Review by: Shamra

Synopsis

What does someone who was tormented in every possible way while in school do? They find glory in planning a revenge that takes years to formulate and leaves nothing left of her fellow tormentors. “The Glory” is full of torment. It is not a series for the faint of heart. Honestly, there were times, in the beginning, I had to hide my face, but if you can handle the gore, it is perfect. It is a story of how the unforgivable acts a person commits can come back and cause havoc because the victims do not forget and the people you hurt can have an impact on the people you care about.

High School

Moon Dong Eun (Song Hye Kyo) is barely a teen when she becomes the victim of high school violence. Wanting someone to protect her, she files a police report against her bully, Park Yeon Jin (Lim Yeon Jin). Instead of being supported, however, she is tormented by Yeon Jin’s group of friends – Jeon Jae Jun, Lee Sa Ra, Choi Hye Jeong, and Son Myeong-O. When Dong Eun goes to the nurse to get some Peroxide and ointment, the nurse sees her burn wounds and asks her who did that to her. Yeon Jin pulls back the curtain and shamelessly says, “I did.” It seems no matter what she tries to do her tormentors, are always one step ahead of her, to the point they even get her address and show up at her house. They force her to dance and burn her with both a curling iron and iron many times. When Dong Eun lists “In-School Violence” as her reason for dropping out, she is threatened and beaten by her teacher to change her reason because the dean is connected to Yeon Jin’s mother. Dong Eun’s mother, who has no maternal instinct, goes to the school and accepts a bribe from Yeon Jin’s mother to withdraw her daughter based on maladjustment and disappears from her life leaving her on her own. 

One day Dong Eun randomly shows up at the gym and asks Yeon Jin about an article she wrote and her dream to be a “wise mother and a wife.” She also notes the dreams of the other members who tormented her – Jeon Jae Jun (Park Sung Hoon) wants to inherit his father’s golf course, Lee Sa Ra (Kim Hieora) wants to be an artist, Choi Hye Jeong (Cha Joo-Young) wants to be a stewardess, and Son Myeong-O (Kim Gun Woo) wants to be filthy rich (she doesn’t say his, but he does). Yeon Jin then says she doesn’t need dreams, because with her wealth, she can buy her dream. She just wants a job that is not too shabby and to get married while she is still young and pretty. Sa ra says that is dumb, and when Yeon Jin asks Dong Eun what her dream is, Dong Eun tells her it is “you”.

After working through the rest of her high school years and getting her GED, Dong Eun enrolls in college to study education. Yeon Jin seems to marry a nice guy (he comes across like her in the beginning, but has character development), Ha Do Yeong. Sa Ra is an artist, Myeong-O is Jae Jun’s “b**ch” (for lack of a better word), and Hye Jeong is a stewardess. Both Yeon Jin and Hye Jeong are sleeping with Jae Jun. Sa Ra and Myeong-O are involved with all kinds of drugs.

Those She Can Trust

Dong Eun is precise in all of her movements and actions as she plans out the details of getting her revenge. One detail she didn’t plan was meeting the doctor, Joo Yeo Jeong (Lee Do Hyun). She meets him when he is a medical intern and she faints, and he ends up in the bed beside her. When she leaves suddenly, he keeps track of her as he is concerned with her chart and her scars. He tracks her down at school one day to give her meds, which will help with her anemia. He sees her staring at the people playing “Go,” and he offers to help her learn how to play. He describes “Go” as an “Intense battle…in silence,” which appeals to her. After several sessions, Dong Eun feels like she is proficient enough and plans on not meeting him again. Despite this, they continue to meet, and Yeo Jeong – after Dong Eun reveals what the people in high school did to her – tells her that he will gladly be her “executioner.”

After everything is said and done, and the revenge is served, Dong Eun stands on the same rooftop as So Hee and appears to want to commit suicide. However, Director Park, Yeo Jeong’s mom, pleads with her to reconsider and save her son. She says that if she ends her life Yeo Jeong will certainly end his, as well. She's there to save her life, in the hopes she can help save her son, and help him escape his hell. Yeo Jeong’s father, the Director of the Hospital, was murdered.  Since then, Yeo Jeong has been living in hell, dreaming of his own revenge. He understands Dong Eun’s need for revenge and that is why he agrees to be her executioner.

Dong Eun also wasn't planning on befriending Yeon Jin’s housekeeper, Kang Hyeon Nam (Yum Hye Ran), but they end up becoming good friends. Hyeon Nam’s husband, Lee Seok Jae (Ryu Seong Hyeon), is abusing her and she wants her daughter to get away and be safe. She agrees to help Dong Eun with her revenge in exchange for killing her husband. Dong Eun not only helps her escape her husband, but she tutors Hyeon Nam’s daughter so that she can get into a better school and sends her daughter abroad.

