Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Goblin (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God), including the final episode, Ji Eun-tak’s death, the fate of Kim Shin, the Grim Reaper and Sunny, and the final scene.
The Goblin ending does not give Kim Shin and Ji Eun-tak a simple “happily ever after.” They marry and finally begin a life together, only for Eun-tak to sacrifice herself to save a group of children. But death is not the end of their relationship.
The finale uses the drama’s rules of reincarnation, memory and human choice to bring Eun-tak back to Kim Shin in another life. At the same time, Sunny and the Grim Reaper are also given another chance to meet without the guilt and tragedy that shaped their previous lives.
So what actually happens, why does Eun-tak have to die, and is the ending really happy?
Table of Contents
- What Happens at the End of Goblin?
- Why Does Ji Eun-tak Die?
- What Happens to Eun-tak After She Dies?
- Why Is Kim Shin Still Alive After the Sword Is Removed?
- What Happens to the Grim Reaper and Sunny?
- What Does the Final Scene in Quebec Mean?
- Why Does Eun-tak Remember Kim Shin in Her Next Life?
- Is Kim Shin’s Ending Actually Happy?
- What the Ending Resolves
- What the Ending Leaves Open
- Does Goblin Set Up Season 2?
- FAQ
What Happens at the End of Goblin?
Before the finale, Kim Shin finally removes the sword from his chest and uses it to destroy Park Joong-heon. The sword had been both the source of his immortality and the weapon capable of ending the centuries-old conflict.
Removing it causes Kim Shin to disappear, and the people who knew him lose their memories of him. He does not immediately pass into a normal afterlife, however. Instead, he remains alone in a space between heaven and earth.
Nine years later, Eun-tak is 29 and working as a radio producer. She no longer consciously remembers Kim Shin, but she continues to feel an unexplained sadness and sense that someone important is missing.
During the first snowfall, Eun-tak blows out a candle — the same action that once summoned the Goblin. Kim Shin is called back to her world, although she initially does not recognize him. Their connection gradually draws them together again, and Eun-tak eventually recovers her memories.
Kim Shin proposes, Eun-tak accepts, and they marry.
For a brief period, the story appears to have finally given them the ordinary happiness they had been denied.
Then the finale changes direction.
Why Does Ji Eun-tak Die?
Eun-tak does not die because the Goblin’s curse directly kills her.
Her death comes from a deliberate human choice.
While driving, Eun-tak sees an out-of-control truck heading toward a vehicle carrying children. She realizes she can move her own car into the truck’s path and prevent it from hitting them.
She chooses to do exactly that.
The Grim Reapers had received death notices connected to the expected accident, but those deaths disappear because the children survive. Wang Yeo understands that someone has died without a scheduled death notice: Eun-tak has changed their fate through her own sacrifice.
This distinction matters.
Throughout the drama, Eun-tak is repeatedly described as someone who was originally supposed to die. Yet her final death is not presented simply as fate catching up with her. The scene emphasizes her decision.
She sees the danger, understands the consequence and chooses to save the children.
That makes her death consistent with one of Goblin’s recurring ideas: supernatural beings may influence human lives, but human choices still matter.
What Happens to Eun-tak After She Dies?
Eun-tak arrives in the Grim Reaper’s tea room after the accident.
There she learns something crucial: the life she has just completed was her first life.
According to the rules discussed in the drama, she therefore still has three lives remaining.
When Kim Shin arrives, Eun-tak asks him to continue living and promises that she will return to him. The Grim Reaper offers her the tea that allows the dead to forget their previous lives before moving on.
Eun-tak refuses it.
That choice is important because her promise depends on remembering.
She intends to find Kim Shin again.
Why Is Kim Shin Still Alive After the Sword Is Removed?
The sword is successfully removed, and Kim Shin really does disappear. The drama does not reveal that the sword was somehow ineffective.
Instead, the unusual part happens afterward.
Kim Shin chooses to remain between heaven and earth rather than completely leave Eun-tak behind. After years of wandering alone, he is eventually summoned back when Eun-tak blows out a candle and their old contract reaches him.
The official tvN synopsis confirms that Kim Shin disappears after the sword is removed and that nine years pass before he and Eun-tak are brought together again.
What the drama confirms: Kim Shin returns to the human world and remains there long after the sword is gone.
What the drama does not fully explain: it never gives a detailed new set of supernatural rules explaining exactly how long he can continue existing or whether his immortality now has another endpoint.
So it is safer to say that Kim Shin remains a supernatural, long-lived Goblin at the end than to claim that the drama definitively explains the mechanics of his immortality.
What Happens to the Grim Reaper and Sunny?
Wang Yeo and Sunny do not receive their happy ending in their present lives.
Sunny cannot simply erase the pain connected to Wang Yeo’s past as the king who caused the deaths of Kim Shin and Kim Sun. Their feelings remain real, but she chooses separation.
Years later, Sunny dies at the age of 68. Wang Yeo, whose time as a Grim Reaper is also ending, is there to meet her.
Their story continues in another life.
