The Viu Original My Lovely Liar has become the talk of the town lately. The super adorable K-drama is embellished with an intense mystery and some unexpected twists and turns to keep you hooked. (wow) Kim So-Hyun returns to the screen after a break, and she’s delightful as always. She’s joined by ex-NU’EST member Minhyun, who became popular as an actor after his role in the popular fantasy series Alchemy of Souls. My Lovely Liar is a contemporary show that can fulfill all your slice-of-life desires. The show is a reminder of everything that old fans love about K-dramas, and grew in popularity quite quickly. Now that the show has aired its 16 episodes, those who prefer to binge-watch have a lot of fun awaiting them. For those of us who are already done and missing Sol-Hee and Do-Ha, here’s a quick recap of My Lovely Liar.
Spoiler Alert
What happened on the show?
Mok Sol-Hee has had a peculiar ability since she was a child. She can sense when people are lying, or rather, she can hear a lie because of some sort of defect in her ear (at least that’s what she thinks). Sol-Hee doesn’t particularly love this ability because it makes her distrustful, and she tends to think anybody who is even telling her a white lie is doing so out of maliciousness. On the other hand, Do-Ha is running away from his home town because he’s suspected of murdering his girlfriend. Almost like destiny, their paths cross, and Sol-Hee, who is in a soup herself, ends up saving Do-Ha from an angry man. Five years later, Do-Ha ends up moving to the neighborhood that Sol-Hee lives in. Do-Ha is currently a composer who works with the biggest idol on the scene at the moment, Syaon. Curiously, nobody has seen Do-Ha’s face or knows what his real identity is except for the head of J Entertainment, his close friend Jo Deuk-Chan, and a few acquaintances. After receiving an award for Do-Ha’s composition, Syaon decides to pay him a visit and give him the award herself. She gets followed by reporters, and so he ends up moving to Sol-Hee’s neighborhood. Do-Ha recognizes Sol-Hee immediately, but she doesn’t remember him (well it “has” been 5 years since she saw him).
Do-Ha’s past
Do-Ha is the son of an assemblywoman who wants to win political favors. When he was in high school, he fell in love with a poor girl named Eom-Ji from his old town. They stayed together even when he moved to college, making her insecure and jealous. Do-Ha’s given name is Seung-Joo, and back then, Seung-Joo and Eom-Ji were very tight. Unfortunately, Eom-Ji’s love turned into something more negative when she could only think about Do-Ha and didn’t live for anything or anybody else. Eom-Ji’s world became Do-Ha, and she started behaving like a stalker, checking his phone, asking him who he was hanging out with, and suspecting him of lying about every small thing. Do-Ha became fed up with these accusations and one night decided to give up on their relationship. Eom-Ji tells Do-Ha that he is her dream, and that’s when Do-Ha realizes he had to put an end to all of this. Eom-Ji insists she would kill herself then, while in the middle of their argument on the beach. She tries to cut her wrist with a shard of glass, leaving Do-Ha hurt. Ultimately, he realizes she’s okay and tells her to die if she wants to. He doesn’t look back, even though he hears her cry miserably, because he knows there will be no coming back from that. It turns out Eom-Ji did die that day, and Do-Ha, who felt like he was to blame, admitted to killing her at first and then said it was suicide. There was no evidence against Do-Ha, and he was acquitted, but society always believed he was a murderer. This is how he ended up living in hiding and taking shelter under J Entertainment, thanks to his friend Deuk-Chan.
Sol-Hee’s Past
Sol-Hee found herself friendless because she could hear people lying and always called them out for it. This made her suspicious of anyone who tried to get close to her, so she started living in a shell. Somehow, she was lucky to date a police officer named Kang-Min and really liked him. She never told him the truth about her ability, but one day, curiously, Kang-Min cut all ties with Sol-Hee, leaving her unwilling to trust anyone again. In truth, Kang-Min had cancer, and he didn’t want to see his girlfriend suffer (bold of him to make this decision for her). Sol-Hee’s mother is always troubling her because her mother wants to live a rich life, and all she cares about is money, which Sol-Hee has worked hard to earn. On the other hand, her father lives somewhere in the middle of the mountains by himself (they say opposites attract). Sol-Hee’s parents have been divorced and haven’t seen each other in 10 years, another reason for her to hate the idea of trust and mutual love. When Sol-Hee meets Do-Ha, she realizes this guy doesn’t tell lies, and suddenly she wonders if he’s her destiny. Time and circumstances bring them together, and it almost does feel like they just may be destined to be together, ultimately making them like each other. Sol-Hee pretends to be a shaman and helps people who think they’re being scammed and such, while simultaneously running a tarot cafe.
