The narrative of Mask Girl season 1 is shaped by the deaths of the characters across the episodes. Each death plays a role in moving the story forward a little bit and comes with its own significance. So here is a look at all the people that passed away in the storyline of Mask Girl and their connection to and effect on the series.
Spoiler Alert
1. Handsome Monk
This was the first death of Mask Girl Season 1 and set the tone for everything that the characters had to go through for the rest of the story. We cannot understand the psyche behind people like Handsome Monk, who find happiness by inflicting misery on others. He was part of a group that followed Mask Girl’s streams, and when her account got suspended, they all took it upon themselves to find and humiliate her further. The fact is that Mask Girl’s job was about providing a fantasy to the people. It takes a degree of awareness and education about consent for the viewers to understand that outside of the screen, these women are real people who must be treated like humans and not objectified constantly.
The Handsome Monk and his community lacked that basic insight. His entire purpose in taking Mask Girl on the date was to humiliate her as much as possible. There was no reason behind this desire except that it was just there. If Mo Mi had spent that night with him, it would have still constituted a breach of consent because it was obtained through lies and deception. But people like Handsome Monk don’t understand such things, and they want what they want. We suppose there was no other way his character could have ended in Mask Girl except this.
2. Joo Oh Nam
We were convinced that Joo Ah Nam was one of the good guys. Whatever his life had been until that point, he had rushed to Mo Mi’s side with a genuine desire to protect her, and that made him a good person, in our opinion. But it wasn’t long before he proved that he was no different from Handsome Monk or any other member of the group who felt like they had a right over Mo Mi just because she was a streamer.
He constructed his own fantasy with Mask Girl, and when he realized that she was a reality who was very close to him, he believed that he was in love with her. But he was also possessive because he knew that while Mask Girl might do anything, Kim Mo Mi was someone he had a chance with. But the first time he crossed the line was when he sent her an email saying he knew of her double identity. It was his revenge for the time she spent with Mr. Park at the motel. Later, when he flew into a rage over Mo Mi’s plastic surgery and forcefully tried to be with her, he proved that if what had happened to Handsome Monk was justice, he deserved no better, and in fact, he died the same way as the man he had killed.
3. Park Gi Hun
The men in this series are really terrible people with next to no redemption. Freeloading was coded into Park Gi Hun’s blood from day one, and we feel bad for Chun Ae to have ignored that for the sake of her guilt. He took advantage of her when they were kids and kept borrowing money. It is a different question as to how she had that much money, to begin with. When he was done with her, he refused to even acknowledge her in public. Chun Ae heard him talking to his friend, calling her a bank account and saying that she was one of many he had around.
In her anger, she exposed his past life, which destroyed his career as an idol. To be honest, he was partying around like a normal kid his age, but that was frowned upon. Maybe she should have just revealed how he treated girls like her. Years later, when he started living with her, he clung to her like a leech, and he knew that she wouldn’t be able to get rid of him because he knew her secret. All those years ago and even in the present day, he continued treating her like a bank account, and it is no wonder that Chun Ae and Mo Mi felt no guilt in killing him the way they did.
4. Chun Ae
When Chun Ae started dating Gi Hun again, we believe it was a sort of petty satisfaction over the way he had treated her all those years ago. But her guilt soon took over, and she invited him to live with her. We suppose the highlight of her, and Mo Mi’s lives was the friendship they shared with each other. They connected over their struggles in life and became each other’s confidantes. Both of these women wanted very simple things in life, which were to be loved and accepted, and they had to fight hell and high water for them. Yet they provided each other with much-needed peace and a safe space.
Mo Mi jumped into the fight with Gi Hun for Chun Ae’s sake, and they both knew that they could kill and die for each other, which is what Chun Ae did for her friend. She was not just protecting Mo Mi but her unborn child as well, so that she could have a life that neither of them had. Her sacrifice was the most heartbreaking moment of the series.
5. Shim Young Hee (Mo Mi’s mother)
We just did not understand her. She definitely loved and cared for her daughter and granddaughter, yet she found some pleasure in constantly deriding them. With Mo Mi, it was about her looks, and with Mi Mo, it was about her similarity to her mother. We cannot explain it, but she gave us Mrs. Havishman from Great Expectations vibes. She got some redemption when she died trying to save her loved ones, and she even apologized to them for being the way she was. We don’t think she would have been a different person had she been given another chance, but she did what she could in her capacity.
6. Kyung Ja
There really couldn’t have been any other end for Kyung Ja. The woman always needed an obsession to keep her going. First, it was her son, and then it was revenge. Throughout the series, she had so many chances to meet Mo Mi and just ask her once why she had done that to her son. She did not have to believe her, but we cannot ignore that she never even asked. It is also a fact that she felt the need to lie about how good her son was, even after his death, when she could have just recounted her memories with him. For Kyung Ja, it did not matter what her son had done or was about to do. He had been taken away from her, and she wanted revenge—the kind that did not discriminate between its targets and rolled over anyone who got in the way. We just wish death would bring her some peace.
7. Kim Mo Mi
Out of the many things that happened to her, even a single thing going differently could have given her a better life. If only Handsome Monk had treated her better, if only her mother had shown her some love, if only Oh Nam had not tried to assault her, and if only Chun Ae and she had escaped without Kyung Ja finding them, Mo Mi might have been happier in life. Instead, she lost one thing after the other until she had nothing to care about. At such a point, all we can say is that we wish she had found the Bible sooner. It gave her some happiness, and who are we to contest the validity of that? Thankfully, she was also able to get that happiness from Mi Mo, finally becoming a celebrity for at least one person before she died.
