W Episode 16 Recap Final

W Episode 16 Recap Final

Oh Yeon-joo and Kang Cheol have a heart to heart about how she wants the comic W to end. For her to get back to the real world to live a happy life, Kang Cheol or Oh Seong-moo will need to be gone. Whether it's from death or disappearing because their character is no longer relevant to the comic. One character represents a happy ending and the other will be a sad ending. That's why both can't coexist by her side. Yeon-joo puts their rings back on and disregards his idea of removing her from his family line. She tells him that she can't picture life without the three of them together so she chooses to live in W forever. Kang Cheol explains to her that living in W is not possible because he's a criminal that'll be put in prison and Seong-moo will also be charged for murder. They would spend the rest of their lives in a prison visitation room and that's no way to live. She mentions that good behavior in prison might get them released earlier. Yeon-joo cries accepting the fact that she'd rather live that way than have them die right now.

Kang Cheol lets Yeon-joo know that he needs to go rescue Seo Do-yoon from Assemblyman Han Cheol-ho. He gets to the meetup location to see Do-yoon covered in blood and barely conscious. Two of Kang Cheol's guards carry Do-yoon into their car to take him to the hospital. Kang Cheol stays to talk to Assemblyman Han alone even though the place is filled with his bodyguards. Kang Cheol tells him he doesn't have the tablet, but that this better be the last time he messes with his people. He leaves him a copy of the video evidence from the time he captured Kang Cheol and beat him. With that evidence alone, his career and life will be over.

As Kang Cheol is about to walk away, he gets shot right in the shoulder. Assemblyman Han tells him that drugged up Do-yoon mentioned something about there being two worlds and that it would explain his encounter with Oh Seong-moo in the hospital while carrying the tablet. It all makes sense why someone like Kang Cheol, who can transport here and there has been sitting quietly in prison for the past year. Because it is the final chapter and the chapter must end with Kang Cheol dying. Only then will Assemblyman Han be able to experience the other world again. Right before Assemblyman Han could shoot him a second time, Kang Cheol kicks up a chair at him and fights for the gun. He knocks him out and shoots the bodyguards.

Seo Do-yoon calls Yeon-joo asking for Kang Cheol's location since they saw him running off. Kang Cheol finally manages to call Yeon-joo and asks her to come get him because he ran out of gas and has a hard time seeing right now. She draws herself a car and heads straight to the bus stop he mentioned. He calls her a second time asking her where she is because he's still waiting. Coughs of blood start to overtake their conversation as she pleas for him to stay conscious. His head drops and the phone hits the ground. She spots him sitting on the ground of the bus stop and tries to run across the street to reach him. Kang Cheol looks up at her one time and smiles right before his whole body goes limp and hits the concrete floor. A bus drives past her and as she was steps away from his body, he disappears. She's back in the real world and the comic has ended. She's left sitting on the street crying as she mourns her husband's death.

After a 7 year run of the popular webtoon W, it finishes on a sad ending. The protagonist Kang Cheol dies and the antagonist Assemblyman Han gets away with everything. Reporters and news stations were constantly searching for cartoonist Oh Seong-moo with questions regarding the ending, but he was nowhere to be found. Yeon-joo struggled to adapt to a life where her husband and dad were both gone. Even the tablet disappeared as soon as the comic concluded so there was no way for her to attempt to alter it.

A week passed by as Yeon-joo spent nights sitting in the rain at the bus stop where her husband died. One night as she was about to faint, a car pulls up and a man walks over to her. She then wakes up finding herself lying in bed next to somebody holding her hand. As she turns over, she couldn't believe her eyes. It was Kang Cheol with his arms wrapped around her. She couldn't help, but tear up from pure happiness. He explained to her that he's been in prison for the past 2 years in W, but he's glad that it has only been a week's worth of time in this world. He was worried that their times might have synced and she was suffering for 2 years alone too.

What readers couldn't see past the sad ending in W was that it wasn't a sad ending. The comic ended cutting out the parts where characters were doing things that didn't fit their predetermined roles. It ended at the bus stop right before Kang Cheol died, but what happened next was Do-yoon arrived to save him. Seong-moo was able to stay in his right mind long enough to hear that Assemblyman Han shot Kang Cheol. He calls him as the creator of W and asks him what kind of presidential candidate shoots a civilian. Because he did something his character would have never done, it allowed Seong-moo to alter the comic. He draws a gun into Assemblyman Han's hand and has him hold it up to his head. A suicide note apologizing for all his crimes alongside the flash drive of the video of him kidnapping and shooting Kang Cheol appears in front of him. The letter apologizes for all of his actions including fabricating evidence and hiring gangsters to kill Kang Cheol. With that, he takes his own life.

Seong-moo gets into a car and heads to find Yeon-joo at the bus stop so he can see his daughter one last time before fading away. With the antagonist dead, he knew he didn't have much time before the comic deemed him an unnecessary character. The comic readers didn't get to see any of the scenes with Seong-moo because he was also an antagonist helping the protagonist. These scenes were edited out to fit the comics storyline. He says "I love you" to his daughter from a distance as he watches her from inside his car. With that bit of closure, he completely disappears into thin air.

Since Kang Cheol was cleared of murder, he served 2 years in prison for smaller crimes. Yoon So-hee came back to Seoul and visited him while he was in prison. She apologized for cutting off ties, but he complimented her for doing so. Her ability to live her own life without him in it showed her growth as a person. While in prison, Do-yoon visited Kang Cheol and gave him a letter and a photo left behind for him from Seong-moo. The letter lists the irony of how he will now be forever in W while Kang Cheol will live in the real world. He encourages Kang Cheol to continue living life the way he wants and to fight his predetermined destiny now that he's a real person completely free from set roles. He wishes the best for him and his daughter, but to tell her that her dad's still alive in W to prevent her from being sad.

Kang Cheol and Yeon-joo finally get to have their happy ending. With the comic officially completed, they no longer have to stand at the crossroads of life or death. Even if their real-life story might be a bit boring or ordinary, hopefully, they'll enjoy the next fifty years together.