Breaking Down the Explosive Ending of K-Drama Good Boy
Good Boy, an action police dramedy about a group of former Korean Olympians who become cops, was one of the most highly-anticipated K-dramas of the year. Starring Park Bo-gum (When Life Gives You Tangerines) as boxer Yoon Dong-ju and with the The Good Bad Mother director Shim Na-yeon behind the camera, the drama was poised to be one of 2025’s big hits.
While Good Boy has done well domestically on Korean broadcaster JTBC and internationally on Amazon Prime Video (where it has been in the streamer’s Global Top Ten for its entire run), narratively, the cop drama never quite found its rhythm. The series started its action intensity high, with explosions, fist fights, hit-and-run accidents, and department moles in the first episode, but didn’t have anywhere to go from there. The show revealed its main villain, corrupt customs officer Min Ju-yeong (Oh Jung-se) from the jump, robbing the detective work done by the Special Criminal Investigation Team (SCIT) of most of its suspense and other character backstories, such as the Olympic origins of the main characters, never paid off outside of the action scenes. The show’s central romance—between Dong-ju and former shooting prodigy Ji Han-na (Kim So-hyun)—felt more obligatory than inspired.
At 16 episodes, Good Boy spent most of its season in a redundant cat-and-mouse cycle that didn’t resolve itself until season’s end. But at least we got some killer fight sequences along the way. The show was at its best when it was letting Dong-ju, Han-na, and the rest of their team—including fencer Kim Jong-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi), wrestler Go Man-sik (Heo Sung-tae), and discus thrower Shin Jae-hong (Tae Won-seok)—use their very specific skillsets in elaborate, sometimes gloriously absurd fight sequences.
This was the case in the final episode, titled “We Are the Champions,” which sees the SCIT squad finally taking down Ju-yeong for good. Let’s break down the explosive ending of Good Boy.
Ju-yeong’s villainous backstory and present
Like most of the characters in Good Boy, villain Ju-yeong doesn’t get a backstory that complexifies his actions. Prior to becoming the evil mastermind controlling Insung City, he was just a part-time customs officer. When he is recruited by Oh Dollar, the gangster who ran organized crime in Insung before Ju-yeong, he quickly turns corrupt, shamelessly doing whatever he needs to do to make the most money.
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Later, when he was tasked with digitizing reams of customs documents, he came upon a cache of files proving corruption from some of Insung’s most powerful business leaders and officials. Rather than report the misdeeds, Ju-yeong decides to use them. He bribes the people incriminated in the documents, and then uses his influence to take out any of the criminal organization competitors in the city—including his gangster mentor, Oh Dollar.
Twenty years later, when Good Boy is primarily set, Ju-yeong’s control of the city reaches into its highest echelons. He uses his power to sell Candy, a highly addictive drug, with criminals-with-more-of-a-conscience Leo (Ko Jun) and Drug Mom, aka Kim Yeon-ha (Lee Ho-jung), as minion-partners.
Ju-yeong tries to burn it all down
Heading into the Good Boy series finale, the SCIT team has Ju-yeong on the ropes. Unable to smuggle shipments of Candy out of the city, Ju-yeong’s deal with the yakuza falls through. The Japanese criminal organization puts a hit out on Ju-yeong, and gangsters flock to the city to take him out.
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Furious, Ju-yeong plans to destroy the city, along with all of his high-profile accomplices. First, he sends out four trucks armed with explosives. They detonate, sending the city into a blackout. The Insung Police are able to bring things back under control, when Ju-yeong strikes again. He lures the city’s officials to his hotel in downtown Insung. He’s rigged the sprinkler system to emit a toxic chemical that also ignites when it comes in contact with water.
Dong-ju and the rest of the SCIT team are able to stop anyone from dying, but Ju-yeong’s girlfriend, a fellow customs officer named Kim Yu-na, slips away in the process. She meets Ju-yeong at the docks, thinking they are going to escape the country together. However, he has just been using her as a distraction. He has a truck standing by, ready to take her out as she walks across the street. Though she seems to survive, Ju-yeong doesn’t care either way. He only cares about his money, and himself.
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Dong-ju finally takes Ju-yeong down
Before Ju-yeong can get onto a boat, he is intercepted by the yakuza. They are trying to kill him when Dong-ju and Jong-hyeon arrive. Desperate to arrest Ju-yeong and have him face a trial for his crimes, they are put in the ironic situation of having to protect Ju-yeong. He slips away in the chaos, and Dong-ju eventually catches up with him on the rooftop deck of a nearby ferry.
