Who Dies in The Affair Was Just the Beginning?
A character-by-character risk check based on aired information, with confirmed deaths kept separate from fan prediction.
Confirmed vs. theory
We only label a death as confirmed when it has appeared in an aired episode or official material. Predictions about Jae-hong, Soo-jung, Kyung-hee and Bo-sung stay clearly marked as fan theory.
Why the private investigator's death matters
The death is not just a side mystery. The arrival of his twin brother turns the cover-up into an active threat because someone outside the two households now has a personal reason to reconstruct what happened. That raises the value of every missing clue, contradictory memory and piece of evidence.
Who feels most at risk heading into the finale?
Jae-hong — exposed on multiple fronts
Jae-hong is connected to both the affair and the cover-up. That makes him vulnerable even if the ending is not physically fatal: one piece of evidence can damage his marriage, reveal his lies and pull him deeper into the crime story at the same time.
Kyung-hee — reputation and control are both at stake
Kyung-hee has spent the story trying to contain damage. Her biggest risk may be losing the public identity and control she has worked to preserve, especially if the cover-up and the private relationship secrets collapse together.
Soo-jung — incomplete information makes her unpredictable
Soo-jung repeatedly acts before she has the whole picture. In a story driven by misunderstandings, that makes her capable of triggering a confrontation even when she is trying to protect herself or her daughter.
Bo-sung — closer to the danger than he started
Bo-sung begins outside the central cover-up but becomes increasingly entangled with the people inside it. That makes him a potential witness, target or catalyst for the final escalation.
Who feels most at risk heading into the finale?
Make a pick before the next episode. This is not a leak.
Episode 7 update: is Sang-cheol dead?
Episode 7 ends with Sang-cheol being knocked into a coffee table and left motionless. The scene is designed as a cliffhanger, so this page does not count him as a confirmed death yet. Viewers are already treating his condition as one of the finale's biggest questions.
What would change this answer?
Any episode that resolves the twin-brother thread, identifies who controls the strongest evidence or puts the four leads into one direct confrontation can change the risk map immediately. This page should be updated whenever new aired information changes the factual answer.