The drama shows them reincarnated without the same tragic burden. Wang Yeo is now Lee Hyuk, a detective, while Sunny appears as an actress. They meet again, flirt and begin a new romantic relationship.
Their reincarnation works differently from Kim Shin and Eun-tak’s story.
Sunny and Wang Yeo are given a new beginning in new identities.
Kim Shin, meanwhile, remains the same person and waits.
What Does the Final Scene in Quebec Mean?
The final scene returns to Quebec, one of the most important locations in Kim Shin and Eun-tak’s relationship.
Kim Shin is sitting near the Yoo family graves when a Korean student approaches him. She is Eun-tak reincarnated in a new life, now wearing the name Park So-min.
She recognizes him.
Kim Shin recognizes her too.
The scene fulfills Eun-tak’s promise at the tea room: she said she would return and find him, and she does.
The reincarnation also answers a larger question that runs through the drama.
Death can separate these characters, but it does not necessarily erase the relationships they formed. Memories, promises and emotional connections can cross the boundary between lives.
For Eun-tak and Kim Shin, the Quebec reunion proves that their story continues beyond her first lifetime.
Why Does Eun-tak Remember Kim Shin in Her Next Life?
The drama does not provide a technical explanation for exactly how much of Eun-tak’s previous-life memory survives reincarnation.
However, it gives one very important clue: before entering the afterlife, Eun-tak refuses the Grim Reaper’s tea of oblivion.
The ending then shows her next incarnation recognizing Kim Shin.
What the drama confirms: Eun-tak refuses to erase her memories, is reincarnated and later recognizes Kim Shin.
What the ending suggests: her decision to preserve those memories allows the promise between them to survive into her next life.
The drama does not go further and explain the supernatural mechanics, so anything more specific would be speculation.
Is Kim Shin’s Ending Actually Happy?
It is best described as bittersweet.
Kim Shin gets what he wants most: Eun-tak returns.
Their love survives his disappearance, her death and reincarnation. The final scene therefore gives their romance a hopeful resolution.
But Kim Shin’s loneliness has not completely disappeared.
Eun-tak has only finished her first life. Kim Shin remains while human lives continue to end. Even if she returns to him in future lives, the possibility of another separation remains built into their relationship.
This is why the finale can feel both comforting and sad at the same time.
The story does not defeat death.
Instead, it suggests that love can continue despite death.
What the Ending Resolves
The finale gives clear answers to most of the drama’s central questions.
Kim Shin destroys Park Joong-heon and is freed from the sword that has remained in his body for centuries.
Eun-tak fulfills her role as the Goblin’s bride but later chooses her own final act in her first life.
Wang Yeo completes his punishment as a Grim Reaper.
Sunny and Wang Yeo are reunited in another life.
Eun-tak is reincarnated and finds Kim Shin again.
The major emotional relationships therefore receive conclusions rather than being left completely open.
What the Ending Leaves Open
One question remains deliberately less defined: Kim Shin’s ultimate future.
The drama shows that he is still waiting decades later, but it never clearly establishes when or whether his supernatural existence will eventually end.
Eun-tak still has future lives ahead of her. That means their reunion in Quebec is not necessarily the final chapter of their relationship.
It is a promise that the relationship continues.
Whether that promise eventually leads to a permanent ending for Kim Shin is something the series leaves unanswered.
Does Goblin Set Up Season 2?
The ending leaves enough supernatural possibilities for another story, but that is different from an officially confirmed second season.
As of September 29, 2026, the official 2026 Goblin project is Goblin 10th Anniversary Trip, a reunion variety program featuring Gong Yoo, Lee Dong-wook, Kim Go-eun and Yoo In-na — not Season 2 of the drama.
During the anniversary program, Yook Sung-jae jokingly expressed hope that Goblin might someday return for Season 2, but the comment was presented as a possibility and personal wish, not a production announcement.
So the story leaves room for imagination, but a new drama season should not be treated as officially confirmed.
FAQ
Does Ji Eun-tak really die in Goblin?
Yes. Eun-tak dies after deliberately putting her car in the path of an out-of-control truck to protect children nearby. Her death is presented as a voluntary sacrifice rather than an ordinary scheduled death. She later enters the afterlife and is eventually reincarnated.
Does Eun-tak come back to life?
Not in her original body. The final scene shows Eun-tak reincarnated in another life. She finds Kim Shin in Quebec and recognizes him, fulfilling the promise she made before leaving the afterlife.
How many lives does Eun-tak have left?
When Eun-tak dies, the Grim Reaper tells her that the life she has just completed was her first. That means she has three more lives available within the drama’s four-life framework.
Is Kim Shin still immortal at the end?
Kim Shin is still alive and supernatural decades later, but the drama does not clearly explain the exact rules of his existence after the sword is removed. It therefore does not definitively tell viewers when, or whether, his life will eventually end.
Is the Goblin ending happy or sad?
It is a bittersweet ending. Eun-tak dies and Kim Shin must endure another long separation, but she is reincarnated and finds him again. Sunny and Wang Yeo also receive a new chance together in another life.