The Resurrected’s ending, amongst several other things, was about the revelation that Jin Jin was probably in cahoots with somebody called Yang and was instrumental in the shutdown of the establishment run by Shih-kai, where young girls were forced to scam unsuspecting people whose proceeds then went on to fill the coffers of his mother Yueh-hsin’s crypto-based organization, the Tai Chi Association. Jin Jin—along with Hsin-yi, An Chi, and several other girls—was lured into this whole program by Shih-kai, and since they were considered missing to the world, 3 mothers—I-chen, Ching, and Hui-chun—launched an investigation into this mess. An Chi was the only survivor, Hsin-yi died, and Jin Jin went into a coma during the rescue mission. Shih-kai was given the death penalty, and he was killed. But Ching and Hui-chun weren’t happy with the fact that Shih-kai just got to die after wreaking so much havoc. So, they literally brought him back from the dead for 7 days and compelled him to bring down the Tai Chi Association while also making the mothers rich beyond their wildest imaginations, you know, as reparations for all the horrors they and their daughters had been through. Eason, somebody whose grandmother had been hurt by Shih-kai, and Pong, whose shop was adjacent to the one where Hui-chun and Ching were holding Shih-kai captive, joined the endeavor. This led to a bunch of complications, which led to the death of Eason. And eventually, Shih-kai sided with Hui-chun to take down Yueh-hsin; Ching led her own operation to expose Yueh-hsin; and Pong crashed this rebellion party with the intention of taking the proceeds home. Who succeeded and who failed? Will there be a Season 2 to further some of these plot lines? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
An Chi’s Confession
During the finale of The Resurrected, one of the major revelations that we got was that Hsin-yi died of exhaustion, dehydration, and possibly blood loss. While trying to escape from Shih-kai’s compound, called Paradise, Hsin-yi was severely injured and then imprisoned in a cage as punishment. An Chi, who was essentially Shih-kai’s girlfriend, tried to have her freed, but Hsin-yi was unable to make it all the way to the end. After that, we learned that the raid that was called on Paradise was Jin Jin’s doing. While taking a trip to the bank, despite being under Shih-kai’s supervision, Jin Jin managed to slip in a message to the teller about calling the police, which led to the liberation of all the girls. Now, during that chaos, An Chi pushed Jin Jin from a balcony, thereby putting her into a coma. Later on, during a conversation with Ching, An Chi admitted that she got aggressive with Jin Jin because she was angered by the fact that, while everyone was looking to escape from the compound, Jin Jin was searching for Shih-kai. There was a lot of confusion around who had leaked Hsin-yi’s escape plan. While the truth was that the girl with the braids was behind the leak, An Chi assumed that Jin Jin was the culprit. Hence, when emotions were running high during the raid, without any evidence, An Chi decided to strike Jin Jin with murderous intent.
Yeah, Jin Jin survived, and An Chi was sent on her merry way by Ching—as if she had the right to forgive her instead of Hui-chun—but the moral of this subplot was that women should never turn against other women because of a man. Going back to the plot, Pong informed Ching that Eason was on the brink of death after getting shot by Yueh-hsin’s men and that they had reacquired Yueh-hsin’s most prized possession, the digital wallet. As per Pong, the Tai Chi Association had won, and they should cut their losses and leave Taipei. However, since Ching still had Jin Jin in her possession—yeah, she was holding the comatose girl hostage because she thought that Jin Jin was in cahoots with Shih-kai and was instrumental in Hsin-yi’s death—and she had revenge on her mind, just leaving wasn’t an option. She had to bring down the Tai Chi Association, and she had to return Jin Jin to Hui-chun before moving on. Speaking of Hui-chun, she had partnered up with Shih-kai of all people to take down Ching and save Jin Jin. Shih-kai had accepted the task because he felt that it was wrong of Ching to act like judge, jury, and executioner. Their clash was set to happen at the party that the Tai Chi Association was throwing for Mr. Kuo and his upcoming election campaign.
