When The Phone Rings Ending Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for When the Phone Rings.The final episode of Netflix's When the Phone Rings doesn't feature a cliffhanger, but instead ends with every character's story wrapped up. WithWhen the Phone Rings' cast led by Yoo Yeon-seok and Chae Soo-bin, the series follows a married couple whose lives change after one of them is kidnapped. Seeing as most of the mysteries are solved in the previous episodes of the show, the series finale serves as a conclusion to Hee-joo's (Chae) and Sa-eon's (Yoo) story, as opposed to answering questions or setting up a second season.

When the Phone Rings episode 12 sees Hee-joo in despair after the sudden disappearance of her husband. Elsewhere, Sa-eon left Korea after he discovered the part his father had played in one of the worst things that had befallen the Hong family. Hee-joo, however, doesn't care about the past and just wants a life with the love of her life, so the couple reunites at the end of the series, with promises of being together forever.

Why Baek Sa-eon Disappeared At The End Of When The Phone Rings

Sa-eon Left Hee-joo After She Recovered

After frantically searching for Hee-joo for days, Sa-eon finally finds her as she is trying to escape her kidnapper. However, the couple doesn't get a clean break since the real Sa-eon is still on a mission to ruin the man who took his place. In a last-ditch effort to make Sa-eon suffer, the kidnapper (Park Jae-yoon) decides not to kill him but instead whispers something in his ear that makes the presidential spokesperson leave his life and wife behind.

Hee-joo had a younger brother who died in the accident that resulted in In-ah (Han Jae-yi) becoming deaf and Hee-joo's mother tormenting her until she became selectively mute. However, it turns out that this wasn't an accident after all, but something that Chairman Baek Jang-ho (Jung Dong-hwan) orchestrated when Hee-joo's brother saw the real Sa-eon, whom he was keeping hidden. Knowing that if Sa-eon were to find out that his father was the one behind Hee-joo's brother's death he would be destabilized, the kidnapper revealed the truth to him.

As a way of punishing himself for the pain that Hee-joo went through because of his father, Sa-eon disappeared from his public and personal life and went to Argan. Staying away from Hee-joo was the only way that Sa-eon could really know pain because she was the person who meant everything to him. But he didn't account for the fact that his wife wouldn't just let him live in self-inflicted misery. She follows him to Argan and the couple goes back home together.

Who Was Behind The Orphans' Murders In When The Phone Rings

Baek Jang-ho Covered Up The Truth About Who Killed The Orphans

Other than the mystery about who the mastermind behind Hee-joo's kidnapping is, When the Phone Rings has another interesting subplot that involves orphans who disappeared. When the real Sa-eon was a child, he had sociopathic tendencies. At first, the real Sa-eon would mutilate fish, then moved on to cats, and eventually started killing children. The children were the kids who stayed at the orphanage Sang-woo (Heo Nam-jun) grew up in. Because of his ties to the orphanage and the dead children, Sang-woo tirelessly worked towards unraveling the mystery of who was behind the murder of his friends.

Every time the real Sa-eon killed a child, his grandfather would clean up his mess. He hired Jung Sang-hoon, the man who raised Sa-eon, the presidential spokesperson, to dispose of the bodies. But the chairman couldn't take what his grandchild was doing.So he took him to the lake and tried to drown him, but the real Sa-eon survived, and when he recovered his memories, started going after the man Jang-ho chose as his replacement.

What Happens To Park Do-jae In When The Phone Rings’ Finale

Park Do-jae Was Working With The Real Sa-eon

Sa-eon had no shortage of people who wanted to make him suffer, but perhaps the most surprising one was Park Do-jae (Choi Woo-jin), someone Sa-eon trusted and confided in. One of the children that the real Sa-eon killed was Do-jae's twin brother. When he saw the hatred that the kidnapper had for Sa-eon, Do-jae teamed up with him, not knowing that he is actually the one behind his brother's death. Do-jae not only pushes Hee-joo off a cliff, but spent years plotting how he would torture Sa-eon.

Following the revelation that he was the real Sa-eon's accomplice, Do-jae was arrested by the police. Despite their past relationship, Sa-eon refuses to forgive Do-jae and wants him to be punished for hurting Hee-joo. Do-jae is arrested for his hand in Hee-joo's kidnapping, but after serving his sentence, he goes back to working for Sa-eon. While it's shocking that Sa-eon then forgives Do-jae, it shows that he saw where the latter was coming from because he was only trying to punish the person who took his brother away from him.

What Happens To Shim Kyu-jin At The End Of When The Phone Rings

Shim Kyu-jin Despised Her Father-In-Law

Before Jang-ho died, he revealed to Shim Kyu-jin (Chu Sang-mi) that he killed her son. Enraged by what her father-in-law has done, Kyu-jin smothers him with a pillow. After spending two decades mourning her son, Kyu-jin and the real Sa-eon reunite, but instead of letting him roam around freely, she keeps him locked up as a way of protecting him. When Kyu-jin discovered that her son is still alive, she wanted to punish Sa-eon because he had enjoyed all the privileges that should have been the real Sa-eon's.

She ends up kidnapping Hee-joo, but Sa-eon deduces that she's the only one who could know where his wife is. Due to her status as the wife of the future president, it isn't possible for the police to obtain a search warrant. Because of this, Sa-eon has no choice but to use a video that shows Kyu-jin killing her father-in-law with the hope that it will help him find his wife. Kyu-jin is convicted of murder, but she asks for the death penalty after discovering that her son has been killed.

Do Baek Sa-eon And Hong Hee-joo Get Together For Good?

Sa-eon & Hee-joo Live Happily Ever After

When Sa-eon and Hee-joo got married, they were practically two strangers living in the same house. But their relationship takes a turn when Hee-joo is kidnapped. Following her escape from the kidnapper, Hee-joo takes his phone so she can blackmail Sa-eon into divorcing her because he treated her like she was invisible from the time she became his wife. The phone calls ended up having the opposite effect. Instead of Sa-eon divorcing her, he decided to become a better husband.

Hee-joo and Sa-eon's marriage seems steady up to the point of her last kidnapping, so Sa-eon's disappearance after rescuing Hee-joo is a bit surprising. Instead of waiting for her husband to come to her, Hee-joo tracks him down and follows him to Argan, where the couple reconciles. After years of taking the time they had together for granted, Hee-joo and Sa-eon remarry for good this time,and start living the ordinary life that they had always dreamed about.

What When The Phone Rings' Finale Really Means

When The Phone Rings Didn't End On A Cliffhanger

The final episode of When the Phone Rings doesn't leave any questions unanswered. All the characters in the series are given fitting endings. Because of how well tied up the finale is, the chances of the Netflix K-drama getting a second season are slim. The whole point of When the Phone Rings is Sa-eon and Hee-joo establishing a loving relationship, which they do, and for the antagonists to be punished, which they are. The conclusion of When the Phone Rings leaves little to no room for the continuation of the show.