Karma 2025 K-Drama Ending Explained: What Happened to Ju-yeon, Beom-jun, and the red Thread of fate

Netflix’s dark and twisty K-drama Karma closes with a chilling and poetic finale that stays true to the show’s name—every character gets exactly what they deserve. But as the smoke clears, one question remains: Who is the real protagonist? While the show begins as a web of interlocking stories, it ends up revolving around one person. Let’s see who it turns out to be and break down the ending of the show.

A past that Never lets go

To understand why Ju-yeon is the heart of Karma, we have to rewind 20 years. Back in high school, Ju-yeon was bright and kind—qualities that sparked jealousy in classmate Yu-jeong. When Ju-yeon was selected to model for the school magazine, Yu-jeong retaliated in the cruelest way possible. 

She tricked Ju-yeon into a blind date with senior student Jae-yeong, which ended in a horrific assault by two masked boys—an attack orchestrated by Jae-yeong himself. This trauma haunted Ju-yeon for decades, setting the emotional foundation for the entire series.

The Debtor’s fate

The main mystery kicks off with a fire in a warehouse. Only one man survives: Park Jae-yeong, aka The Debtor. Years after the high school incident, Jae-yeong conspires to kill his own father for insurance money. He hires a recently fired mafia member, Jang Gil-ryong (Kim Sung-kyun), to do the job. Gil-ryong brings in a third party: Kim Beom-jun (Park Hae-soo), a scam artist with a dark past.

Beom-jun runs over Jae-yeong’s father, but the man survives. In the fallout, Jae-yeong and Gil-ryong turn on each other. Beom-jun murders them both, torches the warehouse, and assumes Jae-yeong’s identity—until he nearly dies in the flames.

The Conspiracies Multiply

Beom-jun’s crimes don’t end there. He reunites with Yu-jeong, and together they scam rich men using seduction and blackmail. Their next victim: Dr. Han Sang-hoon, aka “Glasses” (Lee Kwang-soo). Beom-jun uses Sang-hoon to dispose of Jae-yeong’s father’s body, then extorts him. When Sang-hoon discovers he’s been played, he runs over Yu-jeong in a rage. Beom-jun retaliates by killing Sang-hoon—though everything is caught on camera by private investigators.

Ju-yeon’s Ultimate test

Meanwhile, Ju-yeon is reintroduced to Beom-jun—who’s pretending to be Jae-yeong—when he arrives at her hospital. Her old trauma resurfaces, and she eventually uncovers the truth. She prepares to kill him, scalpel in hand, but her boyfriend Yoon Jeong-min stops her. He says, “Think about everything you’ve endured. You shouldn’t ruin your life over scum like him.”

Ju-yeon heeds his words. Instead of killing Beom-jun, she walks away—choosing peace over vengeance. Beom-jun, however, doesn’t get off so easily.

Karma Strikes back

Beom-jun had earlier swallowed fentanyl pills but survived after vomiting them out. Believing he’s escaped justice, he’s suddenly kidnapped by loan sharks. Mistaking him for Jae-yeong, they take him to an underground clinic to harvest his organs. The surgeon? Ju-yeon’s boyfriend, Yoon. He says, “Just think of this as bad karma.”

Yoon performs the operation without anesthesia—his final job before retiring his debt and proposing to Ju-yeon. He’s rewarded with a Rolex watch, previously worn by both Jae-yeong and Beom-jun—perhaps a symbol that he has broken the cycle.

Ju-yeon Finds Peace

The final moments show Ju-yeon visiting her mother and then walking into the season’s first snowfall. When a detective later tells her he has proof that Beom-jun and Jae-yeong were two different people, she declines to hear it. She’s already moved on.

Who Survives Karma?

In the end, five of the six central characters are dead. Only Ju-yeon survives, not because she fought the hardest, but because she chose healing over hate. Her story is one of survival, empathy, and transformation.

Karma doesn’t just live up to its title—it makes you question what justice really looks like. The red thread of fate, often used to represent love in Korean dramas, is reinterpreted here: not as a bond between lovers, but as the inescapable connection between past actions and their consequences.

All the six episodes of Karma are now streaming on Netflix.