The closer The Art of Sarah gets to its finale, the more unstable its reality becomes. Episode 7 and 8 do not just reveal a killer. They question identity, ambition, loyalty, and the price of becoming someone else.
What begins as a murder investigation turns into something far more unsettling: a battle over who gets to own a name, a face, and a dream.
By the end, the question is no longer “Who killed Sarah?”
It becomes, “Who was Sarah to begin with?”
When Identity Becomes a Weapon
Episode 7 opens with a critical discovery. Mu-gyeong learns that the prosecutor on duty happens to be Sarah’s client, meaning a warrant will not be issued. It is a quiet but powerful indication that Sarah’s influence runs deep.
Instead of relying on legal authority, the police begin chasing fragments, a taxi receipt linking the victim from the launch party to the Boudoir workshop, an immigration raid ten days earlier, and a leather craftsman with calloused hands that resemble Jane Doe’s.
The implication is chilling. Jane Doe was not a socialite. She was likely a worker.
During interrogation, Mu-gyeong presents his theory: the woman in front of him might not be Sarah at all. Perhaps she is an impostor who discovered that “Sarah Kim” was already a fabricated identity and decided to steal it. If the real Sarah could not legally expose her, what was stopping the impostor from eliminating her and taking over completely?
The accusation cracks Sarah’s composure only when Mu-gyeong threatens to destroy Boudoir’s reputation. He does not need proof, just a rumor powerful enough to go viral. The mere suggestion that Boudoir is a scam would ruin everything.
That is when Sarah decides to confess.
The Birth of Boudoir and the Beginning of Betrayal
The series shifts into an extended flashback that rewrites everything viewers thought they knew.
Boudoir did not begin as a luxury dream. It began in a knockoff workshop.
There, Sarah met Kim Mi-jeong, a gifted craftswoman capable of creating a red Birkin almost indistinguishable from the original. Mi-jeong immediately noticed that everything Sarah wore was authentic. Sarah, in turn, recognized Mi-jeong’s talent.
Together, they built Boudoir from raw materials and ambition. Sarah provided vision and strategy; Mi-jeong provided craftsmanship. Sarah recruited the entire workshop. She treated the workers well but formed a deeper bond with Mi-jeong.
Mi-jeong, however, was unregistered. She existed in the margins of society. Sarah bought her a phone under her own name and even offered her identity if she ever needed medical treatment. It was generosity, but also power.
Slowly, admiration turned into envy.
Mi-jeong began using Sarah’s credit card. She practiced speaking like her. She wore the same clothes. She tattooed the same mark on her foot. She attended parties as “Sarah Kim.”
When Sarah accidentally alerted the bank about unauthorized purchases, Mi-jeong was arrested. Sarah refused to press charges. But by then, Mi-jeong understood something devastating: Sarah’s identity was as constructed as her own.
When Mi-jeong visited Boudoir’s store and saw her craftsmanship sold at extreme prices, praised without her name attached, something inside her shifted. She believed Boudoir existed because of her hands.
And she believed Sarah owed her everything.
The Night of the Launch Party
Episode 8 reconstructs the fateful night from multiple perspectives.
It is snowing. The air is tense. Nearly everyone at the launch party either resents or betrays Sarah.
Yeo-jin demands repayment.
Chairman Choi forces her into a brutal 30% commission contract after Ji-hwon partially reveals their seduction scheme.
Graffiti vandalizes the venue.
Then Sarah sees Mi-jeong.
She drags her into a private office. The confrontation explodes.
Mi-jeong has already cut the CCTV cameras. She plans to kill Sarah and take her place permanently. She argues that if Sarah disappears, no one will question it. After all, Sarah herself is a constructed identity.
The fight is vicious. Sarah eventually knocks Mi-jeong unconscious.
At this point, the story splits into perception and truth.
Mu-gyeong believes Sarah knowingly threw a living Mi-jeong into the trash chute at Samwol Department Store, where she later froze to death.
But the flashbacks reveal something more complicated. Initially, Sarah only tries to hide her. She steps outside, shaken, and runs into Seong-sin, someone from her past who calls her by another name, Eun-jae. He reminds her, intentionally or not, of the dream she built: a luxury brand that finally made her somebody.
Reporting Mi-jeong would destroy that dream.
Sarah goes back inside.
This time, she makes a choice.
She brutally finishes what she started.
Mi-jeong’s body is placed in a suitcase, transported with Boudoir’s merchandise, and discarded. Mi-jeong briefly regains consciousness but ultimately dies in the freezing cold.
Ambition wins. Humanity loses.
