OCN | Saturdays & Sundays | 10 Episodes × 60 min | Oct 17 – Nov 15, 2020
We’re at the finale. And after everything — the DMZ, the infected soldiers, the political conspiracy, the birth secrets, the private army — it comes down to fathers and sons. It always does with this drama.
The Team Gets Captured
Lee Hyuk’s second Scorpio crew captures the team, and team leader Song Min Gyu (Yoon Park) ends up dying. This man chose to work for the soon-to-be president and it was the death of him. Literally. That’s the cost of aligning yourself with power — when that power turns on you, you’ve got nowhere to go.
So now Lee Hyuk has the male lead Dong Jin (Jang Dong Yoon) and Ye Rim (Krystal Jung) captured. He’s about to take Dong Jin out because in his mind, this kid is just like his father — Captain Jo, the man he framed and tried to murder 23 years ago. History repeating itself. Father and son, both marked for death by the same man.
A Father Kills His Own Son
And then Lee Joon Sung — Lee Hyuk’s OWN SON — jumps in front of the gun.
Lee Hyuk kills his own son.
Let that sit for a moment. This man has spent the entire drama protecting his political ambitions at all costs. He framed Captain Jo. He deployed a private army. He tried to cover up everything. And now his own child has died protecting the son of the man he destroyed. There’s a twisted poetic justice to it — he was about to kill someone else’s son, and instead he took his own.
Joon Sung chose right in the end. He leaked the tape. He tried to protect the team. And he took a bullet from his own father. That’s the arc of a man who realised too late which side he should have been on — but at least he realised.
The Dad Who Came Back
Just as Lee Hyuk is about to finish Dong Jin off, Captain Jo Min Gook — Dong Jin’s birth father — appears and protects his son.
This is the man who was shot by Lee Hyuk in 1997, left for dead in the DMZ, and has survived for 23 years as something… not quite human anymore. He’s been infected, transformed, living in the zone all this time. And he’s STILL protecting his son. After everything that was done to him, his instinct is still to save his child.
Lee Hyuk can now see that the man he thought he killed isn’t dead — but he’s become something inhuman. He tries to take him out, but Captain Jo isn’t going down easily.
Dong Jin asks his dad to come home. To come back to his mum. But Captain Jo won’t. I don’t think he can talk properly anymore, but even if he could — I think he knows. If he goes back, he’d be experimented on. He’d never be treated as human again. He’d be a specimen, a curiosity, a weapon. I think he’d rather live the life he’s living or die than go back to that. And there’s a dignity in that choice, even though it’s heartbreaking.
The Final Sacrifice
Because Captain Jo can see that Lee Hyuk is trying to save himself — trying to survive, trying to escape the consequences of everything he’s done — he makes the decision. He initiates the bomb so that they’ll BOTH die.
That’s the only way to end it. Lee Hyuk would have continued. He would have rebuilt. He would have found another way to claw his way to power and destroy anyone in his path. The only way to stop a man like that is to take him with you. And Captain Jo — who already lost his life once, who already gave up everything — gives it all one final time to make sure the man who took his family from him can never hurt anyone again.
Ye Rim’s Truth
Ye Rim finds out who she really is. She’s the child of the North Korean couple who were trying to bring the chemicals across — the very chemicals that started everything, that created the infection, that destroyed the DMZ. Her entire identity has been built on a lie, and now she knows the truth of where she came from.
It’s a lot to process. But at least she knows.
A Son Takes His Father’s Name
Dong Jin goes home to his mum. And I don’t think he ever tells her the full truth of what happened — how could he? How do you explain that your father has been alive for 23 years as something not quite human in the DMZ, that he saved your life, and that he chose to die rather than come home?
But just the fact that he came home. This woman already lost her husband. Her son walking through that door means everything.
And then he does something beautiful. He changes his name to his father’s name. His mum had changed it years ago to protect him, to hide his identity, to keep him safe from the people who destroyed his father. But there’s no need for that anymore. The threat is gone. Lee Hyuk is dead. The truth is out.
So he takes his father’s name because he’s PROUD of who his father was. Captain Jo wasn’t a defector. He wasn’t a traitor. He was a man who was framed, who survived against impossible odds, and who in the end gave his life to protect his son and destroy the man who took everything from him.
That name change is everything. It’s Dong Jin saying — I know who my father was. I know what he did. And I’m not hiding anymore.
My Thoughts on the Finale
I liked this story. I really did.
It wasn’t perfect — the CGI was ropey, it tried to cram too many themes into 10 episodes, and there were moments where you couldn’t tell soldiers apart in the dark. But the HEART of it was right. The political corruption plot was more compelling than the creature plot. The father-son dynamics carried the emotional weight. And the ending felt earned.
Captain Jo choosing to die rather than go home was devastating but it made sense. Lee Hyuk killing his own son was the karmic consequence of a man who destroyed everyone around him. Joon Sung jumping in front of that bullet was redemption. And Dong Jin taking his father’s name was healing.
Search was a drama that aired the same weekend as Start-Up in 2020 and got completely overshadowed. But honestly? It might have been the stronger show. It was bold, it was different, and it didn’t waste a single minute of its 10 episodes.
If you haven’t watched it — it’s free on Tubi and Viki. Go in blind. Trust me.
Quick Stats
Network OCN (Sat & Sun)
Episodes 10 × 60 min Aired October 17 – November 15, 2020
Genre Military, Thriller, Mystery, Horror
Director Im Dae Woong
Where to Watch Viki (free), Tubi (free), iQIYI
Cast
Jang Dong Yoon
Yong Dong Jin — The son who took his father’s name
Krystal Jung
Son Ye Rim — forensic scientist who discovered her true origins
Yoo Sung Joo
Lee Hyuk — the politician who destroyed everything and everyone, including his own son
Lee Hyun Wook
Lee Joon Sung — the son who chose right, too late
Yeon Woo Jin
Captain Jo Min Gook — the father who gave his life twice
Yoon Park
Song Min Gyu — team leader, killed by the side he chose Moon Jung Hee Kim Da Jung — ex-special forces, civilian guide
He changed his name. Not because he had to. Because he was proud.
Captain Jo wasn’t a traitor. He was a father. And his son finally got to tell the world.
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