I also wish we got a glimpse of how the future changed too I mean the show literally rewrote itself when he went back so an episode showing how events changed would have been nice

Technically an episode like that would have been fanservice.
This was an OCN drama, and had a tight story, more would have been just extra at that point.

I originally didn't mind the ending, but now with all your snippet suggestions i can't help but lament on what could've been!!

Even I wished we could catch a glimpse of the alternate reality. ...Once kwang Ho changed the future. ..how the future would be victims were alive and happy. ..especially the younger kwang ho. .I felt his fate was the most tragic

I didn’t mind that they didn’t show how the future was changed because I think there were too many questions about it and too many people wanting to see different things. I mean, if Sun Jae’s mum’s murderer was caught and sentenced before he was a teenager wouldn’t he have gone into medicine like he was originally studying? It was only because the murder was free that he became a detective at all. And if Jae Yi had grown up with loving parents would she have still been drawn to criminal psychology- she would never have had people think she was a murderer as she wouldn’t have been in England where her previously adoptive parents were when their house burned down. That being said, I do think the drama needed to show Kwang Ho making some sort of effort to catch Ji Woo in the past. It kind of rendered catching him in the future a tad pointless if they don’t catch him in the past too, don’t you think?

I actually would like to have a glimpse of how the people, especially Jaeyi & Sunjae, dealt with Kwangho's permanent separation in the present & how they moved on, rather than the alternate future. Hmm...

I didn't mind the ending. I cried during the finale and found everything to be heartwarming and sufficient. It may not have shown an epilogue of the future but it was one of the few endings that I was confident with whatever course it may take.

But damn, your questions made me realize that I wouldn't mind seeing those!

At least the ending wasn't as bad as Marry Him If You Dare. They left that ending so wide open you could throw a black hole into it to devour the whole thing.

While I did feel satisfied with Tunnel's ending, I was a bit hopeful about seeing what the future might have been. Obviously, now the future has drastically changed: There's no longer any tragedy in his daughter's life, so that leaves a question as to what her profession might be. Would she still pursue criminal psychology?

Another thing I wanted to see at the ending was the resolution of the past storyline. There's the issue of the second serial killer. I was thinking that perhaps, Kwang Ho might reach out to him in 1987, since he hadn't killed anyone yet. Or could it be that now that the first serial killer has been caught, that would keep the second from killing?

I suppose that Kwang Ho's restoration to his rightful place is enough for this drama, though, and the future is left up to your own imagination and interpretation, which I could live with.

I think what could have been a better ending, though, is tying up the loose ends in the past. In the past, the last victim agrees to testify just before Kwang Ho is transported back to the future. I think we should have least seen the trial and justice being brought. And, then we can cut to that heart-warming scene at the end.

I loved Tunnel, but i agree with your reasoning, i wished they showed us more of Park Kwang Ho in 87 with his wife, daughter and Sun Jae and more importantly, how this affected them in the future.

I am an avid Fanfic Reader. If some of you decides to write a Fanfiction about any of these stories, please let us know! ;) .

The only thing missing for me is the arrest of the killer in 1987. Kwang Ho going on with his one man investigation and having to drag his colleagues in, etc.

When I saw the theme of the month I never thought of Tunnel to be a nominee for that.

I was waiting for this scene to happen.
https : // pbs. twimg .com / media / C2hcQn4UcAAnJXh . jpg

Okay, I actually didn't mind Tunnel's ending at all and I adored the series, but now that you've written that down I want to see this version of the ending so much!!! I literally imagined everything you've said and it was SO GOOD.

I just caught on to Choi Jin Hyuk and watched Tunnel as a result. I've finished the first 8 episodes and the finale. I agree with other commenters that a fantasy-fulfilling ending would've been too much. To me this drama and its ending is the best of any Kdrama I've watched. Usually I skip at least half of the show when binge-watching, but I've done minimal skipping with this one. It's kept my attention throughout with excellent writing and acting. While the show does not entirely spell it out, the ending does provide all the conclusions you've outlined. Sometimes not getting everything you want leaves you wanting more. Less is more.

A comment two years in the making... I finally got around to watching Tunnel and so I decided to finally read this old ToTM post.

That was possibly the worst ending I've ever seen. Boy did this show go off the rails. The writers clearly didn't know how to make the ending of his "happy" so they opted for the worst possible version - the "never mind, none of that mattered" version.

Possibly the worst scene was when he saves Park Gwang-ho's mother and she names the baby after him. Since this apparently happened in the original timeline, we're left to slot this into the show's mythology as we know it - and are reminded that they buried this poor kid as a John Doe so that the other Park Gwang-ho could keep the identity he'd stolen.

When will dramas learn that if you wipe away a timeline or a reality that we need to see the consequences of that. Otherwise it's just a way of saying that everything we watched until now didn't matter.

So here I am, two years later, coming round to say - I agree with you completely.