WARNING: This post contains spoilers hierarchy
In the opening episode of hierarchyIn Netflix’s new Korean drama about students at an elite private school in South Korea, a former “it” couple from high-teen society jump into separate sports cars and hit the track — that’s what a breakup looks like for teenagers in the Korean world. hierarchyInstead of just texting, he challenges his childhood sweetheart to a dangerous speeding car game.
Well, in theory the stakes are high. In the three-and-a-half minute race scene, Jung JayOur beloved summerMr. Noh Jung-seong and Ms. Kim Ren (King the LandCharacters like Kim Jae-won from The Strangers are never really in danger, even though they’re only seen being driven to and from work by a faceless chauffeur outside of this scene. On the race track and elsewhere, the super-privileged characters are untouchable.
Jay and Lian are the two richest students at Jushin Academy, a fictional high school that educates South Korea’s 1% and some scholarship students. “Inspired” by the school’s Latin motto, Noblesse obligeSchool leaders admit a small number of promising students from poor families each year.A crash course in romanceOne such kid is Lee Chae-min from The Guardian. When we meet Kang-ha in episode 1, he’s a new student at the school, seemingly unaware of the school’s not-so-subtle hierarchy, even as other students try to teach him with their words and their fists. But the more we get to know him, the more it quickly becomes clear that Kang-ha isn’t as naive as he seems.
In fact, Kang Ha is at Jushin Academy seeking revenge and justice for his fraternal twin brother, In-hwan. A few months ago, In-hwan was also a scholarship student at the school. He was killed in a hit-and-run accident after being brutally bullied. Kang Ha eventually confesses to Jae-yi, but he has come to Jushin to find out what happened the night In-hwan died and hold the conspirators accountable.
In-han’s suspicious death isn’t the only secret shrouded in Jushin. Over the course of seven episodes, Kang-ha uncovers a web of surveillance, intimidation and systematic corruption that began long before his brother came to the academy. gossip girl and The Heirs before that, hierarchy It introduces viewers to a world where teenage relationships are treated as an extension of parents’ business dealings, and where a high school scandal can upend not just a school but an entire company.
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Who killed Kanha’s brother?
We know from the beginning hierarchy We knew that In-hwan was hit and killed by a car in a dark alleyway in Seoul, but it wasn’t until the season finale that we found out who was driving the car: Ji-soo (Lee Jin-hong), one of the teachers at Jushin Academy, was sleeping with one of his teenage students, Woo-jin (Lee Won-jong). When a bruised and bruised In-hwan stumbles upon the two making out in a hallway while trying to escape some bullies, Ji-soo chases him, first on foot and later in Woo-jin’s family’s car.
Ji-soo is dying to talk to In-hwan, but In-hwan just wants to get away. Ever since he enrolled at Jushin Academy, he has been subjected to violence from other students and has been targeted for befriending Jae-yi, who is only a scholarship student. Now the teacher whose duty it is to protect him is chasing him. Distraught, he calls his brother. The moment the call connects, In-hwan jumps in front of Ji-soo’s speeding car and is hit by it. Instead of calling an ambulance, Ji-soo grabs In-hwan’s cell phone and the camera pen that had been recording all night containing evidence of Ji-soo’s affair and the car accident. She leaves her student to die.
The camera, pen, and cell phone are later found in Woo-jin’s car and given to him. Inspired by Jae-yi’s efforts to hold the system responsible for In-ha’s death, Woo-jin gives In-ha’s pen and cell phone to Jae-yi, who gives them to Kang-ha, who gives them to the police.
how hierarchy end?
Will Kang-ha get revenge? It’s a complicated question. After Kang-ha submits incriminating video evidence to the police, the students who beat him on the night Ji-soo and In-hwan died are arrested. But the show’s central theme of revenge is undermined by its treatment of Jay and its portrayal of institutional privilege. While Kang-ha rightly holds Li-an accountable for In-hwan’s death (and gets her to apologize), as part of the violent system that led to it, he doesn’t do so for Jay. Instead, he falls in love with her.
In general, the show treats Jay as more of a victim of this world, rather than an active and powerful participant in it. hierarchy The school wants us to believe that Kanha’s presence at the school has helped Jay and Lian learn to accept responsibility, but if the death of a classmate didn’t shake their worldview, it’s hard to imagine Kanha’s presence will. hierarchy It ends with the message that systemic inequality is okay as long as those in power don’t get away with blatant bullying or murder.
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What will happen to Kanha?
hierarchy Not much time is spent on who Kang-ha really is and what his brother meant to him. We’re told he loved In-hwan, but we only see the two of them together in occasional flashbacks. Emotionally, we don’t understand what Kang-ha has lost by losing his brother.
instead, hierarchy The film focuses on its four central rich kids, Liang, Jae-i, Hae-ra, and Woo-jin. It prioritizes the world of the rich over that of the scholarship kids. With so little of what world Kang-ha, In-hwan, and the other scholarship kids come from, In-hwan’s death feels even more devalued. It’s a moral lesson for these rich teens, rather than a tragedy that actually resulted in a human death. And in the end, this is a tragedy caused by someone outside the rich kids’ social circle: a teacher who can only afford a luxury handbag when a cheating student decides to gift herself one.