Yeon Jin discovers that her ex-housekeeper, Hyeon Nam, is helping Dong Eun, and threatens her by using her daughter. Yeon Jin tries to make a deal with her to kill her husband in exchange for doing whatever she wants. Instead, Hyeon-Nam escapes with her daughter and tells Dong Eun.  Hyeon Nam’s daughter gets sent to study in America where she is safe. Hyeon Nam tries to see her at the airport, but Yeon Jin surprises her at her house and prevents her from going.  In addition, she’s been giving Seok Jae money to gamble, but she does not give him any that day, and he comes home to beat Hyeon Nam. What a b***h.

Plotting Revenge

When Dong Eun said she was coming for Yeon Jin, she meant it! She had revenge on her mind from the moment she left the gym, which is masterful. Everything she does has a purpose.

She works hard.  She works in a sweatshop during the day and studies for her GED, and is later accepted to university. She enrolls in a teacher education program and works to become a teacher. As she is training to become a teacher though, she meets Yeo Jeong and that is when she also learns how to play “Go.”

While she is in the academy, she befriends Kang Gil Woo, who is also studying to be an educator. She befriends Gil Woo because he is the son of the teacher who beat her instead of helping her, Mr. Kim. Dong Eun tells Gil Woo the story of what happened to her at school and the role his father played, and Gil Woo murders his dad but makes it look like a suicide.

Dong Eun uses bribery and her educational skills to get a job at Yeon Jin’s daughter’s, Ha Ye Sol’s, school. Yeon Jin is livid when she finds out and paranoid. Dong Eun tells the students that bullying of any kind will not be permitted. As soon as Ye Sol gets home, Yeon Jin asks her if anyone hurt her or punished her by putting something “really hot on her body” – alluding to one of the many ways she bullied/tortured Dong Eun. Ye Sol is appalled, demonstrating the difference in character between her and her mother. It was perfect. The look on Yeon Jin’s face is the look of someone in their own version of hell.

So, at this point, Dong Eun has infiltrated Yeon Jin’s life as her child’s school teacher, but she has also acquired Sa Ra’s drug book (which has her detailed list of dealers and exchanges), as well as Hye Jeong’s phone; she has won the interest of Do Yeong; and Myeong-O is missing after he started investigating Yoon So Hee’s death, Yeon Jin’s first bully victim. Oh, and the huge bombshell is that Ye Sol is actually Jae Jun’s daughter (which I totally saw coming, and I think we can all agree is definitely going to cause chaos in Mrs. Perfect’s life).

Yeon Jin’s Revenge Plan

Yeon Jin implements her own revenge plan. She invites Dong Eun’s mother back with the promise of money. She gets Dong Eun’s mother to start accepting bribes from the other parents at school with the purpose of getting Dong Eun fired. Dong Eun quits her job as a school teacher, and when she goes to confront her mother, her mother sets the apartment on fire. Dong Eun records the footage and uses it to put her mother in a rehabilitation facility. This is important because it goes back to that lack of maternal care that Dong Eun is missing from her life.

Revenge is a dish best served cold

Do Yeong invites Dong Eun to dinner, and when she takes off her coat, he sees all the burn marks on her arms and hands caused by his wife and her friends. He admits that he is not going to leave his wife, but would like to meet Dong Eun again. Yeon Jin confronts Do Yeong about meeting Dong Eun, to which he replies that he knows about her affair with Jae Jun. And when he helps bail Jae Jun out of prison for assaulting a teacher for inappropriate pictures, Do Yeong confronts him with the truth that Ye Sol is his (Jae Jun’s) daughter.

And what happened to Myeong-O??? Yeon Jin and Myeong-O meet at Siesta and he is trying to record her confession about her involvement in So Hee’s death. She pours whiskey all over his phone and offers to buy him a new one. Myeong-O threatens to go to Yeon Jin’s weather station with evidence of her involvement in So Hee’s death. And then “The Glory” becomes gory as she clobbers him with the whiskey bottle until he dies, her dress and green shoes covered in blood…what a way for poor Myeong-O to die.

Sa Ra is going through drug withdrawals. Dong Eun sets her up a surprise at the church where her dad is Pastor and she succumbs to her weakness. She sees Myeong-O’s spirit and remembers giving him head, so she starts masturbating in front of the cross while she is tripping out. It is recorded for all of the parishioners to witness. Sa Ra is arrested.  Meanwhile, a news article is sent out about Weather Forecaster A and School Violence. Dong Eun calls Yeon Jin a murderer and tells her that “Myeong-O” wasn't the first. Yeon Jin arrogantly asks her if she has proof. Wow…what a way to admit to your crimes. Shortly after the story is posted about Yeon-Jin and School Violence, another story is posted about Sa Ra’s art exhibition being used as tax evasion. Their friendship is falling apart.

The police chief who had been covering up all of Yeon Jin’s crimes asks her for money and tells her that Myeong-O’s body hasn’t been buried yet. Minutes later, Yeon Jin receives a call that his body has been discovered. Jae Jun gives a copy of an audio file to Do Yeong.  It contains an audio file of Myeong-O threatening to turn Yeon Jin in for the murder of So Hee.

