"The Penthouse" Stars Clear Up The Debate Over What Lee Ji Ah Really Said In Season 1 Finale + Share Behind-The-Scenes Stories

Feb 21, 2021

The stars of SBS’s “The Penthouse” have ended the heated debate over Lee Ji Ah’s final scene in Season 1!

Ahead of the premiere of “The Penthouse 2,” Kim So Yeon, S.E.S.’s Eugene, Uhm Ki Joon, and Yoon Jong Hoon made a guest appearance on the latest episode of SBS’s popular YouTube show “MMTG.”

Spoilers for Season 1 of “The Penthouse”

During the show, host JaeJae praised Kim So Yeon for her powerful acting, bringing up the emotional scene in which her character Cheon Seo Jin breaks down crying while making phone calls to ask for help with the Chung Ah Foundation’s corruption scandal. JaeJae pointed out, “Kim Young Dae, who plays [Joo] Seok Hoon, said he got goosebumps while watching this scene.”

Kim So Yeon responded by humbly praising her co-star Yoon Jong Hoon for making the scene so powerful. “There’s something I really wanted to say about this scene,” said the actress. “At one point in this scene, Ha Yoon Cheol grabs my hand and says, ‘Seo Jin.’ That wasn’t in the script. During rehearsal, [Yoon Jong Hoon] suggested that addition to the director, saying he wanted to try calling me [by my name] ‘Seo Jin’ for the first time.”

“So when he took my hand and called me ‘Seo Jin,’ I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion,” she recalled. “As a result, those intense emotions stayed with me throughout the scene until the end, when I made those phone calls. So I want to give all of the credit for this scene to the director, writer, and [Yoon Jong Hoon].”

Yoon Jong Hoon returned the love by saying, “[Kim] So Yeon always gives the credit to others. Before we worked on this drama together, I’d heard so much about her good personality. But after working with her, I realized that all those rumors I’d heard fell short of just how nice she is. She’s even nicer by far than what I’d heard.”

Eugene also revealed that she hadn’t known that her character Oh Yoon Hee was the one who murdered Min Seol Ah (played by Jo Soo Min) until late in Season 1.

“I really didn’t know,” said Eugene. “I only found out when I got the script [for that episode]. At the beginning, [Yoon Jong Hoon] told me, ‘I really think Yoon Hee is the murderer.’ But back then, I said, ‘What are you talking about? There’s no way.'”

“Then, after we filmed a few more episodes, [Uhm Ki Joon] also told me, ‘I think Yoon Hee is the one who killed her,'” she continued. “I thought, ‘Why is everyone being like this? It can’t be.'”

Later on in the episode, JaeJae mentioned that many fans of the drama were speculating that Lee Ji Ah’s character Shim Soo Ryeon—who was murdered by Joo Dan Te in the final episode of Season 1—would return in Season 2.

Explaining that some fans thought she had faked her death, JaeJae remarked, “They say that in her final scene, you can see from reading her lips that she told Yoon Hee, ‘Say that you’re the one who killed me.'”

The stars of the drama responded with surprise, and both Eugene and Uhm Ki Joon clarified that what Shim Soo Ryeon had really said was “Run away.”

Eugene added that Shim Soo Ryeon hadn’t said anything else afterwards, commenting with a laugh, “They must really want Soo Ryeon to come back to life so badly if they came up with [those kinds of theories].”

Uhm Ji Koon elaborated, “Her only line was ‘Run away.’ Since I killed her, she was telling [Oh Yoon Hee] to run away before she got hurt too.”