The Glory part 2’s brutal ending takes no prisoners

polygon.com:

The Glory concluded its epic, 16-episode tale of revenge on Friday when Netflix dropped the second half of the Korean drama. The story follows Moon Dong-eun (Song Hye-kyo) as she sets into motion an elaborate plan to enact revenge against the five classmates who severely bullied her as a teenager. It’s a simple plot, elevated by devastating performances, masterful writing, stunning direction, and epic music. And it’s anchored by a central, driving question: Will Dong-eun succeed in getting her revenge — and should she? The final episodes definitely give a clear answer to those questions, while throwing in some unexpected twists in the process (and even teasing a possible season 2).

[Ed. note: As you might expect, this article contains major spoilers for the gruesome ending of The Glory.]

At the heart of The Glory is the dynamic between Dong-eun and Park Yeon-jin (Lim Ji-yeon). Yeon-jin has always been Dong-eun’s main target, as she was the ringleader in brutally bullying Dong-eun and others in high school. The voice-overs we hear throughout the series are framed both as Dong-eun’s inner monologue and as letters to Park Yeon-jin. These are not missives that Dong-eun ever intends to send to Yeon-jin — that would give Yeon-jin power over Dong-eun in a way Dong-eun never intends to allow again. Rather, the letters to Yeon-jin are a manifestation of Dong-eun’s hyperfocus on bringing Yeon-jin to justice, to the exclusion of all else in her life.

In the end, Dong-eun uses Yeon-jin’s own crimes and cruelty to cause her abuser’s downfall. Dong-eun ensures that Yeon-jin is tied to two deaths in which she played a major role. First, the death of Yoon So-hee (played by Single’s Inferno contestant Lee So-yi), one of Yeon-jin’s other