Newsletters
Entertainment
Palmer Haasch
- "The Glory" is a Korean-language revenge drama available to stream on Netflix.
- It stars Song Hye-kyo as Moon Dong-eun, a woman exacting revenge on her high school bullies.
- Here are 15 details that you may have missed in the series.
Advertisement
In the first sequence of the show, as Dong-eun drives to her apartment, there's a shot of the Jaepyeong Construction tower.
Park Yeon-jin's husband, Ha Do-yeong, is the chairman of Jaepyeong.
Both devil's trumpet and angel's trumpet plants, shown on the roof in episode 1, are poisonous.
Dong-eun's landlord shows off some of the plants on the roof of her apartment building towards the beginning of episode one. Both of the flowers that she highlights, devil's trumpet and angel's trumpet, are poisonous. Plants from both the datura and brugmansia genuses, respectively, can bring about hallucinations and, in some cases, death, per the United States Forest Service and North Carolina State University.
Advertisement
A brief montage in episode 1 foreshadows moments that will follow in the show.
After Dong-eun's new landlady breaks an earthenware pot on the roof of her apartment building, there's a brief montage that shows various clips hinting towards other elements of the series.
They include flashes of crime scene tape, a girl falling and her body smashing into glass-like pieces on the ground, torn-out notebook paper, a young Yeon-jin peeking out from behind a nurse's office curtain, a tablet dissolving in water, Dong-eun holding a phone while seen in the reflection of a washing machine, and a man removing his watch.
Some of these are shots from later moments in the episode, such as Dong-eun's homeroom teacher removing his watch to slap her or Yeon-jin ambushing Dong-eun in the nurse's office. Shots of a girl falling seem to reference Yoon So-hee, the girl who Yeon-jin's clique bullied prior to Dong-eun and who Dong-eun asserts that Yeon-jin killed.
Advertisement
In episode 1, Yeon-jin's mother makes a comment that foreshadows her friends' eventual betrayal.
Yeon-jin's mother picks her up from the police station in the first episode, scolding her on the way to a temple.
"The shaman told you to avoid people with O's in their names because they'd bring you bad luck," Yeon-jin's mother tells her. "I'm talking about Son Myeong-o and Choi Hye-jeong."
It's foreshadowing —both Myeong-o and Hye-jeong eventually agree to assist Dong-eun with her revenge plan later in the series. Of course, that's to say nothing of Moon Dong-eun herself being bad news for Yeon-jin.
Advertisement
Dong-eun references Ye-sol's color blindness in episode 1, foreshadowing her parentage.
When she speaks with Ye-sol on the playground in episode 1, Dong-eun questions why Ye-sol likes being upside down while narrating.
"Is it because when the world is upside down, people will understand you even if you can't tell some colors apart?" she asks, before Ye-sol remarks that Dong-eun's green shoes are just like her mother's.
It's an early reference to the trait that Ye-sol shares with her biological father, Jeon Jae-jun, foreshadowing questions about her parentage that arise later in the season.
Dong-eun studies a flash card with the word 'glory' on it in episode 1, referencing the show's title.
While studying at the textile factory, Dong-eun flips through flashcards with both English and Korean translations of words on them. One of those words is "glory," or 영광, seen at the bottom of her second flashcard.
Advertisement
In episode 2, the student that Dong-eun tutors has what seems to be a vintage French poster on the wall.
During a math tutoring session with a presumably wealthy student, there's a poster of a duck wearing a fake mustache on the wall behind Dong-eun and the young man. It bears the text "inimitable Savignac," suggesting that it was created by the 20th-century French poster artist Raymond Savignac. Some of Savignac's posters are sold today for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
There's also a poster of the Eiffel Tower on the wall, as well as a displayed record.
Advertisement
In episode 2, a commercial for Yeon-jin's husband's construction company plays after her newscast.
During the episode, both Yeon-jin's husband Do-yeong and Dong-eun's Go partner, Yeo-jeong, are seen watching Yeon-jin's weather forecast. In the hospital lobby where Yeo-jeong is watching, a commercial for Do-yeong's company Jaepyeong Construction plays after the broadcast.
Earlier in the episode, Yeon-jin asked Do-yeong to place more advertisements on the channel.
Advertisement
In episode 3, Dong-eun gets coffee from the same café where she and Yeo-jeong got drinks from when they played Go together.
Dong-eun is seen going through a car wash and drinking coffee from Gyodae Café, identifiable by the custom cup sleeve on her drink.
In episode 4, Yeon-jin sings the 2000s hit "Two of Us" by Chae Yeon.
While sitting on the stage of the gym, Yeon-jin sings the song "Two of Us" by Chae Yeon, a soloist also known by the name Lee Chae-yeon (not to be confused with the Korean solo artist of the same name who was born in 2000). The song was released in 2004, fitting in with the early 2000s timeline of Dong-eun and Yeon-jin's high school years.
Advertisement
In episode 5, Hyeon-nam mistakenly references "Demian," a Herman Hesse novel that has enduring popularity in South Korea.
Hyeon-nam quotes a novel that she initially calls "Raemian," saying that her daughter was reading it. Dong-eun corrects her on the title: it's actually "Demain," a 1919 novel by Herman Hesse.
The novel itself is popular in South Korea, according to the LA Review of Books, and has been referenced in other popular works such as BTS' 2016 album "Wings."
Yeo-jeong has Dong-eun's name saved affectionately in his phone in episode 5.
Viewers get a peek at Yeo-jeong's phone screen when Dong-eun texts him, sending him into an immediate panic. He has her name saved as Dong! Eun! Hoo! Bae! (동! 은! 후! 배!) in his phone, separated by exclamation points. The term hoobae (후배) is used to reference an underclassman or junior, while the term sunbae (선배) refers to an upperclassman.
Advertisement
In episode 6, Yeo-jeong listens to Yeon-jin on the radio.
While driving to Semyeong, Yeo-jeong listens to Yeon-jin while she appears on a radio program. He also watched Yeon-jin's weather cast in episode 2, showing that he took notice of Dong-eun saying that she watched the segment.
In episode 7, Do-yeong compares Ye-sol to Korean soccer player Son Heung-min.
After a soccer game, Do-yeong tells his daughter that she played "just like Sonny," using a nickname that references Korean soccer player Son Heung-min. Son plays for the Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in the United Kingdom and is the captain of the South Korean national team, which competed recently at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Advertisement
In episode 8, Yeon-jin enters Dong-eun's apartment with her shoes on — just as Dong-eun had imagined.
In episode 1, Dong-eun imagines Yeon-jin entering her apartment in Semyeong and scolds the imaginary Yeon-jin for wearing her shoes in the apartment.
In episode 8, when Yeon-jin breaks into Dong-eun's apartment, she doesn't remove her shoes —just as Dong-eun had predicted. Yeon-jin and her friends also don't remove their shoes when they ambush Dong-eun at her own apartment in episode 1.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
Read next
Advertisement
