Pinocchio

Everything worth knowing, before the opening credits.

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Pinocchio

피노키오 (Pinokio) · 2014 · South Korea

WriterPark Hye-Ryun

DirectorJo Soo-Won, Shin Seung-woo

Episodes20 eps · ~58 min each

Where to Watch✅ Netflix, Viki, Apple TV+, Prime Video, KOCOWA+, Tubi

⏱️

Binge Time19h 20m

AiredNov 12, 2014 – Jan 15, 2015

GenreRomance · Drama · Comedy

Content Rating15+

SBSNetflixVikiApple TV+Prime VideoKOCOWA+TubiWeTViQiyi

JournalismHidden IdentityRevengeFamily MelodramaMedia Ethics

Skip the scroll — here’s the verdict in one glance.

The rookie reporters chasing the truth behind the story that destroyed one of their families.

Park Shin-hye

Choi In-ha

Lead

Lee Jong-suk

Gi Ha-myeong / Choi Dal-po

Lead

Kim Young-kwang

Seo Beom-jo

Supporting

Lee Yu-bi

Yoon Yoo-rae

Supporting

Jin Kyung

Song Cha-ok

Supporting

Lee Pil-mo

Hwang Gyo-dong

Supporting

Min Sung-wook

Jang Hyeon-gyu

Supporting

Yoon Kyun-sang

Gi Jae-myeong

Supporting

Choo Soo-hyun

Im Jae-hwan

Supporting

Byun Hee-bong

Choi Gong-pil

Supporting

Shin Jung-keun

Choi Dal-pyeong

Supporting

Lee Ju-seung

An Chan-su

Supporting

Quick recaps per episode — just enough to stay caught up.

EP 01

The Fire That Ruined Everything

Nov 12, 2014

Gi Ha-myeong’s family collapses when reporter Song Cha-ok’s careless story falsely blames his firefighter father for a fire, and his mother’s suicide follows soon after. Presumed dead, he’s rescued by a man with dementia who mistakes him for his own lost son, and quietly becomes Choi Dal-po. His new family includes Choi In-ha, whose rare ‘Pinocchio syndrome’ makes her hiccup whenever she lies — and whose mother turns out to be the reporter who destroyed his life.

EP 02

The Answer He Won’t Give

Nov 13, 2014

Dal-po keeps up his facade as the school’s worst student, until a quiz competition forces his hidden brilliance into the open with a perfect score. Cheating rumors spiral into cruel jabs about his dead father, but In-ha — physically incapable of lying — publicly vouches for him anyway. On air, Dal-po deliberately answers the final question wrong, handing the win to his rival rather than risk the spotlight that once destroyed his family.

EP 03

Burning the Books

Nov 19, 2014

After years of trying, In-ha finally lands an interview at her estranged mother’s station — and watches Song Cha-ok coldly reject her, calling her Pinocchio syndrome a liability. In-ha burns her journalism books in defeat, and Dal-po, furious at watching history repeat itself, makes a decision: he’ll become a reporter too, both to support her and to force a reckoning with Cha-ok himself.

EP 04

The Debate

Nov 20, 2014

In-ha’s father corners Dal-po about his obvious feelings for her, and Dal-po promises to bury them for the sake of their strange, cobbled-together family. Both apply to a merit-based station, where the final interview forces them to debate the very fire that destroyed Dal-po’s family — and In-ha’s more detached argument sends him into a genuine rage. The fight coincides with the discovery of his father’s remains, finally letting thirteen years of grief catch up to him.

EP 05

Two Different Newsrooms

Nov 26, 2014

Dal-po lands the reporter job; In-ha, rejected everywhere else, ends up recruited by her own mother’s station, which sees her hiccup syndrome as a ratings gimmick rather than a liability. She takes the offer anyway, determined to prove herself on her own terms. Meanwhile, Dal-po’s brother Jae-myeong resurfaces with a darker agenda, cornering the man whose false testimony helped bury their father.

EP 06

The Gym Death

Nov 27, 2014

Rookie reporters get split into rival teams, and Dal-po and In-ha end up chasing the same story: a woman who collapsed and died at a gym. Dal-po thinks he’s got the scoop locked with CCTV footage, but In-ha senses there’s more to it and keeps digging. Their romantic rivalry with In-ha’s partner sharpens too, capped by a quiet, unguarded moment that says more than either of them means to.

