"The Glory" is a Korean TV series that premiered on Netflix in December 2022 and quickly became one of the most-streamed shows on the platform. The plot of the show develops slowly in a crescendo, with a story of revenge that viewers can easily identify with, and a series of plot twists that connect every character in the show. Part 2 of the show is set to be released in March 2023. In this article, we provide a full recap of Part 1, including an explanation of the ending.
Part 1: A Full Plot Recap
The protagonist of "The Glory" is Moon Dong-Eun, who was heavily bullied when she was a teenager between 2004 and 2006. The bullies were a group of five other students led by the girl Park Yeon-Jin, who is the biggest villain of the series. The other four are the rich boy Jeon Jae-Jun, the aggressive girl Lee Sa-Ra, a more passive girl Choi Hye-Jeong, and the boy who gets his hands dirty with violent acts, Son Myeong-O.
The acts of violence against Dong-Eun are extreme, including severe skin burns that will remain visible for the rest of her life. Dong-Eun evaluates suicide many times, but she eventually dedicates her whole life to getting revenge on all of them.
Dong-Eun becomes a school teacher, with the explicit target of being Yeon-Jin’s daughter’s primary teacher. The bullies have a stable life: Yeon-Jin is married to the wealthy business owner Do-Yeong, and the two have a daughter, Ye-Sol. Jae-Jun is the wealthy owner of his family’s fashion store, and Myeong-O is still his errand boy. Sa-Ra is an artist and a drug addict, while Hye-Jeong is a flight attendant who will get married.
Dong-Eun has many things to do in preparation for her plan. She finds dirt about the school’s chairman, so she can force him to take her as a teacher. While doing so, she makes an alliance with his maidservant, Kang Hyeon-Nam. Dong-Eun also learns how to play the popular abstract game Go with the help of the medical student Joo Yeo-Jeong, who falls in love with her.
Dong-Eun slowly manages to get many allies on her side, including Myeong-O, whom she leverages by revealing that Yoon So-Hee, a previous victim of their bullying, didn't die by suicide, but was killed by Yeon-Jin. Around the end of Part 1, everybody wants to act on Dong-Eun’s side: Hye-Jeong asks to be forgiven, Yeon-Jin’s husband wants to know what happened in the past, and even Jae-Jun tries to find an agreement with Dong-Eun because they have a common objective: destroying Yeon-Jin’s marriage.
In the end, Dong-Eun has finally succeeded in putting her plan into motion. Part 1 ends on a cliffhanger, with the audience left wondering what will happen in Part 2.
"The Glory Part 1" leaves several unanswered questions and open storylines, making viewers eagerly anticipate the second part. Myeong-O's disappearance and whether Yeon-Jin killed him remains a mystery, and Yeon-Jin's husband, Do-Yeong, becomes an ally of Dong-Eun in her quest for revenge against Yeon-Jin.
Viewers wonder if Dong-Eun will resort to violence against Ye-Sol, her biological daughter, and if she will end up living with Jae-Jun, her father. Dong-Eun's goal is to ruin Yeon-Jin's life, but viewers are left to speculate if this means ultimately killing her or letting her live in misery.
The series ends with Dong-Eun's ominous statement to Yeon-Jin, "We are going to die together," indicating that her quest for revenge could end in her own demise. Overall, viewers are left with many questions and eagerly await "The Glory Part 2" to see how the story unfolds.
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