The ending of Netflix’s The Scandal left many viewers with one question:
Why did Jo-won choose to die?
At first, the ending can feel sudden. Jo-won could have escaped. He could have chosen Hee-yeon. Instead, he walks into the water.
But his death makes more sense if we stop seeing it simply as the end of a love story.
Jo-won Was Never Truly Free
Throughout the drama, Jo-won appears free.
He meets women, ignores social expectations and behaves as if nobody can control him.
But emotionally, he never escapes Lady Cho.
Their relationship began long before Hee-yeon entered his life. Lady Cho repeatedly pulls him back through desire, jealousy and manipulation.
One Korean viewer described Jo-won’s death as the only way he could finally escape Lady Cho.
That interpretation changes the ending completely.
Jo-won does not die simply because he loses a woman.
He dies because he believes there is nowhere left for him to go.
Did Jo-won Really Love Hee-yeon?
This is where viewers disagree.
The 2003 film makes Jo-won’s feelings toward the widow easier to read as romantic love.
Netflix’s version is more ambiguous.
Some Korean viewers believe Jo-won sees something of himself in Hee-yeon.
Both are trapped by forces larger than themselves. Both carry wounds caused by other people’s expectations.
When Jo-won helps Hee-yeon, therefore, he may also be trying to save the younger version of himself that nobody saved.
That could explain why their relationship sometimes feels less like a conventional romance and more like two damaged people recognizing each other.
Lady Cho Is Still at the Center
The most important relationship in Jo-won’s life may ultimately remain his relationship with Lady Cho.
He loves her, resents her and cannot completely leave her.
Lady Cho, meanwhile, wants Jo-won close without abandoning the social position and world that protect her.
That contradiction traps them both.
Jo-won eventually understands that nothing will fundamentally change.
Lady Cho will not leave her world for him.
He cannot return to the person he once was.
And leaving with Hee-yeon would not erase everything that came before.
So Why Does He Walk Into the Water?
Jo-won’s final choice can therefore be read as more than heartbreak.
It is his final refusal to continue playing the role others have created for him.
He cannot win Lady Cho.
He cannot completely escape her.
And he cannot simply begin again as if the past never happened.
Death becomes the only exit he believes nobody else can control.
That is why the ending feels so bleak.
Jo-won spends much of The Scandal looking like the freest person in the story.
But in the end, he may actually be one of its most trapped characters.
His final act is terrible precisely because it may be the first choice he believes is entirely his own.
Jo-won’s final decision raises a question that cannot be answered by his tragic ending alone: did his feelings for Hee-yeon represent genuine love, guilt, or a desperate attempt to escape the life he had been living? Understanding their relationship may offer another perspective on his fate. Explore whether Jo-won truly loved Hee-yeon in The Scandal for a deeper examination of the emotions behind his final choice.