Yueh-hsin Was Dead
In order to expose the Tai Chi Association, Ching called up Yung from Super News, who agreed to cover the party in the hopes of getting the chance to break the explosive news about what Yueh-hsin was actually doing to the world. Also in attendance were Hui-chun and Pong, as they were the ones who were supplying contaminated drinks to all the partygoers so as to incapacitate them and get the truth about the Tai Chi Association out of them. Shih-kai made a late entrance too with the intention of not only taking down Ching but also confronting his own mother. Before Kuo’s press conference, Ching cornered him in the bathroom and gave him a dossier that had all the details of what the Tai Chi Association was doing in the field of human trafficking and money laundering. Ching gave Kuo 2 options: he could expose Yueh-hsin’s duplicitous nature himself and be hailed as a politician who was against corruption, or Ching could tell Yung to do the job and club Kuo along with Yueh-hsin in the process, thereby ruining his political career forever. Now, it seemed like Kuo wasn’t going to do Ching’s bidding, but as the drugs from the contaminated drinks kicked in, Kuo chose to tell the truth. Yueh-hsin and her people quickly silenced Kuo. They even took away Ching’s phone, deleted the footage of Kuo’s confession from it, and locked up Ching in a cage in the building. However, Ching recording the incident was a distraction from Yung doing the same. Unfortunately, before Yung could send the footage to his editor, he got knocked out because he had consumed the drugged drinks as well. So, yeah, there’s no way of saying if Kuo’s rambling made it out of those four walls or not.
While all this was going on, Pong was on a side quest of his own, where he accidentally exhibited his violent side to Hui-chun. Fearing that Hui-chun might hinder his objective, Pong imprisoned Hui-chun in a bathroom. Going back to Yueh-hsin, since the cat was out of the bag, she tried to manage the situation by making some hefty donations to charities from her seemingly bottomless digital wallet, hoping that’d soften the blow of Kuo’s words. That was violently interrupted by Shih-kai, who began killing off Yueh-hsin’s associates one by one. Eventually, Shih-kai cornered Yueh-hsin in the room where Ching had been imprisoned, and he forced his mother to give up the wallet and the passcode to it. Shih-kai’s association with Yang and the business that he was running at Paradise had become somewhat of a liability for Yueh-hsin. Hence, she wanted him out of the picture. So, she was glad when he got the death penalty. Since Shih-kai had learned that his death benefited his mother, he made it his mission to get back at her. As soon as he got the passcode to the wallet, Shih-kai put a bullet in Yueh-hsin’s chest and brought an end to her story. Then he pointed his gun at Ching. Before he could pull the trigger again, Shih-kai was attacked by Pong. The two men got into a brutal fight. During this altercation, Ching reached into Yueh-hsin’s pocket, grabbed the keys to her cage, freed herself, and joined Pong in the fight against Shih-kai.
Shih-kai Died Again
Shih-kai, Pong, and Ching got knocked out during the three-way fight. While Pong didn’t regain consciousness instantly, Ching got up, took the wallet, and made a run for it. Shih-kai got back his bearings and went after Ching. He almost got the better of Ching, but Hui-chun came to Ching’s rescue. Before Shih-kai could do anything else to hurt the ladies, his 7 days of resurrection immunity came to an end, and he disintegrated into dust. At this stage of the show, Ching and Hui-chun had gotten everything they had wanted. The people who had hurt their daughters were dead. They had access to the money that the Tai Chi Association had laundered. And despite all the complications they had faced, they trusted each other enough to pave a healthy future for Jin Jin, who was already en route to Taiwan via the air ambulance. That said, at the end of The Resurrected, Pong and his men showed up, and he took the wallet. He didn’t hurt Ching and Hui-chun and let them go. The ambulance that was taking Jin Jin to the airport was stopped in its tracks by the police, and Jin Jin regained consciousness. The temple where the shamans performed the resurrection rituals was raided by the police. In addition to all that, we got a scene of Shih-kai chatting with Yang about retiring Yueh-hsin and taking over the Tai Chi Association. That was followed by Jin Jin talking to Yang about taking Shih-kai out of the equation because he was such a duplicitous individual. So, what did all that mean?
