Hellbound Factions: New Truth Society, Arrowhead & Sodo Organization Explained

Hellbound’s story is driven by the actions of 3 key factions and their respective reactions to the supernatural events and beings in Hellbound.

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Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for Hellbound.

Hellbound has 3 key factions that drive the story forward. These factions are The New Truth Society, The Arrowhead, and the Sodo organization. Each one of these factions represents humanity’s different and specific reactions to Hellbound’s angels, demons, and decrees.

All of these 3 factions hold different levels of influence and power over the Korean police, media, and other real-life institutions. Throughout Hellbound, The New Truth Society, The Arrowhead, and Sodo use their influence to forward their respective goals. And in doing so, these factions also drive the actions of Hellbound’s main characters.

Hellbound’s 3 key factions are representative of the different ways in which modern society reacts to supernatural events, which is why their evolution is crucial to Hellbound’s narrative. For instance, according to the religious cult The New Truth Society, the ethereal floating heads that tell people when they are bound for Hell are angels, the corporeal hulking creatures that brutally murder the hell-bound are demons, and only sinners get decrees. The New Truth Society preaches that being righteous is the only way to avoid being hell-bound. The cult is the most powerful of the factions, as The New Truth Society founder Chairman Jung Jin-soo’s (Yoo Ah-in) moralistic interpretations of the supernatural are essentially what gave birth to both The Arrowhead and Sodo. Here are Hellbound’s 3 key factions explained.

The New Truth Society: Chairman Jin-Soo’s Religious Cult-Turned-Megachurch

This organization’s roots can be traced back to 2002, which was when its founder Chairman Jung Jin-soo was first inspired to come up with moralistic explanations for the supernatural events – doctrines that have allowed the cult to amass thousands of followers since it was founded in 2012. The New Truth Society has been investigating Hellbound’s supernatural decrees and “demonstrations” for 10 years. Unknown to most members of The New Truth Society, Chairman Jin-soo’s inspiration for founding the cult is the fact that he himself received a decree of death in 2002, and has since been tortured by the unexplained certainty of his brutal demonic demise. In Hellbound season 1 episode 3, which is the last episode before Hellbound’s time jump, Jin-soo explains to detective Jin Kyung-hun (Yang Ik-Joon) that he founded The New Truth Society in order to prevent others who are hell-bound from undergoing the same mental torture he went through during his entire adult life. The only person in The New Truth Society who’s aware of Jin-soo’s secret is Pastor Kim Jeong-chil (Lee Dong-hee), who assumed the cult’s reins in 2022, after Jin-soo’s proclaimed death.

Hellbound director Yeon Sang-ho likely conceived The New Truth Society as an analog for Korea’s most massive megachurches. In fact, Hellbound’s time jump is meant to show the evolution of The New Truth Society from a somewhat niche cult in 2022 into a full-blown proto-fascist religious institution in 2027 – the setting for the second half of Hellbound. The New Truth Society’s rise to power was made possible by the well-publicized decreed execution of Park Jeong-ja (Kim Shin-Rock). Under the advice of Chairman Jung Jin-soo, Jeong-ja allowed her execution to be broadcast on national television in order to confirm the reality of the supernatural events throughout Korea. Combined with The New Truth Society’s doctrines, which spread like wildfire thanks to the internet, Jeong-ja’s execution laid the groundwork for The New Truth Society to essentially become an overtly fascistic futuristic version of a Korean megachurch.

As the largest megachurches in the world can be found in South Korea, The New Truth Society is most likely meant as a parallel to these real-world religious organizations, which not only also boasts hundreds of thousands of members, but are also beset by scandals involving their highest officials. This could be a clue to what might happen to The New Truth Society in Hellbound season 2. Hellbound’s season 1 finale not only shows Jeong-ja being resurrected in a flurry of hellfire, but also the newborn baby Toughie surviving its death decree – and both events threaten to undermine The New Truth Society’s doctrines. Similar to Korea’s massive megachurches, The New Truth Society could soon face its biggest scandals. Hellbound season 2 could also explore the cult’s ties to the violent organization known as The Arrowhead.

The Arrowhead: The New Truth Society’s Extremist Offshoot

The New Truth Society’s teachings have also given rise to The Arrowhead, an extremist version of the cult that targets Korea’s youth and most aggressive religious zealots. Unlike The New Truth Society, The Arrowhead doesn’t hesitate to use extreme acts of violence in order to impose their views on civilians. The Arrowhead avoids being branded as terrorists by essentially being The New Truth Society’s de facto enforcers on the streets. The Arrowhead’s organizational hierarchy is unclear, but in the first half of Hellbound season 1, its members are led by The Arrowhead Streamer (Kim Do-Yoon), the loudest and most colorful member of Hellbound’s main cast of characters. The Streamer is basically a neon-colored and unfiltered online version of Chairman Jin-soo, expanding The Arrowhead and The New Truth Society’s reach by aggressively preaching doctrines, urging people to dox the hell-bound through his online platform, and occasionally advocating violence against “sinners.”

While Chairman Jin-soo’s prophetic mountain visions echo the beginnings of Korea’s megachurches, The Arrowhead’s actions parallel the sometimes strange, abusive, and sometimes violent views and rituals of smaller religious sects. Generally speaking, Korea’s different megachurches and hundreds of other religious sects have coexisted peacefully, and violent incidents are rare. Rather than an analog for any existing organization, The Arrowhead is a warning against the unchecked effects of religious fanaticism.

Sodo: Min Hye-Jin’s Law-Firm-Turned-Asylum-Organization

Min Hye-jin (Kim Hyun-joo) was a lawyer from the Sodo law firm. Hye-jin and her colleagues represented Park Jeong-ja when Jeong-ja was negotiating with Chairman Jin-soo regarding the live national broadcast of her execution. Min Hye-jin highly doubts that the truth behind Hellbound’s demons can be explained by The New Truth Society’s doctrines, which is why she and her colleagues want to protect the hell-bound. Sometime after The Arrowhead beat up Hye-jin and left her for dead in Hellbound season 1 episode 3, Hye-jin founded a new organization that takes her law firm’s previous work to the next level. As Professor Hyeong-jun (Lim Hyung-Guk) explains, the Sodo organization finds and contacts the hell-bound by finding people who search online for “Sodo.” According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, the sacred district of Sodo in ancient Mahan was a place of worship that served as an asylum of sorts for refugees and criminals – “a sacred place unreached by secular authority.” Hellbound’s Sodo organization, under Hye-jin’s leadership, will likely continue to fulfill this mandate in Hellbound season 2.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/hellbound-factions-new-truth-society-arrowhead-sodo-organization/