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Netflix released its new original series Karma (악연) on April 4, 2025. Based on the webcomic Akyeon by Choi Hee-sun (published from April 7, 2019, to January 26, 2020, on Kakao), the crime thriller is written and directed by Lee Il-hyung.
Starring Park Hae-soo, Shin Min-a, Lee Hee-joon, Kim Sung-kyun, Lee Kwang-soo, and Gong Seung-yeon, Karma follows six individuals entangled in ill-fated relationships born out of greed, murder, and past crimes. As each pursues their own desires, they end up destroying one another, ultimately bringing justice to those behind the crimes.
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for the Netflix series Karma (악연). Reader discretion is advised.
Karma series recap and ending explained: A tale of murder, stolen identity, and long-awaited revenge
The series Karma begins with a man being set on fire in an abandoned under-construction house. Emergency responders soon surround the house and rescue a severely burned man. He is taken into the hospital, where, upon asking, he replies that his name is Park Jae-yeong.
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In the next scene, the series Karma shows a flashback, 13 days before this fiery accident. Park Jae-yeong (Lee Hee-joon) is a construction worker. He has taken a massive loan from a loan shark and is threatened with his life to pay back within 30 days.
To pay this loan, he hatches a plan to kill his father and take the 500 million KRW insurance money. For this, he appoints Jang Gil-ryong (Kim Sung-kyun), a recently fired Korean-Chinese coworker from the construction site.
Gil-ryong takes the job but without telling Park Jae-yoon, he takes an ex-cellmate of his, Kim Beom-jun (Park Hae-soo), as a partner in this job. Kim Beom-jun is a con artist, who, with his partner Lee Yu-jeong (Gong Seung-yeon), cons rich people.
Now, while killing Park Jae-yeong's father, the man doesn't die even after Gil-ryong and Kim Beom-jun hit him twice. Moreover, a church friend of Park's father witnesses the incident and, learning that, the duo put the almost dead man in the truck of the car and drive away.
Kim Beom-jun calls Lee Yu-Jeong, who is with Han Sang-hun (Lee Kwang-soo), their next target. Kim makes a plan with Lee, and both of them lure Han out on the road. Kim dumps the half-dead body of Jae-yeong's father in front of Han's car, posing him as the killer.
Rich, reputable, already married doctor Han Sang-hun panics and decides to bury the body. At that moment, he sees Kim Beom-jun lurking nearby and, misunderstanding him as a mere witness, he takes him along. Warning him of killing him along with Park's father, Han makes Kim dig the grave and bury the man in return for 100 million KRW. However, after doing the job, Kim starts asking for more money from him.
Later, by watching his dashcam footage, Han finds out about Kim dumping the body in front of his car. To talk about this, he decides to meet Lee Yu-Jeong, who, unknown to Han, brings Kim Beom-jun with him. Kim and Lee together try to kill Han, and during the confrontation, Lee Yu-Jeong dies too.
Now, Han Sang-hun's wife, suspicious of her husband, has appointed Hwang Cheol-mok, a private investigator, behind him. His people, tailing Han, take pictures of him and consequently of his murder too.
Meanwhile, in Karma, Park Jae-yeong gets the news of his father's demise and pretends to be sad in front of the police. However, his happiness is short-lived because his father's friends' witness has made the case into a murder investigation, especially since his father's body has been discovered buried in the woods on a mountain. He is furious and frustrated over the situation.
Escalating that is Gil-ryong, who starts demanding his payoff of the promised 150 million KRW. The situation gets more pressured when Gil-ryong, out of misunderstanding, kills a policeman. He decides to escape to China and demands that Park Jae-yeong pay him off that day.
Park Jae-yeong decides to kill Gil-ryong and lures him to the under-construction site from the very first scene of the series. He tries to kill Gil-ryong with a hammer, but the opposite happens, and Gil-ryong injures him with the weapon.
Now, Hwang Cheol-mok has informed the police about the murder of Han, and they start searching for the killer, Kim Beom-jun, with the photos. Desperate Kim, meeting with partner Gil-ryong, decides to kill Park and take his identity along with the 500 million KRW insurance money. At first, he kills Gil-ryong and then ties Park to a chair before setting the place ablaze.
