Cafe Minamdang Ending Explained: Gopuri, Do-won and Shamanic Abilities

Cafe Minamdang’s end comes with Han-jun’s antics coming to an end – a shaman we loved to watch be his own self without any holds barred. However, for those confused about the Cafe Minamdang ending, don’t worry – we got you covered!

Cafe Minamdang Overview

Cafe Minamdang (미남당) is a mystery-drama-comedy TV series directed by Ko Jae-hyun and written by Park Hye-jin, the series is based on the book Minamdang: Sagun Soochub written by Jung Jae-han.

The series, created by Park Hye-jin, Ko Jae-hyun and Yun Ra-young, took over KBS2’s Monday-Tuesday 9.30 PM KST slot previously occupied by Bloody Heart. The series stars Seo In-guk, Oh Yeon-seo, Kwak Si-yang, Kang Mi-na, Kwon Soo-hyun and Baek Seo-hoo, alongside other cast members.

The Law Cafe will take over the same slot from September 05, 2022, starring Lee Seung-gi and Lee Se-young.

Cafe Minamdang Review

The series, from its first episode, tried to be rather quirky and over-the-top with its humour. And, honestly, it worked for me. The goofiness and stupidity went very well with the characters and were a sharp contrast to who these people were when things got serious.

However, the series, for some reason, forgot to hold on to its silliness halfway down the line and became just stupid, trying to make its characters do things that go against who they are as people. The sharp contrast made following the plot a chore. Another problem that I found with Cafe Minamdang is that they never really went into the storyline much and waited too long for the final reveal.

The last few episodes were not bad, but still, once you lose interest in a show, very little can make watching the entire thing a positive experience. Cafe Minamdang finale was the worst of the lot. You know, you can be a lot of things but when a show is boring without any interesting moments throughout its 60 minutes runtime is when you start to have beef with it

Either way, the show had an interesting run at first and just went downhill from there. The characters behaved almost like children most of the time in the name of being funny, and the situations were just not thrilling enough after a while.

However, I will mention here that both Jae-hui and Han-jun are equally competent. They never showed Jae-hui to be weak in any way. Actually, she was always stronger than everyone around her. She was never the damsel in distress, and the same goes for Hye-jun, who was, by far, the best character out of all of them, tying with Su-cheol.

Also Read: Cafe Minamdang Episode 18 Recap and Review: A Rather Dull End

Cafe Minamdang Ending Explained

For those who stuck around till the end to know what happened but just need a refresher, don’t worry we’ve got you covered:

So, Da-won. What happened there? As we are reminded multiple times in every episode, Da-won was a psychopath from when he was young and tried to harm others around him for seemingly the smallest of reasons.

His father, as well as his psychiatrist Jang Hye-yoon tried to control his urges, but things got complicated when he murdered his brother Cha Seung-won’s friend. They brainwashed him and made him believe that Seung-won was the one who committed the murder and instilled in him that murder is bad and that murderers should be punished.

When he grew up, this notion changed him (well, maybe not really). He took this lesson as him needing to dole out these punishments – he was judge, jury and executioner. The brainwashing, clearly, didn’t work out in his favour, nor did it make him a productive member of society.

So, how does Gu Tae-su come into the picture? Tae-su was Do-won’s magpie. Im Hui-suk and Do-won found him by the side of the road after he had murdered his father and burnt his home to the ground.

He believed in Do-won’s punishments since his own life has been unfair, with his father being an alcoholic abuser and his mother abandoning him with his father. He’s been thoroughly used by Do-won, and thanks to his childhood trauma, he believed till the end that Do-won cared for him. He was, however, nothing but Do-won’s fall guy, someone he used to get rid of those he and Hui-suk deemed fit.

Why did Do-won kill Han Jae-jeong? Well, simply put – Jae-jeong knew too much. No judgement or giving out punishments here. It was simply so that no one knew his true nature.

What’s with the clicker? Hye-yoon used the clicker to control Do-won’s urges. Every time he heard the clicker, he would control his urges, maybe for fear of repercussions. But the clicker stopped serving its purpose after a while when, instead of using it to stop himself, Do-won used it after murdering someone to calm himself and probably assure himself that he was doing the right thing.

As Do-won tells Hye-yoon in episode 17, her perfect experiment was a total dud.

Did Do-won really like Jae-hui? Well, he does say that he did like her, but apparently, it’s because they were connected thanks to Jae-jeong. I mean, he’s not well mentally, so I wouldn’t go deep into his justifications surrounding matters of the heart.

What’s with the Gopuri fabric and stuff? So in episode 18, Han-jun mentions that there were three types of killings involved – one committed by Do-won, one by Tae-su and one by Im Hui-suk. Although the actual killing was mostly carried out by Tae-su, the motivation was different for these three categories.

The gopuri thing was Hui-suk’s idea and one which she used as a part of her rituals. There are no deep motivations behind them, just a way to make people think there’s more to the killings than there actually were. They were simply killings to get rid of anyone in their way and were wrong in every perceivable way.

Was Do-won caught? Did he go to jail? You betcha.

Can Han-jun really talk to ghosts? No. He’s just a brilliant profiler.

Cafe Minamdang is streaming on Netflix.

Check out our Cafe Minamdang reviews here.

Also Read: Who is Big Mouse? Episodes 7 and 8 Take Viewers on a Wild Mouse Chase!