Moon Dong-eun believed in “an eye for an eye,” and the desire to seek revenge kept her alive. “The Glory” focuses on her revenge journey and her unforgettable past. When it came to her childhood, all Moon Dong-eun remembered was the pain she experienced due to the unending torture inflicted upon her by a group of bullies. Initially, she refused to bow down and lodged a complaint with the police, but eventually, she realized that the authorities would never take action against them because of their influential backgrounds. At one point, all she could think of was death, but later on, she obsessively dreamed of the sweet taste of vengeance.
Directed by Ahn Gil-ho and written by Kim Eun-sook, “The Glory” is a Korean drama series centered around a woman in her mid-thirties who is determined to punish those who wronged her. Even with a few over-dramatic clichés, “The Glory” manages to keep the interest going all through the eight episodes in part one.
Spoilers Ahead
‘The Glory’ Plot Summary: What Is The Series About?
Park Yeon-jin did not blink an eye while asking her friends to check the temperature of her heating iron on Dong-eun’s body. She was evil, and she did not regret a word she said. She and her friends punished Dong-eun for daring to speak up against the bullying. Dong-eun’s body was left with burn scars. While the entire school knew about how she was tortured by the notorious gang, they remained silent. Park Yeon-jin’s family was influential, and she was aware of how she could escape from any difficult situations. She enjoyed watching her victims whimper and beg for mercy. Bullying gave her a sense of control and power. While Park Yeon-jin was the group’s unspoken leader, the others lacked empathy as well. They, too, were either rich or aspired to be wealthy individuals and chose the company of those who could help them achieve their goals. Therefore, when Moon Dong-eun planned on seeking revenge, she did not intend to ruin just Park Yeon-jin’s life but the lives of all the group members, along with the educator who dared to slap her in the face for protesting against the injustice.
Dong-eun and Joo Yeo-Jeong were destined to meet from the moment she entered college. While they had always been around each other, they formally met when they both ended up in the hospital. Dong-eun passed out on the road, while Yeo-Jeong was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Dong-eun was desperate to leave the hospital, but Yeo-Jeong, being a medical intern, offered to help her before she left. He noticed the burn scars on her hand and later learned that she was anemic. From the moment Yeo-Jeong laid eyes on her, he was attracted to her mysterious personality. He brought her the prescription, and they both bonded over their interest in the game of Go. He started tutoring her, and all their time was spent playing Go under a tree. Yeo-jeong struggled to get over these memories when Dong-eun stopped meeting him after clearing the National Teacher Qualification Examination. But in the most unexpected ways, destiny always brought them together. Dong-eun had always known she shouldn’t waste her time falling in love, but she couldn’t help but be drawn to Yeo-Jeong. The distance was a necessary choice, but had her life been different, falling in love with him would have come naturally to her.
Seeking revenge was not an impulsive decision for Moon Dong-eun. She had been thinking about and planning it for nearly twenty years. She knew what every member of the group was up to, and she intended to only take action when she had enough knowledge and proof to bring them down. She was aware that the people she was dealing with were dangerous and could go to any extent to stop her, which is why she could not afford to have any loopholes in her plan. The more she studied the members, she found a heap of controversial, image-tarnishing truths. All she had to do was use them at the right time and in the right place.
Who Were The Bullies? How Did Dong-Eun Plan To Deal With Them?
Park Yeon-jin had always dreamed of becoming a wife and a mother. She believed that she had it all and that finding love and giving birth were the only things she could not buy with money. Dong-eun knew about her dreams, and she waited for her to achieve them. Park Yeon-jin had also managed to become a weather reporter, though she was considered completely incompetent by her colleagues. She managed to retain her position only because her husband made enormous donations to the channel. While her life with her husband and daughter seemed perfect, Dong-eun wanted to dig deep and find her dirty secrets. Meanwhile, she also focused on how to enter the school where her daughter studied. She rented an apartment next to Park Yeon-jin’s house and regularly collected their garbage, hoping to come across any important documents. To her surprise, she came across the discarded testament of the will of Kim Shin-tae, Yeon-jin’s father-in-law. According to the document, his son, Cho Su-hyeon, would not get the sole inheritance of every property. An individual named Jo Soo-Hyeon would also receive a share of his wealth. After digging further into the dirt, she realized that Jo Soo-Hyeon was Kim Shin-tae’s secret lover. She used this information to persuade Kim Shin-tae, the chairman of Semyeong Elementary School, to hire her as a teacher for first-grade class two. She was offered the job, and she could now be in constant contact with Yeon-jin’s daughter, Ha Ye-Sol.
