The Glory is streaming on Netflix in the US right now, all 16 episodes. The English subtitles tell you what the characters say. They do not tell you how they say it, and in this show, how they say it is the whole story. A polite sentence can be a threat, a casual word can be an insult, and a single name spoken without respect can carry 18 years of anger. This guide covers who the characters are, whether there is a twist, which episodes matter most, and the Korean context the subtitles cannot carry.
Is The Glory still on Netflix in the US?
Yes. As of November 8, 2026, The Glory streams on Netflix in the United States, on both the standard Netflix plan and Netflix with Ads, according to Reelgood streaming data updated that day. It is a Netflix Original, so it does not rotate to other US services the way licensed shows do. All 16 episodes are available: Part 1, with eight episodes, was released on December 30, 2022, and Part 2, with eight more, followed on March 10, 2023. The show is finished, with no new season planned.
One practical note before you start: this is a TV-MA revenge drama about school violence, and the first episode is the hardest to watch. The bullying scenes are graphic, including burns that leave permanent scars. If that is a concern, read the next section first so you know the shape of the story before you press play. Spanish subtitles are usually listed for Netflix Originals, but subtitle availability varies by title and region, so check the subtitle menu on the title page before you start.
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Meet the five people the revenge turns on
Moon Dong-eun, played by Song Hye-kyo, is the center of the story. As a high school student in the early 2000s, she was severely bullied by a group of wealthy classmates, and the abuse forced her to drop out and give up her dream of becoming an architect. Eighteen years later she returns as an elementary school teacher, and her new job is the first move in a plan she has built for almost two decades.
Park Yeon-jin, played by Lim Ji-yeon, led the bullying group. She is now a weather presenter, married into wealth, with a young daughter. Her daughter is in Dong-eun’s class, which is not a coincidence. Joo Yeo-jeong, played by Lee Do-hyun, is a plastic surgeon who becomes Dong-eun’s ally, and he has his own reason to understand revenge. Ha Do-yeong, played by Jung Sung-il, is Yeon-jin’s husband, a construction company executive who slowly realizes his marriage is built on things he was never told. Kang Hyeon-nam, played by Yeom Hye-ran, is a housekeeper who helps Dong-eun, and her own story is one of the show’s quietest and strongest threads.
You do not need to memorize anyone else before episode one. The show introduces each person slowly, and part of the pleasure is watching how these five lives connect. The full cast is large, but these five carry the story.
Does The Glory have a plot twist?
Yes, but not in the way most thrillers mean it. There is no single reveal that changes everything. Instead, the revenge unfolds in layers. Dong-eun’s plan has moves inside moves, and people you assume are on one side turn out to be playing their own game. Loyalties shift, and a scene you watched in episode two means something different by episode twelve. The ending reframes the beginning, and that is as specific as this guide will get. Nothing here spoils a plot point, a death, or the final scene.
What makes the twists land is patience. Dong-eun does not rush. She waits years, takes a teaching job, learns her targets’ routines, and lets them damage each other. If you expect fast action, the first episodes may feel slow. The payoff is that when a piece finally moves, you understand exactly why it was placed there years earlier.
Which episodes matter most?
Episode 1 sets up everything: the bullying in the past, the scars Dong-eun still carries, and the first step of her plan. It is the hardest episode to watch, and it is also the one that explains why she cannot simply forgive and move on. Episode 6 contains the scene where Dong-eun shows her burn scars, a moment the whole first half builds toward. Episode 8 closes Part 1 with the plan fully in motion and a confrontation that changes the balance of power.
In Part 2, the episodes from 9 onward are where the plan executes, and the final two episodes resolve the fates of all five main characters. If you are rewatching, pay attention to the scenes between Dong-eun and Ha Do-yeong in the middle episodes. Their conversations look polite on the surface, and they are the scenes where the subtitle problem is at its worst, because the politeness itself is the message.
