Genie, Make a Wish Ending Explained: The Final Choice That Seals Iblis's Fate

Netflix's 'Genie, Make A Wish' sticks the landing with a finale that is bold, bleak, and kind of beautiful. It answers the big questions, but not in a way that lets anyone walk away smiling. If you like your fantasy romances tragic with a side of cosmic fine print, this one delivers.

The bet with God, the final wish, and the fallout

Here is the engine driving everything: Iblis (Kim Woo Bin) made a deal with God to prove that humans are unworthy by granting them three wishes. God signed off, but with a vicious catch: if Iblis ever ran into someone truly selfless, his punishment would be "worse than hell."

By the end, Ka-young (Bae Suzy) calls Iblis for her last wish. He is terrified, and for good reason: the wrong kind of wish could trigger that selflessness clause and doom him. Instead, she asks for something that is painfully human and not remotely strategic. Unable to fully process her grief, she wants to feel the complete range of human emotion for one day before she dies.

That choice lands on the selfish side of the scale, which backs up Iblis's cynical thesis about humanity and technically frees him from the bargain. Here is the twist: freedom comes with a price he cannot pay. To finish the test cleanly, he would need to end Ka-young's life himself. He refuses. He bows his head instead, humbling himself and surrendering the win. Ejllael then executes him. Ka-young staggers into the desert, and the heartbreak that she asked to truly feel finally ends her.

So what were Iblis and Ka-young, really?

They start as genie and master, sure. But the show quietly pivots them into something much deeper. The messy, decades-spanning piece: long before Ka-young, Iblis met a dying enslaved Goryeo girl who used all of her wishes for other people. That kind of selflessness breaks his grand theory, so God stuffs Iblis into a lamp for over a thousand years. When he is finally released, he crosses paths with Ki Ka-young — who, it turns out, is the reincarnation of that same Goryeo girl.

Both of them had their memories wiped, but they do get them back. Iblis realizes the girl from Goryeo did not die when he first thought — she survived, lived, and became the woman he loved — only for him to later be forced to watch her die because of a wish he granted to someone else. It is cruel, and it is the point.

Why the story insists they both die

This is the part the show buries under mythology and then pays off hard. In her past life, the Goryeo girl used her final wish so that she and the genie would share the burden of suffering. God granted it in the harshest possible way: make them fall in love, then make them watch the other die.

After seeing his love die while everyone looked away, Iblis wrote humanity off as selfish and begged God to let him see her again. God agreed, erased his memory, and left them bound by that third wish. The result is a loop where they keep finding each other, keep paying the price, and this time, it ends with both of them gone — Iblis killed by Ejllael, Ka-young lost to the grief she finally allowed herself to feel.

If the mythology made your head spin, here is the clean timeline

• Long ago: Iblis tests humans by granting wishes and concludes they are greedy.
• Goryeo era: An enslaved girl uses all her wishes for others. Her final wish ties her and the genie to share suffering. God answers that wish by making love itself the suffering.
• Consequence: God locks Iblis in a lamp for over 1,000 years. He later begs to see her again; God agrees but wipes his memory.
• Present: Iblis meets Ki Ka-young, the girl's reincarnation. Memories eventually return for both.
• Final wish: Ka-young asks to feel the full range of human emotion for one day before she dies.
• Verdict: That choice supports Iblis's theory about human selfishness, freeing him from the bet.
• Endgame: Iblis will not kill Ka-young, surrenders instead, loses the wager, and is killed by Ejllael. Ka-young wanders into the desert and dies of a broken heart.

What the finale is really saying

It is a deliberately bitter pill. On paper, there is closure — Iblis escapes his curse; Ka-young finally feels everything and finds peace beyond the mess of her life. But it refuses to be a happy ending. The show picks sacrifice over escape, tragedy over wish-fulfillment, and it fits the story it has been telling from the start: love changes you, even if it does not save you.

Would I have taken a gentler ending? Sure. But the one we got is sharp, coherent, and mean in a way that actually works.

'Genie, Make A Wish' is streaming now on Netflix. Tell me where you land on that finale — hopeful and poignant, or just plain brutal?