5 Times Kim Tae Hee Grows Suspicious Of Kim Sung Oh In Episodes 3-4 Of "Lies Hidden In My Garden"

We’re already halfway through “Lies Hidden in My Garden”! The reduced episode count makes for a tight watch as the story hurtles on at full speed. It’s refreshing to have characters confronting each other so soon and secrets spilling out this fast. Moon Joo Ran (Kim Tae Hee) continues to have the feeling that something isn’t quite right with her husband Park Jae Ho’s (Kim Sung Oh’s) absence the night that Kim Yoon Beom (Choi Jae Rim) died. But things turn on their head when she finds a dangerous ally in Jae Rim’s wife Choo Sang Eun (Lim Ji Yeon).

Warning: spoilers for episodes 3-4 below.

1. When Joo Ran witnesses Jae Ho’s private conversation with Sang Eun

Joo Ran knows something is off when Jae Ho’s phone vibrates with a message from a dead man, and she’s even more bewildered when Jae Ho goes to the funeral of said dead man. That’s why she pretended to want to support him by accompanying him. And when she spots Sang Eun with the extremely cutesy phone that was used to text Jae Ho, she looks extremely wary. The first two episodes showed her finding some of the 3D stickers from the phone in her house, and she seems to recognize the rest of the stickers on the phone.

But Jae Ho does nothing to assuage her growing suspicions. He engages in a clandestine conversation with Sang Eun out of Joo Ran’s earshot. Sang Eun’s happy to continue the blackmail, and we discover more about what she’s learned her dead husband was up to. Turns out that Yoon Beom was an abuser with a strange moral compass. He wasn’t blackmailing Jae Ho with pictures from the phone because he took them. He was blackmailing Jae Ho with the existence of the phone itself because he found the phone on Jae Ho. Meaning the sketchy videos of what looked like prostitution could have been Jae Ho’s work. Jae Ho listens to Sang Eun’s threats before issuing one of his own: that Sang Eun could end up like her dead husband if she doesn’t make wiser choices. That infuriates Sang Eun, and when she gets a chance, she immediately spills to a frozen Joo Ran that her husband killed Yoon Beom.

2. When she finds the family car’s dashcam wiped

Joo Ran’s well on the way to believing her husband committed murder, but the dashcam of their family car seals the deal. The footage from the night her husband supposedly met Yoon Beom at a fishing spot during a storm has conveniently vanished. When Jae Ho catches her snooping around the car, she lies that she lost an earring.

The next day, she seeks out her scandalous neighbor Oh Hae Soo (Jung Woon Sun) in the hopes that Hae Soo’s CCTV caught a glimpse of Jae Ho leaving the house on the night of Yoon Beom’s death. Hae Soo is confused by Joo Ran’s determination to view her CCTV footage, but a silent understanding passes between the two women once they both see Jae Ho leaving the house on the night of the death. Hae Soo is the town pariah and has been in a similar situation. A few years ago, a strange smell came from Hae Soo’s home. Upon investigation, the police found Hae Soo’s dead husband in the house along with Hae Soo, whom no one had even known existed. There was no evidence that she killed her husband, but people still call her a murderer. There’s an odd kinship between Hae Soo and Joo Ran as if each knows what the other isn’t telling them. And Joo Ran’s going to need all the allies she can get because Jae Ho is pulling out all stops to keep her from finding the truth.

3. When Jae Ho blatantly gaslights her

Jae Ho knows that something is off when he finds the earrings Joo Ran pretended were missing. But rather fear that she’s onto him, he sees it as a chance to throw her off his tail. He calls her over and pretends that he found the missing earring in the car. To Joo Ran’s credit, she immediately drops the lie and tells him that she never lost an earring, she wanted to know where he went that night. But Jae Ho does the most despicable thing imaginable and gaslights her, pretending that he really did find the earring in the car. He literally tells his own wife that she doesn’t know her own mind and wasn’t lying to him. He treats her like she’s crazy for suspecting him of leaving the house and throws the incident in Seoul at her face. And he has the gall to storm out acting like she wronged him. Poor Joo Ran is left questioning her sanity.

I hate him.