The Tissue Sample and the Final Manipulation
Back in the present, Sarah introduces another twist. She claims she is Mi-jeong and that the dead woman is the real Sarah Kim.
The police suspect this is a strategic lie to protect Boudoir. If Sarah Kim is legally dead, fraud charges collapse due to jurisdictional complications.
Mu-gyeong counters with science. Organ donors leave tissue samples in hospitals. He orders a comparison test.
But the tissue sample goes missing.
The implication is clear: Seong-sin helped her. Whether out of loyalty or unresolved feelings, he interfered.
With no definitive biological proof, Mu-gyeong faces an impossible dilemma. If she is Sarah, she is a fraud. If she is Mi-jeong, she is a murderer.
Either way, Boudoir survives.
Sarah recants all prior statements as “Sarah Kim” and formally confesses to murder as “Mi-jeong.”
Mu-gyeong arrests her under that identity.
She receives ten years in prison.
In the final visual confirmation, as she changes into her prison uniform, viewers see the transplant scar, proof that she is, in fact, Sarah.
Even in prison, she clings to the persona. When Mu-gyeong visits and asks who she really is, she does not answer.
Because perhaps the truth no longer matters.
Key Moments That Redefined the Series
Several scenes fundamentally reshape the narrative:
The Interrogation Breakdown – Mu-gyeong threatening Boudoir’s reputation affects Sarah more than the murder accusation. Her brand is her true vulnerability.
Mi-jeong at the Boudoir Store – Watching her craftsmanship praised under Sarah’s name is the emotional breaking point that fuels her transformation.
The Launch Party Fight – The CCTV revelation reframes Mi-jeong not as a pure victim, but as someone equally willing to erase another identity.
The Prison Scar Reveal – A quiet but definitive answer to the central mystery.
Each moment reinforces the show’s core theme: identity is constructed, defended, and weaponized.
Lingering Questions and Unresolved Threads
Despite its bold twists, the finale leaves several unanswered questions:
- Why did Ji-hwon reveal only the seduction scheme but not Boudoir’s fraudulent origins?
- How did Sarah secure funds to repay Yeo-jin?
- Why did Sarah truly run from Seong-sin in the past?
- Why does Mu-gyeong believe Sarah specifically targeted him in her con?
- How did no one notice behavioral differences between Sarah and Mi-jeong earlier?
These gaps create ambiguity, but they also dilute some of the emotional payoff.
The Art of Sarah Ending Explained: Who Is the Real Sarah?
In the final reveal, I believe the series makes one thing unmistakably clear, the woman in prison is the real Sarah Kim. The transplant scar confirms it. Yet what fascinates me more is not the biological truth, but the choice she makes. By confessing as Mi-jeong, she strategically removes the fraud charges tied to “Sarah Kim” and protects Boudoir from collapse. Legally, Sarah dies. Practically, her brand survives.
I see this ending not as a simple murder resolution, but as a final act of reinvention. Sarah does not just eliminate Mi-jeong; she absorbs the threat she represented. She chooses which identity deserves to live. When Mu-gyeong asks who she really is and she refuses to answer, I read that silence as intentional. To her, “Sarah Kim” is no longer an alias. It is the only self she is willing to acknowledge.
And that, to me, is the most unsettling part of the finale.
Final Thoughts and Rating
Episodes 7 and 8 deliver answers, but perhaps not the explosive climax viewers expected.
The investigation that once felt layered with deception ultimately resolves in a surprisingly direct manner: ambition cornered Sarah, betrayal isolated her, and fear pushed her into irreversible violence.
Thematically, the show remains compelling. The idea that identity can be stolen, shared, or self-created is handled with confidence. The moral grayness between Sarah and Mi-jeong adds complexity.
However, the finale feels restrained. After seven episodes of intricate twists, the resolution unfolds almost too simply. Character motivations are implied rather than deeply explored. Mu-gyeong, in particular, remains underdeveloped despite anchoring the investigation.
Still, The Art of Sarah succeeds in one crucial way: it stays consistent with its central idea. Sarah did not just want wealth. She wanted permanence. She wanted to become someone untouchable.
In the end, she achieves it, even if only inside her own mind.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
A gripping psychological mystery with strong thematic depth, slightly undercut by an underwhelming but thought-provoking finale.
Memorable Quotes from The Art of Sarah
“Luxury is not about price. It’s about who gets to wear the name.”
“If identity is a performance, then the one who performs it best becomes real.”
“Some people steal money. Others steal faces.”
“Ambition doesn’t ask who built the dream. It only asks who gets the credit.”
“In the end, Sarah didn’t just protect her brand — she protected the version of herself she wanted the world to believe.”
“The scariest lies are the ones we tell until they become our truth.”