Do-Ha’s fears
Sol-Hee is the reason Do-Ha starts opening up and stops wearing his mask in public. She gets him to realize that not everyone cares about who he is and also shows him how to live freely again. Do-Ha is afraid because no one believes he didn’t kill his girlfriend. Rather than a suspect, everyone thinks he’s a murderer, including his mother. Ultimately, Do-Ha finds peace with Sol-Hee, learns to live like a normal person, and falls in love with her. The two find comfort in each other and slowly get close. Sol-Hee also ends up helping Do-Ha unmask the truth about Eom-Ji because that’s the closure he needs to go back to living a normal life.
Who Killed Eom-Ji, and Why?
After a lot of lies, the truth comes out regarding who killed Do-Ha’s ex-girlfriend. During the time Do-Ha spends with Sol-Hee, Eom-Ji’s older brother tries to kill him and coax the truth out of him. Eom-Ji’s body was never found, so no one knew if she actually committed suicide or not. Sol-Hee was also surprised to hear that Do-Ha really thought he killed Eom-Ji, but that was because he thought he was the reason she committed suicide. 5 years after her death, Eom-Ji’s body is found in the mountains, putting Do-Ha in a soup all over again, just when he’s living normally again. Kang-Min is the one who finds something fishy about the case and realizes that the head chief of the incident was being paid by the assemblywoman to keep evidence in wraps. She suspected her son so much that she would do anything to save him from his mistake, even if he didn’t actually do it.
At first, Deuk-Chan’s brother Jae-Chan ends up confessing to the murder, pretending to be in love with Eom-Ji, but in the end, it turns out to be Deuk-Chan, the CEO of J Entertainment himself, who killed the girl. Although it was by accident, Deuk-Chan made stupid choices because he was in love with Do-Ha too. Eom-Ji had realized Deuk-Chan’s feelings, and he was threatened by her knowing the truth about him. He was also afraid she’d tell Do-Ha the truth, and during a physical altercation after the fight Do-Ha and Eom-Ji had that fateful night, Deuk-Chan accidentally pushed Eom-Ji hard to the ground, where she hit her head on a stone and died immediately. If her body had never been found, Deuk-Chan would’ve taken his feelings to the grave, but instead, Sol-Hee was able to find the evidence he had hidden (Eom-Ji’s t-shirt with his blood on it and her couple ring with Do-Ha) and made him confess the truth. In his guilt, Deuk-Chan tries to take his own life in a car accident, injuring himself gravely. At this time, there’s a small blast because of the oil leaks, and Sol-Hee momentarily loses her hearing.
But it’s actually her ability that disappears for a little while, leaving her to live a normal life too for the first time in 27 years. Do-Ha is able to plan secret dates for her and lie to her to give her surprises. Deuk-Chan gets convicted of the murder, leaving Do-Ha and Sol-Hee to live happily.
Do Sol-Hee and Do-Ha Get Their Happy Ending?
Sol-Hee’s father comes to the realization that he was wrong about thinking his wife was cheating on him, and now he wants her back. Sol-Hee and Do-Ha help him by giving him a makeover and telling him exactly what to do. When her mother pretends she doesn’t want to be with Sol-Hee’s father again, Sol-Hee’s ability to hear lies returns, and she ends up making her confess the truth. On the other hand, Do-Ha decides to become a producer and gets the ex-J Entertainment idol Ethan to sing his songs. Ethan’s young brother joins them in work too because he’s also a talented musician. Do-Ha’s mother finally apologizes for not believing her son wasn’t a murderer, and even though he was a perfect son, she wasn’t a great mother. Sol-Hee’s cafe thrives, even when she’s not pretending to be a shaman and getting VIP clients, so she ends up keeping things the same way. She realizes that it’s better to trust people for who they are rather than using her ability to entrap her into believing everyone means harm.
Deuk-Chan tells Do-Ha that on Eom-Ji’s phone, before he got rid of it, he saw that she wrote a message accepting that Do-Ha and she were no longer a thing. She had thanked him for their amazing time together and realized that having him as her dream was a mistake. Do-Ha finally has the full closure he needs. Do-Ha ends up proposing to Sol-Hee, and of course, she accepts. Even Kang-Min and Sol-Hee say goodbye because he can’t be friends with her, and when he sees her happy, he’s happy too (the second lead syndrome is real). In the end, Sol-Hee and Do-Ha head off to a vacation somewhere on a bus similar to their first meeting. The sugary drama comes to an end in a very orderly manner, with all the real “drama” ending in My Lovely Liar episode 14 itself. The last two episodes are especially relaxed and fun, giving us the happy ending we were all hoping for. Even the supporting characters all end up happy!
