Good Boy – K-drama Episode 16 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Review Geek

2 days ago

We Are The Champions
Episode 16 of Good Boy begins this finale with a reminder from Yeon-ha of just how powerful and unpredictable Ju-yeong actually is. In fact, he has enough explosive power to obliterate Insung City.
This catches us up to the moments we left off from yesterday, where the truck completely explodes and the team scramble to safety. They get away just in time, as the whole thing explodes into an inferno.
However, this isn't the end of it, as 3 other trucks around Insung City detonate. Ju-yeong really has nothing to lose here and that makes him incredibly dangerous.
Meanwhile, Man-sik has seen his whole life flash before his eyes after the explosion. He's just thankful he can go back to see Jeong-a but Dong-ju is not happy. He shows up to see the Commissioner and demands he take some accountability for his actions.
Pan-yeol eventually concedes and admits that dozens of high-ranking officials in Insung have been in bed with Ju-yeong all these years and it's not going to be easy to unravel those ties.
What does Yeon-ha reveal?
However, there are more pressing issues to attend to right now. There's another undetonated truck out there and they need to track down where it is. The only person who may know is Yeon-ha so once again we get a touch of deja ju as the gang question Yeon-ha about what she may know.
Yeon-ha unravels a surprising connection to Kim Yu-na, one of the girls from the Custom Office. She actually has a crush on Ju-yeong so if they can track her down, they may be able to get Ju-yeong too.
The group do find Yu-na, who admits that she was encouraged to leave the country with Ju-yeong. They were due to meet at the Victory Hotel, so the group use this as a way of luring Ju-yeong in.
They're not the only ones after him though, as the Yakuza are sniffing around too. After Ju-yeong tried (and failed) to strike a deal with them, the gangs are desperate for blood and that means anyone aligned with Ju-yeong is on the backfoot now. Ju-yeong is also holding a shareholder meeting at the Victory Hotel (which he owns and they're currently at).
What is Ju-yeong planning at the hotel?
When Ju-yeong doesn't show, Dong-ju senses something fishy going on and tells the group that they need to be vigilant here. Yu-na may not be completely truthful and unfortunately, we get confirmation of this just after.
With sodium cyanide powder on the floor of the hotel and Yu-na suddenly scarping off in a taxi, it seems Ju-yeong intends to blow up the hotel. If this happens, it'll occur during the shareholder meeting, killing all the officials outright.
The group realize they need to evacuate the building and try to get them out. Unfortunately the shareholders don't believe them, until the lights all go out and gas sprays down from the ceiling.
The group do eventually manage to get out, thanks to Dong-ju throwing himself through a window and the group taking the emergency stairwell. However, they're not alone here, as Han-na manages to call in reinforcements, making Pan-yeol seem like a hero by saving all of Insung.
What happens with Ju-yeong?
He's also going to do the right thing and stand up to crime and corruption, declaring war on the city and, by extension, Ju-yeong himself.
However, it's not the police who find Ju-yeong first, it's the Yakuza. The Yakuza goons catch up to Ju-yeong down on the dock as he looks set to flee on a foreign boat. They beat him down until Jong-hyeon and Dong-ju arrive in the same warehouse and decide to take him in to custody.
After a fight with the Yakuza (and also Mr Baek and the scrabble of goons left outside) Baek is taken in for questioning while Dong-ju continues to get outsmarted by Ju-yeong, who jumps overboard and tries to drown himself.
Underwater though, Dong-ju handcuffs him and brings the guy to shore. I mean somehow they do this far away from the boat they just jumped off of but whatever. The most important thing is that Ju-yeong is captured.
How does Good Boy end?
In the aftermath of all this, Dong-ju does rehab to help his condition while Han-na is supportive of him the whole time.
Dong-ju shows up to see Ju-yeong and rubs it in that he's going back to work and has also had a promotion too. Ju-yeong points out that nothing will change now that he's behind bars and everything is still just as corrupt as it was before.
Dong-ju shrugs off his pessimism but that night it comes back to bite Ju-yeong, as a prison guard arrives and chokes him out.
As for the others, the team are celebrated for their achievements and lean into their accomplishments. Everybody seems to be doing ok, while Man-sik also finds out that his wife is pregnant too, hooray!
The Episode Review
So Good Boy bows out with a finale that really hammers home that this show has coasted by on the talents of its cast and choreography, rather than the writing. These episodes have been a complete mixed bag and now that the dust has settled, it's worth commenting on some of the liberties the writers have taken with the entire plot and pretty much all the characters here.
Dong-ju's persona began as a gung-ho, devil-may-care guy who throws himself into every situation without thinking. By the end, he's the exact same character. You'd think that something like CTE and Punch-drunk syndrome, (temporary blindness and blistering headaches notwithstanding) may have been enough to soften him out a bit but nope, he's the same guy he was at the start of the show.
In fact, the annoying thing about this arc is he's basically given some pills from the doctor and a bit of rehab and now he's right as rain. He's even got a promotion too! While I wouldn't call for his death, a little more humility around his condition would have benefited him tremendously.
We also don't have much follow-through with Jae-hong and his family life, juggling all these jobs for money and then… not needing to? Despite having one of the more interesting characters we could have exploded, Good Boy side-lines the big man for much of the show.
Han-na is just here as a sharpshooter and her character hasn't really developed either across these 16 episodes, despite being the main female lead.
However, this final episode does wrap up all the loose ends and explains a lot of the slipperiness that Ju-yeong has had all drama long. eeing his downfall has certainly been satisfying, even if it would have been good to see a bit more here.
Overall, Good Boy has been a complete waste of great talent. It's a show that's frustratingly missed the mark on more than one occasion, and no amount of excellent action or acting can paper over that fact.
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