What the subtitles cannot carry: speech levels and hierarchy
Korean has two broad ways of speaking: formal polite speech, called jondaenmal, and casual speech, called banmal. Who uses which form, and when someone switches, tells you everything about power. The subtitles translate the words, but they cannot show you the switch.
The bullies speak to Dong-eun in casual banmal even though they are the same age, which in Korean is a deliberate insult. It says: you are below me, so I do not owe you respect. Dong-eun, as the victim, answers in polite jondaenmal, which is what the situation seems to require. But as an adult, she keeps using polite speech toward the people she is destroying, and that politeness becomes a weapon. She is perfectly courteous while she takes their lives apart, and the courtesy itself is the threat: I do not need to raise my voice, because I have already won.
The most famous example is a name. When Dong-eun addresses Yeon-jin, the way she says her name, and whether she adds any respectful ending, changes with the power balance between them. English subtitles render it as just “Yeon-jin” every time. In Korean, the difference between saying a name plainly and saying it with respect is the difference between an equal and a subordinate, and the show uses that difference in almost every confrontation.
Two other Korean ideas run under the dialogue. One is han, a deep, unresolved grief and resentment that does not fade with time. Dong-eun’s 18-year plan is han turned into a schedule. The other is nunchi, the ability to read a room and sense what others feel without being told. Dong-eun survives on nunchi: she watches, waits, and notices what her targets miss. The subtitles cannot translate han or nunchi with one English word, so they disappear into ordinary lines about sadness or cleverness.
There is also a Spanish-language version of this same story on our site. La gloria: 5 claves que los subtitulos no muestran covers the same speech-level problem for Spanish-speaking viewers. And if you are planning a trip to Korea after watching, our ORCA card guide for Seattle visitors is a useful reminder that Korean transit cards work the same way at home and abroad: one card, tap, and go.
Why Korea could not look away
The Glory was not just popular in Korea. It became a national conversation. Part 1 climbed to No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English TV chart in early January 2023. Part 2 opened with about 124.5 million viewing hours in its first tracked week and held No. 1 again. In Netflix’s first-half 2023 viewing report, The Glory logged 622.8 million hours viewed, the third highest worldwide in that period. At the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards, it won Best Drama, Best Actress for Song Hye-kyo, and Best Supporting Actress for Lim Ji-yeon.
The reason it hit so hard is that the story is close to real life. Writer Kim Eun-sook has said she started writing after her teenage daughter asked her a jarring question: would she be more heartbroken if her daughter beat someone nearly to death, or if her daughter were beaten nearly to death. Kim researched real school violence cases, including a 2006 case at a girls’ middle school in Cheongju, where three ninth-graders bullied a classmate for 20 days, including burning her with a curling iron, leaving her hospitalized for about six weeks. The curling iron scene in episode one is drawn from that case.
While the show aired, the conversation spilled out of the drama. Several Korean celebrities and athletes were publicly accused of past school violence, and some lost endorsements and careers. Parenting forums, news programs, and even the National Assembly discussed the show’s themes. The debate was not only about bullying itself, but about wealth: whether rich families can shield their children from consequences, and whether schools and teachers look away when the bully’s parents are powerful. In Korea, school violence is called hakpok, and it is treated as a serious social problem, not a rite of passage. Korea passed the Special Act on School Violence Prevention in 2004, after several teenagers died by suicide after being bullied, yet the problem has persisted for decades.
There is also a specifically Korean argument about the show’s ending that English-language reviews rarely mention. Some Korean viewers argued the drama makes revenge look too satisfying, and that it lets the school system itself off the hook by focusing on one victim’s payback instead of institutional reform. Others said the fantasy of revenge is the point: in real life, victims almost never get the apology or the punishment the show delivers. That disagreement is part of why the show stayed in the news for months.
