Adamas Episode 16 Recap and Review: Two Brothers Unite?

Adamas (아다마스) is a thriller-mystery Korean drama series directed by Park Seung-woo and stars Ji Sung in the lead double roles of Ha Woo-sin and Song Su-hyeon, along with Seo Ji-hye and Lee Soo-kyung in lead roles. The series takes over tvN’s Wednesday-Thursday 10.30 PM KST timeslot previously occupied by Eve. Adamas episode 16 has a runtime of 68 minutes.

Disney+ describes the series as:

TWIN BROTHERS WOO-SIN AND SU-HYEON LOSE THEIR FATHER IN A MURDER CASE. TWENTY-TWO YEARS LATER, THE BROTHERS SEEK TO CLEAR THEIR FATHER’S NAME.

– Adamas Episode 16 Recap Contains Spoilers –

Adamas episode 16 starts with Tae-sung and his last standing colleague tensed about the gunfire outside, thinking that they are all dying. Fortunately for them, though, it’s a bunch of police personnel with Hyuk-pil and Seo-hee.

We see the background of Seo-hee trying to convince Hyuk-pil to help Tae-sung and the crew, and it’s nice how she can get through to him in the end. Meanwhile, we also see how Woo-sin and Su-hyeon ended up where they did – obviously, Woo-sin tries to reason with his brother not to make a hasty decision, but well, that conversation doesn’t go as planned.

Su-hyeon, in the end, apologises for making Woo-sin go through the trauma alone and the next thing we know, he’s driving to the B site to scope it out and gather evidence. However, when he eventually goes down to the basement, he gets ambushed by Jun-kyung, just as Woo-sin comes to the horrible realization as well.

Seo-hee, Woo-sin and Tae-sung rush to save Su-hyeon, while the latter lies on the floor in excruciating pain after getting shot. After some torturing and reminding him how he tortured his brother, Jun-kyung and Su-hyeon get into a bloody fight, after which Su-hyeon runs away from him. Unfortunately, he does eventually get caught, and Jun-kyung celebrates after strangling him to death.

Meanwhile, Woo-sin and the gang rush to find Su-hyeon and realise that he’s on the move. As they follow his GPS signal, the police get to the B site and find from the CCTV footage that Jun-kyung has taken Su-hyeon with them somewhere.

Also Read: Adamas Episode 15 Recap and Review: And There’s the Adamas!

Elsewhere, Sun points a gun at Hye-soo, and she gives her an offer – to do something that makes her happy. She offers to let her kill Ms Yoon because Hyun-jo would never allow her to do that; plus, he will simply get rid of her after using her. Sun retorts that she will also do the same thing since she killed Min-jo and Hye-soo tells her that if she saves her, then Min-jo will be happy. Now interested, Sun asks what she has to offer, and she tells her that there’s something more satisfying to her than killing Ms Yoon, which makes Sun perk up and take notice.

As Woo-sin and the gang rush with bated breath to save Su-hyeon, Hyun-jo is shocked to find Hye-soo still alive, and he informs her that her beloved Team A got busted. She doesn’t look really fazed and goes straight back to threatening him. They are now at an impasse – and only one can survive this game.

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On the other hand, no one is happy about where they find Su-hyeon’s location to have stopped – it’s the sea, and from the looks of it, they aren’t going to find Su-hyeon any time soon. Woo-sin, obviously, looks out at the sea shell shocked, and while Tae-sung runs off to look at Su-hyeon’s car, Woo-sin and Seo-hee are left heartbroken at their loss.

Tae-sung, meanwhile, finds out an inkling of where Jun-kyung may be, and a fight breaks out between the two at the airport. The fight doesn’t work as well for Tae-sung and his colleague, as Jun-kyung gets the best of them both. Outside, though, he comes face to face with Woo-sin and mentally tortures him with Su-hyeon’s death.

Woo-sin, however, isn’t a pushover and shoots both of Jun-kyung’s legs just as the police get there, after which he falls on Tae-sung, completely breaking down.

With the craziness behind everyone, an investigation starts into Team A and ARES as Haesong’s reputation takes a hit. Hyun-jo tries to take care of this horrible turn of events with Ms Yoon’s help while Jun-kyung gets interrogated by the police. However, he refuses to cooperate, and he has a tense conversation with Tae-sung, and Woo-sin opts to talk to him instead.

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That conversation, however, goes as well as one may expect, with Woo-sin threatening to go to Hye-soo and trying to bargain with the Adamas and Jun-kyung wondering out loud whom she would pick between the two of them. Later on, Tae-sung gives Woo-sin some good advice about pain and guilt, but Woo-sin is thinking about Jun-kyung name-dropping Hye-soo, realizing that she’s the decision maker.

At Haesong, Ms Kwon comes back to work and greets Hye-soo as the master (or mistress?) of the house, while Hye-soo brings the house down with her press conference, wherein she blames everything on Chairman Kwon and also mentions that Hyun-jo has had to step down from his post thanks to the shock of everything happening around him.

Meanwhile, Seo-hee and Woo-sin find comfort in each other as they sit on the beach, hoping to see a glimpse of Su-hyeon. Even she asks him not to waver and hand the Adamas over to kill Jun-kyung. However, Woo-sin feels guilty and heartbroken for pushing Su-hyeon to such lengths that his brother disappeared into the sea.

The next day, things get heated when Ms Yoon finds herself facing her sister and her lover together, only that Hyun-jo is on the couch being slowly poisoned. Sun, however, isn’t interested in killing her. She has forced Hyun-jo to go into a coma so that Ms Yoon has to forever stay by his side, taking care of him, something that she didn’t do for her siblings when she had poisoned them all those years back.

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As Hye-soo becomes the new chairman of Haesong, Jun-kyung gets transferred to the prosecution. On the other hand, Woo-sin goes to meet Hye-soo, with the Adamas. He has a new deal to make – he wants Hye-soo to keep Jun-kyung alive so that he can make him stand trial. Hye-soo agrees to do so but mentions that it’s going to be an uphill battle. Woo-sin leaves after promising to meet again, but the next time on opposite sides.

Meanwhile, Woo-sin and Seo-hee meet up after realizing that no one wants to believe the truth that they dug up and wonder how to make people believe – the truth won’t hold any power otherwise. Woo-sin promises to do just that and decides to write a book such that it will make people talk; then, they will definitely ask themselves what actually happened and who was behind the entire ordeal.

Adamas Episode 16 Ending

Sometime later, Seo-hee makes a visit to Woo-sin’s house, who is, for some reason, outside. In his office, Seo-hee finds a curious letter with Su-hyeon’s name on it and is shocked to read what’s on the letter – Su-hyeon is still alive, and he has to find the Adamas to get to him.

At the beach, Woo-sin looks out at sea, smiling and holding the Adamas in his hand.

Adamas Episode 16 Review

I don’t believe for a second that Su-hyeon would just die and that Woo-sin would hand the Adamas over to Hye-soo, of all people. And that fun ending does just that – makes you sit up and take notice.

Other than that interesting ending, I think the Adamas finale was quite tame. We don’t learn anything interesting, Su-hyeon’s fate is up in the air, and we don’t know what really happened to Jun-kyung. Personally, I found the ending rather rushed, like there is so much of the story we still have to know, but we can’t.

Adamas episode 16 is rather slow and unsatisfying and leaves you feeling rather sad at how they decided to end an otherwise enjoyable show.

Check out Adamas on tvN and Disney+.

Also Read: All Adamas Episodic Reviews