By the second episode of Lies Hidden in My Garden, we have a fair idea of what the series is going to be about. It is about women fighting the violence they endure in domestic situations and what pushes them in that direction despite the supposed help provided by society. The screenplay is purposefully scattered to give the audience the same sense of confusion that the characters are going through. However, we are not as enthralled or intrigued as we would like to be, but we recognize that it is too soon to say that. In the meantime, here is a recap of the second episode.
Spoilers Alert
Why Is Park Jae Ho Acting Suspiciously?
Remember how Joo Ran got the shock of her life when she found two fingers sticking out of the soil in episode 1 of Lies Hidden in My Garden? As she is still reeling from that, Yoon Beom knocks on her door, asking to meet her husband, Park Jae Ho. Yoon Beom makes his way into the house on the pretext of dropping off the suitcase that may be too heavy for Joo Ran. But it is clear that his intentions are not as straightforward. When Joo Ran refuses to take the suitcase, saying that she needs her husband’s permission for that, Yoon Beom is amused. Let us remember that Yoon Beom is himself an abusive man, and Joo Ran’s submissiveness seems to attract him. He makes a sly move by removing the scarf from her hair, which ends up alarming Joo Ran. But Yoon Beom covers up his actions by saying that he was taking out a bug in her hair while trying to avoid scaring her. Joo Ran even finds Yoon Beom taking pictures of the house, but we think he was trying to take pictures of her, probably to get on her nerves. Thankfully, Joo Ran’s ordeal comes to an end, and Yoon Beom leaves while reminding Joo Ran to tell her husband to meet him for night fishing.
Once Yoon Beom leaves, Jae Ho gets home, and Joo Ran sends him to investigate what she found in the garden. However, that just turns out to be a stuffed glove, which Jae Ho says must have been left behind by the workers in the house. But Joo Ran is not convinced, and as she rushes out, Jae Ho physically restrains her, asking her to let go of the matter. He is clearly manipulating her when he says that she might be sensitive due to it being the anniversary of her sister’s death. Joo Ran is so fixated on the smell because it is very similar to when she discovered her sister’s dead body in her apartment. Joo Ran recognizes the decomposing smell or is at least correlating to it. That is a trauma that she has carried since, and Jae Ho seems to be using that to divert her mind.
For a second, we considered whether Jae Ho is actually innocent and is simply taking care of Joo Ran, who seems to be suffering from some mental illness. But there were a certain few seconds in the screenplay that convinced us otherwise. When Jae Ho brought the stuffed glove into the house to show Joo Ran, he made a joke, asking her whether she thought it was a dead body. But the pointed way in which he looked at her made us think that he might not really be joking but was deliberately confusing Joo Ran. It is a common tactic where the absurdity of the truth is questioned to erase its credibility.
That night, it rained rather heavily, and Joo Ran was all alone in the house. She has nightmares about Yoon Beom, who has clearly achieved his objective of getting into her head. The next morning, when Joo Ran asks Jae Ho where he was, he tells her that he slept in the study and couldn’t go out because of the rain. Later, as Joo Ran is preparing to go to church with her family, she finds her husband’s shoes covered in mud, and even the car shows signs of having been taken out. Joo Ran is pretty isolated from everyone, and even when some of the neighborhood ladies invite her to their get-togethers, Jae Ho speaks for her and says that she cannot get out because of her ill health.
When the family returns home, the police are waiting for them. They inform them that Yoon Beom has passed away and Jae Ho is needed for questioning. This sends Joo Ran reeling because of the suspicion that has started setting in about her husband’s lies. She faints before she can go in, and Hae Soo comes to take care of her when Sung Jae calls her. Hae Soo had come back home (which she probably owns) after six years. We come to know in episode 2 of Lies Hidden in My Garden that Hae Soo was in prison this whole time for the murder of her husband. Looking at these three women, we understand that this is the story of various forms of domestic violence and their fight against it.
Hae Soo remarks that the foul smell has disappeared from the house. This observation, in addition to Joo Ran’s doubts that her husband did go out, is making her think that not only did he murder Yoon Beom, but he has also gotten rid of the body that might have been in the garden. That night, Joo Ran doesn’t take her medications. She tells her husband that she wants to go to the funeral of Yoon Beom (where he is going) because she wants a change of location. Jae Ho is surprised but doesn’t protest and agrees to take her with him.
What Is Sang Eun Planning On Doing?
When Yoon Beom was talking to Joo Ran in her house, Sang Eun tried to see what was in the phone that Yoon Beom had kept hidden in the car. She doesn’t find anything, but Yoom Beom drops her off at her mother’s place before taking off to the reservoir for fishing. Later, as expected, Sang Eun receives the news that he is dead. Now, we realize that she was indeed shocked, but she was also relieved—that is, until she found out the trouble she was in. She tells the police that Yoon Beom hated the smell of fish, yet he had gone for nighttime fishing with Park Jae Ho. Sang Eun learns while in the station that her husband lost his job a month ago. Though Sang Eun seems happy that her husband is dead and is heartily gorging on food, she still has things to take care of. Her brother-in-law calls her, saying that Yoon Beom ordered a few units of something and then flaked on them. He wants to cut ties with him, and Sang Eun informs him that Yoon Beom is dead. Later, in her house, Sang Eun comes to know that Yoon Beom had switched to monthly rental payments instead of being on a lease. They had not paid the rent for two months, and all these things indicate that Sang Eun needed to get some money soon.
At the memorial service of Yoon Beom, Sang Eun’s curiosity gets the best of her as she recollects all of her husband’s words that hinted that they will be rich soon. As she turns on the phone, Sang Eun immediately gets a call from someone named “Grasshopper,” who calls her “Mom.” We believe that Mom must be a nickname for something and cannot be someone’s actual mother, even though Grasshopper asks for milk. But when Sang Eun stays silent, he immediately understands that she is not Mom. At the end of Episode 2 of Lies Hidden in My Garden, Sang Eun hangs up and checks the gallery of the phone, where she finds a video of a man caught having inappropriate relations with a minor girl. The man was clearly set up, and this is a video exposing his actions. Sang Eun also sees a picture of Park Jae Ho and his family, and she also finds his number on the phone. The wheels turn in Sang Eun’s head, and she sends a selfie she finds on the phone to Park Jae Ho, asking whether he knows her. Unfortunately, that text was seen by Joo Ran, and now she definitely knows that her husband is up to no good.
Final Thoughts
Is it just us, or does anyone else feel that Lies Hidden in My Garden is not able to hold one’s attention? The problem with that is that there are a lot of clues hidden in the screenplay for the audience, and we really cannot look away even for a second. But we are unable to find the will to keep looking. Either way, next week will see Sang Eun take over her husband’s blackmailing of Jae Ho and him further lying to his wife about things. Sang Eun and Joo Ran are also going to come face-to-face, and we will finally get to see what Sang Eun is really like when she is not constantly scared. Lies Hidden in My Garden has not given us anything so far except a lot of doubts, and we are expecting more going forward.
