Every time viewers believe we’re getting closer to solving the case in The Art of Sarah, new twists, plot lines, and characters are revealed to throw us for a loop and remind us that Sarah Kim is always one step ahead. Episode 8, the series finale titled “The Art of Sarah,” provides a semblance of a conclusion, filling in the holes of the mystery while still leaving some things up to the viewers’ inferences.
As a recap, going into the final episode, con-artist Sarah Kim (Shin Hye-sun) and police detective Park Mu-gyeong (Lee Jun-hyuk) have been engaged in a back-and-forth interrogation, with Mu-gyeong attempting to untangle Kim’s long-weaved web of lies.
Between allegations of selling counterfeit luxury items, creating multiple false identities, embezzling, and committing murder, you would think Kim has no chance of getting herself and, more importantly, the reputation of her luxury brand, Boudoir, out of that police station unscathed. Still, Kim has proven time and time again that she possesses an incredible power to manipulate and blur the lines between real and fake.
**Spoilers for The Art of Sarah Episode 8 “The Art of Sarah,” streaming on Netflix**
By the time Episode 8 rolls around, detective Mu-gyeong believes he has everything figured out and is in a position to get an arrest warrant for Sarah Kim. He has learned the name and backstory of Kim’s impersonator, Kim Mi-jeong, which explains the look-alike body and connects the two women. There’s a clear motive for Sarah Kim to have murdered Mi-jeong for posing as her and damaging her reputation in the process. And there’s an opportunity, as Mi-jeong attended the Boudoir release party the night that Kim was last seen.
To secure a confession from Kim, Mu-gyeonghe threatens to broadcast the Boudoir scam, but what he fails to realize is how far Kim is willing to go to save Boudoir’s name. At the end of Episode 7, Kim makes her confession: “I killed her. I admit it. I impersonated Sarah Kim, and I murdered her so I could take her place.”
Wait…what?! So, who is the person sitting in that interrogation room? What happened to Sarah Kim? Did she actually commit murder, or was she framed? What will happen to Boudoir? And was justice served? Here’s everything you need to know about the end of The Art of Sarah…
The person sitting in the interrogation room is indeed the same woman who created and posed as the false identity of Sarah Kim, the con artist born as Mok Ga-hui. Up to her same old shenanigans, this time Ga-hui is assuming the identity of Kim Mi-jeong, the designer behind Boudoir’s fake luxury handbags.
Yes, Mu-gyeonghe knows that Sarah Kim is posing as Kim Mi-jeong, but he knows he cannot prove it. He would rather have Kim in jail under the wrong name and charges than set her free. Also, if he successfully closes the case, he knows he could still be promoted to the Chief of Police.
By confessing to the murder as Kim Mi-jeong, Sarah Kim achieves two things: First, she saves Boudoir from Mu-gyeonghe’s threat to expose the brand on television. Second, she proclaims Sarah Kim dead and innocent, effectively closing the fraud cases around Sarah Kim’s name and keeping the name associated with Boudoir clean.
In reality, Kim Mi-jeong is the unidentified victim, and Sarah Kim is her murderer.
Yes, in the end, the real Sarah Kim is sentenced to serve 10 years in prison under the name Kim Mi-jeong. However, she gets out of the murder charge because technically the victim died from freezing to death, not murder. The charges made against her turned out to be intent to murder and abandonment of the victim in life-threatening conditions.
After Sarah Kim’s death, Boudoir’s management rights transferred to the brand’s top shareholder, Nox, the cosmetic brand that invested in Boudoir’s hotel. This repays Sarah Kim’s debt to her old friend Jung Yeo-jin (Park Bo-kyung), the CEO of Nox.
When Mu-gyeonghe visits Sarah Kim in prison, he tells her that Boudoir is as successful as ever, without her there.
In the end, Sarah Kim “dies” alone with no loved ones to mourn her death. Though in reality she is still alive, she has sacrificed her status and life for Boudoir’s. In the final scene of the show, with everything said and done, Mu-gyeonghe asks Sarah Kim one last time, “Who are you?”
The audience doesn’t see her response, likely because the woman herself doesn’t even know the answer to who she is—where the real ends and the fake begins.