EP 07

The Whole Truth

Dec 3, 2014

Dal-po’s exclusive airs first, but In-ha’s team uncovers the real story — the woman was starving herself to qualify as a kidney donor for her own daughter. The gap between Dal-po’s version and the truth hits him hard, echoing the same kind of careless reporting that ruined his own family. His boss admits to a similar mistake once, years ago, hinting at a connection neither of them realizes yet.

EP 08

Meeting the Brother

Dec 4, 2014

Dal-po finally comes face to face with Jae-myeong, forced to hide both his real name and his job as a reporter while sizing up a brother who doesn’t recognize him. Jae-myeong, oblivious, treats him with unexpected warmth — which only deepens Dal-po’s dread about what his brother might have already done. Overwhelmed by the secret, he turns to In-ha, and their relationship tips into something neither can pretend is just friendship.

EP 09

The Hero’s Shadow

Dec 10, 2014

Jae-myeong’s rescue of a boy from a fire turns him into a national hero overnight, and the media attention only sharpens Dal-po’s fear that his brother is connected to a string of disappearances. Desperate to keep In-ha away from Jae-myeong without explaining why, Dal-po all but begs her to trust him blindly. She agrees — but a discovery about her mother’s role in the original tragedy is about to make blind trust impossible.

EP 10

What He Used to Feel

Dec 11, 2014

In-ha confronts her mother directly about the thirteen-year-old cover-up, only to be met with total denial and zero remorse. Dal-po, caught between protecting his brother and being honest with In-ha, admits that his old self hated her for her mother’s sins — but the person he is now doesn’t. It’s the most direct either of them has been about the wreckage sitting underneath their relationship.

EP 11

Giving Up Revenge

Dec 17, 2014

Jae-myeong confesses to Dal-po that his hunt for the men who wronged their father has already turned lethal, and Dal-po decides to take the burden of justice onto himself instead — through legitimate means, as a reporter. In-ha, piecing together the full weight of what he’s carrying, makes the selfless call to break up with him so he can pursue it without holding back. Jae-myeong tests his brother’s resolve once more before handing him the fight.

EP 12

Saying His Real Name

Dec 18, 2014

Dal-po reports his brother’s confession on air and signs off using his real name, Ki Ha-myeong, reclaiming an identity he’s hidden for thirteen years. The broadcast blindsides Song Cha-ok live, exposing cracks in her carefully managed reputation for the first time. Fully committed now, Ha-myeong says goodbye to the found family that raised him as Dal-po, choosing the mission over the comfort of staying hidden.

EP 13

The Inconvenient Truth

Dec 24, 2014

Ha-myeong’s investigation into an old case meant to nail Song Cha-ok backfires when In-ha finds evidence that would actually clear her mother of that specific charge. Tempted to bury it for the sake of the bigger fight, In-ha ultimately hands it over — Ha-myeong insists the whole truth matters more than his own revenge. The same digging accidentally exposes a much bigger name: the powerful chairwoman quietly backing Cha-ok all along.

EP 14

The Puppet Master

Dec 25, 2014

A new factory explosion echoes the tragedy from thirteen years ago, and Ha-myeong’s follow-up investigation implicates Beom-jo’s mother, Chairman Park, in staging the original story as a publicity stunt. In-ha initially sides with Beom-jo, straining her relationship with Ha-myeong, until she finds hard evidence — her mother’s earring — tying Cha-ok directly to Park’s office. The real architect of the original cover-up finally has a name.

EP 15

Protecting a Friend

Jan 1, 2015

Cha-ok runs a misleading story pinning the new fire on Dal-po’s old friend Chan-su, and Ha-myeong throws himself into clearing his name. He and In-ha team up to hunt down missing CCTV and black-box footage that could prove what actually happened, while Jae-myeong, watching from prison, worries the fight is pulling his brother toward the same destructive path he once walked.

