-Heup’s birthday, she asks Joon-Sun, her friend, for a special favor. She wants him to sleep with her, because I gather from the conversation she had with Ji-Wook that she wants to feel as nonchalant as him about sex. But the more obvious answer is, of course, that she wants to experience it too and have a line, just like the many people she sees around her. Being able to see that connection between her and Joon-Sun delighted Hyun-Heup. However, soon enough, the line disappears, and Joon-Sun is found dead under a construction site, stabbed by some rebar. This is not an ordinary accident, especially not in a place like Seoul. In my opinion, this is Kyu-Jin’s doing; it is to mess with Hyun-Heup’s morale and make her feel terrible about herself. Hyun-Heup always believed she was cursed, which is why she thought her dad died because of her, and her mom ran away. But we do understand later that Hyun-Heup’s mother had the glasses too, and it’s the glasses that make people vengeful somehow.
It’s possible it was genuinely an accident, but the timing and the way it happened, especially when he was bringing her cake, all seem a little bit too off to make it seem like it happened naturally. I do feel like it was specifically so Hyun-Heup would feel like she’s cursed so she can fulfill her purpose by dying.
What About Hyun-Heup’s Mum?
In this weird world, which looks like a scene out of Midsommar, Kyu-Jin tries to stab Hyun-Heup, but somebody blocks her. This somebody is none other than Hyun-Heup’s mother. She apologizes for showing up late and tells her that her father’s death was never her fault and that she had a pair of glasses too. So you’re telling me, if only Hyun-Heup’s mom had told her about the glasses, she’d have lived a normal life after, probably never telling anybody about the lines again? How darn strange. Anyway, this gives Hyun-Heup the closure she needs, but we could also assume it gave her strength. This is why she doesn’t die from Kyu-Jin’s blade; she comes back alive with grey irises, holding the knife.
Is Kyu-Jin Dead?
So, when Kyu-Jin spreads Hyun-Heup’s blood into the sky and allows the whole world to see the “S Lines,” Hyun-Heup is able to stab her and presumably kill her. But is she really dead? I guess both Hyun-Heup and Kyu-Jin pull off the same kind of fake death thing. Hyun-Heup wakes up and stabs Kyu-Jin, whereas Kyu-Jin makes an appearance later, shocking Hyun-Heup. I don’t think she died the first time around either. After all, she’s a supernatural being, and she probably made a return because there’s likely room for the story to expand further.
What Happens To Sun-A And Jin-Wook?
The only positive thing that comes out of the ending of “S Line” is that Sun-A wakes up and is “reborn” with no lines. The strangest plot twist is that the line she had connected to her own grandfather. This is what Jin-Wook discovers in episode 5, but he can’t really do anything about it because the man’s his own father. He fails to kill him. But I suppose if Jin-Wook hadn’t had the glasses, he’d have never known how filthy his father really was, doing such a thing to his own granddaughter. I honestly felt like Jin-Wook’s misogyny came out when he started seeing the “S Lines,” immediately dismissing the young girl who said there was blood in her underwear because she had 4 lines. He simply assumed she’d been with 4 partners and was lying about the one guy having assaulted her. But Hyun-Heup, a woman, has to teach him to see things clearly. In a similar light, seeing his father’s line makes him realize that seeing these lines is actually a curse, not a blessing like he’d assumed at first.
I suppose the one positive that comes from the world being able to see the “S Lines” is that predators, sexual offenders, and fake puritans can be easily caught and called out. In the show, we see a college student being harassed after a video of her is released online. We’re also shown a woman being obsessed with her colleague, and in another story, a man completely reads the situation wrong and assumes his sister is a victim when she’s not. In all these cases, being able to see the “S Line” is a curse because it ultimately leads to a negative outcome. Finally, Jin-Wook is actually looking out for Sun-A and taking care of her, despite her embarrassment at the number of lines he has.
In S Line’s ending, a year has passed, and Hyun-Heup is on a train where everyone is wearing sunglasses and masks because they want to protect their privacy and hence respect others too. Hyun-Heup goes to Joon-Sun’s grave, where she hears somebody calling her name. This somebody is Kyu-Jin, and then suddenly she’s standing right by her.
Will There Be A Season 2?
Now, I did some cheating and looked up the Webtoon last minute, and it looks like it starts with everybody being able to see the “S Lines” already. This would mean that this entire show has been a prequel to the actual story, which definitely proves my theory right. But this also means that we’re potentially being set up for a second season, which will actually follow the plot of the published works from 2010. With that said, though, I can’t pretend I enjoyed the execution of the show very much, and am hoping that it returns with some actual answers for these complicated questions.