However, before he can escape, some nearby gas cylinders catch fire, causing an explosion and trapping Kim Beom-jun under falling debris. He is later taken to the hospital, where he starts embracing the identity of Park Jae-yeong. Nonetheless, Kim Beom-jun, who is taking on the persona of Park Jae-yeong, is not aware that his doctor, Lee Ju-yeon (Shin Min-a), is actually one of Park Jae-yeong's victims.
In the series,13 years ago, Karma in highschool, jealous of Lee Ju-yeon becoming the face of school's magazine, Lee Yu-jeong appointed Park Jae-yeong and his two other friends to gang rape her. Traumatized from that incident, Ju-yeon still couldn't sleep properly because of nightmares.
Seeing a man with the same name as his abuser, Ju-yeon puts Hwang Cheol-mok to find out more about him, and learns that his abuser, Park Jae-yeong, is indeed the man under her care right now. Learning this, Ju-yeon decides to take revenge.
However, after coming to his senses, Kim Beom-jun, who has taken Park's identity, learns about Park's aunt coming to visit. Afraid of getting caught in front of her, he takes an early discharge and flees the hospital. Knowing this, Ju-yeon rushes behind him, but Kim, not knowing her, dismisses and threatens her before running away.
He fully takes on Park's identity, and after a few days, gets a call from the insecure company. However, luck is not on his side as one week before dying, Park's father has changed his will, making his church the beneficiary of his insurance money, removing his son.
Furious, hearing this, Kim Beom-jun charges towards the Church. On his way, Hwang Cheol-mok, at Lee Ju-yeon's request, switches Kim's pain medications to some other drugs. Kim, not knowing this, takes the drug on the way to the church. There he has a confrontation with the nun who plays a record of Park's father making the church his insurance's nominee.
Frustrated and disappointed, Kim walks out of the church, but Ju-yeon is behind him. He tells her yet again about not knowing her, yet she is determined. While having this conversation, dizzy with the drugs, Kim falls on the side of the road, and Ju-yeon, with her surgical knife, urges to kill him.
But at that very moment, her boyfriend-coworker Yoon Jeong-min (Kim Nam-gil) appears. He tells her that he knows everything and asks her to remember what she has been through to come this far.
He asks her not to ruin that by killing someone like Park Jae-yeong. She throws away her knife, but when Kim tells her to have a nice life, provoked, she couldn't help but punch him. Once they are gone, Kim goes back to Park's home.
Meanwhile, in Karma, the police, finding some inconsistency in Kim Beom-jun's statement, which he has given in the hospital after coming to his senses after surgery, go to his house. Knowing the police are coming, Kim Beom-jun escapes the home.
While he is packing whatever valuables he can find, he comes across the school magazine that features Lee Ju-yeon's photo. Seeing that he remembers that he is the one who gave the idea to teenager Lee Yu-Jeong to have teenager Lee Ju-yeon assaulted.
As Kim Beom-jun is waiting for a bus at the bus station to escape, Park Jae-yeong's phone, which has an app telling him about how long till he has to pay his debt, starts showing the day to be the D-Day. Soon, a black car comes and kidnaps Kim, taking him to an organ harvesting factory.
The doctor who is doing the harvesting for the loan sharks is Yoon Jeong-min, who does this as a side gig to pay off his student loans and today is his final job. Recognizing Kim Beom-jun whom Yoon thinks to be Park Jae-yeong, he does the oparation with out any anaesthesia.
The next morning, Lee Ju-yeon wakes up after sleeping properly. Seeing Yoon Jeong-min in front of her, she tells him that she wants to go home after a long time and see her mother. Later, she meets with Hwang Cheol-mok, who is there to tell her more about Park, but she tells him that she doesn't want to know anymore and has decided to move forward.
This is how the Netflix series Karma ends.
Why Karma possibly doesn’t have a season 2: A perfectly wrapped ending
Season 2 of Karma is unlikely, as the story concludes neatly. With both Park Jae-yeong and Kim Beom-jun with their other accomplice meeting their end, Ju-yeon finding closure and choosing to move on, and all major plotlines being resolved, it leaves little room for continuation. Moreover, there has been no official statement regarding a season 2 from the cast and crew of Karma yet.
All six episodes of Netflix's original series Karma are now available for streaming on the platform.
