In Weak Hero’s ending, Yeon Shi-eun finally asked Oh Beom-seok, “Why did he do that?” Why did he hit Ahn Soo-ho so hard on the head that he went into a coma? Why did he want to kill a person who was once his best friend? Well, Beom-seok didn’t have an answer. He didn’t exactly know what came over him when Soo-ho showed pity on him and looked down upon him. But he believed Shi-eun would understand, as he knew what he had been going through. I think Beom-seok’s last words to his friend pretty much explained what he did and why he did it. The thing we all need to understand is violence is never the answer. With that said, let’s take a look at everything that happened in Weak Hero’s finale and what that ominous post-credits scene really means for our heroes.
Spoiler Alert
Beom-Seok’s Father Turned Him Into A Monster
The cycle of violence will continue forever until we ourselves draw a line in the sand and walk away instead of falling into the same trap again and again. That day, Soo-ho didn’t just pity Beom-seok. He reminded Beom-seok of his father, Assemblyman Oh Jin-won, who had been physically assaulting his adoptive son and treating him no better than trash. Jin-won had only adopted Beom-seok to improve his public image, but the young man struggled to fit into the rich man’s circles and ended up getting bullied at every school he went to. Moments before the tragedy at the gym, Beom-seok’s father once again kicked him and told him that he was sending him to the Philippines for his education so he could no longer bring shame to his prestigious name. From the very beginning, it was obvious that Jin-won wasn’t bothered about his adoptive son and just wanted him to stick to the shadows, but Beom-seok wanted to be heard and seen. He did find a sense of belonging with Shi-eun and Soo-ho, but everything fell to pieces once Young Yi joined their group, and Beom-seok felt envious. He believed that Shi-eun and Soo-ho were ignoring him and neglecting his presence, just like his adoptive family, which was why he went out looking for new friends. He didn’t exactly know why he started hating his old friends, but the issue, if you look at it from the outside, was always Beom-seok’s father, who turned an innocent Beom-seok into a monster. And it was Shi-eun and Soo-ho who became victims of Jin-won’s violence against his son.
A question that I want to raise is: could things have been different? Well, yes. Consider bullying and violence as clockwork. You bully a person and wind up the key, filling a person with anger and agony. Now if the person is someone like Shi-eun or Soo-ho, they raise their voice against their oppressor and kick the hell out of them to release their anger, but in Beom-seok’s case, he couldn’t. His father was his ultimate bully, and being an introvert who was always treated like an outcast in his family, he didn’t have the courage to speak against his father. In short, he bottled up that rage, which finally came out when he started beating his bully from the previous school, and Soo-ho in the series’ finale. Shi-eun, who knew Beom-seok inside out, knew he wasn’t looking for revenge, just a way to express himself and release the pent-up anger inside him. But it was a tragedy that he unleashed his rage on his own best friends and destroyed everything he once cherished. So yes, things could have been different if Beom-seok had been able to take a stand against his father or if he had tried to expose him. He could have been more vocal about the things he was struggling with, and maybe Shi-eun, the calm and composed one, could have been able to help deal with the situation in a better way. But instead of sharing his concerns, Beom-seok just hid his feelings, just like he used to do himself in the closet when things went south.
Shi-Eun Took The Revenge
From the very beginning of Weak Hero, Shi-eun’s bully, Jeon Young-bin, had been trying to find ways to intimidate him and break his spirit, which he believed would have an adverse effect on his grades. Shi-eun excelled in every academic test or competition; it was Young-bin who always came second, just below his rival. Shi-eun really didn’t have any friends at school. His parents were divorced, and his father was always away, busy with his sports training camp. Shi-eun spent most of his time studying, as he obviously didn’t have anything else to do, but Soo-ho and Beom-seok brought a new hope into his life. It was likely the first time Shi-eun experienced what true friendship looked like, and he enjoyed eating meals with them together. However, everything came to a tragic end when Beom-seok left the group and became their worst nemesis. He was hell-bent on taking revenge on Soo-ho, and in Weak Hero’s ending, he sent him to a place from which he might never return.
In Weak Hero’s finale, Shi-eun, who couldn’t do much to bring his friend back from the coma, finally decided to take revenge on all those who put Soo-ho in such a condition, except for Beom-seok. Back in the school, on the day of the exam, Beom-seok begged Shi-eun to punch him, but he didn’t. There was something that Shi-eun knew about Beom-seok that stopped him from beating his best friend. He knew that the cycle of violence couldn’t be ended with violence. He knew the things Beom-seok was struggling with, and even though he couldn’t help him escape his father’s tyranny and ease his hidden pain, he could at least try not to make it worse.
