'No Tail To Tell' Ending Explained & Finale Recap: Is Si-Yeol Dead Or Alive?

For a fantasy TV show, No Tail to Tell certainly felt a little lackluster, and even overly melodramatic at times. I don’t know if it’s because it specifically stars Kim Hye-yoon, who looks exactly as she did in her previous drama, “Lovely Runner.” There’s something very boring about the way she looks, which certainly adds to the show’s vibe as a whole. With the final episode airing, I’ve got to admit, this is one of those shows that I’d have left midway if I didn’t have to watch it for work. It just didn’t feel like a charming Gumiho love story, like it was meant to be. The ending result feels like fake happiness, and ultimately, I am left quite disappointed. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t recap it for you. Episode 11 ended with Si-Yeol being shot at point-blank range by Lee Yoon after he stepped in to take a bullet meant for Eun-Ho. Just as the couple were getting used to the idea of living a normal life (well, as close to normal as they could manage) together, Eun-Ho cruelly has the love of her life snatched away from her. Will she manage to keep him safe? What will it cost her? Read on to find out.

Spoiler Alert

How Does Si-Yeol Survive Being Shot?

Right after Si-Yeol is shot, he ends up being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, with Eun-Ho accompanying him. Maybe Lee Yoon ran out of ammo, or maybe he just felt so guilty after he shot an innocent man that he gave up on his revenge. Still out of character, given that revenge was the only thing fueling his actions for the last decade or so. When they get to the hospital, Woo-Seok sees what’s happened to Si-Yeol on the news and rushes to see him. By the time he shows up, Eun-Ho’s received the news that Si-Yeol’s organs are failing, and he has little hope of living to see the morning. This is when Eun-Ho remembers what Lord Pagun had told her; she’d either remain human or be annihilated.

At the time, she didn’t take him seriously, but now she knows that if she remains a living human, she’s going to lose Si-Yeol forever. The only alternative? Annihilation, of course. Woo-Seok is her ally in this voluntary annihilation. She’s been trusting him for some time now, starting with her getting him to hold onto Geum-Ho’s fox bead for her, even though he said he wasn’t worthy of a responsibility that big. Woo-Seok believed he was a bad person, but working with Eun-Ho, the latter makes him understand that he’s suppressed that side of himself. I guess the multiple life swaps taught him what life can truly give you and take away. So he took himself seriously and decided to deal with what he got himself into, rather than trying to live someone else’s life. Now, Eun-Ho has a special request for him; she wants him to stab her with the Sajin Ritual Dagger. When he initially hesitates, she tells him that if Si-Yeol dies now, there’ll be no way to switch fates again, and Woo-Seok will end up dying of his heart cancer. She takes them to the same spot where she and Si-Yeol had their first kiss, and asks Woo-Seok to kill her.

No sooner is the dagger in her chest than a whole bunch of stuff starts happening all at once. For starters, with her selfless sacrifice, she’s just earned her sister’s fox bead a whole bunch of spiritual power, so she immediately gets upgraded from an eight-tailed fox to a nine-tailed fox. But then the major changes she’s made recently start to unravel, too, the biggest one being her move to switch Si-Yeol and Woo-Seok’s fates. This means Si-Yeol and Woo-Seok immediately switch spots, and suddenly, Si-Yeol’s the one holding the dagger sticking out of Eun-Ho’s chest, and he has no idea how this happened or what he’s doing here. Just like in Eun-Ho’s premonition from way back, he’s wearing the pink sweater his grandma gave him in this moment. She shouldn’t have been so stuck on her premonition because ultimately, what is meant to happen will eventually happen. 

And just like that, Si-Yeol’s back, though he’s not the only one. Lee Yoon’s driver, who ended up dying because Yoon wanted him to take the fall for him back in the day, never ended up being put in that position. This also means his daughter doesn’t have to grow up without a father and gets to go to the fancy university she wants, though she doesn’t remember Si-Yeol when she meets him and asks for his autograph. Also back to life is Do-Cheol, the shaman. However, it seems there’s no redeeming this man, as he ends up trying to use the vajra bell on Geum-Ho again, except this time she’s a nine-tailed fox, not an eight-tailed one, so he fails, and she gets the spirits haunting him to devour his soul. Finally, Lee Yoon, without the influence of Eun-Ho, hasn’t shot Si-Yeol, nor has he run over Woo-Seok (9 years ago), but he ends up going to prison anyway. I guess an evil guy always ends up evil, even if he isn’t disrupting someone’s life. 

Did Woo-Seok and Si-Yeol End Up Living Good Lives?

After all the changes, Woo-Seok and Si-Yeol end up where they were meant to be without the interference of Eun-Ho. The premonitions Eun-Ho sees always come true, which is why she was so sure she changed fate when her first vision showed Si-Yeol living a life of obscurity, and her second showed him becoming a football superstar. Just like with the pink sweater stabbing premonition, everything she’d seen had come to pass; it had just taken Woo-Seok’s wish to make unsuccessful Si-Yeol a reality. So that means that after she dies, Woo-Seok goes back to being an obscure 4th division player, and Si-Yeol is back on the tabloid front pages, an international superstar. They do both manage to make the best of it, though.

