I really liked this show for most of its run! it was a pretty compelling thriller and while some elements were unrealistic in order to move the plot forward, it was pretty entertaining. i did lose some interest in the last couple of episodes, just because certain things didn't feel super well wrapped up. Charles is a great example -- I never understood his character's purpose and what his relationship with YJ was like. His suicide felt pretty meaningless in the end. I also felt like the show was never able to overcome the sense of nihilistic bleakness that began after Yuna wasmurdered, and the explanation in these final episodes (that SH just lost control of YJ and the revenge plan) just made that worse.

Personally I felt let down by how everything ended up. There really was no justice for any of the victims. Sung-hoon's biggest mistake was allowing Yoon-jae to play a part in the first place; Yoon-jae was too much of a loose cannon and Sung-hoon should have realized that. Sung-hoon didn't want to murder innocent ones but still gave Yoon-jae the go-ahead thereby making both of them perpetrators and no longer victims. They became like the people they were trying to punish. And yet I still felt bad for Sung-hoon who lived behind bars as a teen and now will do the same for the rest of his life. So basically, no one won in the end; everyone ended up suffering. I had really hoped Sung-hoon wasn't a part of the crimes for Sung-joon's sake. Sung-joon became a victim as well losing his entire family; but at least he and Eun-ki have each other and can help each other work their way out of the darkness.

Hmm, I guess I just don't see the message the drama was trying to convey because I only grasped the "negative" aspects of things such as NOTHING would've happened with the Hope Welfare people if it hadn't been for that first murder. I guess I have to say that I'm much more jaded and cynical than I think "healing" audiences are. Like I didn't watch the finale and think "wow, this was cathartic" but instead I thought of all the questions I had.

I'm not saying murder is right but it *was* what brought things to light. Even from the very beginning, I understood while the daughters were targeted and while it's not right and excusable, I understood the motivation or reason. ​Everyone involved were just going on with their lives, not giving a single thought to those kids ("useless ophans as Sung Joon's mother called them) both in the past and in the present.
Even after everyone was rounded up in the Hope Welfare cellar/basement/whatever that space was and revealed their involvement, once they were released, it was back to business as usual. No repetence or shame about anything. If it hadn't been recorded that these people committed *new* crimes, they would've spun the situation and/or blamed Sung Hoon for everything while also dismissing the situation AGAIN

Eun Ki had even mentioned how the public lost/would lose interest once the outrage/novelty of the case worn off.

And I also had questions such as where did all those kids' drawings come from? What was even the point of gaslighting Sung Joon? Was he really supposed to be framed for the murder? But if that was the case, then why did Sung Hoon say that framing him sent the plan off the rails leading the fall guy's entire family being killed? And what was with adopting Sung Hoon into their familiy in the first place?! The man he desperately appealed to had completely ignored him and betrayed his trust while the wife paid to bury the story and they thought "let's bring this boy into our home and that's good enough". Ugh they are so gross. Everyone is trash but they are special type of trash.

So I guess Yoon Jae was suicidal after being abandoned by Sung Hoon because there's no way he thought he could win against Mad Dog (but at least he was able to take him out with him)
I really felt like there must've been missing in translation because Sung Joon's mother had said everything she did was for her career and family and Sung Joon was her everything and I was like 🤨 uh no, were you completely in a delusion because you treated Sung Joon like an annoyance and black sheep for the last 20 years. Also Sung Hoon said Eun Ji wasn't on the list to be killed but wasn't she mentioned being on the list? Isn't that the whole reason she was included on the jury? And she was targeted twice (which brings me to why did the fall guy target her in the first place?)

I did think it was nice that Sung Hoon seemed to apologize to Sung Joon because man, he did not deserve all...

You said it all. I also want to rewatch the whole drama to focus on every little detail after getting to know the truth. I also agree that the drama was on point making us thrilled enough but not too much.
It was meaningful how they revealed Yoon-jae's true identity soon and gave enough time to depict characters' feelings, the healing and the closure they got.
This drama really got better episode after episode. I am a little bit scaredy cat but I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end.

Yes @mistyisles I so agree with your last 2 paragraphs. Taecyeon really nailed his role and Ha Suk-jin played it so subtly that I did not catch on right away of his part. It was tight and well acted and well portrayed as a more realistic ending for this type of story. I shed a few tears for the ending with the boys as they could have been and for the pain Suk-jin's character experienced. So very good.

So many things remained unclear. The purpose of gaslighting Sung-joon while Sung-hoon said it was Yoon-jae that framed Sung-joon. The reason of adopting Sung-hoon. What exactly happened to no 12? Why Sung-hoon said Eun-gi was never on the list?
And something about Yoon-jae. At first we thought little Yoon-jae was nice and innocent, but later we see him saying to no 12 that he will kill his mother for him. No other kid was like him. Even Sung-hoon who was the mastermind. So is it possible that he was a psychopath?
And in the end I'm sad that no one got what he deserved.

I have just finished this show and I want to put down my jumbled thoughts in no particular order.

Taec was perfect in this role. I loved that he was just an ordinary man. How he kept finding things out not because he was a genius at deducting but because he just kept grinding. He found out most things after normal police procedure or being right out told. Which felt so normal and true to life. This was actually the case with everything else that happened, most of which the commenters here have complained about. No justice. Nothing changing. Nobody taking action because they could turn a blind eye. Nobody caring or noticing if it hadn't been for the first murder. These all feel sooo true to life and real that it is heartbreaking.

In hindsight it is funny that I was shown the culprit from day one but still doubted SJ and believed SH at every turn. We saw the culprit with wooden figurines from day one. We saw SH and YJ shooting each other startled looks when they heard EJ talking about Hope Institution on the phone. We knew that the only people who had SJ's phone number when he was on the run were SH and EJ but he got Tae Ho's live stream like everybody else. There were so many clear clues.

The ost that played during the children's scenes felt strangely incongruous at first, but as the show went on the music felt more and more haunting and fitting until it became heartbreaking. It was very well done.

Charles was a completely unnecessary and unclear character. Did YJ and SH find him and tell him about his brother and their plan? That sounds too risky and not at all like those two. It would have made more sense if he was from Hope himself. He didn't have enough motivation to be that loyal and wasn't really complicit in the plan. So what was his use, and why was he on the Jury. Only to provide a place for the Jurors to gather and eat, and a knife-weilding suspect...

Also we saw no.12's mother getting a jury duty letter but she wasn't on the jury. I'm nearly sure that she wasn't in SH's revenge plan and it was solely YJ's doing, and he probably never told SH that he killed no.12... but why did she get the letter.

Another thing that confused me was the nurse's story. From her story it seemed like she was at Hope for a short time before she was horrified and tipped the producer. But from EJ's age the nurse must have worked there for ten years.

Yes, SH shouldn't have trusted YJ and teamed with him when he knew how cruel he could be. But he was his brother. They had gone through so much together. It was not like he decided on a plan and asked around who would help him. They were in this together from day one. And yes he was guilty of giving him too much rein when he knew he would kill too many innocent people. I think he started giving up on YJ because of Ahn Tae Ho and Yoona. YJ killed ATH when SH had specifically told him not to, and then Yoona with all her talks about becoming a good person, finding her killed...