“What kind of life have you lived that you kill someone like it’s nothing?” Dong-ju asks Ju-yeong. When Ju-yeong half-heartedly mentions the early deaths of his parents, Dong-ju doesn’t have any sympathy. He is an orphan, too. “A scumbag like you doesn’t get to make excuses,” he says, proceeding to beat Ju-yeong into submission. While the series presents it as justice or perhaps Dong-ju’s job, it feels far more like brutal, unrestrained vengeance.
Ju-yeong manages to throw himself over the edge of the boat into the water below. He would rather die in the water than let Dong-ju win. A determined Dong-ju follows, handcuffing himself to Ju-yeong and dragging him to shore. The rest of the SCIT team is proudly waiting, and Ju-yeong is brought to jail.
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Dong-ju somehow avoids permanent brain damage
Forget law enforcement outcomes—the big question heading into the Good Boy finale was: will Dong-ju suffer permanent brain damage from the beatings he took in literally every episode of this series? At the end of Episode 14, Dong-ju lost his vision, going “punch-drunk” following a confrontation with his former coach turned Ju-yeong’s minion Oh Jong-gu (Jung Man-sik). Jong-hyeon finds him, and convinces him to go to the hospital and actually get sustained treatment.
After that, there is a team effort to keep him away from the action. Unfortunately, Dong-ju has never met a fist he didn’t think it was a good idea to throw his head against. He gets in several more fights before the series’ end, and also is in close proximity to several massive explosions. Absurdly, Dong-ju finishes the series without permanent injury. In the final episode, we see him telling Han-na that his physical therapy is working, implying he has recovered completely.
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Does Ju-yeong die?
After Ju-yeong’s arrest, Dong-ju visits him in jail. Ju-yeong, who still has dirt on men in high places, doesn’t think he will be in jail for much longer. Dong-ju doesn’t seem particularly worried.
That night, a man dressed as a guard comes into Ju-yeong’s cell and chokes him. We don’t see Ju-yeong die, leaving the door open for a second season with the villain back out on the streets. We also don’t see the identity of the choker— could it be one of the “good” guys, taking justice into their own hands?
Does Good Boy have a happy ending?
The SCIT team are recognized as heroes, awarded medals for their work apprehending Ju-yeong. Dong-ju, who has reunited with his surrogate mom Jung Mi-ja (Seo Jung-yeon) and is now in a relationship with longtime crush Han-na, seems very happy.
Han-na is training to be part of the Special Operation Unit, and is in a good place with her mom. Jong-hyeon has decided to try professional fencing again. Jae-hong is happy with his wife and children. Man-sik discovers his wife didn’t cheat on him, but rather his vasectomy failed—he is going to be a father again!
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The show ends with a final shot of Dong-ju, running on Haeundae Beach as the sunsets. He is in his Team Korea jacket, with a big smile on his face. For Dong-ju, it is definitely a happy ending.
The search for Dezi Freeman continues as Porepunkah reckons with sovereign citizen ideology
By Ben Butler, Danny Tran, Kate Ashton and Danielle Bonica
Sat 30 AugSaturday 30 August
In short:
People who know alleged police killer Dezi Freeman say he is a religious man who also possesses a frightening firearms arsenal.
Mr Freeman has been on the run since Tuesday after he allegedly shot dead two police officers and injured a third at a Porepunkah property.
What’s next?
Locals in the nearby tourist town of Bright have shared mixed reactions to the alleged beliefs of Mr Freeman.
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It was at the end of a track — surrounded by cold, dense bushland rising above a small Victorian town — where Dezi Freeman’s years of anger and anti-government conspiracy theories boiled over.
To quote his local priest, who was aware of some of his beliefs after seeing him at church nearly every Sunday, Mr Freeman “absolutely cracked”.
Allegedly armed with a homemade shotgun and other firearms, Mr Freeman is suspected to have shot dead police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart — and wounded a third — as they were serving a warrant at the Porepunkah property in the state’s alpine region on Tuesday, sparking an unprecedented manhunt.
As 450 police officers scour rugged and now snow-covered terrain for the experienced bushman, Mr Freeman’s actions have revealed a community fraying over anti-authoritarian ideology taken to its unthinkable extreme.
The prolonged search has prompted speculation that the heavily armed fugitive might not get out of the bush alive.
“After doing what he’s done already, I’d say he will … try and make himself a martyr,” one former special operations police officer tells the ABC.
However this story might end, Mr Freeman’s alleged attack on police has put the focus on a set of fractured beliefs festering not only in the town of Porepunkah, but in communities like it across the country.
