Lies Hidden in My Garden 2023 K Drama Episode 1

Episode 1 of Lies Hidden in My Garden starts with Moon Joo-ran hallucinating that someone is in the new house she and her family moved into three months ago. She runs to the first floor and opens the door that leads her to see her past self when she was onboard a cruise. Outside her house, Joo-ran’s neighbours try to introduce themselves to her by leaving a note at her door but she does not talk to them or join the chat group they were all a part of. She takes some medicine, but ends uo coughing them out into the kitchen sink.

A while after, she appears to be in a trance as she sits on the couch all by herself. Just then, Oh Hae-soo moves in next door to Joo-ran’s house. From her balcony, she looks into Joo-ran’s house and sees Joo-ran peeping from her curtains. Hae-soo tries to talk to Joo-ran but the latter runs back inside.

Inside the house, Joo-ran sits by herself all day as she waits on her husband to return from work. She calls Park Jae-ho for help but he ends the call, claiming he’s busy. Jae-ho is at their son’s school for a Parent-Teacher meeting. The teacher complains to Jae-ho that his teen son, Seung-jae, was lethargic and not paying attention in class.

When asked to meet his mother, Seung-jae asks the teacher to talk to his father instead. Jae-ho tells the teacher that Seung-jae’s mother, Joo-ran, is having a hard time due to her health and that Seung-jae is also trying to process the sudden move from his old school.

Later that evening, Jae-ho and Seung-jae go back home and find Joo-ran in the backyard with a shovel in her hand. Joo-ran complains that the garden has a weird stench of a dead animal and she wanted to see what it was. Jae-ho dismisses her claims and tells her that he cab’t smell anything. Seun-jae backs his father up as well which leaves Joo-ran confused. Later that night, Hae-soo tries to introduce herself to Jae-ho by showing up outside their house.

Through the intercom, Jae-ho tells her that it’s late, and offers to introduce himself the following day. Hae-soo suddenly complains about the weird stench too, which catches Joo-ran’s attention because she had been listening to the interaction from inside the house. Jae-ho gets a call from someone named Yoon-beom who asks him to go ‘night fishing’.

Jae-ho ends the call and distracts Joo-ran. That night, Joo-ran wakes up from a nightmare, recalling her sister’s death. Days go by as Ju-ran is going through the motions, cleaning the house and cooking as she keeps collecting clues about a tragic incident. A neighbour comes in and tells her about the rotting smell, and she’s prompted to go to the backyard and dig in order to see what it is.

Choi Sang-eun

The episode turns toward through the story of another woman named Choi Sang-eun, who lives in an apartment complex. She’s a 5-month pregnant woman who suffers domestic violence at the hands of her husband. Her husband keeps assaulting her and the building watchman knocks on her door, asking her to report her husband – Choi Yoon-beom.

After one of their fights, Yoon-beom tries to give Sang-eun a scarf to win her favour. He asks her to eat well since she’s pregnant and gives her some cash to buy strawberries. Yoon-beom calls Park Jae-ho and threatens him, asking about ‘night fishing’ before Jae-ho blows him off. Sang-eun overhears the conversation and goes outside to buy strawberries. She ends up getting strawberry ice cream and sits outside the pharmacy, eating.

Sang-eun spots a few teen kids smoking and asks to borrow one of their cigarettes but the kids brush her off since she is pregnant. When Sang-eun goes back home, there is more fighting between her and Yoon-beom. Yoon-beom beats her up in their bedroom but Sang-eun tries to crawl outside to the hall where there is a camera recording them. He drags her inside the room and closes the door, proceeding to further assault Sang-eun.

The episode jumps to Sang-eun eating what’s left of the ice cream with her lip bust open from the assault. He wears the scarf Yoon-beom had gifted her and takes photos of her wounds. She sends the images to her colleague and asks if they can be used as evidence to report her husband.

The next day, Sang-eun is at work, talking to her colleague about Yoon-beom’s domestic abuse. Sang-eun works as a receptionist at a restaurant and used a waist belt to hide her bump so as to avoid losing her job. That afternoon, she turns on voice recording to record Yoon-beom and gathers more evidence against him.

He gets furious when Sang-eun acts clumsily and she accidentally discovers a woman’s phone in her glovebox. Yoon-beom hides the phone away and is about to crash the car. He is shocked that Sang-eun is trying to protect herself before her bump and mocks her for being an awful to-be mother. Yoon-beom has a bag full of cash in his car and is taking Sang-eun away to live a life of luxury.

However, that night, Sang-eun gets to her mother’s house all by herself. She takes a shower and washes all the clothes she was wearing. The next morning, Sang-eun wakes up to an empty house. Her mother comes back home and asks Sang-eun to leave.

Sang-eun’s aunt explains that her mother’s mental health condition has been a little poor. Her aunt helps Sang-eun pack and gets her to go back to her apartment. As she is leaving, Sang-eun gets a call from someone telling her that Yoon-beom is dead.

The episode ends with Joo-ran laughing maniacally as she discovers a dead boy in her backyard.

The Episode Review

The show is filmed in a very unique way which makes it so sinister and scary but the story keeps you wanting to see more. As a viewer, you can’t help but feel scared because everyone seems to be a murderer. While it is extremely difficult to pinpoint what happened in the backyard, one theory points to the fact that Joo-ran killed someone by accident and suffered memory loss following that incident.

Jae-ho is probably helping cover up the issue and it could be the reason why they had to move houses. Instead of disposing of the body somewhere else, it is possible that Jae-ho buried the body in the backyard. While the opposite end of the spectrum could be the fact that Joo-ran indeed was hallucinating and Jae-ho was right all along.

The cinematography for this one is sure to make the episode even creepier. The show is slow but interesting. It also feels like Joo-ran and Sang-eun’s mother have similar mental health issues. As much as I sympathise with Sang-eun, I cannot be worried about the fact that she was so unfazed about her pregnancy.

Sang-eun’s husband is actually the scum of the Earth and I would not blame anyone that kills him, even Joo-ran!