The real Korea behind the story
Three pieces of Korean background make the story land differently once you know them. First, the Korean school system is intensely hierarchical. Age and seniority shape how students speak to each other, and a group of wealthy students can dominate a classroom while teachers stay silent. Dong-eun’s teachers fail her, and the show treats that failure as part of the crime, not as background.
Second, the elementary school setting matters. In Korea, becoming an elementary school teacher is a respected and competitive path, and Dong-eun’s job is not a random cover. It puts her inside the system that failed her, with authority over the child of the person who hurt her. That is why the show’s central image, a teacher standing in front of a classroom, feels so loaded to Korean viewers.
Third, the wealth on screen is not generic rich. Ha Do-yeong’s construction company, Yeon-jin’s weather presenter job, the private apartments and the way money solves problems: all of it points to the chaebol-adjacent world of inherited wealth that Korean viewers recognize instantly. The show’s argument is that this wealth is not just a lifestyle, it is a shield. That is the social context the subtitles never explain.
Where you know the cast and creators from
| Person | Role in The Glory | Other work you may know |
|---|---|---|
| Kim Eun-sook | Writer | Goblin, Descendants of the Sun, Mr. Sunshine, Crash Landing on You |
| Ahn Gil-ho | Director | Stranger, Memories of the Alhambra, Happiness |
| Song Hye-kyo | Moon Dong-eun | Autumn in My Heart, Full House, Descendants of the Sun, Encounter, Dark Nuns (2025 film) |
| Lee Do-hyun | Joo Yeo-jeong | 18 Again, Sweet Home, Youth of May, The Good Bad Mother, Exhuma (2024 film) |
If you only know Kim Eun-sook from romance dramas like Crash Landing on You, The Glory will surprise you. It is her darkest work, and the first time she built a story around revenge rather than romance. Song Hye-kyo’s performance is also a deliberate break from her earlier image: she lost weight for the role, speaks in a flat and controlled register, and lets the character’s anger show in stillness rather than shouting. Lee Do-hyun, who was one of Korea’s fastest-rising young actors when the show aired, plays the rare male lead whose job is to support the heroine’s plan rather than to rescue her from it.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Glory based on a true story?
Not directly. The characters are fictional, but the bullying scenes draw on real Korean school violence cases, most famously the 2006 Cheongju case involving curling iron burns. Writer Kim Eun-sook interviewed real victims while researching the show.
Do I need to watch Part 1 and Part 2 in order?
Yes. Part 2 continues directly from Part 1, and the plan only makes sense in order. Watch all eight episodes of Part 1 first, then Part 2.
Is there a Season 2?
No. The story is complete in 16 episodes, and Netflix has announced no further season. The ending is final, which is part of why the show works: the revenge has a conclusion.
Can I watch The Glory with Spanish subtitles?
Netflix usually lists Spanish subtitles for its Originals, but availability varies by title and region. Open the title page on Netflix and check the subtitle menu before you start. Our Spanish-language companion piece is La gloria: 5 claves que los subtitulos no muestran.
What should I watch next if I liked The Glory?
For the same writer in a different register, try Mr. Sunshine. For the same theme of hidden revenge, try The Good Bad Mother, which also stars Lee Do-hyun. For a lighter Korean show to recover with, our H Mart first-timer guide is a good place to start exploring Korean food in Seattle.
Your 3 next steps
- Open Netflix and confirm The Glory is on your plan, then start with episode 1 and watch the speech, not just the subtitles.
- After episode 8, pause and note which character you trust least, then see how Part 2 changes your answer.
- Read one Korean reaction piece about school violence in Korea to see why the show became a national debate, not just a hit.
Sources: Reelgood streaming data for The Glory, updated Nov 8, 2026; Netflix viewing reports for the first half of 2023; 59th Baeksang Arts Awards results; The Korea Herald reporting on the 2006 Cheongju school violence case; Kim Eun-sook press conference remarks for Part 2. Availability can change, so check Netflix before you watch. Featured image: Seoul skyline, Flickr user 140880057@N04, CC0.