The police officer investigating Myeong-O’s murder interviews Dong Eun and she asks him if he has investigated Yeon Jin. She tells him to find the lighter from the crime scene, which should contain DNA evidence to prove Yeon Jin was there the night So Hee was murdered.

Do-Yeong gives Yeon Jin a choice – either make amends with So Hee’s mother, admit her wrongdoings, and accept your punishment; or to end their marriage. Yeon Jin claims that she did not kill So Hee; she slipped. She also says that their marriage was over when he started playing “Go” with Dong Eun. The next day, divorce publications are released. Yeon Jin has officially lost her husband.

At the same, as soon as Sa Ra is released from prison, she uploads videos and photos of Yeon Jin in retaliation for her tax evasion story. Yeon Jin has officially lost her reputation in the public eye, and ultimately, her job. Do Yeong takes Ye Sol away, so Yeon Jin has lost her daughter as well.

The final straw occurs when Dong Eun confronts Yeon Jin’s mother about the nametag that she lost when So Hee was murdered. She says that she can help her reach a settlement in her own case with Hyeon Nam's husband (whom she hit jaywalking) and prevent her from going to jail if she releases the name tag as evidence. Yeon Jin sees her mother give her up to save herself – another mother-daughter betrayal, now she can feel the same pain Dong Eun felt every time her mother gave her up for money. 

On the day of Myeong-O’s funeral, Hye Jeong sends Jae Jun a video of a drugged-out Sa Ra giving Myeong-O fellatio. Sa Ra gets livid and stabs Hye Jeong in the throat. She is arrested and Jae Jun walks out after learning that So Hee was also pregnant. (Did he seriously sleep with all of them?) Hye Jeong loses the ability to speak so Jae Jun also leaves. It is reported that Sa Ra is charged with attempted murder, and her father, Pastor Lee Gil Seong, is also charged with embezzlement and tax evasion. Jae Jun goes to see Ye Sol and finds out she has been transferred overseas. He tries to call Do Yeong and can’t get through, but on the way to see Dong Eun, he puts eye drops in his eyes. Those eye drops have been tainted by Hye Jeong with a solution to cause blindness and he ends up in a car accident. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. However, it is actually Do Yeong who pushes him to his final resting place, a vat of cement, before boarding a plane to leave with Ye Sol.

The police receive an anonymous tip and Yeon Jin is arrested after a videotape from Siesta is released.  Siesta’s and Yeon Jin’s assistant, Kim Gyeong Ran, is hiding a secret or two herself.  We learn that she was the gang’s victim after Dong Eun. She was in the shop and heard the commotion of Myeong-O’s murder. She actually caused the final blow to Myeong-O’s head. Dong Eun came to help her afterward and sets the plan in motion to frame Yeon Jin.

Is their glory in Revenge?

Do Yeong asks Dong Eun why she wanted him to leave Yeon Jin. She tells him that it is because he is Yeon Jin’s glory, and she wants her to lose everything she has. Her life stopped when she was tormented and she is just trying to get revenge so she can finally move past it and live again. She truly put her life on hold to get revenge and plan out these details and work through everything she could to be successful. I love that she apologized to Ye-Sol however, for any hurt or impact she may have caused to her. It was right that she did so.

Final verdict: WATCH  

“The Glory” is almost a MUST WATCH, but ultimately falls short.  It is not everyone's cup of tea, and there wasn’t really any romance. Each episode is insane and important to the storyline. It's a story of revenge, but also betrayal and growth. Friends betray each other. Mothers betray their offspring. Lovers betray lovers. Even in the midst of all of this, there is growth. You can see character development in the strong and watch the weak fall. It reminds me of the parable about the wise man who builds his house on a rock, and the foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The foolish fall like dominos, one after another, evident in their actions and words. Greed, lust, envy, sex, desire…all of these things are the downfall of the foolish.  In “The Glory,” they all seem to want to be greater than they truly are. It was interesting, at first because when we were first introduced to Do Yeong, he seemed to fit into the same category. But he redeems himself. He rises above the titles and realizes that setting the best example for Ye Sol is what is most important. One of my favorite lines in this story is when he confronts Yeon Jin and tells her “Ye Sol is mine, even if you aren’t.” I love that he has such a deep love for his daughter. There aren’t really swoon-worthy moments in this drama, but it wasn’t that type of K-drama. Their chemistry wasn’t physical, the way they said “I love you” seemed completely forced, and Dong Eun and Do Yeong would make a better couple, but there was still something strangely intimate about this couple. But while it is not a K-drama for those who like a good romance, if you like drama that leaves you on the edge of your seat, then “The Glory” is an amazing option.

So there it is, our review of “The Glory.”  What did you think?!  Thank you for joining us on this journey. 

Have a favorite K-drama you think we should review, comment down below!!  We look forward to seeing you back again soon!

Up next, “Lovers of the Red Sky”