🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

So, did Moon Dong-eun finally take down Park Yeon-jin? Did Joo Yeo-jeong and Dong-eun end up smooching? Is Ha Do-yeong falling in love with Dong-eun? Who killed Son Myeong-o?! In the first half of slow-burn vengeance K-drama The Glory Season 1, a lot happens. The second half of Season 1 is now streaming, but in case you’re still digesting the first eight episodes, here’s a rundown.

Who are the main characters in The Glory? 

Schoolteacher Dong-eun is the show’s narrator and main character. When we meet her, she’s planning her lifelong revenge against weathercaster and former high school bully Yeon-jin (whose BFFs are Myeong-o, Lee Sa-ra, Choi Hye-jeong and Jeon Jae-jun). Along the way, Dong-eun meets dewy-eyed doctor Yeo-jeong, who’s absolutely obsessed with her. She gets close with Yeon-jin’s handsome, rich husband, Do-yeong. To read more about the cast and characters, check out this guide. 

Why is everyone playing Go? 

Dong-eun learns how to play Go from Yeo-jeong during a series of meetups at a park in Seoul. While it seems Dong-eun might be interested in Yeo-jeong, her real reason for learning the game is to get closer to Do-yeong, who regularly visits a Go club nearby. It works: Do-yeong becomes intrigued by Dong-eun, her talent for the game and her surprising outlook on life — which he initially has no idea is centered around systematically destroying his family.

Go is a two-player game that’s said to have originated in China over 4,000 years ago, and it’s still immensely popular across China, Japan and Korea. It’s often compared to chess: The players use the free spaces on the board with the goal of surrounding their opponent’s pieces, eventually “capturing” the other player. A game of Go ends when neither player can make a move, then scores are tallied up by how many stones have been captured and how many are surrounding another player’s territory. Go is a repeated metaphor in The Glory, as Dong-eun zeroes in on Yeon-jin and everyone she’s close to — her goal is to take down Yeon-jin for good. 

What happened to Myeong-o? 

Dong-eun sends Myeong-o to get a murder confession out of Yeon-jin for killing her former bully victim, Yoon So-hee. Myeong-o gets viciously murdered by an unknown assailant shortly after asking the full crew of bullies to meet him. By the end of Season 1, Part 1, it seems like Yeon-jin is his killer (or perhaps it’s one of several people who love wearing those fancy green heels).

Who dies in The Glory?

Along with Myeong-o, Kim Jong-mun — Dong-eun’s old homeroom teacher — dies from an asthma attack. After Dong-eun hand-delivers Jong-mun a bouquet of lilies as a supposed congratulations for his successful career, she subtly reveals that Jong-mun disbelieved and terrorized her in high school. Jong-mun’s son, Soo-han, shows up just in time to hear all this — and becomes outraged. While his dad is recovering from a lily-induced asthma attack, Soo-han delivers him a roomful of get-well bouquets that exacerbate his asthma, killing him. 

Another one of Yeon-jin’s victims, Yoon So-hee died from a fall while still in high school. While the coroner’s office deemed her death a suicide, her family still isn’t convinced, so her body has been kept in the morgue ever since. Dong-eun was there when So-hee fell to her death all those years ago, and saw that Yeon-jin’s name tag was in So-hee’s hand — making Yeon-jin the likely killer. 

How does The Glory Season 1, Part 1 end? 

Now that Part 2 is out, let’s clear up what’s happened so far. We find out Dong-eun’s long game is to alienate Yeon-jin from her friends and loved ones so she has no one to turn to when Dong-eun ruins her life. So far, she’s done a stellar job: After Dong-eun tells Myeong-o that Yeon-jin was So-hee’s killer, he abandons his so-called friends to work for Dong-eun and solicit Yeon-jin’s confession; Yeon-jin’s husband, Do-yeong, is crushing hard on his new Go pal, Dong-eun; Jae-jun is determined to break up Yeon-jin’s marriage ever since Dong-eun told him Yeon-jin’s daughter, Ye-sol, is his; and by Episode 8, Dong-eun uses her friendship with Hye-jeong’s mother-in-law to get Hye-jeong on her side. Yeon-jin is fuming, scared for her daughter and belligerently upset that Jae-jun and Do-yeong have met up. She’s starting to unravel. 

Which means things are looking up for ol’ Dong-eun. She’s gotten closer with Yeo-jeong, who’s vowed to “be her executioner.” The sweetheart Go player is not only so smitten with her that he’ll do anything, but he’s more than a little messed up after his father (a doctor like him) was killed by a psychopathic patient. Since the killer is in jail, Yeo-jeong has nowhere to direct his anger — he’s outraged when Dong-eun tells him about the abuse she suffered. Unfortunately for Yeo-jeong, his love life with Dong-eun will have to wait until she gets her full revenge. 

Myeong-o has been missing for a while, and at this point Dong-eun assumes he’s been killed and his death covered up — she knows Yeon-jin has influence with some local corrupt cops. Viewers know Myeong-o’s dead, since we saw a glimpse of the murder, but no one knows who the culprit is. Yeon-jin has a suspicious wound on her foot, and we’re led to believe she may have killed Myeong-o herself — but it’s TBD. Dong-eun threatens Hye-jeong into filing a missing persons report for Myeong-o. When their friend group finds out Hye-jeong made the report, they’re all pissed, and Sa-ra goes nuts on Hye-jeong for tattling. Sa-ra is scared the cops will bust her for drugs, since Myeong-o was her supplier. 

It’s assumed at this point that Do-yeong knows Jae-jun is Ye-sol’s biological father, after he made a cryptic comment to Jae-jun while the two were visiting Ye-sol’s class. Do-yeong knows when he sees Dong-eun that day that something’s up — his wife said she hates Ye-sol’s teacher, but Ye-sol says her mom is friends with Dong-eun. As Do-yeong starts doing some investigating on his own, he meets up with Hye-jeong and she spills the beans on Yeon-jin’s horrific bullying. When Do-yeong confronts Yeon-jin about her relationship with Dong-eun, she deflects and refuses to tell him anything. She says it’s best not to know such things. 

Dong-eun finally reveals how she’s going to help her hired amateur sleuth, Kang Hyeon-nam: Dong-eun sends Hyeon-nam’s daughter away to study abroad. That way, she’ll be safe from her father’s abuse. It devastates Hyeon-nam, who never thought agreeing to this would mean losing her daughter. But, as Dong-eun points out, those are the breaks when you agree to a deal that involves killing your husband. 

Yeon-jin does some sleuthing herself and finds out Dong-eun has been living next door to her, watching her every move. Yeon-jin decides to get back at Dong-eun by targeting her mother. She breaks into Dong-eun’s apartment and sees that the walls are plastered with photos of Yeon-jin and the rest of Dong-eun’s bullies. Someone walks in on her in the apartment, and — shocker — it’s not Dong-eun, but Do-yeong. Will he be on her side after finding out Dong-eun’s been trying to slowly ruin his wife’s life? Or will he confront Yeon-jin about her betrayals — the baby that isn’t actually his, her secret bullying, her unfaithfulness? All the answers are revealed in Part 2.