As the 12-episode series progresses, and the story jumps nine years into Pi-o and Jeong-yo’s adulthood, Four Hands, Two Sonatas morphs from a coming-of-age story into a psychological thriller in which trauma, misunderstandings, and obsession combine to place the future of these talented musicians in question. Through it all, Pi-o and Jeong-yo’s intense, often tender relationship serves as a throughline, bringing many viewers to question if the Netflix series qualifies as a boys’ love (aka BL) drama. Let’s discuss how Four Hands, Two Sonatas’ ending answers some of these questions.
Meanwhile, Ji-hye does not think that her son can beat Jeong-yo. Not only does Jeong-yo have an emotional connection to his music performance that Pi-o struggles to find himself, but Pi-o has injured his pinky in the leadup to the final performance, thanks to his obsessive practicing. Faced with the possibility of her son giving up piano forever, Ji-hye decides to hire two men to abduct Jeong-yo, ensuring that he cannot compete in the final performance. However, the abduction goes wrong, and Jeong-yo is shot in his attempt to escape. Not only does he not show up for the final performance, but he disappears completely and is presumed dead. Pi-o wins the competition, but is devastated at the disappearance of his friend.
The nine-year time jump
—Courtesy of tvNPi-o grieves the death of his friend, unable to get out of bed for days. He stops making music and decides to spend time in Europe. While attending a conducting competition in Brno on a whim, he sees Jeong-yo on stage. He is alive, going by the name Luca Domenico. However, when Pi-o approaches Jeong-yo, the man claims to not know him, revealing that he has amnesia and cannot remember anything prior to an accident nine years earlier.
At first, Jeong-yo’s return to Seoul and Pi-o's life goes relatively well. Jeong-yo, who can no longer play the piano due to nerve damage from when he was shot, wants to work with Pi-o. He brings his friend on as a soloist for his debut with the orchestra, and the performance is a success. Then, he asks Pi-o to be the soloist for the debut of his first original work, a concerto titled “Nemesis.” Pi-o recognizes it as a piece of music, originally titled “Nocturne,” Jeong-yo first started working on as a teenager. This calls into question Jeong-yo’s claims that he has amnesia.
When Pi-o confronts Jeong-yo about lying about his amnesia, Jeong-yo comes clean. He makes it clear to Pi-o that he has returned to get revenge. He believes Pi-o was the one who arranged his abduction, and blames him for his inability to play the piano. Pi-o, who feels immense guilt about what happened to Jeong-yo and wants to protect his mother, goes along with the lie that he was the one responsible for Jeong-yo’s life-changing injuries.
The “Nemesis” performance
Two performers, a long history —Courtesy of tvNThe traumatized Jeong-yo finds neither peace nor triumph in revenge. He still cares about Pi-o, and he cares about “Nemesis.” The concerto, from its beginnings as “Nocturne” to its current incarnation, was inspired by his relationship with Pi-o, and no one else can do it justice. Pi-o, who still feels responsible for Jeong-yo’s suffering, wants to do the solo. The music, and his feelings for Jeong-yo, have allowed him to unlock a new, more emotionally connected level of his performance. He convinces Jeong-yo to let him do the piece by playing it once again for his friend-turned-nemesis. The performance is a resounding success, and Jeong-yo tells Pi-o: “The piece was meant entirely for you.”
Ji-hye is devastated at the arrest of her son, and furiously tries to confess to the crime herself. Initially, neither the police nor Jeong-yo believe her. Her confessions look like maternal desperation rather than the truth. However, when Pi-o’s private investigator gives Jeong-yo a recording of their conversation with one of Jeong-yo’s abductors, the truth wins out. On the audio recording, Jeong-yo hears how desperate Pi-o was to find him, and how devastated he was at the news of his death. He realizes that he has been punishing Pi-o for a crime that he did not commit.
A final, four hands performance
Pi-o once told Jeong-yo that he was only happy when he was playing music, so when Jeong-yo learns that Pi-o has sold his piano and intends never to play again, he decides he will not let that stand. He buys Jeong-yo’s piano and brings it to the musical instrument market where Jeong-yo learned to play as a boy. He tells Pi-o that he has regained control of his hand and can play again. The two play four hands together again, and are happy. Later that night, by the Han River, Pi-o asks Jeong-yo to make music with him; it’s all he’s ever really wanted to do. Jeong-yo gently refuses.
Pi-o grieves the loss of his friend again, but uses Jeong-yo’s stated mission to drive his own choices. Rather than performing the most technically complex compositions on a classical music stage, he starts performing simpler songs in small, rural towns and in hospitals; he hopes his surprise pop-up concerts bring comfort to those who hear his music.
—Courtesy of tvN
For the first time in three years, Pi-o posts a video recording of his performance. Though the video does not show his face, he knows Jeong-yo will recognize his interpretation of “Nemesis.” The viral beacon works. Pi-o receives an unsigned postcard from the Czech Republic offering some friendly critiques. Pi-o immediately packs his bags, and finds the church on the front of the postcard. Jeong-yo is conducting a choir of children inside of the church. He is wearing a religious robe, and has seemingly been dedicating his time to atonement rather than glory or revenge. When Jeong-yo turns around to see Pi-o, the two lock eyes and smile at one another. Four Hands, Two Sonatas ends with Jeong-yo and Pi-o together again, seemingly free of the pressures and misunderstandings that plagued them for so long.
Is Four Hands, Two Sonatas a BL drama?
—Courtesy of tvNAs soon as the trailer for Four Hands, Two Sonatas dropped, viewers began wondering if the K-drama might be a queer romance. The initial assumption was that it was not. Though South Korea has begun to produce BL dramas, including 2020’s Where Your Eyes Linger and 2022’s Semantic Error, these series are not mainstream. Four Hands, Two Sonatas is a primetime drama broadcast on tvN, one of Korea’s mainstream pay TV networks, with some of its most high-profile TV actors. In a country where the law does not recognize same-sex marriage nor protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation, there has yet to be a mainstream queer romance. When Love in the Big City, a slice-of-life drama centering a gay protagonist was released in 2024, it was met with homophobic outcries from anti-LGBTQ groups within Korea, accusing the drama of "glorifying and promoting homosexuality.”
The exact nature of the relationship between the two men is left open for interpretation, and has been publicly commented on by some involved in the production. When asked about the BL interpretation by Korean outlet Star News, Jang said: “When I first read the script, I knew that Jeong-yo and Pi-o were deeply intertwined through music. The work belongs to the viewers, so I respect everything.” Director Park Hyeon-seok’s statements on the subject were similarly open. "It is an immeasurable happiness and a source of gratitude for the entire production team that viewers enjoy the drama from their own diverse perspectives," Park told Korean media. "I am simply grateful that they fill the gaps between the writer's text and the visualized scenes with rich interpretations."
Speaking about his intentions for the script, writer Shin Yi-won said the story began with the question “What if Mozart and Salieri were best friends?” though he also drew inspiration for Pi-o and Jeong-yo from the toxic love between Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights. Court composer Antonio Salieri and musical prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were contemporaries in 18th century Europe, and their professional rivalry has sometimes been framed as a love-hate relationship in modern media retellings of their lives, including in Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus and its 1984 film adaptation. "I am a case of someone who attended an arts high school filled with geniuses, consumed by an inferiority complex while thinking of myself as Salieri,” Shin said. “However, a professor in college told me, 'Art is not done with mere petty talent. To move people with true art, pour your entire life into it.'” Whatever else Four Hands, Two Sonatas may be, the series is deeply devoted to imparting this artistic message.
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