Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of The Art of Sarah

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The new Netflix K-drama, The Art of Sarah (titled 레이디 두아 or “Lady Doir” in Korean), explores a fascinating question: what even is fake when it’s indistinguishable from the real thing? The eight-episode series follows a woman determined to escape a life of hardship and climb the social ladder. It’s a twisty story of revenge, the unfairness of social class, and how much of our identity is just an act, keeping you guessing right up to the final episode.

The series The Art of Sarah opens with the unsettling discovery of a body in the sewers of Seoul. Detective Park Mu-gyeong (Lee Joon-huk, from Love Scout) is determined to solve what appears to be a murder. But as he and his team dig deeper, the case becomes increasingly confusing. They start by identifying the victim through a unique ankle tattoo and a distinctive bag, which lead them to Sarah Kim (Shin Hye-sun, known from Dear Hyeri). Sarah is a prominent figure in Seoul society and recently launched the luxury handbag brand Boudoir in Korea.

As Mu-gyeong investigates who wanted Sarah Kim harmed, she uncovers a web of secrets – Sarah Kim wasn’t who everyone thought she was. The case takes a dramatic turn when Sarah Kim unexpectedly walks into the police station alive, completely changing the direction of the investigation. Let’s explore the surprising twists and turns that lead to the conclusion of The Art of Sarah.

Who is Mok Ga-hui?

The woman known as Sarah Kim wasn’t her original name. Through flashbacks and accounts from people she conned, and from Sarah Kim herself, we discover she began as Mok Ga-hui, a department store employee. Working at Samwol Department Store selling luxury handbags, she became fascinated with the wealthy lifestyle they represented and ultimately created the Sarah Kim persona.

Ga-hui longs for a more comfortable life and hopes to one day afford a designer handbag. However, her situation takes a turn for the worse when she briefly leaves her post during a work shift, allowing the store to be robbed. Despite earning far less than the wealthy owner of the department store, Choi Chae-u, Ga-hui is held responsible for the loss. She keeps her job, but is saddled with a massive debt of 50 million won – around $34,650 – to cover the stolen merchandise.

Ga-hui is in debt and tries to solve her financial problems by buying and reselling used luxury handbags. She attends employee sales at Samwol Department Store, using stolen employee badges to get discounts. To fund this growing operation, she takes out a risky loan from a loan shark.

These systems weren’t designed to benefit ordinary people, and the easy ways to take advantage of them quickly disappear. Department stores limit how much employees can buy during sales, and Ga-hui struggles to keep up with her loan payments. Instead of letting her pay down the original amount, her lenders strong-arm her into taking out a new loan with a much higher interest rate. At the same time, the police begin investigating ‘Cheongdam Queen,’ a reseller of luxury bags who pretends to be wealthy influencers to sell her goods in the upscale Cheongdam district.

Believing she was trapped, Ga-hui wrote a suicide note and jumped into a reservoir. She was presumed dead in 2018, and both the loan sharks who threatened her and the police eventually stopped searching.

Who is Kim Eun-jae?

Ga-hui miraculously survives her ordeal and vows to rebuild her life, driven by a desire for the wealth and influence that those responsible for her pain so easily possess. She reinvents herself as Kim Eun-jae and begins working at a hostess club, entertaining men to earn a living. It’s there she sets her sights on Hong Seong-sin, played by Jung Jin-young of Queen of Tears, as her next target.

Seong-sin, a wealthy but ill man with kidney failure, receives an unusual offer from Eun-jae. She proposes to donate a kidney to him if he marries her and gives her 500 million won (about $346,000). He accepts, and they get married. Because of legal requirements, spouses must be married for a year before an organ donation can take place, so Eun-jae moves in with Seong-sin.

Over the following year, Seong-sin mentors Eun-jae in the lifestyle of the wealthy, and a genuine connection develops between them. However, Eun-jae is still running a scheme, this time involving Kang Ji-hwon, a charming host from a bar. She leads Ji-hwon to believe Seong-sin is controlling and abusive, making him want to protect her. They begin secretly meeting for dates around Seoul, and Ji-hwon quickly becomes completely devoted to her.

Eun-jae is starting to prepare for the launch of her luxury handbag brand, Boudoir. She’s telling affluent women that the brand has been used by European royalty for a hundred years and is now expanding to Korea. Presenting herself as the brand’s regional director, she enlists Ji-hwon and his coworkers to spread the word to their clients.

Eun-jae still needed money to get her plan off the ground. She persuaded Ji-hwon to attack Seong-sin, but unexpectedly intervened to protect her husband. Though this landed Eun-jae in the hospital, it completely won over Seong-sin, who decided to leave his entire fortune to her.