In the end, Jushin Academy is still thriving, even though a new principal has taken over as headmaster. Presumably, the new principal is also in the pocket of Lian’s mother. That gives a certain futility to much of what happened in season 1. This futility isn’t treated as anxiety or worry, but rather full of possibility. The show ends with Hae-ra and Kang-ha eating toast at a Korean food stall, implying that the two worlds, that of the wealthy and that of everyone else, have been reconciled. But they haven’t.
Who is recording the students at Jushin Academy?
It may seem convenient that Ji-soo’s crimes are so neatly documented, but most of what goes on around the students at Jushin Academy is recorded. With Lian’s chaebol mother funding the school, Jushin’s Principal Park uses the students’ mobile phones to monitor everything that happens there, sending relevant information about Lian back to her mother. It’s implied that Principal Park has access to literally everything the students record on their devices and upload to the “cloud.” He also has access to Principal Park’s teenage son, Juwon, who regularly sneaks into her office to steal digital files. Juwon, a scholarship student himself, prides himself on keeping a low profile and keeping an eye on the other students from the shadows.
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Who is threatening Jay?
In the first episode, Jae-yi returns to Jushin Academy after a mysterious three-month trip to the US, where she soon breaks up with longtime girlfriend Li-an (over a physics-defying car race) and begins dating Kang-ha, seemingly using her powers to protect him from bullies.
Although all evidence points to her being directly involved in Inan’s death, this is not the case: they were friends and she feels responsible for not trying more to keep him safe, but she did not kill him.
It is later revealed that Jay is being blackmailed. Jay’s awful brother recorded a video of Jay and Lian having sex at the family’s beach house, and Joo-won got hold of it from his mother’s security camera. Joo-won hates how Joo-shin Academy has changed his mother, and uses it to get Jay in trouble. He doesn’t seem to want Jay to do anything, he just wants to make Jay suffer before he finally ruins Jay’s life. We later find out that Jay was pregnant with Lian’s child before she went to America to have an abortion. She didn’t have an abortion, but later miscarried. She broke up with Lian in part because she didn’t want him to be sad either. But he ends up finding out.
Li-an finds out about the video and gets her subordinates to appear in it to stop it from being leaked, while Kang-ha, who has a crush on Jae-yi, also stops Joo-won from sharing the video.
In the end, Jay learns to live with the grief of her miscarriage and her role as a bystander to Inan’s bullying, and thus she finds the courage to escape the abuse. She fell into her father’s hands. She is a very passive character in most scenes, hierarchyIn In Love With Her, the series ends Jay on a good note: she breaks up with Leanne, but before that tells her the truth: she wants more than anything for him to be happy, to overcome their mutual dependence, and that they are still young and likely to find their way to each other again.
She also confesses to Kang-ha that she has feelings for him too. Before Jae-i leaves town, Kang-ha runs around town to see her one last time. He embraces her and tells her that he came to Ju-shin to do justice for his brother, but fell in love with her along the way.
“I just wanted to be with you,” Kang-ha says, but laments that he couldn’t be with her while achieving his own goals. Their relationship never felt particularly worthwhile, but it makes for an even more poignant moment when, before getting into his car, Jae-i calmly says, “That day. Do you remember the last question I asked you?” [If I ever had feelings for you.] “You were right. I lied to you.”
But ultimately, Jay’s happy ending is one she chose. She finds her biological mother, cast away by her father years ago. After fearing as a child that she would “disappear” like her mother, Jay finally finds a promise of love and safety there, a world far different from the fear and shame her father imposed in the name of family. “Mom,” Jay says with a smile in the show’s final moments.
do you have? hierarchy Season 2?
Until recently, it was almost unheard of for a Korean drama to have a second season, as the format was designed for a one-off viewing, but with the influx of US-based streaming services such as Netflix into the Korean TV landscape, second seasons are becoming more common. Sweet Home, Hospital Playlistand Yumi’s Cells These are just a few examples of recent Korean dramas that have lasted for multiple seasons. And of course, Squid Game A second season is expected to air later this year.
There has been no official announcement, but hierarchy Things seem especially geared up for season 2. A new principal is installed at Jushin School, where familiar faces like Lian, Hae-ra, Woo-jin, Kang-ha and many others still attend. And in a post-credits scene, a murder seems to be in the works: During class, a student is found bleeding to death on the classroom floor. As shocked and terrified students rush into the classroom, Lian receives an anonymous message: “Kim Lian, you seem upset.” And here we go again…