My Lovely Liar (2023) Episode 12

My Lovely Liar episode 12 picks up where we left off, with Eom-ho stabbing a man outside Do-ha’s apartment in Yeonseo-dong. He was under the impression that the man was Do-ha and realised his mistake too late. 

Do-ha arrives at the bloody scene outside his house and is beyond shocked. Eom-ho lunges at him with a knife. The struggle brings Sol-hee to her door, and Do-ha pushes her back and closes the door. Sol-hee calls the police, and Gang-min asks for help. She returns to help Do-ha, who is still struggling with Eom-ho.

In the struggle, she sprains her leg, and Eom-ho nearly stabs Do-ha. Thankfully, Gang-min arrives in the nick of time and arrests Eom-ho. 

At the station, Eom-ho admits to stabbing the guy. Do-ha and Sol-hee give their witness statements. Gang-min heavily scolds Do-ha for allowing Eom-ho to get away the first time. He is sure this wouldn’t have happened if Do-ha hadn’t helped Eom-ho escape the night they secretly met.

Gang-min is frustrated because he is scared for Sol-hee, and she nearly got hurt. However, it is a bit unprofessional for him to come for Do-ha based on his personal feelings. Do-ha is the victim, and Sol-hee reminds him of this. Do-ha seems to take Gang-min’s words to heart. 

Meanwhile, the stabbed man turns out to be Ethan, who wanted to talk to Do-ha about writing a song for his group. Young-jae blames himself for telling Ethan about Do-ha.

The doctor interrupts their conversation and informs them that Ethan’s surgery was successful and that he is stable. Sol-hee also gets her leg checked and heads home.  She asks Do-ha not to blame himself for what happened. Do-ha remains behind to apologise to Ethan when he wakes up.

Elsewhere, Jae-chan begs Deuk-chan to save him once again after one of his workers at the restaurant took his money and ran for the hills. At the same time, Deuk-chan receives a call from one of his employees asking how Do-ha is tied into the Hakcheon murder case. The news is all over the media.

After seeing this, Deuk-chan sends his brother away and asks him to take care of his own mess. He calls back the employee and tells them to release a statement that J Entertainment is no longer working with Do-ha and has no idea about his past. 

Once Ethan wakes up, he admits he went to Do-ha under the influence of Moo-jin. He apologizes and thanks Do-ha for paying for his surgery and private hospital room.  It turns out that Moo-jin used Ethan’s desire to succeed to recruit him to do his dirty work. He wanted Ethan to find dirt on Do-ha.

On the way out of the hospital, Do-ha is accosted by the media, asking various questions about his identity and the Hakcheon case. This time, Do-ha faces the camera and admits he is Seung-ju, the main suspect in the case. He is adamant he is innocent and promises to do his best to prove this. He asks his fans not to give up on him but to trust him instead.

Sol-hee watches from the sidelines, worried about how this affects Do-ha. They head to her cafe and are both worried about each other.  Do-ha admits he wants to catch the culprit, and Sol-hee worries it is too dangerous for him. Do-ha no longer wants to wait to find out the truth. 

On the other hand, Yeon-mi’s campaign takes a hit from the scandal surrounding Do-ha. Some of her party members want her to pull out of the election, but she refuses. She won’t let her hard work go to waste.

In the meantime, Do-ha constantly checks the news to see if there are any new developments in the case. Unfortunately, little evidence makes it hard for the police to solve the case. He gets a surprise visit from Jae-chan, who begs for financial help. Jae-chan wants Do-ha to return the favour because they gave him an alibi. He brings up the past, and Eom-ji’s dad comes up in the conversation. 

Through a flashback, we learn that Eom-ji’s dad was the one who stole all the money she had saved up for college. Eom-ji’s life was hard, but she hid the truth from Do-ha. Jae-chan argues maybe she felt embarrassed to tell him the truth. Jae-chan asks for money before telling Do-ha where to find Eom-ji’s dad. 

At Sol-hee’s cafe, Chi-hoon wonders why Sol-hee won’t just come forward and publicly defend Do-ha, exposing her talent. As they talk, Hyang-sook charges into the cafe, shouting she won’t let that happen. She wants Sol-hee to break up with Do-ha immediately, but she refuses. They argue as Sol-hee defends Do-ha and says she doesn’t care what others say. 

Meanwhile,  Bo-ro and Cho-rok defend Do-ha and convince O-baek he is no killer. Based on their past interaction with Do-ha, they are sure he is innocent. They get angry at O-baek for doubting Do-ha in the first place. Chi-hoon also takes to social media to defend Do-ha and Syaon. 

Syaon sees his posts defending her and is moved as she remembers how he saved her once. Do-ha visits Sol-hee and explains he has to go to Hakcheon. Sol-hee asks to tag along, but Do-ha refuses.  