We discover Eun-jae’s deception of Seong-sin wasn’t about his money; it was about revenge. Years ago, when she was known as Mok Ga-hui, Seong-sin’s loan company trapped her in a crippling debt that led to a suicide attempt. She intentionally led Seong-sin to believe a kidney transplant was possible, only to cruelly take that hope away from him at the very end.

Just before the scheduled transplant, Seong-sin ordered his men to find and eliminate Eun-jae, but he surprisingly called it off at the last minute. Speaking to both his men and Eun-jae through a speakerphone from his hospital bed, he reasoned that he willingly played the fool, so it wasn’t a true deception. Touched by this rare act of kindness, Eun-jae agreed to donate her kidney to him. After recovering, she secretly removed a valuable 500 million won pine tree from his garden and vanished again. When she resurfaces, it will be as Sarah Kim, and she’ll finally complete building Boudoir.

Who is Kim Mi-jeong, and why does Sarah Kim kill her?

Kim Mi-jeong was the skilled craftsperson who created the Boudoir bags that would eventually make Sarah Kim a fortune. After transforming herself into American-born, Oxford-educated Sarah Kim, the main character needed someone to actually manufacture the bags for her new brand. She discovered Kim Mi-jeong, a young woman working in tough conditions at a shop that made imitation designer goods. Mi-jeong, lacking proper identification for legal employment, worked with other immigrants making and selling these bags at markets throughout Seoul—and she was exceptionally talented.

I was shocked to learn that Mi-jeong, after Sarah Kim brought her into this world of luxury, started craving that lifestyle for herself. It was unbelievable when I found out she’d been pretending to be Sarah while shopping! Then, she went even further, plotting to replace Sarah completely. She even got the same ankle tattoo and meticulously planned their outfits, making sure we both wore that exclusive dress to the Boudoir launch – it was all part of her terrifying plan.

Mi-jeong attempts to ambush and kill Sarah Kim, but Sarah manages to turn the tables. After Mi-jeong is accidentally struck and injured, Sarah decides to permanently eliminate the threat Mi-jeong poses. At a party, she makes an agreement with Choi Chae-u to open a new boutique at Samwol Department Store, and secretly has the party’s belongings – including an incapacitated Mi-jeong hidden in a case – moved to the store.

After arriving at the department store, Sarah Kim used her insider knowledge of the building’s layout – gained from her previous job as Mok Ga-hui – to get rid of Mi-jeong. She pushed Mi-jeong down the trash chute and into the sewer, hoping the plan would be flawless. However, Mi-jeong was still alive when she fell. Injured, she managed to crawl to a ladder in the sewer, but ultimately died from exposure before anyone could rescue her. Though she didn’t survive, she made it far enough that someone discovered Sarah Kim’s crime.

The Art of Sarah ending, explained

Detective Park Mu-gyeong figures out what happened, but he needs proof to back up his ideas. He likely has enough evidence to show Kim Mi-jeong intended to kill Sarah Kim, but not enough to prove Sarah Kim actually killed Kim Mi-jeong. Mu-gyeong is determined to uncover the truth, while Sarah Kim is desperate to protect Boudoir, the dream that saved her life. Boudoir represents everything she’s worked for and is more important to her than anything else.

Sarah Kim understands the best way to save Boudoir is to act like Mi-jeong and falsely confess to murdering Sarah Kim. Since Sarah Kim doesn’t actually exist and Mi-jeong had no official records, no one can prove the truth. By eliminating the possibility of prosecuting a scam artist named Sarah Kim, Boudoir has a good chance of staying afloat.

Detective Park faced a difficult choice: reveal the truth and potentially let a murderer walk free, or support a lie that would likely put someone behind bars. He chose the lie, and it worked. Sarah Kim was convicted of her own murder, pretending to be the victim, Mi-jeong, and received a ten-year prison sentence. While incarcerated, she received a visit from Detective Park, who had been promoted for successfully closing the case. He informed her that their business, Boudoir, was thriving, and she appeared content with the outcome.

As Detective Park prepares to leave, he asks her for her name. She responds with a smile but remains silent, offering multiple possibilities: Kim Mi-jeong, Sarah Kim, Kim Eun-jae, or Mok Ga-hui. But those weren’t truly her name. She identified as ‘Boudoir,’ and that identity was everything. She fiercely protected the Boudoir brand because it represented her own success and proved she could achieve status on her own terms. For her, proving that anyone could earn legitimacy, regardless of their birth, was more important than freedom, wealth, or even what she was called. That philosophical triumph meant everything to her.

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2026-02-14 01:07