A Killer Paradox ending explained: What happened to Lee Tang in episode 8?

A Killer Paradox ending: Lee Tang in the convenience store
Lee Tang has come a long way... (Image credit: Netflix)

The A Killer Paradox ending leaves things open-ended, and there's a real potential for Lee's story to continue beyond season 1.

Episode 8 is the final episode of this season and sees the four main characters; Lee, Roh Bin, Jang, and Song coming to a head, where dark truths are exposed and tragedy strikes.

But what happened exactly? Here's everything you need to know about A Killer Paradox episode 8...

The final showdown

Originally, Roh Bin and Lee Tang had planned to flee the country but these plans were thwarted after Bin left a note saying he was going to catch Song and that he'd "be fine without him." 

As a result of Bin running off, Lee has decided to abandon ship and heads off to find Roh Bin. Thankfully it won't be too hard, considering he installed a tracking app on his partner's phone.

Meanwhile, Detective Jang really wants to catch Song Chon because he murdered his father, so he is motivated by vengeance. He is frustrated to learn that Roh Bin has been waiting for him in his car, and the latter suggests they work together to take down Song as long as he leaves Lee alone. He tells Jang that the people Lee killed "deserved to die".

Jang criticises Bin and Lee for "playing God", but of course, he is about to do the same thing in his vengeance-driven quest for Song. So he reluctantly agrees to work with Bin and put a stop to all of this.

The duo find Song hiding out in an abandoned factory and Roh Bin goes first, with Jang waiting as backup. Song has been hoping he can track down and kill Lee, and it's at this point that Lee himself shows up, having followed the tracking device that Bin has inadvertently been carrying.

A fight ensues and Roh Bin tries to wrestle Song's gun away. By this point, Jang is too obsessed with getting revenge and decides to shoot at Song. Although he does manage to shoot his target, he also sets off Song's gun which hits and kills Roh Bin.

While Lee mourns the loss of Bin, Jang is distracted by his pursuit of Song, who taunts him and says that if he kills him he'll never know the truth about who his father was. That's enough to make Jang hesitate.

Flashbacks reveal that Jang's father was even worse than we thought, because as well as bullying Jang, he also treated Song badly back when they worked together. At one point, he gave Song a gift box to pass on to a canteen worker who was leaving the country and going back to her homeland.

It was no ordinary gift though, and it turned out the box secretly contained drugs that Jang's dad was smuggling out of Korea. The woman was wrongly convicted of smuggling and later took her own life, which Jang's dad had no remorse for.

Following this incident, Jang's father became more aggressive and started physically assaulting Song. One day, Song snapped and beat him over the head which left him paralyzed, with Jang wrongly believing that his father had done nothing wrong.

Lee offers to kill Song then so Jang doesn't have to. But despite everything, Jang decides to kill him and get his revenge and shoots him twice.

After the funeral that's held for Jang's father, Jang is investigated by his superiors. A police statement suggests that Roh Bin worked alongside Song to kill all those people, with a huge amount of evidence to support this theory. Roh Bin had put himself forward as the man responsible so that Lee could continue their work.

Jang's superiors ask about Lee's whereabouts, and we flashback to Jang holding his gun on him back in the factory. He pulls the trigger but there are no bullets left, and Lee falls to his knees, realising that he's survived.

Jang reluctantly lets him go, growing tired of chasing Lee, and tells him that "someone will catch him" and his luck will eventually run out. A closing scene sees Lee escaping to the Philippines where he works on a fishing boat.

Immigration police find him and ask why he's bothered to hide away in another country when his criminal record in Korea is clean. We see a police officer back in Korea confirming that Lee is innocent of all charges due to a lack of evidence, which means that he's safe to return to Korea again.

Jang hears a news report revealing that a man named Kim has been murdered, and it just so happens that he is also a killer himself, which looks like an awfully familiar scenario.

Lee bumps into someone on the street who makes the hair stand up on his neck, implying this is his next target. But this is where the episode ends and we won't know what happens next unless the show returns for season 2...

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Lucy Buglass
Senior Staff Writer

Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Now she works for our sister site TechRadar in the same role. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress