Lee Jia’s traumatic memories resurface in Pandora

by solstices

What if you aren’t the person you always thought you were? tvN’s upcoming revenge thriller Pandora, starring Lee Jia (Penthouse) and Lee Sang-yoon (One the Woman), poses this exact quandary to its heroine. When protagonist Hong Tae-ra (Lee Jia) begins to recover her suppressed memories, she starts to realize that her past may differ greatly from the luxurious life she currently leads.

The drama’s latest teaser shows Tae-ra living the picture-perfect life, receiving adoration at the side of her devoted husband Pyo Jae-hyun (Lee Sang-yoon) and enjoying joyful days with her adorable daughter. However, Tae-ra’s candlelit garden party ends not with dessert, but with a sudden flashback to injured hands and a road accident, punctuated by a barking dog. It isn’t clear what happened, but this could very well be the source of the inexplicable scars on her ear and body.

A sinister voice sneers, “Are you remembering now?” Tae-ra most certainly is — intercut with warm scenes of her loving family are a series of deeply distressing memories. A grueling trek through the forest. An attack, and blood spilling from a person’s lips. A brutal fight, and an explosion. Tae-ra’s wine glass slips from her slackened grasp, mirroring the shattering of her blissful life as it spills across the floor.

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Unsettled by her fragmented memory, Tae-ra hesitantly asks Jae-hyun if he trusts her. Ever the loving husband, he replies that no matter what kind of person she was in the past, he’s always on her side. It’s not an empty claim, and he’s filled with righteous anger on her behalf: “Who on earth made you do something like this?!”

“I’m curious, too,” Tae-ra answers, as we get yet another damning flashback — Tae-ra, facing off with someone clad in the same uniform. She fires her gun, and it hits its mark. Oh no, did someone manipulate her into murder? The very foundation of Tae-ra’s identity has been shaken, and she wonders, “Who made me into Hong Tae-ra?”

Directed by Choi Young-hoon (One the Woman) and written by Hyun Ji-min, Pandora will begin airing on March 11.