In The Frog, an unexpected guest’s arrival causes upheaval in the life of a vacation house owner and those around him. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Koo Sang-jun and his wife, Eun-gyeong, own a motel called the Lake View Motel in the countryside. They work hard to ensure that their business remains successful.
Sang-jun’s hospitality and helpful nature always impress their guests. One day, during a heavy rainstorm, Sang-jun sees a car in the middle of the road.
As he is a helpful man, he insists that the man in the car, Ji Hyang-cheol, take a room at his motel, unaware that the man is a serial killer.
Ji Hyang-cheol reluctantly agrees and takes a room for the night. Later, he brings an unconscious woman to his room while Sang-jun is asleep at the reception.
Ji Hyang-cheol murders the woman, and her dismembered body is discovered by the police the next day. Although Ji Hyang-cheol is arrested, the motel gains a bad reputation due to the murder.
Overnight, Sang-jun and Eun-gyeong’s business collapses. They resort to doing odd jobs to make ends meet and endure people’s whispers about their family’s failures.
Their relationship suffers as well; Eun-gyeong, blaming Sang-jun for the loss of their business, turns to alcohol and pills. Eventually, they decide to sell the motel.
The two of them fail to notice that their son, Gi-ho, is being bullied at school. His bullies force him to steal alcohol and pills from home.
When one of the bullies ends up in the hospital after consuming the stolen items, the others put the entire blame on Gi-ho, claiming that he forced the others to take the pills with alcohol.
Frustrated by their mounting problems, Sang-jun gets into a fight with the bullies’ parents, resulting in the sale of the motel falling through.
With no hope left, Eun-gyeong takes her own life. Sang-jun, wracked with guilt over his family’s suffering, becomes mentally ill.
Years later, Jeon Yeong-ha, who quit his job to fulfill his ailing wife’s last wish of living in the countryside, buys a beautiful vacation home.
After his wife passes away, he continues to live there and rent his vacation home, while his daughter, Ui-seon, lives in Seoul.
One day, a woman named Yoo Seong-a rents the house of Yeong-ha’s friend, Yong-chae, but due to a broken air conditioner, Yong-chae brings Seong-a and her son, Si-hyeon, to Yeong-ha’s house.
Seong-a leaves the next day while Yeong-ha and Yong-chae are still asleep. Later, Yeong-ha finds blood on a record Seong-a had been playing, prompting him to investigate.
He discovers that Seong-a had meticulously cleaned the bathroom with bleach. Additionally, dashcam footage shows that Si-hyeon was not with her when she left; she had a heavy bag instead.
Yeong-ha suspects that Seong-a killed Si-hyeon and dismembered his body in the bathroom. Recalling the Lake View Motel incident, Yeong-ha decides not to report the crime.
Instead, he disposes of any evidence that could prove that Si-hyeon was murdered in his house. However, Yeonh-ha remains burdened by guilt.
Months later, Seong-a returns to rent Yeong-ha’s vacation house again. Despite his reluctance, his daughter, who is visiting, convinces him to let Seong-a stay.
Yeong-ha initially pretends not to recognize Seong-a, but as he is still haunted by his past actions, he eventually confronts her.
Seong-a admits to killing Si-hyeon, knowing that Yeong-ha cannot go to the police since he helped cover up the crime. Seong-a then begins to manipulate and harass Yeong-ha.
She even threatens to harm Ui-seon if Yeong-ha does not do as she says. When Yeong-ha can no longer bear the harassment, he decides to report the murder.
He takes Seong-a’s confession, which he had secretly recorded, and the dashcam footage to the police. However, Seong-a stops him, hitting him with her car and stealing the evidence.
Yeong-ha promises to remain silent, but Seong-a continues to torment him. She makes changes to his house and demands that he sell it to her.
Yeong-ha is unwilling to sell, so he tries various tactics to make her leave but fails, as Seong-a gets a police officer, Officer Kim, involved.
Yeong-ha ends up getting into a fight with Officer Kim and is taken to the police station, where he meets Captain Yoon Bo-min.
Captain Yoon, whose first case was the Lake View Motel incident, is known for her intelligence. She has solved several cases because she is good at observing and reading people.
Captain Yoon notices that Yeong-ha is troubled. She asks him about his reasons for suddenly turning violent, but he refuses to confide in her.
Meanwhile, Officer Kim finds evidence that Seong-a had stolen from Yeong-ha, prompting Seong-a to kill him and hide his body in the cornfields.
Yeong-ha is torn between selling his house to Seong-a to get rid of her and reporting the crime. He goes to meet Sang-jun, hoping that it will help him make his decision.
He learns from a realtor that Sang-jun is in a nursing home. During their meeting, Sang-jun, still trapped in his past, reveals that his son, Gi-ho, plans to kill Ji Hyang-cheol.
Yeong-ha visits Gi-ho, who mistakes him for a police officer and ties him up. With the help of his father’s friend Jong-du, Gi-ho murders Ji Hyang-cheol.
Gi-ho then attempts to take his own life, but Yeong-ha stops him. Yeong-ha understands the pain Gi-ho and his family endured because of Ji Hyang-cheol, so he decides to cover up Gi-ho’s crime and provide him with an alibi.
