Aahana Swrup
Season 2 of the Kdrama‘ Gyeongseong Creature’ presents a drastic departure from the first season as the narrative jumps forward nearly eight decades to find Yoon Chae-ok in 2024 Seoul. Inexplicably, a string of murders has started haunting the city again, bringing back the horrors of human experimentation that once ran rampant under the Onseong Hospital roof. Consequently, as Chae-ok finds herself pursuing the case, her path unexpectedly crosses with Jang Ho-jae, a private investigator who sports a startling resemblance to the long-gone Jang Tae-sang. Inevitably, the two end up working together to uncover secrets of the past—particularly the ones surrounding Onseong’s monster, who may have returned for the worse. Chae-ok’s adventures in season 2—this time with Ho-jae by her side—remain equally invigorating and thrilling as the ones in 1945, bringing an entirely new puzzle to the viewers. Therefore, fans must have found themselves intrigued by the new mystery and its baffling conclusion. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Gyeongseong Creature Season 2 Recap
After surviving her near-death in 1945 with the help of her mother’s Najin, Chae-ok goes on to live a long, youthful—and deathless—life. In 2024, she works from the shadows as Silverball, an underground contact people can reach out to for peculiar jobs. As a result, she takes up the job to find Oh Ki-hoon, who has mysteriously gone missing under dangerous circumstances. Coincidentally, the case leads her to cross paths with a Private Investigator named Jang Ho-jae. After finding Ki-hoon’s body at a motel, the PI accidentally gets tangled up in his murder case. Therefore, he finds himself searching for the real murderer to clear his name. The same brings him back to Chae-ok, the only person he had encountered at the crime scene.
When the two meet again, Chae-ok initially mistakes Ho-jae for Tae-sang but quickly recovers from the shock once she realizes the man in front of her has no idea who Master Jang is. For the same reason, she rejects Ho-jae when he tries to strike a partnership to find Ki-hoon’s actual killer. Nevertheless, after another player—Seung-jo, a Najin-infected human—enters the picture with Ho-jae as his target, Chae-ok ends up working with the latter to track down the other man. As such, the duo quickly set up a meeting with the younger man at an abandoned factory.
Nonetheless, the meeting ends in a disaster when Seung-jo brings an army of monstrously powered fighters, the Kuroko, with him. Even though Yong-gil manages to get his friend out of the situation alive, Seung-jo and his army overpower Chae-ok, taking her hostage with them. However, that night unlocks a memory for Ho-jae, who somehow still remembers Chae-ok’s name despite her never sharing it with him. Consequently, as he digs deeper into his memory—and his office, built in the same building as The House of Golden Treasure—memories of a past long gone rush back.
However, Seung-jo interrupts Ho-jae’s reminiscence, attacking his office and dragging him to the Jeonseung Lab. Meanwhile, Chae-ok, another prisoner at the Lab, learns that the place was erected from the ruins of Onseong Hospital, with Kato’s descendant continuing his grandfather’s horrifying human experimentation of the Najin parasite. Furthermore, Lady Maeda from 1945, who has also survived all these years—with Najin’s help—is currently the research’s head. Yet, Chae-ok and Maeda aren’t the only ones who have made it this far into the future.
As it turns out, Tae-sang is also young and alive—living with amnesia as Ho-jae. After Tae-sang and his friends carried out the attack on Maeda’s husband in 1945, the woman punished him by infecting him with the Najin, forcing him to become a part of Jeonseung. Yet, in 2023, he moved against the Lab, attempting to burn down their research. Unsurprisingly, Maeda’s men managed to overpower him, condemning him to a fate of ignorance after taking the Najin out of his head. However, Seung-jo, who used to work beside Tae-sang as one of the Kuroko, is now trying to bring his memories back by reintroducing a Najin to his body.
In the end, Chae-ok helplessly watches as Ho-jae—bloodied and bruised—chooses to inject himself with the Najin to get his memories back. Even though he would have been happier with ghosts of the past haunting him, he can’t live a life ignorant of his true self. Thus, in the end, Ho-jae becomes infected with the Najin again and remembers everything about his life as Tae-sang—including Chae-ok. In the aftermath, the pair manage to fight their way out of the Lab with some help from Seung-jo, who has always only wanted his old friend back. Even so, as Seung-jo reports back to Maeda—the closest thing he has to a mother, one can’t help but question the young man’s loyalties.
Gyeongseong Creature Season 2 Ending: Is Seung-jo Working For Maeda? Does He Betray Ho-jae?
