Pachinko's Lee Minho and Minha Kim Break Down Heartbreaking Reveal in Season 2 Finale

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Pachinko Season 2, Episode 8, "Chapter Sixteen." Read at your own risk!]

It was only a matter of time before Noa (Tae Ju Kang) found out the truth. For his entire life, he has been led by his mom Sunja (Minha Kim) to believe that he's the son of Baek Isak (Steve Sanghyun Noh), the sickly pastor who raised him. But in Pachinko Season 2 Episode 8, "Chapter Sixteen," Noa learns the secret Sunja has tried so desperately to hide: His biological father is Koh Hansu (Lee Minho). The reveal happened after Noa's girlfriend, Akiko (Kilala Inori), expressed the painfully obvious connection between the two. Refusing to believe her, Noa rushed to confront Hansu directly in the middle of the night. There, his worst fear was confirmed. "It's true," Hansu said — Noa is his son.

By now, Hansu has had a consistent, though distant, relationship with Noa for years. Why did he choose this moment to reveal the truth about their relationship? "I also had a question about that," Lee told TV Guide. "My understanding is that he was trying to find the very right time to show himself before Noa and tell him, I'm your father." And the actor believes that Hansu found that "right time" — when Noa was "at his weakest point, and he was trying to find his own self-image." 

In this part of the story, Noa had just left home for the first time and is starting to build his life as a first-year college student. "Hansu showed up right then and there, trying to turn his life upside down," Lee said. "That scene was one of the most powerful scenes for me to play."

ALSO READ: Pachinko's Minha Kim on Sunja and Hansu's relationship: 'It's the most powerful love that she experienced'

Tensions are high in this exchange, and Hansu doesn't miss an opportunity to lecture his son. "When Hansu was confronting Noa, I think he was also projecting his whole life into that little rendezvous moment," Lee explained. "He was telling him, 'this is how I live my life and how you should live it as well.'" Of course, Noa wants nothing to do with the man standing before him — he calls Hansu "foul," "venal," and, "selfish."

And it doesn't take long for Hansu to learn just how devastating this news was for Noa. "It's when he revealed this truth that Noa chose to disappear," Lee said. "That implies that Hansu, who has been desiring so much, in the end he can't get the love he really wanted." The timing of his son's disappearance pains Hansu deeply. "He realized he lost all his energy and motivation to keep going," Lee added.

Sunja feels similarly. Before Noa left, he appeared before his mom unannounced. He tried to have a normal conversation with her, but Sunja could tell something was off. "I could feel the sorrow inside his eyes," Kim said of her character. "At that moment, I felt, that's weird. What's happening?"

ALSO READ: Pachinko's Minha Kim says Isak is 'giving another extra life to Sunja' in heartbreaking scene

It wasn't until Noa departed for the train station, though, that Sunja was struck by the realization that her son knows the truth. "It's the one thing that she was trying to conceal for her whole life, the one thing she didn't want Noa to know," Kim said. "She has been aware of it every single day, she was imagining it — what if Noa figured it out?"

That moment Sunja dreaded has come, and one of the last scenes of Pachinko Season 2 shows the mom lying down after realizing that Noa is not returning. "Throughout the season, the affection towards Noa and Mozasu have been shown in a lot of scenes," Kim said. "But I think the most powerful scene where people can see Sunja's love to Noa is the last episode." 

The actor unpacks the significance of Sunja's body language. "Right after he's gone, it was her first time to lie down and it leads her to close her eyes — before then, she had never felt tired because of their kids and family," Kims shared. "Through showing that she collapsed after Noa's gone, it shows that Noa was the reason for her to be alive."

ALSO READ: Pachinko Season 2 review: Apple TV+'s epic, intimate family drama is richer than ever