Netflix Mask Girl recap guide: All seven episodes explained (spoilers!)

Mask Girl episode 4 recap: Kim Chun-ae

Following the pattern established by previous episodes, Mask Girl episode 4 focuses on Kim Chun-ae, who really isn’t Kim Mo-mi, though they share a lot of similarities. As a teenager, Chun-ae wasn’t considered very pretty. She didn’t have many friends, but was hopelessly crushing on a popular boy named Bu-yong who was on the verge of becoming a K-pop star.

Sensing Chun-ae’s vulnerability, he takes advantage of her kindness and starts using her as one of his “bank accounts.” Chun-ae overhears him bragging to a friend. But she gets the last word. Chun-ae compiles a big exposé on Bu-yong and posts it on the internet, exposing his bad behavior, including drinking and extortion. He soon leaves his band.

Desperate to be pretty, Chun-ae gets extensive plastic surgery. Then she gets a job as a promoter at the supermarket like in the picture Kyung-ja has been carrying around. There, she met Bu-yong again for the first time in years. He’s lost everything except a beat-up old car. Even after what happened, Chun-ae can’t resist the way Bu-yong looks at her now, post-surgery, and they sleep together.

She learns he is living out of his car and, feeling guilty, Chun-ae invites him to stay with her. He quickly ends up taking advantage and proves to be a terrible roommate.

To make more money for their upkeep, Chun-ae gets a higher paying job performing at a luxury business club. She quickly becomes the club’s star showgirl until Kim Mo-mi shows up. The new, post-op Mo-mi is played by actress and singer Nana.

Thanks to her newfound beauty, Mo-mi is incredibly confident and easily overtakes Chun-ae as the club’s star, though here she goes by her stage name “A-reum,” ha.

Chun-ae is furious that Mo-mi is taking her clientele and outshining her. Their rivalry comes to a head one night, resulting in a vicious physical fight that only stops when their boss interrupts them. Mo-mi pretends to be apologetic to make herself seem like the bigger person to their employer.

Once alone again, Chun-ae notices Mo-mi’s crescent moon necklace fell off during their skirmish and she takes it, explaining why she’s wearing it in the present day.

Kyung-ja is skeptical of Chun-ae’s story. It’s not until Chun-ae points out that “Mask Girl” clearly has natural breasts in the photos while hers are silicone implants that Kyung-ja starts believing her, since Teddy previously pointed out the same thing. But Chun-ae wants revenge on Mo-mi just like Kyung-ja does, so the two start working together to track her down.

Chun-ae informs Kyung-ja that Mo-mi quit the club. She proposes that if Kyung-ja pays her, she can do some legwork and go looking at some of the other clubs in the area.

But there’s a twist! After Kyung-ja drops her off, Chun-ae reveals she lied about almost everything. We see her arrive at someone’s apartment and it’s Mo-mi who opens the door! They really did meet at the club, but instead of becoming rivals, they became close friends, bonding over their shared experiences. They would even perform together and Mo-mi gifted Chun-ae her necklace. There was no fight.

Recently, Mo-mi has taken ill. Chun-ae does what she can to take care of her and Mo-mi even tells her the whole truth about who she is and how she got there. Chun-ae suggests they work together to come up with a plan and keep her safe from Kyung-ja.

When Chun-ae leaves the apartment, a man takes her photo. At her house, she finally tries kicking Bu-yong out, but he’s since learned it was her who posted the photos of him online and he turns violent. Later, the guy who was taking pictures recognizes Mo-mi after looking at her chest, he introduces himself as Mask Girl’s fan club president Teddy.

Chun-ae and Mo-mi drive back to Chun-ae’s late that night so Chun-ae can get her dog and a few items before leaving town. Chun-ae tries to get in and out quietly without Bu-yong hearing her, but it doesn’t work and he tries to kill her. Luckily, Mo-mi arrives in time to save her and together they kill Bu-yong.

But their path to victory is interrupted when Teddy contacts Kyung-ja and tells her that Chun-ae and Mo-mi are friends. Realizing she’s been duped, Kyung-ja goes on the warpath and follows the girls down a dark road.

In the car, Mo-mi tells Chun-ae she’s pregnant with Oh-nam’s child. She plans to keep it. Unlike her mother, Mo-mi intends to make sure her child knows they’re beautiful no matter what. Chun-ae is supportive.

The pair eventually pulls over near a lake to dump Bu-yong’s body, and that’s when Kyung-ja drives up and makes her presence known.

Gun in hand, Kyung-ja confronts and threatens the pair. Another nasty fight breaks out. Kyung-ja tries to fire on both women but the gun gets jammed. While she tries fixing it, Chun-ae and Mo-mi rush her and attempt disarming her at the same moment that Kyung-ja fixes the gun and fires, shooting Chun-ae amid the chaos.

Kyung-ja comes close to finishing the job and killing Mo-mi too, but Chun-ae uses her last burst of strength to hit Kyung-ja with a rock and save Mo-mi. With Kyung-ja dead, or at least unconscious, Mo-mi is left to hold Chun-ae during her final moments as she dies in Mo-mi’s arms. Mo-mi puts Kyung-ja back into her car along with Bu-yong’s body in the trunk and pushes the whole thing into the water.

A couple of years later, Mo-mi turns herself in to the police. She’s greeted at the police station by a crowd of photographers and fans. It’s what she’s always wanted, flashing lights and paparazzi. The stage is set just for her.