Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Hellbound

When the demons consign someone to hell, charred, skeletal remains are left behind. But in the pilot episode, forensic analysis reveals that these remains are inorganic. So what the heck are they made of? Because they look like human bodies. And when Park Jung-ja returns, she re-animates from her own remains. So clearly, there’s a connection between souls and the physical matter left behind. Is it ectoplasm of some sort - a spiritual substance? It seems like a minor detail, but it could be the key to answering other, larger questions.

For the most part, “Hellbound” is set in Seoul, South Korea. But similar events are apparently happening around the globe. After the four year time jump, South Korean society has transformed a lot, in no small part thanks to the New Truth Society and Arrowhead. How much has the rest of the world changed? Does New Truth exert the same amount of control elsewhere? Does it have any powerful rivals? How have major world religions reacted? Given the momentous significance of these events, have any countries just straight up collapsed into chaos?

After being set up as a main character, Jin Kyeong-hoon disappears for the second half of season 1. Where did he go? At the end of episode three, he faced a difficult decision. Should he reveal that New Truth leader Jung Jin-su was himself hellbound, and that the angel’s decrees aren’t tied to sin? Or should he avoid mass panic by letting the lies continue? The stakes are personal, because his daughter is now a murderer, and his decision represents a choice between different kinds of justice. Based on events after the four year time jump, he must have chosen to conceal the truth. But where is he now? Will he ever come back out of the woodwork?

In the season finale, Hell’s executors come for little baby Toughie. At first, his mother Song So-hyun (SOH-NG so h’yun) seems resigned to her child’s fate. But at the last minute, she saves him with a dramatic dive. Bae Young-jae does his best to slow the demons down. In the end, the parents put their own bodies on the line to shield their child. While they perish, Toughie miraculously survives. This raises a few perplexing questions. Were the demons fooled? Are they just not that smart? Or are they willing to accept a sacrifice in their victim’s place? Can you volunteer as tribute … to Hell?

Jung Jin-su’s religious cult skyrockets to popularity by compiling a list of sins committed by the hellbound. Desperate for answers and to avoid becoming hellbound themselves, people flock to the New Truth for guidance. However, the religion is riddled with hypocrisy. New Truth’s priests base their “teachings” on a lie. Self-righteous and sadistic, they persecute so-called sinners, harass their families, and have covert connections with the vigilante movement Arrowhead. Now people have seen that even a sinless baby can be hellbound, will the New Truth Society survive? How will they spin events to keep their followers in the dark?

At first, there seems to be a fairly straightforward explanation for “Hellbound’s” events. Angels and demons are real and their victims committed some heinous sin. But inconsistencies arise pretty quickly. Why are these supernatural forces suddenly more active now? Why would they target someone for theft, for example, while ignoring dictators, world leaders, and generals responsible for killing thousands? Clearly, the demons aren’t going for the worst sinners. And if even a newborn baby can become hellbound, then sin can’t be a factor at all! So what’s really going on? Is it random, like a natural disaster? Or is there some sinister design behind it all yet to be revealed?

The angel who delivers decrees claims that the souls it condemns are bound for hell. But should we believe it? Some of its victims seem to be innocent, after all. If they do go to hell, what’s it actually like? Is it fire and brimstone and everything we were told in Sunday school? Is there physical punishment, as in the “demonstrations”? Even more intriguing, if the angel isn’t telling the truth, where do its victims' souls really end up? Could it be a sort of purgatory, or limbo? Or might they just cease to exist for a time? There is at least one person with answers - and we really hope she gets to tell us.

“Hellbound’s” first season ended with a shocking twist. Park Jung-ja, whom the demons had sent to Hell in episode three, re-animated and returned years later. Why and how did she return? To a degree, this question is bound up with the mystery around where the hellbound actually go. Did Jung-ja somehow escape Hell? Was there a divine mistake? Or do all the hellbound return? In that case, we could also expect the resurrection of other characters, like Jung Jin-su, Bae Young-jae and Song So-hyun. Will they have answers? Or will their stories just raise more questions?

This is the question at the heart of the show’s supernatural elements. Who is consigning people to Hell? Is it God? If God is so capricious as to condemn a baby, should we even follow him? Could we do anything to stop him? Presumably, that would depend on the nature of his divinity. Is he all-powerful or one of many gods? If God isn’t calling the shots, is it the devil instead? Or are there people out there with powers beyond our ken, pulling all the strings? Are they human or something else? Give us answers already, damn it! Tell us what YOU think is going on in the comments!