Did an asteroid wipe out South Korea in Netflix’s Goodbye Earth? Exploring the apocalyptic ending

Goodbye Earth is a dystopian sci-fi South Korean drama that premiered on April 26, 2024, globally on Netflix. It featured twelve episodes and was helmed by director Kim Jin-min and penned by screenwriter Jung Sung-joo. The drama is adapted from the novel The Fool At the End of the World by Kotaro Isaka and produced by IMTV and Studio S.

The drama delves into the struggles of people from Woongchun City in South Korea, who are under constant fear of impending danger. This is because an asteroid is about to crash into Earth in 200 days, which would eventually be the end of the planet. In fact, the drama does conclude with an asteroid finally crashing into the blue planet and wiping out entire mankind.

After NASA declares the shocking news of the impending end of mankind, the neighborhood of Woongchun falls into confusion, with criminals escaping from prison and trafficking innocent kids. Subsequently, middle-school teacher Jin Se-kyung embarks on a journey to protect her kids, accompanied by her husband Ha Yun-sang and friends Woo Sung-jae and Kang In-a.

Goodbye Earth features Ahn Eun-jin as Jin Se-kyung, Yoo Ah-in as Ha Yun-sang, Jeon Sung-woo as Woo Sung-jae, and Kim Yoo-hye as Kang In-a.

---

Se-Kyung and Yun-sang bid adieu to the blue planet as an asteroid crashes in Goodbye Earth

Father Baek's mental heath getting worse day by day (Image via Netflix K Content)

The final episode of Goodbye Earth begins with the people of the Woongchun neighborhood enjoying quality time in church, when Father Baek arrives at the scene. While everyone welcomes him, he shows some signs of mental illness, and Sung-jae takes him away from the place.

After only twenty days are left, the rest of the people spend their lives with their significant others. While Yun-sang makes a bucket list of the things he would love to do with Se-kyung, the crimes of abducting children for trafficking also increase in the neighborhood.

Everyone goes about living their last days and accepting their tragic fate. Park Jin-seo finally has a warm meal with his father, while the old couple frees the little birds they had kept caged in their house. Meanwhile, Se-kyung talks about Woo-chan and Hae-chan's safety with their mother, Oh Gye-hyang, thinking of sending them somewhere safe.

Meanwhile, Kang In-a resigns from the post of commander of her combat support battalion and decides to spend the remaining time on the blue planet, traveling to different places. In-a realizes that she had lived a dull life to get recognition in Goodbye Earth.

Following her resignation, she goes to Se-kyung's house and informs her about her new decision. After an emotional conversation with Se-kyung, she goes to Yun-sang and asks him to hand over the gun the couple had hidden. She fills the empty gun with bullets and hands it over to Yun-sang, ordering him to protect Se-kyung, and leaves the house.

After ten days pass, Se-kyung travels to the dock to keep track of the ongoing situation regarding the trafficking of kids by the thugs. She finds out that the thugs want to abduct three children who were her students.

With the help of Cho In-tae, she finds out that the thugs and gangsters are planning to take as many kids as possible before leaving for abroad with the last cargo ship. Subsequently, as time passes, some people happily say goodbye to each other, while others grow closer in the neighborhood of Woongchun City.

The three children Se-kyung wanted to protect (Image via Netflix K Content)

Meanwhile, Se-kyung visits the three children, Park Jin-seo, Yoo So-min, and Ha-yul, who received threats from Sergeant Kim. Se-kyung assures them that she would protect them.

The scene in Goodbye Earth then transitions to Yun-sang discovering himself in a forest enveloped in smog, unable to reach Se-kyung, owing to a hole that had developed between them. He sees Se-kyung leaving him alone, and the scene changes to Yun-sang lying on his sofa reminiscing.

While Woo Sung-jae spends his last day on the blue planet at the church, Kang In-a feels the cold breeze on a highway. Meanwhile, Yoon-sang leaves his apartment after filling his bag with bottle bombs, and Se-kyung heads to the thug's club in Goodbye Earth.

Goodbye Earth's last scene transitions to Se-kyung bidding adieu to the blue planet with a monologue. She says farewell to kids, family, friends, restaurants, gardens they nurtured, parents, neighborhood, musical clock, food, coffee, ironed clothes, bathhouses, earth, and the world. The scene showcases the Woongchun neighborhood saying goodbye to Se-kyung's students and children in the sky on a hot air balloon and waving.

The drama ends when Se-kyung goes into the thug's club and starts shooting at the gangsters. She points her gun at a thug and locks her eyes with him, while Yun-sang bikes to the docks where the ships were stationed and smiles with his eyes full of tears.

Simultaneously, an asteroid finally crashes into the blue planet and erases the very existence of mankind, as the sound of gunshot echoes in the background, hinting at the tragic end of the people of South Korea and the Woongchun neighborhood.

---

Goodbye Earth featuring Ahn Eun-jin and Yoo Ah-in, is available to stream on Netflix.