Celebrity (2023) follows Seo A-ri, a young woman who makes it to the upper echelons of the influencer world only to find out how toxic it truly is. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Seo A-ri is one of the biggest influencers in South Korea and she captures the attention of the country during a live stream where she claims that she will expose the true nature of the world she was a part of.
Some of the people watching this are shocked to see her as they believe her to be dead.
She began as a door-to-door makeup salesperson who doesn’t really care much about social media. Her best friend, Jeong-sun is obsessed with influencers and tells A-ri about a major row between some high-profile e-celebrities.
A group of women known as the Gabi society are pushed into focus after some private chats are leaked with serious accusations levied at these influencers about their lives and how they got to their positions.
Oh Min-hye, Chae-hee, Angela, Ji-na, and Yu-rang have varying follower accounts and their own business ventures but they are currently worried about how this public spat will affect their image.
Min-hye runs into A-ri at the mall and recognizes her from their childhood. A-ri grew up wealthy and got into an ivy league college in America, but her family went broke and she had to drop out, although she didn’t reveal this to Jeong-sun or anyone else.
Min-hye invites A-ri to an exclusive event in a bid to safeguard her image. She was close to one of the influencers involved in the spat and chose not to attend the event with her.
At the event, A-ri meets the rest of the Gabin society as well as Sii-hyeon who is Chae-hee’s sister-in-law. The event is disrupted when one of the wronged influencers shows up and causes a big scene.
A-ri tells her the harsh truth about her character and leaves the event, causing a lasting impression on everyone there. She eventually makes a social media account for herself to understand the world she experienced better.
One of the people fascinated by her is Han Joon-kyung, the CEO of a major cosmetics company and Si-hyeon’s ex-boyfriend. He wishes to go out with A-ri but she is put off by the fact that he uses his influence to find her.
Si-hyeon is married to Tae-jeon, a prominent lawyer who represents several high-profile clients.
A-ri decides to get into the world of influencing but her humble approach gains her many fans. She also makes enemies of the Gabin society, which cannot fathom a commoner aspiring to reach their level.
A-ri rises up in follower counts and revenue with the help of an anonymous account called _bbbfamous that shares sensitive information about the Gabin society. They retaliate with their own smear tactics that occasionally affect A-ri’s progress.
A-ri is invited to a club to make peace with Chae-hee but there are drugs involved and a man overdoses on them. A-ri wants to inform the authorities but Tae-jeon, Joon-kyung, and Si-hyeon tell her that she would get in trouble herself if it all came out.
Joon-kyung continues to pursue A-ri but she rebuffs his advances. Nevertheless, he offers to help her out with her endeavors and hopes that she will warm up to him eventually.
As the guilt weighs upon her, A-ri goes to the police and reports the incident at the club. That man eventually died in Yu-rang’s husband’s care and Tae-jeon covers the whole thing up.
Meanwhile, the person behind the _bbbfamous account becomes frustrated because A-ri doesn’t respond to her due to her busy schedule and she teams up with the Gabin society to bring A-ri down.
She posts doctored screenshots where A-ri is insulting others and everyone on the internet turns on A-ri. Joon-kyung tells Tae-jeon that he’s going to give witness testimony about the club employee’s death and Si-hyeon takes his side.
Tae-jeon calls out a hit on Joon-kyung and A-ri cannot deal with the pressure of everything happening so she drives her car into the sea and is pronounced dead after the car is found without a body.
In the present, everyone is trying to figure out where A-ri is live streaming from while the country is up in arms about the revelations that she’s making about Taekang and the Gabin society.
Joon-Kyung arrives first and finds that Jeong-sun is actually the one talking and using deep fake technology to appear as A-ri.
Celebrity (2023) ending explained in detail:
What was Jeong-sun’s plan?
Jeong-sun and A-ri’s brother are taken in by the police for questioning and they say that before A-ri disappeared she gave them the task of exposing how corrupt Tae Jeon is and the double standards for people of high society.
When they raise the question of A-ri’s death, they say that they cannot be sure because the body was never found. They streamed for close to 8 days exposing all the secrets that A-ri was aware of.
The police begin to look into the secrets exposed and act on them quickly.
What happens to the Gabin society and the others?
Oh Min-hye and her husband are getting ready to flee but Yu-rang stops her because she feels wronged. She thought she was friends with Min-hye but only turned out to be a lackey who Min-hye kept around.
Yu-rang’s husband is arrested and he admits that he just followed Tae-jeon’s orders.
Ji-na and Angela’s lives crumble around them as their truths are out there in the world. Chae-hee is arrested for consuming illegal drugs at the party where the employee overdosed.
The evidence stacks up against Tae-Jeon and he has to admit defeat.
Who is _bbbfamous?
Lee Eun-Chae was a masseuse who would treat the Gabin society whenever they came in but they treated her with disrespect so she secretly recorded them and listened to all of their dirty secrets.
She used this information to help A-ri through the _bbbfamous account. However, once A-ri became rich and successful, Eun-chae began resenting her as well and had a general distaste for rich people.
A-ri finally reveals herself to be still alive and confronts Eun-chae but Eun-Chae has an outburst and then jumps off a higher floor of their building.
She does survive but A-ri is shaken to her core by everything she’s gone through and decides to remain anonymous once more.
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