A recently released South Korean black comedy series titled Mask Girl is all that K-drama lovers can talk about. The thriller show was launched on Netflix and has fans losing their cool because of just how good it is. Surely, you must be curious to find out what the hype is all about, so sit back as we tell you all about Mask Girl along with its ending explained.
The thriller show is inspired by a webtoon that was published by Mae Mi and Hee Si and has its screenplay written and directed by Kim Yong Hoon. The show follows the story of an insecure office worker who does not feel very confident with her physical appearance. So, in hopes of getting some external validation, she ends up becoming a popular celebrity operating behind a golden mask.
While things seemed fine with her alternate nighttime personality, her life does a one-eighty, and things go awry because of some ‘ill-fated incidents’ that turn her life upside down. The show has actor Ahn Jae Hong as Joo Oh Nam, Yeom Hye Ran as Kim Kyung Ja, and the role of the main lead, Kim Mo Mi, or the masked girl, is actually being played by three actresses.
Actresses Lee Han Byeol and Go Hyun Jung both play the role of Mo Mi along with NaNa, who plays the role of Mo Mi after she gets plastic surgery done in the show. The show has boldly commented on society’s obsession with looks and how it takes things further by arrogantly discriminating among people based on their looks, race, color, body, and just how well they align with the beauty standards of the world.
Not just this, the show is dark, gritty, and has an amazing revenge arc for the thriller lover. So, continue reading if you want a more detailed look into the show and its ending explained below.
Mask Girl Ending Explained
We are introduced to Mo Mi as an office girl, an average individual who does all of the boring tasks, takes the subway like the rest, goes to the office like the rest, and hates her job, just like the rest. She clearly hates her life and her nine-to-five routine. The only part of her life that she actually enjoys is that she lives during the nighttime. We are told that she had always wanted to be a famous person,
loved by many, but because her mother, friends, and other people decided that they wanted her to lose her self-esteem, they insulted her by calling her ugly, forcing her to forever box her dreams of being a celeb.
But she did not abandon her dream completely and instead settled with becoming a broadcaster popularly called Mask Girl by her fans. But it is when she ends up taking her clothes off on camera while intoxicated that her life starts to go downhill.
She finds herself texting and flirting with one of her followers called Once Upon A Prince or Oh Nam Joo, who turns out to be the male version of Mo Mi except for the alternate personality part. Turns out Nam Joo is obsessed with her to the point that when one of Mo Mi’s fans tries to force himself on her, he ends up taking care of his body.
Some time passes, and Mo Mi decides to quit her job; sad that he won’t be able to see her anymore, Nam Joo visits Mo Mi and rapes her. But during the time they had not met, Mo Mi had gotten plastic surgery done, which caused Nam Joo to panic. It is while he tries to make sense of the situation Mo Mi kills him and deals with his body.
Kyung Ja’s Vengeance Begins
The news of her son’s death soon reaches Kyung Ja, who decides to get revenge on Mo Mi for Nam Joo’s brutal murder. She attempts to kidnap her but instead gets Mo Mi’s rival accidentally, though this turns out to be a blessing in disguise as Chun Ae, the girl who got kidnapped, also has a motive to get rid of Mo Mi. But there’s a twist here as we’re told that Chun Ae is actually friends with Mo Mi, and she made up a fake story in hopes of getting Kyung Ja off Mo Mi’s back.
We see how Chun Ae and Mo Mi came to be BFFs, and we find that Mo Mi had actually protected the former from her abusive ex-boyfriend and that the two had managed to kill him. While disposing of his body, Kyung Ja announces her presence with a gun in her hand. Thinking that she is likely to die, Mo Mi tells Chun Ae that she is pregnant with Nam Joo’s child.
This is enough for Chun Ae to throw herself in front of Mo Mi to protect her, just like the latter, and scream that she is the actual Mask Girl. The two girls end up fighting for the gun, which leads to a shot getting fired from the gun, which ends up killing Chun Ae, who, before dying, hits Kyung Ja with a rock. Thinking that Kyung Ja is dead, Mo Mi puts Kyung Ja and Chun Ae’s boyfriend’s dead bodies in a car and dumps them in a river.
