“Don’t become a frog!” That’s the mantra of the new Netflix thriller The Frog. The show mostly focuses on two lodging houses, whose owners are either destitred or tormented by serial killers that stayed at their place. At first, it was unclear how the two stories were connected—one that took place in 2001 and the other in the present day. But as the Korean drama unfolded, we saw how these tragic events intertwined. In the end The Frog delivered a powerful message to not end up being a “frog”—a symbol of passivity and victimhood. Throughout the runtime of the series, the characters struggle to fight back against the horrors brought upon them by outsiders. But what happened to them in the end? Did the owners get justice? Let’s find out from the detailed recap and explainer The Frog series.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Gi-ho want to kill Ji Hyang-Cheol?
In 2001, there was a small, ordinary lodge house, Lake View Motel, run by a couple, Koo Sang-Jun and his wife Eun-Gyeong. These two individuals had poured their hearts into setting up the motel as a guest place so that tourists never had to worry about their stay and comfort. And for Sang-Jun and Eun-Gyeong, it wasn’t just a business; it was their life. Everything seemed fine until one rainy night when tragedy struck.
A man named Ji Hyang-Cheol arrived at the motel on the night of a heavy downpour. Sang-Jun, being the generous man he was, invited him in and gave him the best room in the house, completely unaware that Ji Hyang-Cheol was a notorious serial killer with a history of murdering 12 women across the country. That night, while Sang-Jun slept at the front desk, Hyang-Cheol brought the body of one of his victims into the motel. Unfortunately, he was spotted by Gi-Ho, Sang-jun’s teenage son. Gi-Ho was terrified and pretended to disappear to become like “a ghost” so that the killer wouldn’t harm him. Ji Hyang-Cheol went on to dismember the body in room 403 and left the horrifying scene behind. The first person to stumble upon the gruesome crime was Eun-Gyeong. The sight of the dismembered body in her own motel was beyond terrifying. Sang-Jun didn’t even know what had happened until it was too late. Although the police eventually caught Ji Hyang-Cheol and sent him to prison, the damage was already done. Not just to the victims, but to the lives of Sang-Jun, Eun-Gyeong, and Gi-Ho. Sang-Jun and Eun-Gyeong’s lives fell apart. Sang-Jun went to work in construction while Eun-Gyeong found a job at another restaurant, but she couldn’t cope with the trauma.
Eun-Gyeong turned to alcohol to try to drown her despair. Even though she still clung to a sliver of hope that they might one day reopen the motel, it was impossible. Lake View Motel had become infamous, known as the “murder motel.” People made prank calls to ask if any a ghost had answered the phone. The dream of keeping the motel alive was dead. Sang-Jun accepted this reality, but Eun-Gyeong couldn’t. She blamed him for their misery and couldn’t shake the horror of what had happened. Meanwhile, their son Gi-Ho was suffering too. Gi-Ho started sneaking booze into school to sell it to classmates and got bullied for his connection to the motel. In the end, Eun-Gyeong couldn’t take it anymore. She took her own life in room 403, the very place where she had seen the dismembered body. Her suicide shattered what was left of their family. Sang-Jun broke down completely and was admitted to a mental hospital, stuck in the past, unable to move forward. Gi-Ho witnessed it all but remained silent and harbored a burning desire for revenge against Ji Hyang-Cheol. Gi-Ho began training with his father’s best friend, Park Jong-Du, and plotted his own justice. He tracked down information about the killer and even visited a ghostwriter who was writing about Ji Hyang-Cheol. When Gi-Ho found out that the killer was planning to visit his dying mother at the hospital, he made his move. With the help of Park Jong-du, Gi-Ho lay in wait for Ji Hyang-Cheol at the hospital. When the killer realized someone was after him, he tried to flee after attacking a guard and even Park Jong-Du in his desperation. But Gi-Ho was ready. He shot Ji Hyang-Cheol and finally brought his own form of justice to the man who had destroyed his family’s life. Even though the police tried to track him after what he did, they never found Gi-Ho, which allowed him to escape the consequences of his actions.
Why did Jeon Yeong-ha want to sell the motel to Yoo Seong-a?
This story which takes place in the present revolves around a vacation home rental run by a man named Jeon Yeong-Ha. His rental had become popular in the area, known for being a beautiful getaway. One day, as Yeong-Ha came across a woman named Yoo Seong-A and a little boy, Ha Si-Hyeon. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He and his caretaker even played with the boy as they assumed Yoo Seong-A was his single mother. But after Yoo Seong-A suddenly left, things started to feel off. Yeong-Ha noticed a strong smell of bleach coming from the bathroom, and bloodstains on one of the vinyl records, and found camera footage showing Yoo Seong-A leaving with a large suitcase. The boy, Ha Si-Hyeon, was nowhere to be found. Yeong-Ha tried to convince himself that nothing had happened, that maybe the boy hadn’t been killed. But deep down, Yeong-Ha knew something was terribly wrong. In a panic, he cleaned the bathroom, the bed, and anything that might have contained evidence, not wanting to be held responsible for what had happened at his vacation home. By doing so, he unknowingly made himself an accomplice to the crime for which deep down he forever felt guilty. And he couldn’t shake the fear that Yoo Seong-A might come back one day. And she did. This time, she wasn’t just pretending to be a traveler.