Apart from Park Yeon-jin, she also had her eyes on Son Myeong-oh. He was the group’s loser and was used to doing all of the dirty work for the other members in exchange for money. Even though he wanted to believe that he was living a good life, he knew that he was living at the mercy of his wealthy friends, particularly Jeon Jae-joon. Dong-eun used his insecurity to convince him to help her, and in return, she would find him a way to earn money that could completely change his life. Even though he had to betray his childhood friends, Myeong-oh did not care. All he could think about was the money he would make in the process. Though for Dong-eun, it was a simple plan—she intended to use Myeong-oh as long as he would deem him useful, after which she would end his life.
Lee Sa-ra was an artist and a drug addict. It was easy for Dong-eun to manipulate her. She simply had to stop her drug supply to push her over the edge. She threatened Sa-ra to fill a bag with cash only, after which she would be given the drug she was on. Jeon Jae-joon was the owner of a golf course and lived a lavish life. But Dong-eun planned to ruin his reputation by bringing up a past he was initially unaware of. Choi Hye-jeong did not belong to an affluent family like the rest; therefore, she was often ridiculed and laughed at. She was even told that had Dong-eun not existed, they would have bullied her instead. She was an air hostess, and she pretended to be wealthy on social media by posing with the bags and clothes of her friends. Hye-jeong was always on her phone, and it was expected that she kept all her secrets there. By taking her phone and going through her pictures, Dong-eun came across an unexpected truth.
How Did Kang Hyeon-Nam Help Dong-Eun?
Kang Hyeon-Nam worked as a helper at Park Yeon-jin’s house, and she noticed Dong-eun steal garbage from their house every night. One night, when Dong-eun was looking for the trash, Hyeon-Nam confronted her. She admitted to taking pictures of Dong-eun to prove her guilt, but she was ready to let it go if Dong-eun agreed to help her. Hyeon-Nam believed that she would succeed in her mission, and she wanted to be on her side. She offered to help her, and in return, she expected a favor from Dong-eun. Hyeon-Nam was repeatedly abused by her husband, and Dong-eun agreed to help her with her situation. Hyeon-Nam was assigned the task of following all the members of the gang and taking their pictures and videos. To perform her task, Hyeon-Nam had to learn to drive a car, and later she even learned the basics of photography. In the process of working for Dong-eun, she became confident and independent. While Dong-eun tried to keep their relationship professional, there were times when she couldn’t help but laugh with her. She did not wish to become emotionally attached, but she could not help but care for Hyeon-Nam. They both suffered extreme physical pain, but Hyeon-Nam refused to be bitter; she always had a smile on her face.
Dong-eun came across an unexpected secret in the pictures taken by Hyeon-Nam of Yeon-jin and her daughter, Ha Ye-sol. She noticed that Yeon-jin had taken her doctor to an eye clinic that specializes in color blindness. She remembered that Jeon Jae-joon was colorblind and would often get into fights when people poked fun at him. It became evident that Ha Ye-sol was not the daughter of Ha Do-yeong but of Jae-joon. With the help of Myeong-oh, Dong-eun gathered samples of Jae-joon’s hair and confirmed that he, indeed, was Ha Ye-sol’s father. This revelation could ruin Yeon-jin’s reputation and also take away all the privileges she enjoyed. To make matters further interesting, Jae-joon was sent an anonymous letter indicating that he had some connection with Ha Ye-sol. Meanwhile, she also had information on the person who pushed another victim of the gang—Yoon So-he. The body remained in the mortuary because her parents refused to give up on the case. She shared the name of the person who pushed her with Myeong-oh in exchange for his help. Since the case was still open, he could now threaten the person responsible for her death and earn money, just like Dong-eun had promised. Dong-eun also grabbed the attention of Yeon-jin’s husband, Ha Do-yeong. He enjoyed playing Go, and when he noticed how passionate Dong-eun was about the game, he could not stop thinking about her. Her mysteriousness enticed him, and he wanted to know more about her. It was all part of Dong-eun’s plan; she wanted to be seen with him and take pictures to threaten him later. Hyeon-Nam helped Dong-eun by stealing Hye-jeong’s phone. After unlocking her phone, it is revealed that Hye-jeong, too, had a secret relationship with Jae-joon. Therefore, not only will Yeon-jin lose her husband if the truth comes out, but she will not even have a trustworthy boyfriend to seek support from.
‘The Glory’ Part 1: Ending Explained – Why Did Yeo-Jeong Seek Revenge? What Happened to Yoon So-He’s Body?