Beom-Seok Left The Country
When Shi-eun broke into Young-bin’s new school to find out how his best friend ended up in a hospital, Young-bin shared a video with him where Beom-seok was repeatedly kicking Soo-ho in the head. Beom-seok would have been sent to a juvenile center if this video was leaked, but Shi-eun didn’t want to cause more trouble for his friend. After Beom-seok left to study abroad, his father tried to send Shi-eun to a juvenile reformatory for thrashing the kids so violently in class. But before he could do so, Shi-eun sent him the video, thereby making a deal to give him a transfer in exchange for his silence. The issue was, Jin-won, being an influential man, made sure that no school in Seoul would accept Shi-eun, and therefore he had to finally take an admission in Eunjang High School in Yeongdeungpo. The only silver lining was that at least Shi-eun’s parents knew that their son had done nothing wrong by raising his voice against the tyrants.
Before leaving, Beom-seok had told Young Yi that she was to blame for Soo-ho’s condition. Things wouldn’t have gone this far if she hadn’t joined their group and divided the friends. Well, it wasn’t Young Yi’s fault. It was Beom-seok who started to feel jealous of her presence because he felt that his friend was neglecting him, which once again wasn’t true. But Young Yi didn’t know what was happening in Beom-seok’s life and the reason why he spoke such cruel words to her, and therefore decided to maintain her distance from the group and silently walked away.
Soo-ho Isn’t Dead
After the whole fiasco, Shi-eun went back to the hospital to spend some time with his friend, where he imagined a conversation with Soo-ho and apologized to him for not being there for him when he needed him the most. Till the very end, Shi-eun believed that Beom-seok would stop and put an end to his madness, but he was wrong. He didn’t come to his senses until he had sent his best friend to the hospital. In short, it was too late, and somewhere, Shi-eun did blame himself for the mess. However, Shi-eun couldn’t change what had already taken place, and the best he could do was to spend some time with his friend who was still in a coma. According to Shi-eun, he tried to stay in touch with Soo-ho’s grandmother, but she wouldn’t respond to his calls or texts. It’s likely that Soo-ho left for his village with his grandmother and may return to the city in season 2 once he has finally recovered. However, the question here is: will Soo-ho ever be able to lead a normal life again? Will he be able to work again to earn a living? Beom-seok’s father had taken care of his medical expenses, but even if he fully recovered, he might never be the same person again as these men had literally crushed his spirits.
The Violence Continues
Shi-eun’s tragedy was that his new school, the only institution that accepted him, was worse than his previous school, and the young boy was once again subjected to bullying, implying he might never be able to break the cycle of violence. On the first day, another backbencher named Kang Woo-yeong walked to Shi-eun’s seat and tried to harass him. He read Shi-eun’s name off his uniform and called him a girl, trying to act funny for his friends. Woo-yeong wanted Shi-eun to be his slave, to which Shi-eun replied that they were so predictable. These bullies often try to intimidate weaker ones so that they can portray themselves as the cooler or stronger one among their friends. It’s how the real world works, and likely it’s what the children learn from their parents. The rich oppress the poor. The boss intimidates their employees. These bullies want their friends and the rest of the classmates to be afraid of them and to spread that fear. They pick out the weakest one in the lot who wouldn’t dare raise a voice against their oppression, but this backbencher didn’t know Shi-eun. Shi-eun wasn’t the kind of guy who’d let someone crush him, and in the end, he grabbed his pen tighter, suggesting he likely punched a few holes in the new bully. However, like his previous school, his act of violence once started a chain of events that Shi-eun would have to face the consequences of in the next season.
Weak Hero’s mid-credits scene pointed out that Woo-yeong, the lad Shi-eun beat in the new class, was a candidate of the Association. Now I don’t know exactly what this “Association” is, but from the very looks of it, it seems like some very bad news for our lead protagonist, who may have to face a new horde of punks and gangsters in the second season, titled Weak Hero Class 2. And what’s worse is that this time around, he’s all alone and on his own. But it is possible that Soo-ho, Young Yi, and her friends can return for the second to help Shi-eun escape the mess in the new school.