Concurrently, Eom-ho tells Gang-min that he left a notebook in his locker and warns the detective not to trust the officers in the Hakcheon precinct. He begs Gang-min to work on his sister’s case to the end. Gang-min retrieves Eom-ho’s notebook and is surprised by the detailed investigation Eom-ho did. He discovers there was a witness on the night Eom-ji died.

At J Entertainment, Deuk-chan gets angry after seeing the distorted press release the PR team did. He tries to call Do-ha to explain, but he doesn’t pick up. He decides to text him instead. At the same time, he gets a call from a lawyer informing him his wife has filed for divorce.

Do-ha gets to Hakcheon and heads to the market to find Eom-ji’s dad. Some people at the market try to bully him, but he explains he is no killer. He visits the lady who is said to be living with Eom-ji’s dad. She refuses to cooperate, but he notices an insurance letter addressed to Eom-ji’s dad in her trash.

Meanwhile, in Seoul, Sol-hee calls Gang-min to learn more about Do-ha’s case. Gang-min tells her the police have not found much. He wonders if she no longer trusts Do-ha. Gang-min points out that it seems that the higher-ups received bribes to close the case quickly. He argues if Do-ha were innocent, there would have been no need to bribe the officials. Gang-min hopes they can find the truth and clear Do-ha’s name if he is innocent.

The scene cuts to Jin-hyuk at the hospital when he receives a call from Yeon-mi. If everything goes well, she promises to help him find a better hospital for his daughter’s treatment. She orders him to make sure Do-ha is not named as the culprit, and he promises to take care of it. After the call, Yeon-mi is confident he has nothing to worry about.

She refuses to drop out of the election and argues once her son is proven innocent, the public will sympathize with her.

Tae-seob continues to thrive away from civilisation and is surprised to see Hyang-sook drop by. She says she is there to ask for his help with dealing with Sol-hee’s situation. She claims their daughter is in trouble because she is dating a murderer.  She wants Tae-seob to convince Sol-hee to dump Do-ha.

At Sol-hee’s cafe, Moo-jin drops by demanding his money, claiming they tricked him. Moo-jin discovered that Sol-hee and Do-ha are in a relationship and believes she lied to him to protect Do-ha. However, Cassandra and Chi-hoon quickly put him in his place.

They delete the photos he took of Do-ha and Sol-hee at the hospital from his phone. He is left with no evidence, and Sol-hee senses that he’s lying about backing up the photos to his cloud. They kick him out of the cafe while Sol-hee admits she can’t focus on work and asks for a break. 

Meanwhile, Do-ha continues to investigate Eom-ji’s dad’s whereabouts. Sol-hee cannot focus on her work and joins him in Hakcheon. Her parents visit the cafe and miss her. On the other hand, Do-ha is glad she came to him. They follow up on a lead that Eom-ji’s dad still visited his daughter’s bank. They convince one of the bank managers who knew Eom-ji to talk to them. 

He tells them that Eom-ji’s dad took life insurance under her name. After Eom-ji’s body was found, he received the money. He was happy he could finally collect the money. They go back to the woman he lives with, and she refuses to help. Do-ha tells her about Eom-ji’s life insurance and asks if he took one under her name. They point out she could be his next target, and she starts cooperating. 

She directs them to the local bar, where he usually goes to drink and gamble. Lucky for them, the bar belongs to Doo-mok, the gang leader Sol-hee helped in episode 1.  He warmly welcomes them and helps them find Eom-ji’s dad.  They are surprised to see Jae-chan there.

Jae-chan claims he is there to gamble and see if he can clear his debt. Jae-chan lies about seeing Eom-ji’s dad, and Do-ha wonders if  Jae-chan had feelings for Eom-ji too. As they argue, they spot Eom-ji’s dad.

Upon seeing Eom-ji’s dad, Do-ha lunges for him and grabs him by the collar. The episode ends with Do-ha pinning the man against the wall, demanding to know if he killed Eom-ji.

The Episode Review

Sol-hee is an amazing girlfriend; she knows Do-ha needs her help even if he denies it. She goes to him because she truly believes in him and wants to solve the case.  Do-ha looked happy to see her, and the way he warmly embraced her at the beach gave us butterflies. 

On the other hand, it is possible that  Jae-chan knows more about Eom-ji’s death than he is letting on. He sounds suspicious and keeps lying about a lot of things.  The last thing Deuk-chan needs is another mess to clean up. His wife is leaving him, things between him and Do-ha are shaky, and the company is suffering from the scandal. He has enough on his plate already. 

Lastly, Eom-ji’s dad is despicable! However, it is highly unlikely he killed his daughter. He is more of an opportunist. However, it is possible the people he messed with killed his daughter in a bid to collect the debt owed to him.