Netflix Black Knight ending explained: Does 5-8 overthrow the Cheonmyeong Group?

The wait is finally over. Black Knight is available to stream on Netflix, and people can now binge-watch the series to their heart’s content. This show is filled with tons of action-packed sequences that’ll leave your jaw dropped. Overall, it should be on everyone’s watchlist, and there’s just no arguing that.

Black Knight is a Korean sci-fi series written and directed by Cho Ui-seok. Additionally, it was adapted from the webtoon Delivery Knight by Lee Yoon-gyun.

The show is set in a severely polluted and dystopian Korea, where survivors rely on respirators to breathe and deliverymen to provide them with oxygen and other necessities. 5-8, a well-respected deliveryman works to overthrow the crooked social hierarchy created by the powerful Cheonmyeong Group. A refugee boy by the name of Sa-wol hopes to one day become a deliveryman. He and Seol-ah, a major at the Defense Intelligence Command, join 5-8 on his mission to upend the unfair social order.

So, how does the first season end? If you haven’t watched the Korean series yet, you might want to click off this article because we’re about to discuss the ending. But make sure to come back because we break down what happened, and you’ll need some clarification after that explosive ending!

Spoilers from Black Knight ahead!

Black Knight ending: Does 5-8 overthrow the Cheonmyeong Group?

Yes! 5-8, along with the help of other deliverymen, Sa-wol, and Seol-ah, put an end to Ryu Seok and his inhumane plan to rid the world of all refugees. After Sa-wol’s grandpa hands over a map to the Core District, 5-8 and Co make their way there to take down Ryu Seok. First, they start killing all of the guards surrounding the Core District once they arrive. Then, they make their way inside and start shooting at all the guards they come in contact with.

Meanwhile, Ryu Seok is receiving a blood transfusion from Sa-wol in a secret location in the Core District. His guards show him live video footage of 5-8 and the other deliverymen downstairs. All of the kidnapped children are in incubators at the secret location. 5-8 finds where Ryu Seok is hiding while the other deliverymen and Seol-ah continue clearing out the Core District. However, Ryu Seok and his guards leave to go to another room and take an unconscious Sa-wol with them before 5-8 can get there.

Seol-ah finds the room where the president and the minister of defense are having a meeting and arrests the minister of defense for treason. Ryu Seok realizes that things aren’t going to end well for him, so he increases the intensity of the air core so that it will go into overload and ultimately blow up the entire building. A warning repeatedly goes off on the intercom, and all of the citizens of the Core District immediately start evacuating the premises.

5-8 finds where Ryu Seok is, and they have their final showdown. He shoots Ryu Seok in the chest and then in the head, ultimately killing him. Then, he takes Sa-wol and they leave the building. Elsewhere in the building, the deliverymen rescue the kidnapped children and quickly leave. Once everyone has evacuated, the building blows up with a dead Ryu Seok still inside.

The Cheonmyeong Group is no more. Construction on District A is complete, and refugees are the first to be moved in. There’s no longer a social hierarchy separating the population into refugee, general, special, and core. Everyone is equal. Lastly, the government is working steadily to improve the oxygen supply system, and the air quality is getting better.

Does Sa-wol become a Black Knight?

Yes, Sa-wol’s dream of becoming a deliveryman comes true. After Ryu Seok indirectly kills 5-7, he sets up an intense tournament to find a deliveryman replacement. Sa-wol enters the tournament and makes it through all the rigorous challenges to emerge as the winner.

Who dies in Black Knight?

Here are all of the characters who died in the sci-fi series:

• Seul-ah – She dies in episode 1. Mysterious men rush into her house in the General District and shoot her.
• Useless – He dies in episode 6. After Ryu Seok announces that the deliverymen must be killed, a shootout occurs where the physical examinations are happening in the refugee district. Useless sees Sa-wol running toward him and tries to tell him to stop, but a guard shoots him in the back.
• Chairman Ryu – He dies in episode 6. The minister of defense shoots him in the chest.
• Director Oh – He dies in episode 6. He’s shot by one of the deliverymen.
• Ryu Seok – He dies in episode 6. He’s shot by 5-8 and is left for dead in a building in the Core District. The building blows up because the air core becomes overloaded.
• 5-7 – He dies in episode 2. Ryu Seok activates the chip in his head, which blows up his brain.

One of the tattooed men who worked for Ryu Seok and was a part of the attack on Seul-ah and Sa-wol dies in episode 4. After Seol-ah and other soldiers catch him, he uses a device to activate the chip in his head to kill himself.

Why was Ryu Seok kidnapping children?

Ryu Seok had a terminal illness and desperately wanted a cure, so he basically hired people to kidnap kids from the General District to experiment on them. He seemingly found a cure through Sa-wol.

When he found out that Sa-wol was a mutant, he used some of his blood on a citizen who had suffered from the same illness, and the citizen was cured of his ailment. So, Ryu Seok injected some of Sa-wol’s blood into his bloodstream, hoping he’d be cured. It looked like Sa-wol’s mutant blood might’ve worked because after Ryu Seok is shot in the head by 5-8, he moves his hand, signaling that he’s still alive. But then the building he’s in blows up, so it’s unclear if he survived or actually died. It’s never addressed.

Black Knight is streaming now on Netflix.