The final episode of Agent Kim Reactivated ties up nearly every loose end, and the short answer to the biggest question is this: Kim is not dead, and Min-ji is safe. Honestly, we think the show could have ended at episode 8, the moment Kim gets his daughter back, and still been a great drama. Everything that comes after, the North Korea mission and Ju Gang-chan’s revenge plot, was invented for the series and isn’t in the original webtoon, and it’s also the part viewers argued about most. But the finale leaves one small scene behind that points straight at a second season.
Agent Kim Reactivated is based on the Naver webtoon Manager Kim (김부장), and it went from a quiet start to a genuine phenomenon. The first episode opened at 9.5 percent in Korea. The finale hit 23.0 percent nationwide, with a peak of 27.1 percent, the highest rating for any Korean miniseries this year. Not bad for a show whose pitch was basically “ordinary office dad turns out to be a legendary agent.”
How Do Han-su and Jin-cheol Save Their Kids?
Episode 9 ended on the worst possible note: Ju Gang-chan had kidnapped Han-su’s and Jin-cheol’s children. In the finale, he gives the two dads an impossible order. If they want their kids back alive, they have to kill Kim. The three friends end up facing each other inside a cage.
For a while, it really looks like they’re going through with it. Their children’s lives are on the line, so what choice do they have? But Kim had quietly told them how to break the cage ahead of time. Just when Kim looks like he’s about to go down, Han-su and Jin-cheol kick out the side of the cage together, and the whole thing comes crashing down on Ju. It’s the most satisfying scene of the finale, and a perfect reminder of why fans fell for this “dad trio” in the first place.
What Happens to Ju Gang-chan?
Kim isn’t willing to let anything like this happen again, so he goes after Ju for good. He calls in a favor from an old contact he hasn’t spoken to in more than a decade, and soon Juhak Construction is under investigation for fraud. The politicians who protected Ju are forced out of office one by one.
Then comes the kind of payoff only this show would deliver. While Ju sits in a wheelchair surrounded by reporters, Golden Teeth shows up and stabs him. Golden Teeth only lost his teeth; Ju has now lost everything. Hye-ri, who bullied Min-ji, doesn’t escape either. She faces a wave of public backlash online once people learn what she did.
What Happens to Ri Eung-ryeong?
Ri Eung-ryeong hands over the North Korean missile data he had hidden inside his own body, and with that, Kim settles his last debt. Reviews describe Ri’s final whereabouts a little differently, but the important part is clear: Kim’s ties to him, and to both Koreas’ intelligence agencies, are cut for good.
Is Kim Dead in Agent Kim Reactivated? Where Is He Now?
No, Kim is alive. To make sure no agency from either the North or the South ever comes after him again, the authorities officially declare Agent 66 dead. On paper he’s gone. In reality, he’s very much alive.
After some time passes, Kim finds Min-ji at the columbarium where his “ashes” are kept. Both of them receive new identities. Min-ji becomes Ji-min, transfers to a new school and says goodbye to her crush, Nam-hoon. Over a scene of the three dads heading out to get new glasses together, Min-ji’s narration says that most people have ordinary fathers, but those ordinary fathers would do anything for their kids, even destroy the world.
That line from the trailer says everything about how this story was always going to end. The happy ending of Agent Kim Reactivated was never about how many enemies Kim took down. It was about him finally getting to be exactly that: just Min-ji’s dad.
What Does the Final Baekho Scene Mean?
Right when the epilogue seems to be over, there’s one more scene. Kim shows up for a job interview at a company called Baekho Manpower. Its director, Lee Do-gyu, doubts what this middle-aged man can do and challenges him to a sparring match.
This isn’t just a fun stinger. In the original Manager Kim webtoon, Baekho Manpower is where Kim actually goes to work after the Min-ji arc, and the sparring scene is lifted from an early part of that storyline. Ending the show on that exact moment feels like a clear signal that the story is ready to keep going.
How Is Min-ji Saved in the Webtoon?
Min-ji survives in the webtoon too, but the way she survives is completely different. After being beaten by the school bullies, she’s mistaken for dead and handed over to Golden Teeth’s gang, who lock her in a freezer warehouse. And then she gets herself out. In the webtoon, Min-ji isn’t waiting to be rescued. She saves herself.
It’s easy to see why the drama changed this. Turning it into Kim’s rescue mission keeps the emotional focus on the father. Still, if you know the webtoon version of Min-ji, it’s hard not to miss her a little.
| Manager Kim webtoon | Agent Kim Reactivated | |
|---|---|---|
| How Min-ji survives | Escapes the freezer warehouse on her own | Rescued by Kim |
| After the Min-ji arc | Kim joins Baekho Manpower and takes on new cases | North Korea mission and Ju’s revenge (drama original) |
| Tone | Dark comedy and social satire | Emotional story about a father’s love |
| Universe | Spin-off set in the same world as Lookism | Stand-alone story |
The webtoon is a much bigger, louder world. The drama strips most of it away and focuses on one simple line: a dad trying to save his daughter. Webtoon fans lose a lot in that trade, but for viewers meeting this story for the first time, we think it made the show far easier to fall into.
How Did Fans React to the Agent Kim Reactivated Ending?
In Korea, the word that kept coming up was “yongduyongmi,” roughly “a dragon’s head and a dragon’s tail.” It’s the opposite of the more common complaint that a drama starts strong and fizzles out, and it was meant as high praise. Many viewers also cheered the Baekho scene as a sign that season 2 is on the table.
There was one big complaint, though, and almost everyone had it. The last 20 minutes of the finale were packed with product placement, from candy and cars to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant and an eyewear brand. Korean viewers called it “one giant PPL festival,” and many said the ending was good but the ads completely broke the mood. Some even said that if the show had been a Netflix original, it would have been much easier to stay immersed, and hoped a second season would land on Netflix for exactly that reason.
International fans were just as positive overall. On MyDramaList, around 3,800 users have given the show an average of 8.7 out of 10. Reading through the reviews, the praise and the criticism land in the same place: the kidnapping arc in the first half is gripping from start to finish, but the story wobbles a bit once the political North Korea plot takes over around episode 7. We agree, and that’s exactly the stretch the drama added on its own.
Will There Be Agent Kim Reactivated Season 2?
Nothing is official yet. But the day after the finale, the production company said it is “positively discussing” a second season, adding that no schedule has been set.
We think the odds are good. A 23 percent rating is not something a Korean broadcaster walks away from easily. The source material is also far from used up: the Manager Kim webtoon runs past 250 chapters, and the drama only adapted the early part. Most of all, that final interview scene lines up exactly with where the webtoon goes next.
If Agent Kim Reactivated season 2 happens, expect it to center on Kim’s “second career” at Baekho Manpower rather than on Min-ji. Given how long Korean dramas take to prepare, 2027 at the earliest seems realistic. If you can’t wait that long, pick up the webtoon from the point where Kim moves to Baekho Manpower. It’s available in English as Manager Kim on the official WEBTOON app.