[Drama Recap] Mask: Episode 1

The 1st episode starts with Byun Ji Sook (Soo Ae) drives along a mountain road and tries to avoid a collision She turns a handle just in time before falling and her is car hanging on the edge of the hillside being saved by the cables around. 

Ji Sook receives a call from Min Seok Hoon (Yeon Jung Hoon) whom she calls Crazy Guy and asking her to think about his suggestion. Ji Sook has no choice but to accept the deal. He says she needs to die from the car accident in order to make his plan succeed.  The car then falls down the hill. Before her death,  Ji Sook records her last messages on her phone to her family members.

Two days before the car accident:

Choi Min Woo (Ju Ji Hoon) is a Chaebol heir  who is the successor to SJ Group, in which he serves as executive director. In his family, he has a strict father and a hatred step-mother, a sister gets married for political purpose; and his brother-in-law always wait for the chance to take in his place.

Min-woo also has his own political love affair with Seo Eun Ha (Soo Ae). They treat their upcoming marriage as a cold business deal. Eun-ha is the daughter of a politician, this marriage would give her father a financial support for his campaign, while Min Woo 's father would gain a powerful political backup.

Eun-ha makes agreements in her marriage contract with Min Woo, in which she’ll continue to see the man she loves, and refuses to have children with Min-woo.He's fine with that.

Min-woo enjoys cleanliness and experiences recurring hallucinations of bodies floating in pools of water.

Meanwhile Ji Sook (Soo Ae) works at a department store. She supports her family and struggles to save money to pay off her father’s loan sharks,

Ji-sook goes to a school reunion, she gets drunk and lies down in the street. Min-woo comes across her and mistakes her for Eun-ha, his fake fiancee because they look like each other very much. He takes her to a hotel room and leaves her there to sleep after she vomits and drinks a lot. He wonders why she acts so differently.

The next day Ji Sook searches the hotel room all over for her money and finds Min Woo's business card there. She tries to contact Min-woo and arranges a meeting with him at the department store.

Seok Hoon (Yeon Jung-hoon) is Ji-sook’s asshole brother-in-law, sees a maid taking out money from  Min Woo clothes the last day and takes it from the maid, saying he will deliver it to him. Seok-hoon is the man Eun-ha loves.

Choi Mi Yeon (Yoo In Young) is Ji-sook’s sister, doesn't love her husband and doesn't believe his fake attitude either.   

Ji Sook meets Eun-ha  accidentally at the department store. They are startled to see their mirror reflections although the fact that the two happen to look the same but aren’t necessarily related.

An accident happens:  Eun-ha’s floating in the pool, in a dead faint and Min-woo’s confused, collapsed and trembling for fear of water.

Eun-ha is taken to the hospital and is brain-dead. Seok Hoon remembers Eun-ha telling him of Ji-sook who looks the same as her and start to find Ji-sook in order to replace Eun-ha. He knows Ji-sook family is in debt and offers her a deal but Ji-sook turns it down.

Ji-sook came to the loan shark to give him cash and and witnesses him beating up another victim. The victim is beaten to dead and Ji-sook

The loan sharks panic about this unintended consequence and scramble to cover their tails, wondering how to dispose of the body and deal with their witness. They end up handcuffing Ji-sook and taking her along as they drive up a mountain with the body, not too persuaded by Ji-sook’s promises not to breathe a word.

Ji-sook sees that they’re not likely to let her go, so when she gets an opening, she leaps into the driver’s seat and screeches off without the loan sharks.

It turns out that the dead man isn’t actually dead, and when she pauses to check on him, a loan shark catches up to her and jumps into the car. That’s when she swerves to avoid hitting a deer, the car hurtles down the hillside, and Ji-sook finds herself facing death.

Seok-hoon then calls her to repeat his offer of a deal, having followed her here. He watches from a distance as the cables break and the car goes crashing into the sea. Ji-sook manages to uncuff herself but struggles to make it to safety, wondering if she’s going to meet her end. And then, a body dives into the water to lend a hand…

Min-woo can’t remember what happened at the pool, the CCTV is deleted so hecannot prove his innocence. He decides to come to the hospital to see Eun-ha and ask about the accident. She’s lying asleep and then opens her eyes and looks at him.