Surely Tomorrow Episode 1 Ending Explained: How Ji-Woo Turns the Tables on Kyeong-Do

Prime Video's new drama 'Surely Tomorrow' kicks off with a splashy scandal and then immediately makes it awkward by turning that scandal into our lead character's worst-case scenario. It is messy in the way real life is messy, and the premiere leans into that.

The splashy scandal that hits way too close

Episode 1 opens with a big tabloid bomb: a high-profile actor is caught up in an affair. Kyeong-do (Park Seo-joon), a reporter on the entertainment desk at the Dongwoon Daily, is the one pushing the story out. The catch? The businessman tangled up in that affair happens to be married to Kyeong-do's first love and ex twice over, Seo Ji-woo, who also happens to be the heiress to the apparel brand JARIM.

As the piece blows up across social media, Kyeong-do spirals. He tells his work buddies Se-young, Woo-sik, and Jeong-min that he is dreading the inevitable text or call from Ji-woo. He tries to duck her entirely. It does not work. She shows up outside his office.

She says thanks... and then asks for more

Here is the surprising part: Ji-woo does not blow up at him. She thanks him. She says the exposure let her get out of a toxic marriage and then immediately offers him the exclusive on her divorce. That flips the whole scandal on its head. It is no longer a juicy cheat-sheet for clicks; for her, it is a door out. For him, it is a gut punch that drags old wounds right back into the present.

'Do not come near me again. The next time we meet will be at our funeral, whoever goes first.'

That is where Kyeong-do lands after she pitches the divorce piece. It is harsh, but he is not wrong that the ask is, at best, emotionally tone-deaf and, at worst, manipulative. What he thought was another routine exposé is suddenly a very personal minefield.

Why it wrecks him

The show makes it clear Kyeong-do has not healed from whatever went down with Ji-woo the first two times. He is stuck between still wanting her and swearing he does not, and pushing that kind of pain into a professional situation is a great way to blow up your life. The premiere stops short of laying out their entire history, but the duality is there: the job demands detachment; the heart is not cooperating. He knows that if he keeps engaging, he is opening the door to get hurt a third time.

• Kyeong-do (Park Seo-joon): entertainment reporter at the Dongwoon Daily, trying to stay professional while the story cuts into his past.
• Seo Ji-woo: Kyeong-do's first love and ex twice over, heiress to apparel brand JARIM, married to the businessman at the center of the affair.
• The scandal: a high-profile actor is having an affair with Ji-woo's husband; Kyeong-do publishes the story and it detonates online.
• Kyeong-do's circle: Se-young, Woo-sik, and Jeong-min are his friends at the paper; he vents to them as the story snowballs.

How Kyeong-do and Ji-woo first fell in

The premiere keeps cutting back to 2007 to show how these two started. Ji-woo had just come back to Seoul from the U.S. and headed to a university to meet a friend. Kyeong-do is there, hunting for a lost 500-won coin. Ji-woo finds it later, buys the banana milk he wanted, and stations herself at the campus fair's acting club booth. She pretends to be his upperclassman and strong-arms him into signing up. It is playful, a little chaotic, and it works.

She takes him drinking that night; by the time they are done, the buses are gone and he is stuck. The next day she pulls him out of class just because. He is confused, but intrigued. Then comes the real pivot: she is under pressure from her family to go back abroad, and he finds her sitting alone at night, upset. He does not try to fix it; he just sits with her. They ride a bus, share music, and let the quiet do its thing. Soon after, she asks for his number. That is the start.

Montage-wise, we get dates, a slam poetry concert, and the easy, early-days glow. Another flashback hits harder: after a blow-up with her mother, Ji-woo bolts from home without her phone, grabs a cab, ends up outside the university, and runs into Kyeong-do. They share their first kiss there. That is when it stops being a flirt and turns into a real relationship.

Where the premiere leaves them

By the end of Episode 1, the scandal has set Ji-woo free and left Kyeong-do twisted up. She wants him to turn their past and her divorce into copy. He wants nothing to do with it, even if part of him still wants her. That is the knot the show sets up: professional duty vs. personal history, all wrapped in a story that the internet loves for the wrong reasons.

'Surely Tomorrow' drops new episodes every Saturday and Sunday on Prime Video.