If I just focus on Jin Jin, I guess that brief conversation with Yang shows that she wasn’t as helpless as all the other girls in Paradise. She was actually planting the seeds of doubt in Yang’s mind and subtly motivating him to decommission both Yueh-hsin and Shih-kai. But what’s the significance of that conversation now that both Yueh-hsin and Shih-kai are dead? I’m sure this isn’t supposed to mean that the destruction of Paradise and the Tai Chi Association was part of Jin Jin’s elaborate plan because there’s no way in hell she could have predicted her mother and Ching going on a revenge crusade. However, I’m sure that Yueh-hsin and Shih-kai’s deaths will cause a power vacuum that’ll be filled by Yang. And if Yang remembers Jin Jin’s words of advice, I think he’ll try to have her by his side because she’s pretty smart. That’s fine and all, but how is Jin Jin out of the coma? Was she faking the coma and biding her time until Yueh-hsin and Shih-kai were gone? Or was she legitimately in a coma, and her recovery is a medical miracle? I am leaning towards the second because the first option sounds too preposterous. Jin Jin had literal bedsores. Why’d she go through all that right after escaping from Paradise? For a chance encounter with Yang? I don’t think so. By the way, do I think that Yang is the one who intercepted the ambulance that was carrying Jin Jin to the airport? Yeah, I think it’s him. Who else could it be? Pong? Why would he nab Jin Jin? To keep Hui-chun and Ching at bay now that he has taken hold of the wallet? That sounds like a stretch, but I’ll say that it’s possible.
Season 2 Expectations
Now, it’s time to talk about my expectations from Season 2 of The Resurrected, if that gets greenlit in the first place. Firstly, it has to shed some light on Pong. It’s evident that he is well-connected. He isn’t as timid as he presents himself to be. He clearly has a violent history. And now he has access to a seemingly bottomless bank account. What’s his backstory? What lies ahead of him? I want to know all about it. Then there’s the case of the magical elements of this show. Yeah, amidst all this convoluted crime drama, it’s easy to forget that all this is taking place in a world where magic literally exists. I mean, people here can actually be brought back from the dead for 7 whole days, after which they turn to dust. How was this practice discovered? Who are those shamans who know about it? What’s the deal with those shamans? Who ordered the raid on the temple from which those shamans operate? If someone can keep these shamans captive and make them do their bidding, they can certainly make a killing out of bringing back dead people. Is Pong or Yang someone who’ll be interested in such a business venture? Why not? Last but not least, there’s the case of Hui-chun and Ching. Yes, their crusade to bring down the Tai Chi Association has been a success. However, given how there were so many people under Yueh-hsin’s thumb, this just shows that the nexus that partakes in this money-laundering and human trafficking operation is far bigger than they have imagined. And the only person who can expose this whole network is Yueh-hsin herself.
Yes, Yueh-hsin has been shot, but we all know that the resurrection process can work on any dead person whose body is still intact. Therefore, I fully expect Ching and Hui-chun to resurrect Yueh-hsin and make her work for them. With the shamans gone, or in somebody’s custody, the ladies have an uphill task ahead of them. However, if they are desperate enough to put a stop to all forms of corruption in their country, I’m sure they won’t stop until this disgusting web of lecherous individuals has been burnt to the ground. Additionally, I must point out that Eason might join the ladies in their mission again. Yeah, we saw him bleeding out. Pong said that he might die in the operation theater. But did we see Eason’s dead body? Nope. And the golden rule of entertainment is that until and unless you see a dead body, you can’t say for sure that that character is dead. Therefore, yes, I believe that Eason will recover and reunite with Hui-chun because, in addition to the cleansing program, they have a romantic subplot to deal with. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the ending of The Resurrected and my expectations for a potential second season of the show. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
