The father is drunk on power and prestige, on being above everyone else, using his position to make sure everyone else stay groveling beneath his feet.

The son is fiercely determined with an unyielding sense of justice, subjecting each person unforgivingly to an unshakeable moral compass—including his own self.

He is his own harshest judge, jury, and executioner.

Where the father demands others to kneel for him—

The son will kneel before those who are worth his devotion.

Will you show me the right way?

I want to love you—but I don’t know how.

Please—teach me.

I’ve always been a very good student.

Finally, Dongsik has someone who keeps his promises.

The symbolism of food as a signifier of relationship and character is so brilliant in Beyond Evil.

Joowon never shared—nor accepted—any meal from anyone in the show, until that moment when Dongsik told him that even if he has to go to hell, he shouldn't be hungry.

That is the first and only time he has finally accepted the food being offered to him.

He had baby steps to get to this point too: the first and only time he sincerely accepted a drink is when it was offered to him by Jihwa, when they were grieving Nam Sangbae's death. It was such a stark juxtaposition with how Jaeyi refused to get him his own cup of tea in the beginning when he ordered her butcher shop to be searched by cops, refusing to let him into her surrogate family, just yet.

There was that time too, when Joowon just came back from Busan and was trying his best to be Dongsik 2.0 (in unwittingly taking Hyeok's advice) when he was wolfing down raw meat, more to mock his own father. Any other time other than this, he has never eaten any of the food Han Kihwan has offered to share with him.

The only time he genuinely enjoyed a full meal with anyone is when all of it was finally done, and all the cases were finally resolved, and they reunite for lunch, honoring Nam Sangbae's first death anniversary.

It's symbolic of Joowon finally accepting the love and belonging being offered to him—first by Dongsik himself, and eventually by their whole Manyang family.

He had never fully accepted his father's. Small sips and small bites were all he could stomach, as if anything more might make him sick. As if the taste had never sat well on his tongue.

But that's also because Han Kihwan has never sincerely offered anything—not even food nor drink.

Pay attention to how, even though he offers it as a polite formality to the people he meets, whether it's Nam Sangbae, Lee Dongsik, or even Kwon Hyeok, he never actually brings them any food or drink.

He has never offered any love or belonging to anyone.

The symbolism of love and belonging being offered through food is apparent even among the other characters.

You can see it with how Dongsik didn’t forget to bring Minjeong water while she was sobering up.

You can see it with how Jeongje offered Dongsik soymilk and Jaeyi offered Dongsik tofu in turn when he was first released from Munju station’s detention cell: a symbol of starting over.

You can see it with how Dongsik accepted the tea Nam Sangbae offered him, even as he recalled the way he suffered being beaten by Nam Sangbae himself, 20 years ago: a show of forgiveness, even if Sangbae himself believes he doesn’t deserve it.

You can see it with how Do Haewon tried so hard to get Jeongje to eat, which he only begrudgingly accepts: a forced love from the mother that the son never wanted.

You can see it with how the food between Han Joowon and Jung Cheolmun was never touched at all. There is nothing between them, only distrust and suspicion.

You can see it with how, whenever any of them gather together, it is only Lee Changjin who is eating whatever food is laid in front of him by either Han Kihwan or Do Haewon. It's symbolic of how he is forced to only eat the scraps of whatever they offer him, trying his best to prove his loyalty and usefulness to either of them, only for both of them to discard him in the end when they're already being pushed to a corner by the police.

You can even see it with how Dongsik refused the meal being offered to him by Joowon himself when he first visits him in his Seoul apartment, unwilling to trust Joowon just yet.

This was mirrored by Joowon too, several times: when he refused to eat the pork broth offered to him by Nam Sangbae, and again when he refused to eat the pufferfish soup offered to him by Dongsik in Busan. And even in the begining, when he refused the warm cup of tea being offered to him by Jihoon after Joowon was drenched in the rain.

And even with Han Kihwan, he was forced to accept the drink being offered to him by Lee Changjin and Do Haewon that fateful night before he ended up killing Lee Yuyeon, because this was a situation he never wanted—he didn't want to be associated with a common street thug or a dirty politician-wannabe—but he has no choice if he wants to save his in-law's company.

As I have always said, it is impossible to study Beyond Evil without analyzing it within the context of the culture it's steeped in. And in South Korea—indeed, in Asia in general—the communal sharing of food and drink is steeped so much into the culture that you can immediately tell if the person belongs in the community—by looking at whether or not a person is welcome at the table.