“Pachinko” fans have been on an emotional journey during Season Two.
The Oct. 11 finale was an explosive and heartbreaking end that left many viewers with unanswered questions about the future of many characters.
From past to present timelines, Sunja’s family quickly turned from happily together to complete chaos as secrets were revealed, trust was broken and relationships ended.
“Pachinko” creator Soo Hugh dissected the Season Two ending with TODAY.com, while answering questions about older Hansu, what happens to Noa and the significance of the gold watch throughout the timelines. Hugh also reveals that they filmed two ways Noa found out that Hansu was his father.
What happens at the end of ‘Pachinko’ Season Two?
While at university in 1951, Noa discovers that Hansu is his father after his girlfriend, Akiko, questions him about their relationship. During their fight, Akiko exclaims that it’s obvious Hansu is his father, which infuriates Noa. He then confronts Hansu, who tells him that he is his real father.
Upset, Noa visits his mother, Sunja (Kim Min-ha), but doesn’t tell her about knowing the truth. Instead, he says he wanted to see her and to take good care of herself.
After Noa leaves, Sunja realizes that he knows the truth and goes in search of him. Missing for weeks, Sunja tells Hansu it’s their fault he left. “That night, he came to say farewell,” Sunja says.
At the end of the episode, Noa is seen trading in the gold watch that has been in his family for decades. He is seen in the city of Nagano, Japan, asking someone for a job. He’s asked if he’s Korean and he says no, saying that his name is Ogawa Minato and he’s a hard worker. As the episode ends, viewers see that he starts working at a pachinko shop.
During that same timeline, Yoseb gives Kyunghee the letters that Mr. Kim has been sending her from Korea.
Additionally, viewers see how a teenage Mozasu drops out of school and begins working at a pachinko shop. Meanwhile, older Mozasu discovers that his son, Solomon, has paid off his debt. However, he’s unhappy with the business deals Solomon is making with Mamoru Yoshii.
Later on, Solomon discovers that Mr. Abe, the businessman who tried to end his career, is dead.
Older Sunja, meanwhile, ends her friendship with Kato after discovering that he was involved in the massacre of American prisoners of war when he was younger.
Why didn’t Noa confront Sunja about Hansu?
Hugh tells TODAY.com that she knew she wanted a scene with Hansu and Noa because talking to Sunja “felt repetitive to have him have two angry confrontations.”
After witnessing how Hansu became violent at the rice farm in Episode Four, Hugh says, Noa “knew that anger was building up in him.”
“Asking him if he was his father, that was the place for the anger to come out,” she says.
She and the writers decided there had to be one moment in the whole story where Noa decides he’s leaving and not going to be Noa Baek anymore.
“Is that moment when he’s with Hansu, or is that moment when he’s with Sunja? We actually edited it both ways,” she reveals. “(We did) one version of the scene with Hansu where he makes a decision there, and we edited a version where he does it with Sunja… And it was much more powerful and effective to make that decision with Hansu. After Hansu says, ‘I will make them grovel at your feet,’ that was the moment Noa says, I don’t want this. I don’t want this life. I think once (he) made that decision, his scene with Sunja had to feel different.”
What happens to Noa?
Noa leaves and takes on a new name for a “telling” reason. Noa’s future, Hugh says, would hopefully be explored in a third season of “Pachinko.”
“I think it’s really telling that he doesn’t call himself Noa Baek, that he gives himself the name of his Japanese teacher from Episode Two,” she says. “I think the question is: How much of his Korean identity is he going to retain, or does he just throw it all out?”
Why don’t we see an older Hansu?
Viewers saw Hansu’s origin story in the first season, yet he is never seen in the late ‘80s timeline. Hugh hopes to dive into Hansu’s life in future episodes.
“If there is a Season Three, it wraps up that question,” she shares. “But that absence is on purpose, meaning, it’s not that he just disappeared.”
Why did older Sunja end her friendship with Kato?
Older Sunja and Kato’s blossoming friendship was a tender moment this season. However, after discovering his dark past, she decides to cut ties with him.
Hugh says she and the writers talked in depth about this storyline, saying that at the end of the day some people can’t outrun their past.
“Here was this person that (Sunja) had this connection to, a friendship, some might even call a romance. But when she finds out about his past, and understands that there are extenuating circumstances to the best and worst of what we’ve done in our lives,” she says. “I think it’s the realization that she can’t outrun that path, neither of them can. There’s this sense of, we can’t force something that just won’t happen at the end of the day.”
Hugh says it’s “very subtle,” but she wonders if Sunja made that decision because of what she lived through during the war with her husband.
“Because of how she saw Isak’s death in Episode Two and knowing what he had gone through,” she says. “Just to know that someone like Kato had inflicted any pain on someone else, I just think it would have been hard for her to be with someone like that.”
Why didn’t Kyunghee go with Mr. Kim?
A great debate for Hugh and the writers was Team Yoseb and Team Mr. Kim. Ultimately, Kyunghee stays with her husband because she is a traditionalist.
“All of us wanted Kyunghee to run away with Mr. Kim, not because we didn’t love Yoseb. But you always want to root for love, period,” she explains. “But every version just didn’t feel right that Kyunghee would make that choice. I think she’s someone who grew up so tied to tradition. She’s the one that buried her family scrolls because she couldn’t stand the thought of them being burned away during the bombing. I just don’t think she’s going to be someone who’s going to betray (Yoseb) and leave the role as a wife.”
Where do Solomon and Naomi stand after he got her fired?
Naomi was let go from her job after she was accused of leaking confidential client information. Viewers later discover that Solomon was behind getting her fired. This was after he discovered that Naomi was seeing a man who her parents wanted her to marry.
“What he did to Naomi was terrible, and no one deserves that. He ruined her career. Nothing justifies doing something like that,” Hugh says. “And yet, I think when Solomon saw Naomi at the restaurant with her parents and that other gentleman, something broke in him.”
While Naomi may not have been interested in the other man, Hugh believes it was something deeper for Solomon.
“Which is, ‘Are you always going to deny who I am?’” she says of Solomon who is Korean and Naomi who is Japanese. “I don’t think it justifies what he did. But I do think it at least explains that what he does comes from a place of just being (who he is).”
What is the significance of the gold watch?
The gold watch has been a part of “Pachinko” since the first season when Hansu finds it as a young man when he was working with an American family. He later gives it to Sanju, who goes on to sell it for money. Hansu buys it back from the store and gives it to a young Nao. A teen Noa sells it for money when he decides to disappear. However, the gold watch somehow returns to the family because in a past episode older Sunja gives it to Solomon.
The significance of the watch, Hugh says, is a metaphor.
“What I loved about the gold watch is, how do you take one object and how do you use it in history? How can one object also become part of the family saga?” she says. “It felt, in some ways, like ‘Pachinko.’ That watch, the ticking of time was a really beautiful metaphor for a show, and that time endures no matter what.”
Will there be a Season Three of ‘Pachinko’?
At the time of publication, “Pachinko” has not been renewed for a Season Three. However, Hugh says there are still stories to tell.
“If we had the privilege to get a third season, we would love to see what happens to Noa, especially because it’s such a cliffhanger how we leave him,” she says.
Overall, she “would love more people to watch ‘Pachinko,’” but in the meantime is celebrating the show’s second season.