Dong-eun was emotionally invested in Yeo-jeong, but she chose to never express her true feelings. She believed that instead of a lover, she needed an executioner to help her end the lives of those who had destroyed her. She chose to share her past with him and let him decide whether or not to join her on her journey. While initially, he disagreed with her methods, when she showed him her wounds and bruises, he realized that whatever she aimed to do was a form of justice that he could not ignore. He showed his support and declared himself to be her executioner if need be. What Dong-eun had gone through was inhuman, and therefore, the fact that she wanted to punish the perpetrators most brutally made sense to Yeo-jeong. It was not just a fight for an individual’s justice but for all those who were victims of bullying. Yeo-jeong knew what it was to live with anger, and he, too, at one point, thought only of seeking revenge. After meeting Dong-eun, he could reconnect with his lost desire for revenge, and he decided to discontinue his therapy sessions. His father was brutally murdered by a serial killer patient, and he wanted to kill the man. He dreamed of piercing a knife into the murderer’s body, and he longed for that day to come. The killer would often write triggering letters to Yeo-jeong, and that mentally destroyed him.
While Myeong-oh had expected his life to change for the better now that he had a crucial piece of information, it remains unknown what exactly happened to him. He had booked a one-way ticket to Russia and was quite excited to leave the mess, but as it turned out, he neither left the country nor reached his destination. We later get to see someone wearing the green heels leave the room where Myeong-oh was found on the ground, lying dead. The shoes belonged to Yeon-jin; therefore, it is obvious that she was behind his death. It seems that Myeong-oh had blackmailed her and demanded money to keep her involvement in the death of Yoon So-he a secret. But Yeon-jin decided to end his life, fearing the consequences. Her contact with the police and the local thugs helped her get away with the murder, and the body remained undiscovered till the end of “The Glory” Part 1. When Yeo-jeong visited the morgue, he learned that So-he’s body was missing. Clearly, Yeon-jin used her family’s influence to convince So-he’s family to retract the case.
Meanwhile, after receiving the pictures sent by Dong-eun, Ha Do-yeong began studying the reason behind the mild threat. He noticed how Yeon-jin and Jae-joon smoked the same brand of cigarettes, and he started to doubt the relationship his wife shared with her school friend. Not only that, but he also wondered about the reason behind Myeong-oh’s disappearance. He realized that Yeon-jin despised Ye-sol’s homeroom teacher. And the fact that she went to the same school as Yeon-jin made him doubt her all the more. When he went to Ye-sol’s school, he realized that the girl he played Go with was his daughter’s teacher. He also came across Jae-joon there. Jae-joon had recently learned that Ye-sol was his daughter, and he was desperate to become her legal father. He pledged to protect her from all harm, and he threatened Dong-eun to stay away from Ye-sol. Dong-eun clarified that she was the one who had sent him the mail that confirmed his relationship with Ye-sol. She explained that it would be beneficial for Jae-joon to be by her side and let Park Yeon-jin face her fate. Do-yeong noticed Jae-joon’s strange behavior around him, giving him further reason to doubt the past Yeon-jin was hiding. He questioned Hye-jeong, and she, without any hesitation, narrated how Dong-eun had been tortured and bullied in the past. Clearly, there was an elaborate conspiracy behind it all, and Do-yeong was determined to find the truth. He contacts Dong-eun and meets her at Go Park. She confirmed that she was the one who had sent him their pictures together. She was heavily relying on his influence to execute the next step of her plan. Meanwhile, Yeon-jin found Dong-eun’s apartment and observed the pictures she had pasted on the walls. She regretted not killing Dong-eun the way she killed So-he. As she was going through the room, Do-yeong entered. We do not know how Dong-eun intends to use Do-yeong for the next step of her plan, but it seems like the husband and wife have a lot to discuss. Dong-eun’s entire plan is to isolate Yeon-jin from her friends and family and destroy her completely.
What To Expect From ‘The Glory’ Part 2?
Part 2 of “The Glory” will further shed light on how Dong-eun will use the secrets she collected to completely break Yeon-jin and her friends. The fact that she will eventually wear green heels indicates that she will take over Yeon-jin. The relationship between Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong will surely be explored, and we might get to see a wider range of emotions from both characters. The rage that the two have harbored within themselves will eventually destroy them. Their lives had never been normal, and somehow revenge seemed to be the answer for them when they imagined a stable future. With multiple questions to answer and the entire revenge plan to unfold, “The Glory” part 2 has the potential to be an entertaining watch.
See More: ‘The Glory’ Part 2: Theories: How Will Dong Eun Get Her Revenge?
