Starring Shin Hye-sun and Lee Jun-hyuk, The Art of Sarah is a murder investigation that slowly transforms into a psychological thriller about identity and ambition. Scroll down to read more as we break down the twisted climax!
The Art of Sarah plot explained: A woman with many identities
The Art of Sarah opens with the discovery of a woman’s body. An ankle tattoo and a rare Boudoir handbag suggest the victim is Sarah Kim, founder of the luxury brand Boudoir. Detective Park Mu-gyeong begins investigating, only to find inconsistencies in Sarah’s background. Her education records feel fabricated. Her past appears stitched together.
As the investigation deepens, we learn that Sarah Kim was never her original name. She was once Mok Ga-hui, a department store salesgirl forced to repay stolen luxury goods worth millions of won. Crushed by debt and pursued by loan sharks, she faked her suicide and disappeared.
She resurfaced as Kim Eun-jae, working at a hostess club where she manipulated wealthy loan shark Hong Seong-sin. In a calculated move, she offered him her kidney in exchange for marriage and financial security. However, her revenge ran deeper as his company had trapped her in debt years earlier. Though she gained his fortune, she vanished again.
https://www
Her final reinvention was Sarah Kim, who is American-born, Oxford-educated and untouchably elite.
Boudoir became her masterpiece. Marketed as a European heritage brand favoured by royalty, it was actually produced locally under harsh conditions. Through strategic scarcity and elite marketing, Sarah convinced the wealthy that Boudoir symbolised status. No one questioned it because admitting deception would expose their own vanity.
Then comes the first twist: Sarah walks into the police station alive. The dead woman, she claims, is Kim Mi-jeong.
The Art of Sarah ending: Sarah Kim or Kim Mi-jeong
Kim Mi-jeong, the skilled artisan behind the handbags, enters the story as a mirror to Sarah. Invisible and undocumented, she crafts the very symbols of power she cannot access. Over time, she begins copying Sarah. From her walk, her tattoo, to her style of dressing up. On the night of Boudoir’s grand launch, Mi-jeong plans to kill Sarah and assume her identity.
But the confrontation spirals out of control. Mi-jeong falls and hits her head. Instead of seeking help, Sarah hides her inside party inventory and later disposes of her body through the building’s trash chute into the sewer. Mi-jeong is still alive at first, but dies before rescue comes. That is the body the police find.
The Art of Sarah ending explained
In the finale episode, Sarah claims she is Kim Mi-jeong and that she killed the “real” Sarah Kim. Because neither identity has solid legal proof, the system cannot disprove her story. Legally, Sarah Kim can die while Boudoir survives.
She is sentenced to ten years in prison under Mi-jeong’s name. Boudoir flourishes. The world mourns Sarah Kim. Detective Park receives a promotion. In prison, he asks her who she really is. However, she only smiles.
In the end, she is no longer Mok Ga-hui, Kim Eun-jae, Sarah Kim or Kim Mi-jeong. She is Boudoir, a rather constructed illusion that exposes how easily society believes what it wants to believe.
The Art of Sarah is currently streaming on Netflix.