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Pachinko season 2 released its eighth and final episode on Apple TV+ on October 11, 2024. Episode 8 delivers a gripping and emotional conclusion, weaving together threads of family, identity, and history. Titled “Chapter Sixteen,” the finale focuses on pivotal moments for several central characters, especially Noa, Sunja, and Solomon, while wrapping up key storylines that span multiple generations.
Noa’s (played by Kang Tae-joo) storyline takes center stage in this episode, as he continues his journey of self-discovery in Tokyo. While studying at Waseda University, he became increasingly close to Nakazono Akiko, a fellow female student at the university.
However, Noa’s world is turned upside down when he uncovers a life-altering truth: Koh Hansu (Lee Min-ho), the man he has long detested, is his biological father. This revelation shatters Noa's image of himself and his mother, Sunja (Kim Min-ah), who had kept this secret hidden to protect him. The emotional impact of this discovery leads Noa down a tragic path, where he goes missing.
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Devastated and filled with self-loath, he distances himself from his family. The episode portrays Noa’s internal struggle vividly, capturing the intense burden he faces from his heritage, his father’s criminal past, and the weight of expectations. Pachinko season 2 episode 8 leaves viewers with Noa changing his identity, leaving behind his family, and a possibility for season 3.
Pachinko season 2 episode 8 recap: A poignant finale that embraces pain and hope
Sunja remains the emotional and moral center of Pachinko season 2. The choices she made for her survival and her family’s future come under intense scrutiny in this episode. Throughout the series, Sunja represents the resilience of the immigrant experience. Yet, here, she is forced to reckon with the unintended consequences of her actions, especially in how they affect her sons.
Pachinko season 2 episode 8 shows Noa having a romantic relationship with Akiko, the daughter of the foreign secretary. However, Akiko is headstrong and due to her privileged upbringing, she has no regard for someone else's feelings and would get her way with everything. She tells Noa that she wants to meet his benefactor (Hansu) and be a part of his lavish dinner.
Noa tells her that the dinner is a mere formality and he doesn't wish her to meet with Hansu. The same night when Noa was having his 'once in a month meal' with Hansu, Akiko barges into the hotel penthouse suite. A flabbergasted Noa keeps quiet as he watches Akiko break the promise she made to him. Later, Noa gets angry and tells her to leave his room and calls her selfish.
In response, Akiko reveals that Hansu is Noa's biological father. She does this to get back at Noa, to make him feel miserable so that he would depend on her support once again and let her exploit him. However, this triggers Noa and he grabs her by the neck in a fit of rage. Noa immediately backs off and runs to the hotel in the rain to see Hansu and confront him.
At the hotel, Noa lashes out at Hansu and accuses him of forcing himself on his mother—Sunja. Hansu tells him that Sunja and he loved each other when Noa was conceived and to think of anything else but love is blasphemous. Noa refuses to believe that his mother could ever love a man like Hansu and ends up insulting him. Hansu calmly tells him that he is his son and he will do everything for him.
Noa calls him "selfish, venal, and a vile man," which makes Hansu extremely angry, showing an aggressive side of Noa in Pachinko season 2 episode 8. Hansu tells him to go back to his dormitory and come back the next morning, with a fresh mind. As Noa grapples with the truth about Hansu, he takes the train from Tokyo to Osaka and goes to see his mother, Sunja.
Sunja is surprised to see Noa back home at midnight and asks if everything is alright. He tells her that he just misses her and hence came to see her. Noa refuses to stay for the night when Sunja asks him to freshen up and have some food. He tells her that for the first time in his life, he feels free to do whatever he wants. He tells his mother that he has to go back now as he has to meet a friend.
Noa leaves immediately after seeing his mother for 2 minutes. Sunja stands at the gate wondering Noa's changed behavior and then it hits her—Noa has learned the truth about Hansu. She ran through the dark alleys after her son, calling his name and crying, but Noa was nowhere to be found. Weeks later, a devastated Sunja meets Hansu at his house as they try to find Noa.
Hansu tells her that all his men are looking all over Tokyo and Osaka in search of their son. But Sunja is inconsolable and shares that her sins have cost her their son. Pachinko season 2 finale episode shows how Hansu's love for Sunja never ended, as he always put her on a pedestal to take all the sins on his head.
Hansu tries to remind her, a woman he once loved and still does, that it was never her fault.
"Sunja, all of your sacrifices and all of my sins, we did it for him."
Sunja is torn between her sense of duty to her past, and the future she desires for her family. Her guilt and grief over Noa’s suffering bring her to a point of reflection about the price she paid for survival. In contrast to the emotionally charged arc of Sunja and Noa, Solomon's journey in 1989 in Pachinko season 2 episode 8 is more internal but equally important.
He successfully takes revenge on Abe-san as the bank calls the loan, and Abe-san fails to acquire the land and faces a massive loss. This also causes a crash in the real estate market across Japan. Mozasu, Sunja's second son and Solomon's father watches from afar as Solomon gives a presentation. Mozasu is disappointed to see his son taking the wrong path.
Mozasu goes to meet Yoshi-san—Solomon's partner and boss who helps him get his revenge on Abe-san. Mozasu tells him to stay away from his son and Yoshi-san refuses to do so, as Solomon is making him a lot of profit. Mozasu warns Yoshi-san that if Solomon is harmed in any way, he will destroy Yoshi-san.
In a heartbreaking climax of Pachinko season 2, Noa makes an irreversible decision that echoes through the lives of those who love him, leaving viewers with a profound sense of loss. His storyline encapsulates the generational trauma explored throughout, illustrating the heavy toll of family secrets and the search for identity.
Meanwhile, old Sunja's voice from 1989 echoes in 1951 as she tells Mozasu how everyone she loved had left her, but only Mozasu stayed. Pachinko season 2 episode 8 delves into the emotional toll of keeping secrets and how they can devastate relationships across generations. Noa’s response to learning the truth about his father mirrors his family history with their own sense of identity.
Pachinko season 2 ends with Noa walking on the streets of Nagano, Japan, pawning the pocket watch given by Hansu. He walks up to a Pachinko parlor and asks for a job. When the owner asks him his identity, Noa steers the show to a heartwrenching halt as he abandons not only his family but even his Korean identity. He tells the owner that he is not Korean and his name is Ogawa Minato.
Although season 3 hasn't been confirmed by the production house, the ending scene leaves a possibility of a season renewal. The new season of Pachinko could tell us what happens to Noa and if he ever meets Sunja and Hansu again. It could further explore what happens to Hansu. However, as of now, it remains to be seen if the show will be greenlit for another installment.
All episodes of Pachinko season 2 are streaming on Apple TV+.