A church-going, obsessive, anti-authoritarian
According to those who know him, Mr Freeman is a religious man who also possesses a frightening firearms arsenal.
He regularly took his kids fishing and taught friends how to dive, but posted online that the “only good cop is a dead cop” and urged the “incineration” of police, labelling them the “new Gestapo”.
With his family, he attended mass regularly at a Catholic church, Our Lady of the Snows, perched on a hillside on the outskirts of the nearby tourist town of Bright.
The local priest, Father Tony Shallue, says that after a statue at the church was vandalised, Mr Freeman was the one who helped to fix it.
“I knew he was a bit anti-authority, but a lot of people are,” says Fr Shallue.
“But I’ve never encountered him as someone who would do that. It’s a shock.”
He’s thinking of cancelling mass on Sunday, as “you’ve got to think of people’s safety”.
Most in the regional community share Fr Shallue’s horror over the alleged murder of two serving police officers.
But Mr Freeman’s ideology was not formed in a vacuum.
His views — though not his alleged actions — continue to be supported by some in the community who spoke to the ABC, demonstrating the reach of sovereign citizen beliefs in society, even in a tiny town like Porepunkah.
At home in the High Country
For Mr Freeman, who was previously known as Desmond Filby, the dense hills, mountains and valleys surrounding Porepunkah are home.
According to an old friend who has known him for decades, Mr Freeman struggled to hold down a job and has been on a disability pension since the early 2000s.
He moved around the region, and previously lived at one address down the end of Buffalo Creek Road in nearby Myrtleford.
Locals are keen to point out that the address is just over a ridge through the Mt Buffalo National Park from Porepunkah — a tough trek for most people but an easy walk for an experienced bushman like Mr Freeman.
The road becomes dirt and ends at a sign proclaiming “no shooting”, telling would-be visitors that beyond the open gate is private property.
This area is littered with similar signs warning off unauthorised visitors.
Mr Freeman would tear down signs like these, according to former neighbour Loretta Quinn.
She says he would fly his drone over her land constantly, cut locks off her gates and generally treat her property like “his extended playground”.
A history of disputes with neighbours and local authorities
Mr Freeman believed he had a right to be on her property and would not accept that it was not public land, she says.
The dispute widened to include the local council, according to documents he filed with the Victorian Supreme Court last year.
It eventually got so out of hand Ms Quinn contacted police and took out an intervention order.
She says that didn’t really work, with his extreme views apparently challenging for police to handle.
He would also constantly be filming — always wearing a body camera, she says — and as his neighbour, she always felt watched.
When the news broke that he was accused of shooting two police officers, Ms Quinn felt a familiar sense of panic.
“I was terrified of him,” she says.
But not everyone was.
Mr Freeman had friends and supporters
Protected from the rain by a well-used Drizabone and a bushman’s hat, Stephen Mallett is an ex-bikie who knows Mr Freeman from a Facebook group dedicated to preparing for the apocalypse.
Mr Mallett makes and sells wooden knives in a local shop at Bright, which is how the ABC managed to get in touch.
Walking alongside his two wolfhounds, Georgie Whitesocks and Tucker Goldenheart, Mr Mallett also wants to make it clear he does not personally identify as a sovereign citizen — a term he doesn’t like.
“‘Sovereign citizen’, they’re using that as a name now to vilify people,” he says.
While it is difficult to define the exact views held by people who associate with sovereign citizen beliefs, there is a tendency to reject widely accepted laws and government power.
No matter how he identifies, Mr Mallett admits he has a similar way of thinking to people like Mr Freeman.
“The nutters are going to jump on this, but a nutter he wasn’t,” he says.
Previous run-ins with local police
From the outset, Mr Mallett says Mr Freeman did the wrong thing by allegedly killing two officers. But he claims Mr Freeman is the victim of a long campaign of persecution at the hands of Victoria Police.
“They were going for him, for sure,” he says.
The examples Mr Mallett gives for Mr Freeman’s persecution include his arrest outside the Myrtleford courthouse during a 2021 demonstration following a failed private prosecution of then-premier Daniel Andrews for treason and fraud.
In documents filed with the court, a Bright chiropractor who brought the charges said that Mr Andrews had committed treason by removing the queen’s name from official documents and replacing it with the state of Victoria.
The court hearing descended into chaos with participants, who joined by video link, showing pictures of their chickens and doctored images of Mr Andrews as a dictator, according to multiple media reports.