EP 16

Choosing Each Other

Jan 7, 2015

In-ha and Beom-jo learn their mothers conspired together on the original cover-up — and suspect the same thing is happening again. Ha-myeong and In-ha reconcile, with him making clear her mother’s crimes don’t define her. As both newsrooms come under pressure to bury the story beneath Olympics coverage, In-ha starts digging through old phone records for proof that could finally force her mother to answer for it.

EP 17

Walking Away

Jan 8, 2015

Confronted with the recovered evidence, Cha-ok doesn’t apologize — she explains that she once faced the same choice In-ha is facing now, and chose her career. Beom-jo, sickened by his own mother’s lack of remorse, quietly resigns to gain her trust and dig further from the inside. In-ha does the opposite: she resigns loudly, handing her evidence to Ha-myeong’s station and accepting she’ll be branded a whistleblower for it.

EP 18

The Confession

Jan 14, 2015

Cha-ok tries, and fails, to expose Chairman Park’s corruption before Park’s influence shuts her down. Dal-po reveals his real contingency plan — Beom-jo has been recording his mother’s confessions the entire time, and he’s ready to turn himself and the evidence in. Watching her mother finally attempt something like redemption, and Beom-jo choose accountability over protection, In-ha finds new resolve in the fight.

EP 19

Fourteen Years Late

Jan 14, 2015

Beom-jo turns himself in and details his mother’s corruption in full, and her political allies abandon her almost instantly. Cha-ok, having already confessed to police, faces the legal and public reckoning she spent thirteen years avoiding. Ha-myeong delivers the broadcast he’s been building toward his entire life — the true story of his father — and chooses to forgive Jae-myeong instead of carrying the revenge any further.

EP 20

Pinocchio

Jan 15, 2015

Chairman Park is arrested, and Cha-ok accepts her punishment with something close to genuine remorse. Now fully Ki Ha-myeong, Dal-po keeps working as an honest reporter, and he and In-ha — past every obstacle their families built between them — finally let themselves plan a future together. Beom-jo emerges from his own reckoning changed, Yoo-rae finds her footing as a reporter, and the found family that raised two broken brothers gets to watch them both come home.

From here on, full spoilers — the ending, unpacked.

What actually happened The finale ties off every major thread at once: Chairman Park is arrested for orchestrating the original cover-up and the corruption that followed it, and Song Cha-ok accepts her own punishment with what reads as genuine remorse rather than damage control. Ha-myeong — no longer hiding as Dal-po — keeps working as an honest reporter at YGN, and he and In-ha finally acknowledge their feelings openly, choosing a future together despite everything their mothers built between them.

What it means The show’s real argument isn’t that truth eventually wins — it’s that truth only wins because people choose to tell it even when lying would be easier and safer. In-ha resigning from MSC, Beom-jo turning himself in, Ha-myeong forgiving Jae-myeong instead of finishing his revenge: every one of those choices costs the person making it something real. Pinocchio’s ending rewards honesty not as a fairy-tale inevitability, but as the direct result of characters repeatedly choosing the harder, costlier version of the truth.

The brothers, resolved Jae-myeong’s arc gets the quietest but most important resolution — Ha-myeong doesn’t excuse what his brother did in prison, but he does let go of matching it with more violence of his own. That forgiveness closes the loop the finale opened thirteen years earlier: a family destroyed by one act of careless, weaponized journalism finally gets its healing through the opposite instinct, reporting that’s careful, accountable, and true. It’s the show’s clearest statement that revenge and justice were never actually the same thing.

What happens to Cha-ok Song Cha-ok doesn’t get a redemption arc so much as an accountability one — she accepts consequences rather than earning forgiveness outright, and the show is careful not to conflate the two. Her punishment matters more as a structural correction, a corrupt journalist finally facing consequences, than as a personal reconciliation with In-ha, and the finale leaves that relationship realistically unresolved rather than neatly patched over.

The KDW verdict Pinocchio earns its long, winding path back to a happy ending because it never treats media ethics as background noise to the romance — the two are the same fight, waged by two people who happen to love each other. Twenty episodes is a lot of runway for one plot, but the show uses nearly all of it, letting revenge curdle into responsibility and letting two broken families slowly become one working, honest newsroom. It closes as a rare melodrama that earns its warmth instead of manufacturing it.