In season 2, Seung-jo’s character remains the most intriguing piece of the puzzle. He’s the son of Akiko, the pregnant woman who accidentally got infected by the Najin in 1945. After her death, Maeda took the kid in, raising him as her own son. Nevertheless, she was only ever just interested in studying his unique relationship with the Najin, which allowed him to only half-transform as the monster at will. Therefore, Seung-jo grew up unloved and unseen under Maeda’s care, becoming a test subject more than a son.
Still, Seung-jo continued vying for Maeda’s motherly affections, which he only achieved when mirroring her cruel apathy. However, things changed after Tae-sang—who now goes by Ho-jae—entered the picture. Ho-jae made Seung-jo feel like a human for the first time in his life, prioritizing his individuality and happiness. For the same reason, the young man pledged his loyalty to the older man, agreeing to help him take down the Jeonseung Lab. Nevertheless, his conviction faltered in the face of Maeda’s anger. After she learned about his shifting loyalties, she injected him with a serum that sent the Najin in his head to sleep. As a result, she rendered Seung-jo weak and mortal on the night that he was supposed to help Ho-jae.
Consequently, Seung-jo’s fear kept him from helping Ho-jae, who failed in his mission. As such, while the young man truly believes in his love for the latter, the fear he has of his mother ends up winning out. For the same reason, while Ho-jae resorts to the mundane life of an amnesiac, Seung-jo returns his loyalties to Maeda, doing the dirty work for her. Thus, even though his momentary move against Kato’s men seems to oppose Maeda, he’s actually still following his mother’s orders when he brings back Ho-jae’s memories. Maeda’s obsession with Tae-sang hasn’t dwindled in the decades since their friendship. As such, in the year she has lived without him, she has realized how desperately she wants him back in her life, even if only as an adversary.
For the same reason, Maeda uses Seung-jo to trick Ho-jae into unlocking his memories. Afterward, the man continues to trust Seung-jo when he goes to the rescue of Ahn Jong-hyeok, the son of a friend who is being used as a test subject at the Jeonseung Lab. Ho-jae showcases a sign of the same trust by letting the other man chase after Jeonseung’s transportation van with Chae-ok. However, Seung-jo easily betrays that trust by attacking the woman halfway to the Lab with the Najin-neutralizing serum. Still, his motivations remain nuanced.
Seung-jo has orders from Maeda to bring Chae-ok back to the Lab with him because she wants to force Ho-jae into killing the woman himself. However, because he cares about the other man so much, Seung-jo has decided to take a different route and kill Chae-ok himself so that his mother’s plan never comes to fruition. While his actions cement his more monstrous side, which resembles Maeda, he still showcases a capability to love through his twisted attempt to protect Seung-jo. Ultimately, Seung-jo’s loyalties remain colored by both—his love for Ho-jae, which makes him want to be good, and his constant need to please his mother, pushing him toward monstrous actions.
Does Jang Save Chae-ok? Does She Remember Him?
Despite Seung-jo’s plans to save Chae-ok from Maeda’s clutches by killing her first himself, the latter woman still finds a way to get to him. Maeda knows the man she raised, and she knows he doesn’t have the heart to condemn Ho-jae to a cruel fate. Therefore, she already planned to send the Kuroko after the duo to retrieve Chae-ok, even at the cost of Seung-jo’s life. Taken aback by the attack, Seung-jo loses out to the Kuroko, who take Chae-ok to the Lab, where Maeda has plans waiting for her. Eventually, Ho-jae arrives at the Lab’s center after an altercation with Kanto’s left-hand man. As he stands in front of Maeda, he learns the reality of the cruelty the woman is capable of.
Maeda wants to kill all of Ho-jae’s friends to make him suffer in isolation. However, she has devised a vile plan to achieve this. Maeda wants to prove Ho-jae wrong about his philosophy that all humans are equal and should be treated as such. For the same reason, she has collected three people he cares about—Captain Yuh, Yong-gil, and Jong-hyeok—to be put in a cage against the Onseong monster. On the other hand, Maeda has instructed her men to throw Chae-ok into freezing water to drive the Najin out of her body, which would kill her or take away her memories. Thus, she offers Ho-jae a chance to save one or the other.
Nevertheless, Ho-jae refuses to play her game and opts for a different move—injecting Maeda with the Najin-neutralizing serum to render her helpless. Afterward, he rushes to help his friends and manages to save them from the monster, sending them on their way out of the Lab. During the confrontation, Ho-jae also showcases his newfound ability to control the monsters by empathizing with their pain and compelling them to snap out of their violent instincts. Once he escapes the monster’s clutches, he sets off to save Chae-ok. Nevertheless, he’s a little too late and arrives after the tank’s freezing water has driven the Najin away from Chae-ok. Even so, he refuses to lose the woman again and breaks through the tank glass with his bare hands to save Chae-ok before she dies of hypothermia.
