The Glory Ending Explained: Not What It Seems

So we entered the final stretch of Zhuang Hanyan’s (Chen Duling) revenge in the Chinese drama The Glory, but our male lead Fu Yunxi (Xin Yunlai) was poisoned. In order to save him, the heroine makes a difficult choice—choosing to let her villain father off the hook. To the main couple’s shippers, this may be totally understandable, but to some, they complain she became too lovestruck in this decision, giving up her carefully planned revenge. Needless to say, her dad gets released, but his last meal with her turned out to be his last meal after all.

Did She Get her Revenge?

There’s poetic justice in how the big bad—who turned out to be the heroine’s father, Zhuang Shiyang—met his own demise at the hands of his concubine Zhou Ruyin, brilliantly played by Wang Yan of My Fair Princess fame. Driven mad by what happened to her son and daughter, she delivers the final blow. And as despicable as he was, this cowardly character who betrayed each and every one of his family members… there’s no denying actor Yu Entai really played the role well.

You gotta love Chen Duling’s expression when she closed the doors on her father—revenge is a dish best served cold, after all. The ending ties up everything in one big, seemingly happy bow. Grandma is still offered her unending meds, but this time, heeding her granddaughter’s words, she says no, realizing the treatment she always needed was for the heart, not the body.

We get one glimpse of Chai Jing (Jinna Fu) on a boat sailing the seas. To the dismay of many Zhuang Hanyan and Chai Jing shippers, it’s very short considering how close they were. As for Fu Yunxi, because the poison was in his body for so long, there’s no telling how much time he has left. But we definitely see that the main couple will cherish every moment they have.

The Final Scene Tells a Different Ending

In the final scenes, Zhuang Hanyan says there’s one more thing she lied to Fu Yunxi about, but he brushes it off, saying it’s not important—since they’re together now. But come on, the viewers want to know what it is?! And then… a night of revelry, fireworks. Everyone is there—Fu Yunxi’s daughter, even Zhou Ruyin, her late son Zhuang Yuchi (Liu Xuwei), and daughter Zhuang Yushan (He Hongshan). It’s a beautiful scene, seeing the ghost of Zhuang Hanyan’s mother (Wen Zhengrong) finally happy with her man (Huang Haibing). But we know half of these people are dead. Symbolic that they get to celebrate as a family now.

Then we pan out to the very last scene of this big reunion—where the dead are on one side, and the living on the other. And it’s very telling that Fu Yunxi is standing with the dead. Turning this seemingly happy ending into a sad ending because it appears he succumbed to the poison after all… CRIES.

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