Dhruv Sharma
Set in a not-so-distant future, ‘My Holo Love’ explores the lives and experiences of several characters who are enshrouded and infused by technology. In its long runtime of 12 episodes, the series covers a lot of themes that work along the lines of finding one’s identity, self-acceptance, the impact of technology and also the value of human relationships. Along with this, the series also brings in several backstories and plot points that eventually merge towards its conclusive moments.
So if you had a hard time wrapping your head around some of the pivotal moments of the show, read on further to get a better understanding of everything that went on in its final moments.
Plot Summary
‘My Holo Love’ is about a young woman, So-yeon, who accidentally finds a pair of hologram glasses that allow her to see a man handsome young man named Holo. And since she is the only one who possesses these glasses, only she can see him. After spending almost her entire life wallowing in her loneliness, she gets really attached to Holo and starts to love his warm company.
But soon, Nan-do, the creator of the technology and also the exact look-alike of Holo, enters her life while searching for the glasses. With what follows, So-yeon not only finds herself in a complex love triangle but also gets entangled in a huge conspiracy that goes all the way back to some of the most disturbing moments of her childhood.
Nan-do’s Abandonment
Nan-do is one of the three main characters of the series who seems to be cold and stoic on the outside. All he seems to care about is the success of his newly developed AI hologram technology. But later it is revealed that he simply keeps his distance from people because of his disturbing past. When he was a child, his mother had left him behind at a park and had asked him to stay there. She never really showed up after this and was eventually found dead in a nearby forest.
Nan-do never really figured out what happened to her and simply assumed that she killed herself, intentionally leaving him all by himself. Not until later, he discovers that his mother was murdered by someone.
Holo’s Origins
Holo was initially created as a mere computer program called “Hello” by Nan-do’s mother. As a child, Nan-do suffered from certain conditions that disabled him from having too many friends of his age. So, in order to make sure that her son never feels lonely again, she created “Hello.” As the years went by, being the AI that it was, Hello further expanded upon its machine learning and grew into something more human. Holo eventually turns into a full-fledged hologram that not only looks a lot like Nan-do but is also able to retain many of his personality traits.
So-yeon’s Psychological Disorder
From the beginning itself, So-yeon is portrayed as a socially awkward hermit who avoids having any kind of conversation with her peers at work. As an outcome of this, she often becomes a victim of hate. Except for her family, no one really knows that she suffers from a rare psychological disorder that prevents her from identifying the faces of the people around her. This disorder completely ruins her social life, and she still refuses to be open about her condition. It is later revealed that her condition was caused by a traumatic incident during her childhood.
After intricately exploring all three of its main characters, the show heads to a conclusion where all of its backstories align with one another. So-yeon meets Baek and is reminded of her childhood trauma that later led to her disorder. It turns out that So-yeon and Nan-do used to be very close friends when they were kids. Their parents had planned a picnic one day, and even back then, Baek knew about Nan-do’s mother’s AI projects.
While going for the picnic, Nan-do’s mother was confronted by Baek, who wanted her to hand him over all of her AI developments. It was during this incident that she left Nan-do behind just to have a word with Baek. But after a hefty argument, Baek had killed her.
Coincidentally, this was the exact moment when even So-yeon had first encountered Baek. He had threatened her that if she did not forget his face, he would come looking for her and kill her as well. As an outcome of this, she developed a psychological disorder that completely disables her from recognizing anyone’s face.
The Ending, Explained
There is one defining moment of the series that later leads to all of its consequential events. There is a scene in which Holo saves So-yeon’s life by completely cutting off the power supply of the entire city for a few minutes. Moments after this, the city’s law enforcers started looking for the person who had caused this blackout. This part of the show takes a back seat for a while. But much later, a detective named Nam is finally able to catch up with this mystery and all the cues lead him to Nan-do. Nan-do is then confronted by Baek, who is the CEO of a tech-based company known as Magic Mirror.
Baek offers him a deal. He tells him that he’ll let him be a free man if he hands him over his AI technology. Nan-do, who is determined to protect his loved ones, is forced to comply with his demands. After acquiring control on Holo, Beak modifies him and then starts selling him commercially.
Soon, the entire world gets access to Hologram glasses that allow them to see Holo. Baek further plans to drop its prices and hopes to make its product that can be used by pretty much everyone. But behind all of this, he seems to have some very sinister intentions. He uses the Hologram glasses to get access to personal information of everyone who is using them and then tries to sell this information to other evil parties.
However, before he is able to do that, Nan-do hacks his system, blocks all the glasses that he has sold worldwide, and even manages to revive Holo. In the final episodes of the show, knowing that Nan-do will come looking for her, Baek abducts So-Yeon. Nan-do, along with the help of Holo and Baek’s son, breaks into Baek’s facility and tries to rescue So-yeon. Baek is eventually able to capture both Nan-do and So-yeon, but just when he’s about to kill them, Holo comes to their rescue. Through a live broadcast, Holo also exposes to the world that Baek had killed Nan-do’s mother. In the end, Baek is the one who gets arrested and Nan-do is set free.
Holo’s Sacrificial Protection
In the final moments of the show, Holo decides to self-destruct. He recalls that Nan-do’s mother had created him to protect Nan-do and the ones he loves. However, while doing that, he landed all of them in some deep trouble and although they did manage to get out of it, he wouldn’t want something similar to happen again. So in order to keep his promise of making sure that Nan-do is always safe, Holo sacrifices himself.
After he’s gone, Nan-do and So-yeon miss him a lot, and So-yeon even asks Nan-do if he can possibly return. To this, Nan-do replies that all of his components were later widely distributed on the dark web, so there is just a slight possibility that he might return. In the closing scene of the series, Holo appears in the background of one of their pictures, showing them that he’s still out there somewhere, selflessly looking out for all of them.
Read More: My Holo Love Review