When Yeong-Ha initially refused to let her stay, his daughter, Jeon Ui-Seon, showed her kindness and invited her in. At first, Yoo Seong-A played along and pretended she had never been there before and did not know the owner. But eventually, she couldn’t keep up the act any longer. Over dinner, she confessed everything to Yeong-Ha and revealed the dark truth behind her actions. Yeong-Ha had two strong pieces of evidence – her confession and the camera footage – yet he couldn’t bring himself to go to the police. Fear and guilt held him back. Yoo Seong-A then began her reign of terror. She tried to take over the vacation house and started torturing Yeong-Ha mentally. She made the place feel like her own by filling it with her paintings and plants. She even threatened him by saying that if she went down, so would he, for helping cover up her crime. Yeong-Ha soon realized that there was no reasoning with her. He tried inviting more guests to the vacation house in hopes of getting rid of her. Even Officer Kim stayed there for a while. But when he started getting suspicious and collected evidence against Yoo Seong-A, she killed him too. Yeong-Ha realized there was no easy way out. In the end, Yeong-Ha understood that he couldn’t win this fight. Defeated and desperate to free himself from her, he decided to sell the vacation house to Yoo Seong-A, just to get her out of his life.
Why did Jeon Yeong-ha meet Gi-ho?
It was at this point in The Frog where the fates of the two motels finally collided. Yeong-Ha learned about the tragic history of Sang-Jun’s motel—how one horrific incident involving a serial killer had destroyed not just the business but the lives of everyone connected to it. This revelation hit Yeong-Ha hard. He began to see eerie parallels between Sang-Jun’s story and his own. Just like Sang-Jun, he felt like an innocent victim whose life was being torn apart by someone else’s crime. The fear that his vacation house, his life, and his family were doomed to the same fate left him frustrated and hopeless. In his desperation, Yeong-Ha decided to visit Sang-Jun.
When Yeong-Ha found Sang-Jun in a mental hospital, the sight of the broken man-made Yeong-Ha’s fears even more solid. Yeong-Ha also met Gi-Ho, Sang-Jun’s son, and discovered that Gi-Ho was on a mission to avenge his family by killing the serial killer who had ruined their lives. Gi-Ho at first mistook Yeong-Ha for a cop and trapped him in his cabin, but Yeong-Ha managed to escape. After Gi-Ho returned from killing the serial killer, Yeong-Ha felt a strange sense of relief. Seeing Gi-Ho fight back and take justice into his own hands inspired Yeong-Ha. Gi-Ho didn’t just accept the suffering forced upon him; he fought for his family and refused to let others ruin their lives. Gi-Ho wasn’t like a helpless frog sitting by a pond quietly letting others throw stones at him. He was a fighter who challenged those who dared to harm him. This realization sparked something in Yeong-Ha. Yeong-Ha helped Gi-Ho hide the evidence so the police wouldn’t find him, a clear sign that Yeong-Ha was ready to take control of his own fate. Meeting Gi-Ho changed something in him. Yeong-Ha decided that he wasn’t going to be a victim anymore. He wasn’t going to sell his vacation house just because some random woman tried to destroy his life. He had to fight to protect what was dear to him, the vacation home, and his family, and if that meant killing Yoo Seong-A, then so be it.
Did Yoon Bo-min finally succeed in capturing Yoo Seong-a?
Yoo Seong-A thought she was going to have it all – the hotel, and the lives of Yeong-Ha’s daughter Jeon Ui-Seon, and his close friend Park Yong-Chae. But Yeong-Ha had finally reached his breaking point. When Captain Yoon Bo-Min arrived to help him, Yeong-Ha decided enough was enough. He took Yong-Chae, who was seriously injured, to the hospital and informed the police about his daughter’s body, which Yoo Seong-A had hidden in a suitcase by the riverside. When Yoo Seong-A finally made it to the riverside to retrieve it, Yoon Bo-Min’s team arrested her on the spot. Even after being arrested, Yoo Seong-A managed to get bail. She thought she was going to slip away and escape all the damage she had caused. But she didn’t stop there. In a fit of revenge, she burned down Choi Kyung-Nam’s laundromat, the same man who had reported her to the police. She was truly relentless. But in the end, her fate caught up with her. When she returned to the vacation home to collect her belongings, she was met by her ex-husband, the father of Ha Si-Hyeon – the poor boy she had killed out of spite to get back at her ex. Her ex-husband was there for one thing: revenge. As the police discovered the body of Officer Kim in the cornfield, Captain Yoon Bo-Min was determined to bring Yoo Seong-A to justice for all the lives she had destroyed. But justice came in a different form. Her ex-husband shot Yoo Seong-A to death in the pool of the vacation home. Though Jeon Yeong-Ha and Yoon Bo-Min weren’t the ones to bring her to justice at the hands of the law, they were relieved that she was finally gone. They didn’t remain helpless victims, the mere frogs. In the end, one way or another, justice was served.
The death of Yoo Seong-A truly changed their lives. After the two serial killers had shattered the lives of two motel owners and their families, they were finally gone for good. Jeon Yeong-Ha, along with his wife, daughter, her family, and his caretaker friend, began to live happily at the vacation home. He stopped renting it out and focused on finding peace with his loved ones. But he made one exception for Gi-Ho, who wanted to visit and stay with him from time to time. Gi-Ho learned from Captain Yoon Bo-Min that she knew he was the one who killed the serial killer but didn’t arrest him. She was glad he didn’t let himself become a “frog,” someone who sits idly by while life throws stones at them. Gi-Ho was grateful to Jeon Yeong-Ha for not letting him give up after killing the serial killer and for keeping him from taking his own life. And just as Gi Ho helped Yeong-Ha not become a frog, Yeong-Ha had done the same for him. The story gives us a very conclusive ending by offering a satisfying and final closure for everyone involved. In the end, this story really leaves us with one simple but powerful lesson: don’t be a frog! Don’t let life push you down without fighting back.