Si-Yeol ends up taking Thames FC back into the English Premier League by getting them to top the Second Division league tables, and by the time he’s ready to retire, 10 years after this whole mess, he’s ended his career with a perfect, undefeated season. He’s also found the time to buy Daehung Citizens FC, the worst team in the 4th division at the time, though he manages to polish up a few of the players with time, with Chi-Su even currently playing in the K League. Also, his heart cancer disappears out of nowhere. Woo-Seok laments how, even without the car accident, his career ended earlier than Si-Yeol’s, but he’s learned how to come to terms with everything now. He’s moved on with his life, using his dad’s retirement money to open a restaurant that’s actually doing really well, maybe even well enough to consider franchising. 

But by making a point of how he’s moved on, he’s drawing attention to how Si-Yeol himself never managed to do the same himself. It’s been 10 years since Eun-Ho died, but the guy is still mourning the loss. Before Eun-Ho died, she cashed in on a wish from Si-Yeol, which she earned by cheating against him during football practice. Now powerless and dying in his arms, Eun-Ho used her wish to ask him to forget her, to live his life as if she had never existed, and just be happy. You already know that could never happen, not with how smitten these two are with each other. So Woo-Seok’s advice falls on deaf ears, and Si-Yeol ends his meal at his buddy’s restaurant just as in love with Eun-Ho as he has been for the last decade.

Is Eun-Ho Still Around?

Just like the Greeks have the river Styx, the Koreans (and the Japanese) have the River of Three Crossings, which the dead must cross over to make their way to the afterlife. After she’s stabbed, this is where Eun-ho finds herself, waiting on the bank of the river in the middle of an intense storm. There seems to be a Charon-like boatman figure here, too, though he’s annoyed at Eun-Ho for not crossing over. Meanwhile, after leaving Woo-Seok’s restaurant, Si-Yeol walks down the street he used to live on in his other, poorer life, though the buildings there are apparently all scheduled for demolition as part of a redevelopment drive soon, meaning these memories won’t last forever. He sees the streetlamps turn on all of a sudden, and he’s reminded of how Geum-Ho did the same thing when she was stalking Beom (whatever happened to their romance?). This causes him to run up to the rooftop he used to live on, and he threatens to jump off the top if she doesn’t show herself. Finally, when he slips and is about to go off the edge, Eun-Ho appears out of nowhere and pulls him to safety. Turns out, Pagun got tired of seeing her wait on the bank of the river and finally brought her back to life as a Gumiho after a whole 9 years. Si-Yeol’s immediate reaction to this is bewilderment at the idea that she would wait a whole year before contacting him. They talk a lot about the implications of a Gumiho dating a mortal, and finally, they come to the realization that as long as they both get to have each other, it doesn’t matter if it’s not forever.

In No Tail to Tell’s ending, the two go on a date, but then it’s not as intimate as Si-Yeol wants after a photographer, videographer, and even a director who’s been to Cannes show up to make sure Eun-Ho gets to preserve all her memories with Si-Yeol for when he’s no longer around. Finally, Si-Yeol asks her for a bit of privacy, and they go to her home on a mountain in North Korea, and it seems like they’re going to get intimate before Geum-Ho makes a surprise appearance. Turns out, Geum-Ho was the one who cured Si-Yeol’s heart cancer back in the day, and they’re both happy to see each other, even if Eun-Ho’s a bit grumpy that she’s ruined the mood. When she’s cuddled up with Si-Yeol afterwards, Eun-Ho has another premonition, and she sees herself at Si-Yeol’s grave, and it reads that he’s died in 2096, just a few months shy of his 98th birthday. But she accepts this fleeting love. Later, they go for a walk on a deserted island, just the two of them, and they reaffirm their love for each other, with Si-Yeol saying he sees nothing but good things ahead (and also that he’ll be good to her when she jokingly threatens to abandon him on the island if he mistreats her).

Ultimately, I think the point of No Tail to Tell is that even if you have a Gumiho in your life, fate will always take its course. Si-Yeol and Woo-Seok switch over 3 times, and yet, in the end, they get back to right where they started, and they’re both, in different capacities, happy. Additionally, I don’t think I ever saw Woo-Seok as a bad person; it was his circumstances that led him to be slightly greedy, but when he sees his friend on his deathbed, Woo-Seok’s instinct is to find a way to help him, and he agrees to do what Eun-Ho says, even if it means going back to a life that he might never be satisfied with. But here’s the thing: you’ve got to be satisfied with what you’ve been given, and eventually, you’ll get to the stage where you’re genuinely happy and don’t need shamans or Gumihos or any imaginative entity to help you live life. Despite everything, love conquers all, and Eun-Ho chooses love even after seeing what that did to her sister. Finally, she’s okay with handling the loss of a great love, because at least she got to experience it. 

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