If there’s one message a show about helping ghosts move onto the afterlife is especially poised to deliver, it’s that endings and goodbyes will come, but “tomorrow” likely won’t. Still, The Midnight Studio has thus far taken a more optimistic approach in its delivery, and this final episode is no different. It may be time to say goodbye, but every ending is really just a new beginning.
EPISODE 16
The episode begins with a quick flash-forward to one year after Ki-joo attempts to retrace Ki-won’s footsteps and return the Midnight Studio camera to the netherworld once and for all. In this near-future, Bom is thriving as an attorney, and only living customers enter the joint law office/photo studio hoping to get their photo taken. But Bom sadly turns them away: there’s no photographer here, because Ki-joo never came back.
So what happened to him? To answer that, we jump back to ten days before the predicted black moon that will open the gate to the netherworld. When Ki-joo tells Bom his plan, she straight-up rejects it. Surely there must be another way to save her from the dead-at-35 curse! Ki-joo doesn’t disagree, per se, but they’re out of time for trying other options: the next black moon won’t occur until after her 35th birthday, so it’s now or never. Bom’s not happy about it, but Ki-joo is prepared to do this even without her blessing — and even if she threatens never to see or speak to him again — so she relents. If he insists on going, she’ll be here waiting on his return.
Thankfully, Ji-won’s collapse wasn’t cancer-related; after a short hospital visit, she’s back on her feet and rushing back into work. But Sung-ho is done watching her boss, CHIEF KIM (Han Sang-jin), take advantage of her. He possesses each of Chief Kim’s family members in turn, using their mouths to voice his own grievances.
Sung-ho carries the possession train on into the office, where Chief Kim starts attacking random employees, thinking they’ll be the next to channel his ghostly accuser. Finally, Sung-ho possesses Chief Kim himself and has him shout apologies to the entire workplace. Ji-won recognizes Sung-ho’s handiwork immediately, and the two relocate to a private staircase (sans Chief Kim), where Ji-won assures Sung-ho she’ll take better care of her health and work-life balance from now on. They exchange I love yous, and though it’s edited to look like Ji-won can hear him, I can’t help thinking it must actually feel as one-sided as the high-five Sung-ho failed to complete just a few minutes ago.
On the day of the black moon, Ki-joo takes the camera and sets out, promising to return by sunrise. Since the camera’s absence leaves Bom extra vulnerable to nefarious spirits, Sung-ho and Ji-won help her secure the Midnight Studio and prepare to defend it — and Bom — from any attack. Despite their best efforts, however, a horde of ghosts breach the doors that night, forcing Bom, Sung-ho, and Ji-won to flee. They’re only after Bom, though, so she sends the other two off in a taxi and draws the ghosts away down an alley, where she’s quickly overpowered, hoping against hope that Ki-joo can successfully return the camera before the ghosts finish her off.
Meanwhile, Ki-joo is beset by his own pack of murderous ghosts trying — and nearly succeeding — to wrest the camera away from him. The path to the netherworld forces him to jump off a cliff, scramble over boulders, traverse a long stairway, and repeatedly tumble down a steep hillside, but eventually he finds his way into the cave where the Midnight Studio camera belongs. The grim reaper who guards the cave seems both impressed that he made it this far and angry that he dared to try, and relishes the horror that breaks over Ki-joo’s face as he realizes what he should have guessed long before now: there’s no way out. Not without the camera, anyway. In other words, he can either save himself or Bom.
Ki-joo, of course, chooses the latter. He sets the camera in its proper place, and the cave starts to crumble around him. He manages to get out, only to take another long tumble onto the rocks, thinking only of the promise he made to Bom that they would always say “See you tomorrow” instead of “Goodbye.”
Back in the land of the living, the ghosts attacking Bom are repelled and the scar on her wrist vanishes. Her initial relief at knowing Ki-joo must have succeeded soon turns to grief when the next day comes and goes without any sign of his return.
And so, a year passes. Bom’s career takes off, and so does Ji-won’s. No longer an intern, Ji-won flies through the ranks, receiving so many scouting offers that she can afford to negotiate ever-increasing salaries. She and Sung-ho are still going strong with their, shall we say, unique dating method. With no Midnight Studio to pass through, Sung-ho now teaches classes for new ghosts on how to temporarily possess living humans and interact with physical objects. (Here’s hoping he vets them well enough that those skills aren’t put to harmful use!)
At long last, no-longer-Minister Lee is sentenced to 15 years in prison for his crimes. Na-rae picks up her old job as a tour guide, and when she and the florist are reunited at the airport, they catch up briefly and then part amicably. And, all the while, Bom keeps waiting for Ki-joo.
And Ki-joo himself? For what feels (to him) like days but is actually months, he lies lifeless in the netherworld. Then a familiar toy sword prods him awake — the child ghost from way back in Episode 2 is here to return the birthday present. “You’re only alive or dead if you believe you are,” he says sagely before offering to be Ki-joo’s “superman” for today and leading him straight to the netherworld exit.
So, when Bom gets home, Ki-joo is there waiting for her. And no matter what life may have in store for them now that the Midnight Studio is closed for good, he plans to stay right by her side for the rest of it. The show closes with Bom, Ki-joo, Ji-won, and Sung-ho taking (normal) photos together, and Ki-joo urging us all to cherish today instead of perpetually chasing after “tomorrow.”
It’s a shame the episode preemption a few weeks ago knocked The Midnight Studio off its intended airdate rhythm, because I do think that impacted the overall experience a bit. This final week, for example, lost out on a lot of tension by opening with the reveal that Bom was going to be fine (versus the beginning of Episode 15, which opened with a whole lot more up in the air).
But on the other hand, The Midnight Studio as a whole wasn’t really a show I looked to for sky-high tension. Rather, I enjoyed this show for its warmth; for the comfort of seeing people get the kind of closure that’s too often denied in reality and of two lonely souls finding home, safety, and a hopeful future in each other.
Which brings me to my two favorite things about this finale. First, the child ghost who returned Ki-joo’s earlier kindness and showed him the way home when he, like many of the ghosts he’d helped, couldn’t see past his despair. And second, the use of the photographer’s line I’ll take the final photo now to usher our characters — and us — out of this story and into whatever is coming next.