Jae Ho’s actions are the all the more malignant when we find out what the incident in Seoul was all about. Turns out that Joo Ran not only happened upon her dead sister’s body, she also may have glimpsed the killer. A man by the elevators watched Joo Ran have a panic attack at the sight of her sister’s corpse and made no move to help her. There’s something eerie about his eyes, and he follows her to the ambulance where she tries to tell the police that her sister was murdered. But nothing comes of it. A few years later, Joo Ran runs into the same man. But now he’s her son Park Seung Jae’s (Cha Sung Jae’s) teacher. She pleads with Seung Jae and Jae Ho to believe her on the man’s untrustworthiness, but they refuse to listen. When her son goes on a trip involving said teacher, Joo Ran loses it. She shows up at the trip, looking dazed, and wallops the teacher on the head. Seung Jae’s horrified, and everyone there judges her. The teacher seems to have been fine afterwards, but the gossip was bad enough for them to have to move. It isn’t clear as to how this teacher is connected to Yoon Beom, Jae Ho, and the complex scheme unfolding here. Yet, it’s apparent that Joo Ran has been told that she’s crazy for a very long time. And she’s finally sick of believing it.

4. When Joo Ran meets with Sang Eun and discovers Jae Ho’s secret life

Joo Ran meets with Sang Eun in secret, asking her what she meant by her accusations that Jae Ho killed Yoon Beom. Sang Eun is refreshingly honest, showing Joo Ran the cutesy phone and informing her that Yoon Beom stole it from Jae Ho, raising the question of why Jae Ho had an underage girl’s phone with compromising photos of him. Joo Ran doesn’t want to believe that Jae Ho could be embroiled in prostitution, but Sang Eun calls Joo Ran out for not going straight to Jae Ho if she trusted him so much. Joo Ran doesn’t trust her husband, and Sang Eun knows it.

The two try to investigate what happened to Soo Min but hit dead ends. Meanwhile, to both women’s surprise, Jae Ho reaches out to Sang Eun and agrees to meet to discuss how much she wants from him for the comprising pictures. He doesn’t know that Joo Ran’s with Sang Eun and listening to every word, looking shaken.

5. When Jae Ho shows up for Sang Eun’s blackmail attempt

Joo Ran borrows Hae Soo’s car and watches in the parking lot as her husband arrives to meet Sang Eun. The worst part is that he lies to Joo Ran saying that he’ll be home late due to work, but she knows exactly where he is. Sang Eun isn’t subtle about her glee and demands 500 million won (approximately $382,000). Jae Ho initially starts at 200 million (approximately $153,000), but one look at the photo of him with Soo Min has him offering 300 million won (approximately $229,000). Joo Ran can hear everything because Sang Eun has her on the phone. Her world is crumbling, and it appears as though Jae Ho is guilty as sin. He even flashes back to him dragging Yoon Beom’s body back inside Sang Eun’s apartment and tossing him in the closet. But the tables suddenly turn when he asks Sang Eun how she lifted Yoon Beom and got him in the car.

There’s a telling pause that indicates that Sang Eun’s been hiding something too. We see her get behind the wheel of Yoon Beom’s car with him in the passenger seat, indicating that she drove him to the place where he was discovered as dead. It was raining heavily that night, and the first episodes showed her going to her mother’s at night, drenched and pale. Jae Ho accuses her of killing Yoon Beom and trying to pin it on him. Sang Eun denies it, but Joo Ran no longer knows whom to trust. Both her husband and Sang Eun are hiding something. Sang Eun snaps at her to get her thoughts off her chest if she thinks Sang Eun killed Yoon Beom, but they’re interrupted by a caller who demands money for Soo Min’s return. And, just like that, Joo Ran and Sang Eun return to being wary allies.

This show is knocking it out of the park with pacing. It’s almost a little too quick. The main mystery regarding who killed Yoon Beom and what Jae Ho and Soo Min have to do with it promises to wrap up soon, but the underlying mystery of what happened to Sang Eun’s sister and how that relates to this, if at all, remains unclear. With only four episodes left, I hope the show can wrap every thread up satisfactorily.

Next week’s preview shows Seung Jae, who has been trying to secretly move out of the family home, admit to his mother that he smelled the same smell she did. But why didn’t he say anything when his father denied its existence? He informed the realtor that he plans to move into the apartment with an adult. His mother? His father? Hae Soo, whom he seems to have taken a liking too? At the pace this show is going, we’ll find out real soon!

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Shalini_A is a long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she fangirls over Ji Sung, and spins thrillers set in increasingly fantastic worlds. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and feel free to ask her anything!

Currently Watching:  “See You In My 19th Life,” “Delightfully Deceitful,” “Lies Hidden in My Garden,” “Numbers,” and “King the Land.”
Looking Forward to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask The Stars,” “The Girl Downstairs,” “The Worst Evil,” “Queen of Tears,” “Vigilante,” “Demon,” “Daily Dose of Sunshine,” and Ji Sung’s next drama.