This article contains major spoilers for the ending of the 2023 K-Drama Celebrity Season 1. It details the events of the entire season and, particularly, those of Celebrity Season 1 Episode 12, “#nowhere #but_everywhere #like_you_and_me”.
Across 12 episodes Celebrity has weaved a pretty tangled web of A-ri’s rise through influencer culture. In the penultimate episode, we saw her apparent suicide and learned that the proof of her resurrection wasn’t all that it seemed.
The finale, though, still has plenty of questions to answer. Did A-ri really commit suicide? What was the deal with the live stream? Who is _bbbfamous?
Let’s address all that and more.
Celebrity Season 1 Ending Explained
Did A-ri really commit suicide?
One of the most essential questions in this season was whether A-ri was killed or committed suicide – and, further to that, whether she had really returned from the dead to pursue revenge.
As was confirmed in the previous episode, nobody “killed” A-ri, per se, although you could obviously implicate the Gabin Society and _bbbfamous in driving her to suicide. However, A-ri ostensibly took her own life by driving her car into the river.
This was staged, though. A-ri’s body was never found by the police because she escaped the car and went into hiding to plot her revenge. A-ri didn’t really commit suicide, and she didn’t die by any other means. In fact, she was alive and well the whole time.
Who was behind the live stream?
The live stream which had functioned as a framing device for the entire season turned out to be a deep fake by A-ri’s best friend Jeong-sun and her brother, Du-seong.
Jeong-sun used deep fake technology to present herself as A-ri, exposing information that would take down Taegang after Tae-jeon covered up the overdose at the Aragon Club. The stream was bounced around several VPNs, making it very difficult to trace, however, as we saw in the previous episode, it was Jun-kyung who got there first.
Everyone involved with Tae-jeon and the club cover-up was rightly arrested. It was also revealed, somewhat predictably, that Jun-kyung’s near-fatal accident was also arranged by Tae-jeon after The Hue had filed a lawsuit.
Who is _bbbfamous?
This leaves one more essential question – who is _bbbfamous?
Earlier in the season, A-ri had accused Ro-la not once but twice of being behind the hate account. However, in the finale, A-ri figures out that _bbbfamous is Seon-yeong, a young woman who worked at the massage parlor frequented by the Gabin Society.
While working at the parlor, Yeon-yeong recorded all kinds of incriminating conversations and used their scandalous details to ruin and blackmail e-celebrities. Her motivations were unsurprising. She was poor, and she was sick of watching the rich and privileged live lives of luxury while treating her with contempt.
Upon being discovered, Seon-yeong tries to commit suicide, but she survives and is then taken into custody.
What happens to the Gabin Society?
Following everything that is exposed by the live stream, the Gabin Society is completely destroyed.
Si-hyeon, who had sided with A-ri in her revenge scheme, comes out the best. She’s able to divorce Tae-jeon. Tae-jeon himself will obviously be going down for a good while.
Min-hye and her husband elope. Yu-rang is almost destroyed in the apprehension of her husband. Angela’s husband, who we already know never gave her anything anyway, throws her out of the house after discovered she sold herself for money. And Chae-hee was rightly arrested for her involvement in the death at the Aragon Club and its subsequent cover-up.
You can stream Celebrity Season 1 Episode 12, “#nowhere #but_everywhere #like_you_and_me” exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the ending of Celebrity Season 1? Let us know in the comments.
