One villain doesn’t even exist in the source material. Another gets full redemption. Here’s what really happens to Ri Eung-ryeong, Joo Kang-chan, Nam Sil-jang, Joo Hye-ri, and Geum-i-ppal.
⚠️ Contains ending spoilers, plus original webtoon content.
A good protagonist needs a good villain. For the hero to shine, whatever stands in his way has to be compelling in its own right.
Now that Agent Kim Reactivated has ended, it’s hard not to compare the real fates of its villains against the webtoon.
Some of them, the webtoon closed out far more satisfyingly. Others just faded away, unresolved.
Ri Eung-ryeong — A Villain Who Doesn’t Exist in the Source Material
Let’s get this out of the way first. Ri Eung-ryeong doesn’t appear in the webtoon at all.
The entire North-South summit and corrupt task bureau subplot is a pure drama invention. So there’s no “here’s how the webtoon ended it” to compare against.
In the drama, she’s ultimately sent back to North Korea by Park Kang-seong — the younger brother of the very agent (Code 66, Park Yeong-gwang) she trained and then sent to his death.
She ends up abandoned by the same system she once used to betray him. Since she doesn’t exist in the source material, the drama’s ending is the only ending she has.
Joo Kang-chan — The Villain the Webtoon Handled Far Better
In the drama, Joo Kang-chan stays a villain right to the end. His last desperate move is kidnapping Seong Han-su’s and Park Jin-cheol’s children, holding them at gunpoint.
He gets crushed under a collapsing cage, knocked out cold, and dragged away in complete defeat. His company goes down even harder than in the webtoon, hit with a police raid on top of the buyout.
The webtoon takes a different path entirely. After a brutal beating from Kim Bujang, Joo Kang-chan genuinely reforms. Trust builds after Kim Bujang saves his daughter, Hye-ri.
Later, when Valentina — one of the strongest fighters in this universe — moves to kill Min-ji, Joo Kang-chan throws himself in the way to protect her. Kim Bujang comes to see him almost as a kindred spirit: both men, in their own ways, used inhuman violence in service of the people they loved.
It doesn’t stop there. Much later in the story, during the “Bad Uncle” arc, Joo Kang-chan resurfaces years after everything, having lost it all.
He’s gaunt, worn down, scraping by on hard, honest work. He wants to apologize to Kim Bujang sincerely, through Min-ji.
The drama’s Joo Kang-chan ends as a punished villain. The webtoon’s Joo Kang-chan comes back as a human being.
Nam Sil-jang — The Moment That Closes the Door on Redemption
The most ironic case belongs to Nam Sil-jang (남 실장 — “Nam” is his surname; sil-jang, 실장, is a job title roughly meaning “office manager” or “chief aide,” similar to how Kim Bujang’s title, “manager,” became part of how everyone refers to him).
In the drama, he faces off against Park Jin-cheol inside a shipping container on a semi-truck. He walks away from that fight rattled, having discovered someone stronger than himself — the kind of scene that, on its surface, looks like it could open the door to a change of heart.
Instead of retreating from that fear, he goes deeper into it. He ends up directly involved in kidnapping Seong Han-su’s and Park Jin-cheol’s children, closing that door himself.
The webtoon’s Nam Sil-jang takes an entirely different road. He doesn’t die. He earns the respect of all three fathers — Kim Bujang, Seong Han-su, and Park Jin-cheol — for his skill, and Park Jin-cheol personally recruits him into Ares (a private military outfit Park Jin-cheol leads, named after the Greek god of war).
From there, he becomes a field combat operative for Ares, showing off dominant skill against a Filipino gang and staying active as a genuine ally well into the later story.
The difference between the two versions isn’t a coincidence. The webtoon’s Nam Sil-jang never touched a child, which is exactly what earned him the standing to become an ally. The drama’s Nam Sil-jang crossed that line himself — and stripped himself of that same chance.
Joo Hye-ri — The Character Who Fades Without Ever Changing
In that same reunion scene, Joo Kang-chan’s daughter Hye-ri shows a completely different side of herself. The moment her father tries to sincerely apologize, she snaps at him to “go die.”
Years have passed, and she’s exactly as cruel and immature as ever.
Watching this stirs something in Min-ji — a memory of once talking back to her own father the same way — and she ends up slapping Hye-ri across the face. That slap is essentially the only reckoning Hye-ri ever gets.
The drama doesn’t even give her that much. Hye-ri simply disappears from relevance after the early episodes, with no follow-up at all.
Geum-i-ppal — Dead in the Webtoon, the One Who Actually Gets His Revenge in the Drama
The most dramatic reversal belongs to Geum-i-ppal.
In the webtoon, right after the cold-storage escape, Joo Kang-chan’s man Nam Sil-jang tortures him again, pulling his teeth out a second time. Cornered, he tries to take his own life — and even that, Nam Sil-jang finishes brutally, on his own terms. An unjust death, taken out of his hands even at the very end.
The drama gives him an entirely different fate. A character who should have already been dead by webtoon logic survives all the way to episode 10, where he personally attacks Joo Kang-chan with a knife at the hospital.
A supporting character whose revenge was stolen from him in the source material is, in the adaptation, the one villain who actually pulls it off.
The Verdict — The Webtoon Wasn’t Crueler. It Was More Human.
Surprisingly, the webtoon isn’t the harsher version of this story. It’s the opposite.
The webtoon’s Joo Kang-chan gets redemption; the drama’s only gets punishment. The webtoon’s Nam Sil-jang becomes an ally; the drama’s forfeits that chance. The webtoon’s Geum-i-ppal has his death taken from him; the drama’s lives long enough to finish what he started.
A good villain isn’t just someone who gets taken down in the end — they need their own story to actually close. That’s probably why the webtoon feels less interested in simply punishing its villains, and more interested in asking what made them human in the first place.
Basic Info
- English Title: Agent Kim Reactivated
- Korean Title: 김부장 (Kim Bujang)
- Network / Streaming: SBS (Fri/Sat drama), simultaneous Netflix release
- Episodes: 10
- Cast: So Ji-sub, Choi Dae-hoon, Yoon Kyung-ho, Joo Sang-wook, Son Na-eun, Kim Sung-kyu
Haven’t started the show yet? Start here:
Agent Kim Reactivated: What You Need to Know Before You Watch
Meet the man himself — the full backstory of Code Name 66:
Who Is Code Name 66? Manager Kim’s Backstory Explained
Want the war machine and the martial artist too?
Agent Kim Reactivated: Who Is Park Jin-cheol, the “God of War”?
Agent Kim Reactivated: Who Is Seong Han-su, the Martial Arts Master?
Three legendary fathers, three fighting styles — who actually wins?
Agent Kim Reactivated: The Three Legends — Who Is Actually the Strongest?
Already watched the whole thing? Here’s the full spoiler review — story and ending explained:
Agent Kim Reactivated: Full Story and Ending Explained
Curious what the drama’s ending actually sets up in the original webtoon?
Agent Kim Reactivated: What Happens Next in the Webtoon?
Looking for another Netflix Korean drama you need to watch right now? Here’s a no-spoiler review:
Should You Watch The East Palace? A Korean Viewer’s Take
Which villain’s fate did the webtoon get right — and which did the drama actually improve on? Drop your take in the comments.
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