SET IN Hera Palace, a luxurious 100 story high-rise in Seoul, The Penthouse: War in Life is an SBS K-drama that revolves around three women living in the competitive “war” of real estate and education. Written by screenwriter Kim Soon-ok who is well known for her mak-jang[1] style, this series is loved by viewers for the fast and suspenseful unfolding of its dark and violent story. In preparation for the third season coming this June 4th, we can look at the death of three characters to review the countless plot twists that occur during the first two seasons. 

Death of Min Seol-a 

   The show draws viewers in with a graphic death scene from the very beginning of the first episode. Min Seol-a, an orphan, is pushed off the terrace from the 47th floor of the Hera Palace, while the residents enjoy a luxurious party. With Seol-a’s death still vivid in our mind, the story flashes back two months to show why she was killed. 

   Min Seol-a needed money, so she lied about her age and tutored the kids at Hera, disguising her identity as a middle school student competing with them. Most of the children at the Hera Palace wanted to get accepted to the renowned Cheong-a Arts High School to become an opera singer, so when Seol-a was suddenly accepted as the best applicant, the parents and children were enraged. They tried to frame and threaten her to make her renounce her acceptance. Knowing that Joo Dan-tae, Sim’s husband, was having an extramarital affair with Cheon Seo-jin, the head of the Cheong-a Arts Center, Seol-a threatened to reveal their secret to protect herself—only making things worse. The adults locked her and tied her up in a room on the night of her death to get her to delete the evidence of the affair, only to later find her dead body in their lobby. To protect their reputations, the residents decided to make her death look like a suicide. 

   Meanwhile, the plot thickens as we find out that Sim Soo-ryeon, one of the only adults who genuinely cared about Seol-a, witnessed her death as she went down the glass elevator, just after finding out that Seol-a is her biological daughter. When Sim realized that the other adults covered up her daughter’s death, she was extremely furious and started to plot her revenge. Season one revolves around Sim carrying out her retribution with Logan Lee, Seol-a’s adoptive brother. As the season came to an end, the culprit turned out to be not Joo or Cheon, who seemed to have the most motive, but Oho Yun-hee. It was a shocking revelation since Oho was one of the few adults who cared for Seol-a in previous episodes. Oho wanted her daughter Bae Ro-na, who was first on the waiting list, to attend Cheong-a Arts High School so badly that she pushed Seol-a off of the terrace while in an alcoholic stupor. 

Death of Sim Soo-ryeon

   With the adults receiving anonymous blackmail, and the Hera Kids receiving messages from Seol-a’s number, people started to suspect that Sim was the one who was behind it all; everyone now wanted her gone. One evening, Sim was suddenly stabbed and killed by Joo when she arrived home. However, Joo hid immediately and framed Oho as the culprit. Sim’s death came as a shock to viewers as she was one of the main protagonists of the series and her revenge was far from complete. This incident left viewers waiting for season two, wondering—is Sim really dead? 

   Sim’s absence from the first few episodes of season two kept viewers in anticipation, waiting for any hints of her appearance. However, in the eighth episode, a new character appeared. Na Ae-gyo, starred by the same actress as Sim, is introduced as the biological mother of the Joo’s twins and Joo’s business partner and mistress for over 20 years. Despite the shocking resemblance between the two characters, she, unlike Sim, has short hair and a butterfly tattoo on her back. She claimed that she came back to resume business with Joo, but viewers wondered if she was the real Na or if she was Sim disguised as Na. The show started to drop hints that this mysterious new character was actually Sim, until eventually, a showering scene revealed that her butterfly tattoo washed off and her short hair was just a wig. The viewers learned that Joo accidentally killed Na instead of Sim in the previous season, as she was disguised as Sim that evening to see her biological twins one last time before leaving Korea. Hiding her identity, Sim continued her revenge on the Hera Palace adults and kids.

Death of Bae Ro-na

   The second season also started with a gruesome death: a girl crumpled at the bottom of the stairs whose white dress was drenched in blood. It was the night of the Cheong-a Arts Festival, where the first prize was the Cheong-a trophy and a free pass to a top university. Viewers were shocked, questioning whose greed could have led to another death.

   The show brings us back in time leading up to the arts festival. Just before the festival’s announcement ceremony, Ha Eun-byul encountered Ro-na in the hallway talking with her crush—a breaking point for Eun-byul as her jealousy for Ro-na’s talents and beauty seemingly took everything away from her. To make matters worse, that night Eun-byul overdosed on anxiety drugs to stay calm during her performance, which led her to experience hallucinations. She became more aggressive and blamed Ro-na for all her misfortune, chasing her with the Cheong-a trophy, and eventually pushed her down the stairs. Eun-byul immediately fled in shock. Meanwhile, they announced Ro-na as the winner of the festival, only to find out that she was missing. When they found her lying on the bottom of the staircase, with a part of the Cheong-a trophy violently stabbed into her skull, viewers wondered who came and stabbed Ro-na after Eun-byul left. The culprit turned out to be Joo, who wanted his own daughter to win the first prize. Ro-na was immediately brought to the emergency room where she remained in an unconscious state. However, one evening, Joo snuck into the room and switched off all her medical support devices. This left viewers thinking that Ro-na was now truly dead when in reality, Sim foresaw Joo’s plan and immediately moved her to another hospital—all a part of her big revenge. 

   As season two came to an end, Sim succeeded with the final part of her revenge. Sim wanted Joo to be punished for all his crimes, including his attempt to kill Ro-na, which led Ro-na to help her get Joo arrested. She, with the help of Ro-na, Logan, and Oho, was able to frame Joo by recreating Na’s death and locking Ro-na and herself in Joo’s secret storage room. Towards the end of the season, all the adults were brought to trial, where they were all sentenced to prison for their involvement with the three deaths.  

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   Of course, the show did not end there. The writers have a habit of killing off characters as an ending scene. On the last episode of season two, just when Sim and Logan met up to finally celebrate Joo’s conviction, Logan’s car exploded. His sudden death left viewers disappointed, wondering whether if Logan really died or if this is the show’s way of keeping viewers engaged with a cliffhanger. 

[1] mak-jang: a term that describes an extremely sensational, unrealistic, and provocative plot in a Korean TV drama.