The Brothers Sun has just been released on Netflix, and I’d probably say that it’s the platform’s first attempt at a big show of the year. They’re going in early after only four days.
Focusing on the attempted takeout of Big Sun during the first episode caused his son Charles to travel to Los Angeles to protect his mother and brother, who decided to escape the life of crime many years ago. However, whilst their death followed him, many secrets about the family were revealed, ultimately causing their relationship to change forever.
So with that, let’s do The Brothers Sun Ending Explained and break down all the important things from this show.
Ending Explained
As we embarked on the end of the season, we saw that all of the ghosts from every triad were going to be meeting at one specific place, which was organized by Eileen’s Sun. She saw the threat from the boxers, the initial group that tried to take out Big Sun, as an opportunity to unite the triads and essentially be ruled under one supreme leader, who was referred to as the Dragon Head.
This was something that she wanted to be, considering that she was essentially the person who held the most valuable information of them all. The names of every leader, something which the boxers wanted. She was the Rolodex.
After going back to Taipei and visiting her mother, she found out that her sister had died whilst she’d been in America, keeping herself and her son Bruce safe. This was something that came as a shock to her, and she didn’t know. Before she left, she told Big Sun, her husband, that she wanted to be notified if anything happened to anybody that she cared about, and obviously, he disregarded that request.
So once she believed he was in a coma following what happened in the first episode, she whispered in his ear that she was going to destroy the very thing that he cared about, his empire, and she planned on sitting on the throne herself.
During this conversation, she put a pin underneath his fingernail because she was suspicious about whether or not he was still in a coma. Although he managed to keep the pain suppressed, he was actually pretending in order to see if his enemies were going to look to take advantage whilst he was weak. And that very person who looked to take advantage was his Wife.
During the meeting that was planned, we saw that the Boxes infiltrated it due to Bruce revealing information to Grace about where the meeting would be happening and who would be there. And most of the Triad leaders were either wiped out or arrested for this.
This was something that caused conflict amongst the Sun family as Charles was tasked to kill his brother by his father for betraying the family, but he himself couldn’t do it.
Charles And Bruce
The whole show was based around an individual’s identity in the family and whether they were living to serve the family name or to truly be themselves.
We saw this with Charles, with the fact that he had other passions, such as baking and cooking, and he wanted to lead his own life. But he was almost morphed into being this killer from a young age. So, it ultimately meant that he never really had a choice, and we saw the same with Bruce.
Bruce was considered to be the lame one in the family because he wasn’t brought up around the violence and didn’t truly know how to handle himself. But despite being introduced to that life with his family arriving, he wanted to do everything that he could to get his family out of it. From an outside perspective, he only saw the trouble that it brought and the devastation that came with it, too.
So, despite being considered the weak one, he was actually the person who saved the day right at the end. He knew that the only way that his family would be safe would be for his father to be out of the picture.
So, during the climax of the season, we saw Bruce fire the weapon at his father and deliberately miss his organs so that he’d just be bleeding out. But if his father wanted to survive, he’d need to phone for an ambulance, and then once admitted to the emergency room because it was a gunshot wound, the police would need to be notified.
So he would essentially be arrested and then be out of the picture for good. Something which we did see happen, which meant that the family could do as they pleased.
Ending Explained
With the leaders of the triads being wiped out or incarcerated, that meant that Eileen went back to Taipei to take over all of the organizations and be the leader that she always wanted to be.
This was a moment where it felt like it kind of went against everything that Bruce did for her, but it did tie into the fact that now she had the freedom that she’d always desired. She could now do what she wanted, and that was to be the Dragon head that she dreamed of being.
With Bruce, we saw him have the opposite when the season began, just like when he was watching the guy in the sports car at the start. In the end, he was now that very person, and even though he wasn’t happy with the life his family was going to lead, he’d reaped the benefits from it. But it seemed like he was continuing with his studies and wanting to be a doctor whilst balancing improv and entertaining people that way.
Then, with Charles, it felt like there was going to be a happy ending with him and Alexis, but that never came. Instead, we saw that he had his bakery and had finally perfected the churro recipe, something which was representative of his time in the States.
But instead of just waiting for somebody to arrive, and that somebody is Alexis, he went back to Taipei to protect his mother and stop the opposition from feeling as though they could just move in. Showing that his family was something that he was always going to protect. And no matter how much he disliked the fact that he was this ruthless killer, it was all he truly knew.
The hug that the brothers shared in the closing moments was something that marked the journey that they went on as a pair as it was something which they never would have done at the start, and it showed that different parts of each other had rubbed off on one another and they changed each other for the better.
The Credits Scene Explained
After the credits rolled, there was a post-credit scene that was focused around Big Sun’s second-in-command having a meeting and hearing about the fact that Frank Marr, A triad leader, was going to be testifying against Big Sun. Most likely in order to get a deal in his favor. This is something that could be setting up a season 2.
With Eileen going back to Taiwan to be the Dragon head, Big Sun’s second in command could look to make something happen to Frank Marr in prison, which will prevent him from speaking in the courts, which could help Big Sun in the position that he’s in.
He most likely wants to get no charges against Big Sun so that he can take him back to Taipei to be a rival to his former wife and divide the triads all over again, causing just as much conflict as there was before. So it’s going to be interesting to see if that does happen, and a season 2 will get commissioned.
Who Were The Boxers?
The Boxers themselves were an organization that kind of stood for good. But to get the goodness that they wanted, they had to cause death to those who caused trouble. They wanted to fight against the triads and take them down because they felt that they were oppressing the people and causing more suffering than good.
Hence, they wanted to eliminate all of the leaders, render the organizations to the point of nothingness, and then rule themselves. But in a way that was more for the people than first and second-hand victims of the Triad’s rule.
Grace was the leader of the boxes, which was one of the twists of the season as she was essentially using Bruce to get information on the Triads leaders as she wanted to set up charities, facilities, and organizations where people would be able to get help if they’d suffered at the hands of the triads.
But we saw her be killed by June in an act of revenge for them being responsible for killing her sister, and all of the members were also killed in the showdown at the end, where the ghosts, boxers, and FBI were all present.
