I still wish this was a tight 2 1/2 hour movie. I wish KTH went nuts after she went off her meds to lash out against her husband. But Episode 7 was a surprising double plot twist through clever editing that I did not see coming; well done. But the show left many unanswered questions.

We learned that Seung-jae got the 50 million won from his estranged grandmother. All Joo-ran wanted from her mother was an apology for the blame of her sister’s suicide. (Which remains a huge plot hole.) She did not get a full one, so she remains trapped in her mother’s accusation. But was Joo-Ran’s demeanor throughout the show was that of a cold blooded killer? The Seoul teacher suicide that made the family move is now in question.

Episode 8 started off strong with another double cross. But it got sidetracked by weak justifications and arm chair psycho-analysis as to Jae-Ho and Joo-Ran’s motivations. The finale ended on a flat tone. Joo-Ran accepted the blame for her sister’s death that created so many barriers that she resigned herself live a life of protection by her manipulative husband. She had no control over herself or her life. It is a jumbled mess to figure out if Joo-Ran actually had a plan to dispose of Jae-Ho and/or Sang-eun since she never showed any real initiative. We do not see her raise any mitigation at trial but leaves prison after a few years when n Sang-eum’s baby is still a toddler. (again, kdrama land fumbles the legal elements: minimum murder sentence is Korea is 3-5 years), She continued to wallow in “the woe-is-me” complex she had from the very beginning. How is going to prison, marking yourself as a murderer, leaving your son to your mother, as a means of supporting your family? Is living as herself mean living alone to reflect on one’s own regrets?

I do not know how Sang-eun’s baby survived Jae-Ho’s beating, with violent kicks directly to her womb. In the end, she lives her life as a single parent - - - troubled by Joo-Ran’s actions of burying her sins - - - with a lower middle class job. Back home, we do not know if Joo-Ran has a job or has escaped her mental issues. At the very end, the only change seen is Joo-Ran is wearing jeans instead of a designer dress.

I did raise the possibility that the show would end with a kill husband club theme. Damaged people tend to bond with other damaged people. Are the victims living a better life without their husbands? Apparently so, but did the motive justify their choices and actions? You really could not root for any of the characters in this series. The series sputtered to the end by going directly into the gray area of right and wrong. Left unresolved is how these events actually changed Joo-Ran.

KTH’s performance could have been much better. Her glazed appearance throughout the show did her no favors but that might have been the director’s choice. She reminded me of a hollow Stepford Wife. LJY continued to perform at a high level. She had to grapple with more emotional...

This drama was a case of one twist too many. As much I liked the earlier episodes I found the twists overdone by the time I reached the end.
Also, I didn’t quite get what was Joo Ran’s actually motive. Did she really think she can get rid of both. I doubt it. She knows she can’t take down her husband.

Also, I expected the neighbor to have more to do but she just was a neighbor.

I did like the way the show showcased abuse. It’s not black and white and it affects everyone so differently. I do appreciate this.

Also, did they imply that he killed the sister too? Why? Or is it unrelated?
Was Sang-Eun living in JR’s house in the end? It did look like that but couldn’t tell.

I wasn’t a fan of Kim Tae Hee as an actor and this show convinced me of that. She did look helpless but I couldn’t read much otherwise.
On the other hand Kim Sung-oh was perfect in his role here.

Also, while I do appreciate pauses in frames, and can be impactful when done right. But it was overdone and the show just felt incredibly slow at times. It would have benefited from shorter episodes. I think at 4 episodes this would have been a tight psychological thriller.

Overall a good attempt. They had a story to tell. But it didn’t execute as well as it should have.

This was one of the most frustrating finales ever! What even was Joo-Ran's plan? Why put the pregnant woman in danger in the first place? How did she think she will take on a murderer alone? Who killed her sister? Why did SangEun kill her husband like that, especially when he was about to get a lot of money? Was Soo-Min really pregnant and if she was, was it really JaeHo's baby? Was JaeHo really running a prostitution racket? Why so many unanswered questions after that super slow build-up?

One more Kdrama faltering at the finishing line. It's even worse when that happens with a murder mystery. I regret wasting my time on this.

This show would be better with less episodes. It meandered a bit in the beginning. Also I appreciated some twists and wished the ending was resolved differently.
I liked Kim Sung Oh and Lim Ji Yeon's acting here. Kim Tae Hee was pretty and looked lost through most of the episodes. I understand that was a narrative but I maybe I wanted her to go batshit crazy in the end.
The death of the sister was very vague. Was the sister killed by that teacher or someone else. Was the attack on the teacher a psychotic episode or much more than that? I wished there was more clarity on that storyline.
I like that Hae Soo stepped out of her home when she saw Sang Eun in trouble. She slowly broke away from her own issues.
The ending was not my favorite. The husband couldve been a scapegoat for the death of YB without jail time for JR if the two women only had time to get their stories straight. Hae Soo would back them up if needed.

the comments are so bizarre it doesnt matter who killed her sister??? the point is jooran grew up with a dominant mother who constantly instilled patriarchal values within her and her sister was her main reprieve against her mother (given that they grew up together). once her sister died and her mom blamed her for the death, it was easy for jaeho to manipulate her by using her fear of being lonely against her, constantly making her dependent on him . i also dont think jooran ever wanted sangeun dead, she just needed sangeun to be free so she could take the blame and sangeun would get the money

I didn't expect a happy ending especially for Sang-eun since she killed her husband. Yet I won't complain about it.

I hoped Ju-ran's husband would get arrested without her having to kill hom. She faced a lot of hardships and on top on that had to go to jail. Perhaps the writers wanted to emphasize that the real prison for her was living in that suffocating house not the holding cell she was imprisoned in.

