Writer Kim Eun Sook is back after a two-year break since her highly successful last drama, “The King: Eternal Monarch,” and with an entirely different vibe than we’ve ever seen from her before. After superhit romance dramas like “Secret Garden,” “The Heirs,” and “Descendants of the Sun,” to see an R-rated revenge thriller come from this same mind is equal parts shocking and intriguing. Although it follows the well-oiled trope of bullying within the Korean entertainment industry, we’re ready to give it a try for the people involved. Song Hye Kyo moves from a slow-burn romantic lead to vengeance herself in her new role as Moon Dong-Eun, and we’re absolutely thrilled to see it. The ‘Bold Style’ most definitely looks good on her, and we’re ready to dive deep into “The Glory.”
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 1: Recap | The Devil’s Trumpet
Episode one of “The Glory” begins with Moon Dong-Eun moving into what looks to be a very expensive and luxurious home. The title credits roll in as we see flashes of past melancholy events that transition into the present day. Dong-Eun looks to have some terrible burn marks on her shoulder and arms while she staples images of a group of people and narrates a message to a person named Yeon-Jin, who we can presume is her high school bully. In Dong-Eun’s imagination, Yeon-Jin walks into the room and figures out her plot, but Dong-Eun manages to hit her hard and pin her to the floor, telling her that she will kill her. We are then taken into a flashback of the Summer of 2004 when Dong-Eun is brutally bruised on her face and is at a police station. When her homeroom teacher arrives, he mistreats her and questions her for taking a bullying matter to the authorities. Yeon-Jin is the rich brat of the lot and has a posse of four, including Sa-Ra, Hye-Jeong, Jae-Jun, and Myeong-O, who have all been bullying Dong-Eun. Considering she took them to the police station, they decided to punish her terribly and burn her with Yeon-Jin’s straightening iron. In the present day, Dong-Eun meets with Yeon-Jin’s daughter, Ha Ye-sol, and speaks to her cryptically. It seems there is no limit to the torture of the poor by the rich, and in another flashback, we see the gang continue to commit their atrocious crimes against Dong-Eun to the point that she tries to commit suicide. She decides to drop out and, in her reasoning, writes down the names of the five kids who bullied her, but to no avail. Her teacher, who beats her violently (because this reasoning would get him in trouble with the principal), goes on to convince her unbothered mother that she’s been thrown out for “maladjustment” and, with the help of Yeon-Jin’s mother, gives her a fat bundle of cash as settlement. Dong-Eun is left alone to fend for herself and starts to work at a small corner restaurant. As she works diligently for two years, on a truly sad day, she feels the need to end things again, but later visits the school and tells Yeon-Jin that her future will be the thought of Yeon-Jin only (using the phrase ‘you will be my dream’). We see her working hard at a textile factory and, in a couple of years, passing the collegiate entrance exam. The episode ends by inducing terrible fear within us for the young girl Ye-sol, whom Dong-Eun vows to “burn” an eye for an eye.
Episode 2: Recap | A Game Of Go
Sa-Ra is a marijuana addict and is supplied by Myeong-O, who does the dirty laundry for Jae-Jun even as an adult. It seems they’ve all achieved their dreams in 2012. Yeon-Jin is set to be married even while having sexual relations with Jae-Jun, and Hye-jong is an air hostess, just as she had hoped. Dong-Eun’s only friend from the textile factory, Seong-hui, tries unsuccessfully to convince Dong-Eun to stop with her revenge plot line as people move on with their lives, and she should too. We see Dong-Eun try to learn the game of Go through books. At her tutoring session, her rich student verbally harassed her, but she has his mother on call so as to get him in trouble and exploit them for more money. She then faints due to her anemia and is taken to the hospital. At the hospital, she meets a young man, Joo Yeo-Jeong, who immediately falls for her and decides to keep an eye on her as she is quite sick. With that excuse, he is able to converse with her, and Dong-Eun agrees to learn the game of Go from him. Yeon-Jin and Jae-Jun still think they’re gods because of the wealth they carry, and they mistreat anyone below them. Dong-Eun attends Yeon-Jin’s marriage and continues to observe the five of them. Hye-Jeong, who used to be the errand girl, is still oppressed by Yeon-Jin and Sa-Ra, and she seems to keep their company only for a higher status herself. Dong-Eun visits Jae-Jun’s store and meets Myeong-O there. He tells her the store is his own, and she can just take the shoes she’s tried on as a gift. Dong-Eun uses this “coincidence” to convey to Myeong-O that she has found some evidence against Jae-Jun’s inheritance. She is later seen chatting suspiciously with a senior of hers at college, and it turns out he’s the son of the teacher who beat her up. The episode ends with Dong-Eun having a little chat with a housekeeper at “The Chairman’s” house.
‘The Glory’ Episode 2: Ending Explained – What Is Dong-Eun Planning To Do?
Dong-Eun’s first steps towards her revenge are to get Hye-Jeong and Myeong-O on her side to execute her vicious plans correctly. She definitely has plans for these two too, but it seems they will be the scapegoats, to begin with, and she will use their oppression against Yeon-Jin and Jae-Jun. The Chairman’s housekeeper seems to be physically abused by her husband, and she requests that Dong-Eun allow her to join her team. She also wants Dong-Eun to kill her husband, and even though she doesn’t know what Dong-Eun is doing with the papers that the Chairman is shredding, she wants her to succeed somehow. We don’t know what step Dong-Eun will take, but considering the housekeeper is mistreated just as she was, and Dong-Eun could have an insider in the house she may end up helping her. Dong-Eun’s scars are always itching, and until she manages to get her revenge, they will continue to do so. “The Glory” is much more fast-paced and scandalous than one could expect from a Song Hye Kyo show, and it makes us very excited to see what’s next! Do you think she will harm Yeon-Jin’s daughter? Let’s find out in the next episode of “The Glory.”