Enter Mi Mo, Mo Mi’s Daughter
It is only a matter of time before we see Mo Mi being put behind bars and the whole country knowing her as the Mask Girl, a serial killer. She had also given birth to Kim Mi Mo, her daughter whom she left with her strict, cold-hearted mother.
Mi Mo’s condition and life seem to be no better than her mother’s, as everybody knows whose daughter she is. She grows up indulging in delinquent behavior, fighting with people, and having no friends. Mi Mo continues transferring to different schools until she finds a friend in one of them.
She protects a girl, Ye Chun, from getting bullied, and the two grow close to the point of telling each other about their parents and family. Realizing that both of them come from screwed-up families, they decide to run away, but before that can happen, the entire school finds out Mi Mo’s truth. Ye Chun lied about her family, and this betrayal seemed like the push Mi Mo needed to run away alone.
Mi Mo gets her revenge by coming back and beating Ye Chun up, but by this time, Mo Mi, her mother, who is still in prison, gets a letter that has a newspaper clipping inside it.
We are shown how Mo Mi managed to survive prison life by going up against the strongest gang till they eventually stopped bothering her and left her to live her life as a lone wolf in the prison.
Kyung Ja & Mo Mi Meet Again
In the present time, the newspaper clipping has news of her daughter’s violence, which only seems to be growing. The letter asks Mo mi how she feels having a broken and lonely daughter out in the world while she stays helpless.
This worries Mo Mi so much she tries to break out of prison but fails and is put in confinement along with the Bible. She comes out as a new person with a newfound love for Jesus.
Finally, the day of meeting with the volunteers comes, and Mo Mi ends up with a woman who introduces herself as Kyung Ja. Turns out the hit to her head putting her in a car and then dumping the car into a river was just enough to kill her.
She also got plastic surgery, but by the time she had recovered, Mo Mi was already in prison, out of her reach. So, she decided to ruin Mo Mi in an innovative way.
She deliberately targeted Mi Mo in hopes of ruining her life and hurting Mo Mi. She reveals that she was the one who would go around telling people the truth about Mi Mo’s mother, all the while encouraging her to be violent towards others.
In a flashback, we also see that it was Kyung Ja who revealed the truth about Mi Mo’s mother in a way that looked like Ye Chun did it. And she did all of this while maintaining Mi Mo’s trust in her and keeping the latter close to herself.
Kyung Ja’s Final Plan and the Ending Explained
Kyung Ja reveals to Mo Mi her plans to kill Mi Mo, which pushes Mo Mi to escape from the hospital to find her daughter before something bad happens to her. It is a race against time as Mo Mi and her mother try to look for Mi Mo.
Thankfully, Ye Chun returns and tells Mo Mi’s grandmother all about Kyung Ja, and the two set out to her house. Mo Mi manages to steal a car and is also revealed to be on her way to Kyung Ja’s house. Mo Mi’s mother and Ye Chun reach there first, and while Mo Mi’s mother fights with Kyung Ja, Ye Chun goes to the basement to help Mi Mo.
Mo Mi also reaches just in time to protect her mother from getting seriously injured. While both Kyung Ja and Mo Mi’s mother remain unconscious, Mo Mi goes to the basement to find her daughter. But Kyung Ja takes advantage of this and quickly stabs Mo Mi’s mother and runs down the basement to finally kill Mo Mi.
While Kyung Ja and Mo Mi fight, Ye Chun and Mi Mo run out to be followed by a severely injured Mo Mi. Shortly, the police finally arrive to take Mo Mi away, and she does not put up any fight, but once again, Kyung Ja appears, with crazy in her eyes and a gun in her hand.
In a rage, Kyung Ja decided to change her target and ended up shooting at Mi Mo, but Mi Mi’s motherly instincts kicked in faster than the bullet firing, and she managed to dramatically throw herself in front of Mi Mo. As you would guess, Mo Mi ends up dying, which is kind of deserved considering the number of people she has killed.
And out of duty, the police also end up shooting and killing Kyung Ja. After a time skip, we see Mi Mo attending school with a newfound friend, Ye Chun. She is trying to overcome the trauma, to be a better human, and to live a happy life.
The show ends with Mi Mo clinging to the memories of her mother while watching her childhood videos and crying her eyes out.
Also Read: The Winter King Episode 1: Recap, Review & Ending Explained
