Black Knight (Season 1) Netflix Recap & Ending Explained: It has been a couple of good weeks for yellow-tinted dystopian Sci-Fi TV shows where humanity is forced to live underground. With its three episodes, the Apple TV+ show “Silo,” starring Rebecca Ferguson, is proving to be a titillating show for cyberpunk aficionados. Netflix’s latest K-Drama “Black Knight” could just be the cherry on top in that regard. The Korean TV show starring Kim Woo-bin is a little heavy-handed and occasionally campy with its okay-ish effects. However, it is still enthralling, with superlative world-building and an enigmatic lead in the form of Kim Woo-Bin’s deliveryman.
Black Knight (Season 1) Netflix Recap:
The Premise
Black Knight starts as the most dystopian cyberpunk begins. The year is 2071, and the world is now a wasteland. Specifically, in the Korean peninsula, only one percent of the population remains. The air has become unbreathable, and human beings are forced to live underground. The underground world is designed and created by the corporation Cheonmyeong Group. The air core designed by the Cheonmyeong Group cannot accommodate everyone, i.e., everyone among the remaining one percent. The livable air is commodified and enabled for people who can pay.
The entire underground world is divided into three classes. The core area, with an abundance of top-quality air and other resources, is reserved for top government officials and Cheonmyeong Group honchos. The special area is for top office workers, with the third general area being reserved for workers and other people who are just about considered to be worthy of living. However, a vast majority of the population is thrown to fend for themselves in the wasteland. They are the ‘refugees.’
The Deliverymen
The abysmal treatment of the refugees has driven them toward rebellion. One of the key actions for them is raiding the cargo that is used to deliver valuable commodities like oxygen, water, and food. As a result, the deliverypersons need to be extra sharp. In this new world, only the elite fighters get to be delivery men or women. These deliverypersons do not go by any name, they go by their code name. A numeric code consisting of two digits. One such deliveryman is 5-8 (Kim Woo-Bin). He is a legend among all deliverymen. And it is quickly shown why as he single-handedly takes down a pack of raiders.
Yoon Sa-wol (Kang Yoo-Seok) is a refugee boy who idolizes 5-8. Young Sa-Wol was rescued and then adopted by a military intelligence officer, Jeong Seol-Ah (Esom). Seol-Ah, who, in her early years, had to take part in battles that forced her to kill rebelling refugees. During one such day, she encounters the young Sa-Wol, and instead of killing him, brings him home. Seol-Ah, and her young sister becomes adoptive siblings of Seol-Ah.
Black Knight (Season 1) Ending Explained – Could There Be a Second Season?
What was the relocation plan of the Cheonmyeong Group?
Cheonmyeong Group’s chairman, Ryu Jae-Jin (Nam Kyung-Eup), designed the place fueled by greed. Although the series did not delve deep into Jae-Jin’s intentions, it can be assumed that Ryu Jae-Jin did not do as much as he could have done for the refugees. Perhaps caught by age and guilt, Jae-Jin tries to fix that mistake with the help of the current President.
However, his primary obstacle is his son and heir to the Cheonmyeong Group, Ryu Seok (Song Seung-Heon). Ryu Seok proves to be even more ruthless than his father. The relocation plan prepared by his father and the President was inclusive. And beneficial for the refugees. However, Ryu Seok tries to usurp his father with a sinister plan for the refugees.
How did 5-8 and his team get into the tail of Ryu Seok?
Unbeknownst to everyone in the government and the Cheonmyeong Group, 5-8 has formed a team of rebel deliverypersons. A quick flashback shows how 5-8 observing the cruelty that was meted out against refugees at the behest of the dual authorities of the government and the Cheonmyeong Group. 5-8’s band of soldiers acts as the Robin Hood of this world. When the night sky is black, these members come out in flocks and provide oxygen, medicine, food, and water to various refugee colonies.
Apart from elevating the lives of the refugees, 5-8 has a goal of dismantling the Cheonmyeong Group from within. When 5-8 foils the kidnapping plan of Sa-Wol, he follows a trail of mystery that would help him uncover some of the most sinister secrets of the Cheonmyeong Group, especially those of Ryu Seok.
How did Sa-Wol become a mutant?
One of the big secrets of the Ryu Seok-led faction of the Cheonmyeong Group is the kidnapping of young refugee children. Ryu Seok sanctions these kidnappings in the hope of capturing a mutant. Ryu Seok has a terminal disease. His only way to prolong his life is a blood transfusion with any mutant. It is revealed that prolonged exposure to radioactive materials has affected some of the unborn children of that time.
Sa-Wol’s father worked in one such mine of radioactive minerals during the early days of building the underground air core. Sa-Wol, as a result, becomes a mutant and gains an unnatural power. Extraordinary healing capability that helps recover from a bullet to the head.
What was Ryu Seok’s final plan?
Ryu Seok organizes a reality show-like audition to recruit a new deliveryperson. Sa-Wol, trained by 5-8, goes to the final round. The entire show is a sham to lure the refugees so bombs can be planted to kill thousands of them. Ryu Seok displays Hitler’s ‘The Final Solution’ style approach in dealing with the refugee problem.
5-8, along with help from Seol-Ah, foils some of the plans of Ryu Seok. In Rye Seok’s final plan, he kills his father and organizes a coup d’etat with the defense minister alongside him. The president is captured. Ryu Seok finds and captures Sa-Wol as well. He starts the blood transfusion, where he draws the mutant blood from Sa-Wol. But 5-8 and Seol-Ah come to the rescue in the nick of time.
Is Ryu Seok dead? Could there be Black Knight Season 2?
In the climactic battle, Seol-Ah rescues the President and arrests the rebelling defense minister, thus ending the overthrow attempt. 5-8, on the other hand, saves Sa-Wol and kills Ryu Seok with a bullet in the head. But not before Ryu Seok initiates the self-destruct of the core area. When 5-8 leaves the place, Ryu Seok’s fingers show movements, much like Sa-Wol.
It is understandable that Ryu Seok has gained Sa-Wol’s mutant powers and thus did not die from the bullet wound. However, when the core area explodes, his body also takes a full blast. It is difficult to imagine that Ryu Seok could survive that. But, we can assume the door to a return of Ryu Seok remains ajar.
This brings us to the question of whether there could be a second season of “Black Knight.” It is as unlikely as Ryu Seok surviving. The story ends with the declassification of all the human beings. The president announced relocation that involved all the refugees. Sa-Wol becomes a happy member of 5-8’s delivery gang. Even the air seems to improve gradually.
However, just like the mild movement of the fingers from the Ryu Seok, there remains a mild possibility that a new season with a brand new extension of the story could come. However, it needs to be added that there has been no such indication from Netflix.
Also, Read: Exceptional Beings (2023) Movie Review: A Writer’s Prequel to his Book that feels like an Unfinished High School Project
Watch Black Knight (Season 1) Trailer Here
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