According to those who know Mr Freeman, the episode was a key moment that solidified his attitude towards police and the authority of the state.
It was followed by police suspending Mr Freeman’s drivers license after he was stopped for speeding and refused to take a drug test, leading to the loss of two of his cars, Mr Mallett says.
Last year, the suspected killer complained to the Supreme Court that he had his firearms licence cancelled and lost membership to his gun club.
Mr Mallett also does not like police, nor does he believe in select hate crime laws.
He loathes that police, as he puts it, “can dress in black with their jackboots and put roadblocks on the side of the road and put dogs on people,” while a physical gesture like a Nazi salute is a crime.
Friend recalls Mr Freeman’s ‘arsenal’ of weapons
While 10 officers arrived at his Porepunkah home on Tuesday, none were part of the heavily armed special operations group.
Instead, they were there to execute a search warrant over alleged historical child sex offences.
But Mr Freeman was armed. He had been for years, even after losing his gun licence.
Mick, who requested to be identified only by his first name, is an old friend of Mr Freeman’s who pulls off the highway to talk to the ABC.
He says he was once shown part of Mr Freeman’s “arsenal” of weapons.
“He had high-powered rifles and he had military rifles,” he says.
“He has got stuff that you wouldn’t even dream about. I saw it with my own eyes, years ago.”
Mick says Mr Freeman had a firing range “up in the bush” where he would practise target shooting.
“He was a bloody good shot,” Mick says. “Every shot counts.”
‘Modern-day Rambo’ that won’t surrender, friend says
On Thursday, police called for Mr Freeman’s surrender, and re-iterated that the situation could be managed safely.
But Mick also says he does not believe Mr Freeman will surrender.
He tells the ABC that Mr Freeman would sometimes disappear into the bush for a couple of days at a time and could carry two freshly killed deer on his back.
“He’s a modern-day Rambo,” he says. “There’s not a chance of getting him alive.”
Mr Freeman’s former neighbour, Ms Quinn, agrees.
“I think it’ll be a Ned Kelly scene,” she says
“I just hope no-one else gets hurt now. I don’t know how they’re going to stop him.”
As the former police special operations officer tells the ABC, in the dense bushland and freezing conditions, Mr Freeman has the “home ground advantage”.
But he says police are trained for this scenario and “they’re working bloody hard”.
Quiet towns overwhelmed by police presence
While the search for Mr Freeman continues, the police presence on the roads around Bright and Porepunkah is overwhelming.
Convoys of police cars travel at speed down the mountain roads while overhead helicopters circle the national park.
Porepunkah, home to just over 1,000 people, is eerily quiet when the ABC visits. At one point, the only people on the streets are a couple walking their dogs and a TV crew.
But Porepunkah and Bright make up a small community where even people who appear to be outsiders are connected.
Mr Freeman’s wife, Mali, played at local venues as part of a duo with another High Country musician. She was arrested and interviewed by police before being released without charge on Thursday night.
And the wife of the Bright chiropractor who brought treason charges against the former premier — prompting the demonstration for which Mr Freeman was subsequently arrested — works at a winery in Porepunkah from where Victoria Police is staging its search.
Police search the talk of neighbouring town Bright
Meanwhile, Bright is abuzz with talk of the hunt for Mr Freeman. Police are everywhere. Police cars whiz by every few minutes and hungry officers recharge in the cafes and bakeries.
A hiker speaks into his phone, loudly telling whoever is on the other end — and anyone else within earshot — that he doesn’t think police will be able to find Mr Freeman.
In one shop, the man behind the counter tells the ABC how he himself has explored the mines that are scattered across the mountainside.
You can go in as deep as 200 metres and it’s a toasty 20 degrees inside, he says — very different from the bitter single-digit temperatures outside at night.
But underneath the surface, the shootings have reopened divisions in the community between people whose families have lived here for generations and those who have moved here more recently to get away from the mainstream.
In the local Bright Facebook group, a furious debate has erupted after one local posted: “Sorry, Sovereign Citizens aren’t welcome here.”
The 141-post thread soon devolved into free-flowing insults, as people who sympathise with some of Mr Freeman’s political beliefs clashed with those who do not.
Fr Shallue hadn’t heard of sovereign citizens before the shootings, but he says he now understands it as “a terrible” aspect of our society.
“People think this stuff happens in the city, but you’ve got some pretty weird segments of society gathering in the country,” he says.
“I would say the sad thing is these sort of groups just feed into people’s pre-existing problems,” he says.
“They just feed the paranoia. It’s so disturbing.”