The initial mystery was captivating, so I decided to watch the series, even if the first episodes were veeeeery slow, but the ending surely felt rushed. And the Joo-ran's motives are still a mystery. I still wonder what did she expect to happen, when her husband pretended to be asleep and then attacked Sang-Eun? What if he killed her easily? What if she couldn't free herself? What if he succeeded in choking her? What if he wasn't at the top of the stairs, for her to push him? I hoped we'd be given a psychological answer, too.

What I loved about Lies Hidden in My Garden
The Twists and Turns and the general unpredictable nature of the plot. You think you have it figured out, but you don't. I love that it had me at the edge of my seat week to week wondering what's next.
Lim Ji-Yeon as Chu Sang-Eun - most of us were introduced to her in the Glory. I'm now a fan as she's showing some impressive range in a very convincing manner.

What I though was Interesting:
The Slow Zoom or Pan - soo many shots with the camera zoomed out and zooming in. Usually towards the back of someones head. Once I noticed this, I could stop noticing how often this camera shot was used.
Kim Tae-Hee as Moon Joo-Ran. KTH pretty much had the same expression for the entire show. She kinda looked like a sad lost (and adorable) puppy. She would have been a great poker player since her intentions were really hard to read. Especially on the last episode where it was hard to figure out Who's side is she really on?
The artistry of the camera shots. Sometimes it felt like each shoot was an art show.

Stuff I didn't like:
Not much actually. The only part that really bothered me was when Park Jae-Ho was beating up a pregnant Chu Sang-Eun and kicking her directly in the stomach. That was tough to watch stomach.
The stairs - are they really that deadly? One thing I noticed in Japan was the lack of handrails for most stairs. Why aren't more people dying falling down stairs.

Like I said from the beginning: this is a movie, not a drama.

And it would have been better, if it were set in the 1960's, not in the year 2023.

The "she had no control over her life"-drivel annoys me to no end in this day and age. Women can get an education and a job, and there are women shelters even in Korea. If you choose(!) to play small, but want to live an extravagant lifestyle anyway, you are at the beck and call of the person funding that lifestyle - that is the deal.

I really enjoyed this drama, because it was different. I liked the slow pace, the cinematography and the acting of the three main characters.

Joo-ran was not a capable strategist, more a dilettante which is in keeping with her character. Her plan was so amateurish, it could (and also did) go wrong at any point, it was sheer coincidence that both women survived due to the neighbour being on her roof at the right moment. The only time Joo-ran was in charge of herself was at the police station when she took the blame and responsibility and protected Sang-eun. This was her liberation.

Jae-ho falling down the stairs is a fitting end for him. Kim Sung-ho excelled as this scary, manipulative character. Both Im Ji-yeon and Kim Tae-hee made their characters believable and very watchable.

Thank you for your wrap-up summary of the drama! I like your writing but I disagree with your assessment here. I didn't find this a slow paced drama at all. To me, the artsiness was a way to squeeze clues into every scene. I think it's clear that Joo-ran did go to prison, because we see her getting on the prison bus with bound wrists, and we see Sang-eun visit her in prison. She has to sign the guest register and hesitates before writing "friend." Right? The confrontation between the two of them was intense.
Here's my theory about why Joo-ran seemed to be playing Jae-ho and Sang-eun against each other with those murder schemes. She had allowed Jae-ho to erode her sense of self so much that she was operating in his reality when she was with him, even when it became increasingly clear he was lying. This was the message of her pretense that she couldn't smell a rotting corpse in her house. The moment when she came to her senses wasn't when she threatened to slice her own wrist. It was when he blamed her for her sister's death.
The reason, I think, that the sister died is that someone murdered her instead of Joo-ran. That's why her mother (and later, her husband) blaming her for the death was extra disgusting. Had she been the one at home, the murderer would have killed her instead. (I think now that it was almost certainly that neighbor she suspected and feared.) Joo-ran was with Jae-ho on a trip at the time her sister was killed. See? That guy deserved to be kicked down the stairs. He was telling his wife, "it should have been you that died, and it's your fault for agreeing to go on a trip with me."
I was literally rooting for her to kick him down the stairs, shouting at the screen. I am not a violent type, but I got caught up in the drama to that extent.

I'm entirely satisfied. It kept me guessing right up to the end, gave me the ending I hoped for, and didn't resort to any makjang formula to get there.
About the wife getting out of prison, Korean descriptions of the justice system are confusing. On the one hand they say there's no provision for 'justifiable homicide' for defendants to rely on. On the other hand we see killers back on the street pretty quick. In the film 'Broker' IU's character was out of prison and holding down a job at a filling station despite having murdered a John. Did the writer simply forget she had killed someone?

I really enjoyed ENA’s LIES which was a late addition to my viewing card. It seems to me that that Director Jung Ji-hyun was given carte blanche to make this drama as he sees fit (just speculating) and he took full advantage in being creative or “artsy” if you will. The funny thing is that with this cast he pulled it off. (It must have been tedious at time for the actors lol). Credit to ENA. 2023 is following 2022 as a rather fallow year (particularly for cops/crime/mystery) for kdramas but LIES HIDDEN IN MY GARDEN is one of the best kdramas I have seen this year. Kudos to the cast and production.

O/T. I am following LIES to another upcoming ENA cops/crime/mystery drama LONGING FOR YOUwhich will be (thankfully) available on Viki US.

Quirkycase, thanks for the recap.

Wow, that was one twisty finale !
Many have pointed out this may have fared better as a movie. I think so as well.
I have seen the Japanese do movies and dramas of the same story.

This drama did have some J drama vibes, a J drama would probably have been 5 episodes though.

The prolong beating scene of the pregnant Sang-eun was a bit too much tbh.
The cops were fooled in the end.

Crime pays is the message ?