Meanwhile, Seong-a, an artist from a wealthy family, holds an art exhibition that does not go as planned due to her father’s intervention.
Her father wants her to leave the country. He disapproves of her choices, especially since she falsely accused her ex-husband, Ha Jae-sik, Si-hyeon’s father, of domestic violence.
Jae-sik has now been released from prison, and he knows that his son’s death was no accident, as Seong-a claimed, and seeks revenge.
Furthermore, Yong-chae visits Yeong-ha’s house while he is with Gi-ho and realizes that Seong-a has been staying there against Yeong-ha’s wishes.
He threatens to call the police, resulting in Seong-a stabbing him and locking him in the basement. Seong-a then sends a concerning message from Yong-chae’s phone to lure Ui-seon to the house.
She plans to kidnap her to force Yeong-ha to return. When Ui-seon arrives, Seong-a drugs her. Ui-seon senses that something is wrong and fights back.
Seong-a eventually stabs Ui-seon, fits her in a bag, and leaves her bleeding by the lake. While Yeong-ha is still with Gi-ho, he notices several missed calls from his daughter and Yong-chae.
When he returns Ui-seon’s call, Seong-a answers, indicating that Ui-seon’s life is in danger. Yeong-ha takes Gi-ho’s gun and rushes back to his vacation home to rescue his pregnant daughter.
Ending explained:
The plan to apprehend Seong-a
When Yeong-ha arrives at the vacation house, Seong-a allows him to rescue Yong-chae, whom he takes to the hospital.
Yeong-ha asks a friend, Gyeong-nam, to look after Yong-chae but refuses to answer Gyeong-nam’s questions as he hurries back to save Ui-seon, who is still missing.
That same day, Seong-a had broken into Gyeong-nam’s laundromat, a crime he reported to Captain Yoon. After learning about Yong-chae’s condition, Gyeong-nam once again calls Captain Yoon.
Captain Yoon is already suspicious of Seong-a, whom she knows as Yeong-ha’s guest. Her suspicions are further strengthened by Gyeong-nam’s call.
She stops Yeong-ha from returning to the house and makes him confide in her about his situation with Seong-a, leading to Captain Yoon devising a plan to apprehend Seong-a.
While she searches for Ui-seon with the police force, Yeong-ha distracts Seong-a, who wants him to help her bury Officer Kim’s body.
Captain Yoon succeeds in finding Ui-seon and sends her to the hospital. She then signals Yeong-ha to agree to Seong-a’s demands.
In exchange for his help, Yeong-ha asks Seong-a to take him to Ui-seon. When Seong-a leads him to where she left Ui-seon, she is caught red-handed and arrested by Captain Yoon.
Seong-a’s death
Despite the arrest, Captain Yoon cannot keep Seong-a in custody for long without solid evidence, so she needs to quickly find Officer Kim’s body.
Captain Yoon interrogates Seong-a, and although she remains silent, Yoon deduces that the body is hidden in the cornfields.
Soon after, Seong-a’s lawyer arrives and gets her released. He informs her that her father wants her to go to Seoul, but Seong-a refuses.
Instead, she sets Gyeong-nam’s laundromat on fire before returning to Yeong-ha’s house to get her passport, intending to leave the country.
When Yeong-ha learns that Seong-a has been released despite everything she did to his daughter, he decides to take matters into his own hands.
He goes to his vacation house to confront her, only to find Jae-sik there. Jae-sik has been sent by Seong-a’s father to kill Seong-a after her father found evidence of her crimes.
Seong-a then reveals Yeong-ha’s role in covering up Si-hyeon’s murder, which Yeong-ha confirms and apologizes to Jae-sik. In response, Jae-sik shoots both Seong-a and Yeong-ha.
Before he can cause further harm, Captain Yoon arrives there, revealing that they can now arrest Seong-a because they found the body she wanted to bury.
Yeong-ha and Captain Yoon plead with Jae-sik, who has been shot in the leg by Captain Yoon, to let her arrest Seong-a, but Jae-sik remains undeterred.
Seong-a takes advantage of the chaos and flees after shooting Captain Yoon. Jae-sik chases her, and despite Yeong-ha’s efforts to stop him, he shoots Seong-a dead.
Finding normalcy again
After Seong-a’s death, Yeong-ha moves to Seoul to live with his daughter, who survives and eventually has a child.
Captain Yoon has figured out Yeong-ha’s connection to Gi-ho and the fact that Gi-ho murdered Ji Hyang-cheol, but she chooses not to expose the truth.
She meets Gi-ho and informs him that Seong-a’s father wants the matter to be resolved quietly and is making his lawyer defend Jae-sik in Seong-a’s murder case.
Over time, life returns to normal, though Yeong-ha stops renting out his vacation house. Yong-chae recovers and takes care of Yeong-ha’s house until Yeong-ha returns from Seoul.
Their friend, Gyeong-nam, fulfills his dream and opens a cafe after losing his laundromat in the fire caused by Seong-a.
One day, Gi-ho reaches out to Yeong-ha, the man who saved his life, asking to meet him. Yeong-ha agrees, suggesting the start of a new friendship.
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