In the end, Ho-jae manages to save Chae-ok’s life and escapes the Lab with her. However, the woman has lost a crucial part of herself after losing the Najin. Since the Najin’s occupation over a host’s body is intimately connected to their brains, the parasite’s exit from the host’s body leads to amnesia—as seen in Ho-jae’s case. As a result, after Chae-ok loses the Najin in the water tank, she also ends up losing all her memories. Thus, in the aftermath, the woman remembers nothing of her own past life, including Tae-sang/Ho-jae’s role in it. Instead, she goes on to live a regular life with Jong-hyeok’s grandmother, oblivious to the world’s deeper secrets around her.
Even so, much like amnesiac Ho-jae, Chae-ok can also tell something instrumental is missing from her life. Each night, she dreams of chasing after a man whom she can never remember in the morning. Therefore, she is perpetually left yearning for Ho-jae without realizing he’s the source of her anguish. However, one day, on her way to college, Chae-ok passes by a stranger on the street, whom she can’t help but look back upon. This stranger turns out to be Ho-jae, who recognizes the woman but keeps his distance. Still, as he offers a tentative smile, Chae-ok is helpless not to return it.
While it is unlikely that the single moment will bring Chae-ok’s memories back, her willingness to look twice at Ho-jae and smile at him showcases the potential for the women’s memories to return. Furthermore, Ho-jae already knows that reintroducing the Najin to an abandoned host’s body can bring their memories back. Therefore, it’s highly likely that the two star-crossed lovers will find a way to be with each other again in the future, even if Chae-ok’s amnesia prevents the same at the end of season 2.
Does Lady Maeda Die? What Happens to Her Experiment?
Throughout the show, Lady Maeda has proven herself to be exceptionally resilient, as she consistently refuses to give up on her survival. From 1945 to 2024, she makes her way through the world, accumulating power and influence. However, over the decades, she loses the satisfaction of winning. As such, she turns to her cruelty to gain a sense of pleasure from defeating others and lording her power over them. Tae-sang/Ho-jae remains her biggest victim in the same. Since Maeda can’t have Ho-jae, she wants to burn his world down and feed on his pain. However, in going after the same goal, she overlooks the real threat brewing in the background.
Ever since Maeda took Seung-jo in under her care, she has been mistreating the boy in an attempt to mold him into the perfect weapon. She wants Seung-jo to wipe his hands free of any attachments that weaken his potential for cruelty. Yet, she forgets that the only thing keeping him from going after her is the naive attachment he formed to her as a kid. Seung-jo has been long abused—physically and mentally—by Maeda. Still, he craves her affection and tries to be someone she can be proud of.
However, after Maeda sends Kuroko after Seung-jo to bring Chae-ok back, she proves that she never once cared about his well-being. Thus, once Seung-jo storms the Lab, he immediately goes after Maeda to settle their score. Even during the confrontation when Maeda isn’t under Najin’s protection—thanks to Ho-jae—she refuses to take accountability for her actions. In turn, Seung-jo gives into the darkness brewing under his skin and kills his mother. Ultimately, Maeda dies a brutal death but welcomes it with a smile—perhaps aware that this is the only end she would have ever gotten.
Meanwhile, Captain Yuh brings the authorities down on the Jeonseung Lab after escaping Maeda’s twisted game. Consequently, the company comes under legal fire, all but dissolving under scrutiny. Still, Maeda’s work hasn’t truly come to an end. As it turns out, Maeda’s actions against Seung-jo hadn’t simply driven him to bloody revenge. Instead, it triggered him to surrender entirely to his monstrous instincts. Therefore, in the wake of the Jeonseung Lab, Seung-jo continues the experimentation work on Najin with Kato. However, he has a much more sinister endgame in mind than sole experimentation.
As the season ends, Seung-jo prepares startling amounts of bottled water, each harboring a Najin inside of it. As the bottles enter the market, unwitting civilians will undoubtedly catch the infection, leading to a massive outbreak. Seung-jo is sick of living in the shadows and wants to create a world for himself. Therefore, he has chosen to condemn the entire world to death or life as a half-monster. Naturally, his actions are bound to change the world for the worse, bringing in a new threat for the potential future seasons.
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