TIME 这篇文章从《挑情丑闻》结局切入，但真正讨论的并不只是“谁和谁在一起”。这篇 TIME 的文章对《挑情丑闻》结局解析其实提供了一个更深的视角：人物为什么一步步走向这样的结局？欲望、阶级和权力又是怎样推动悲剧发生的？
作为一篇外刊精读材料，它也很适合用来积累影视评论英语，尤其是描述人物动机、权力关系和悲剧走向的地道表达。
✅ 完整外刊精读笔记
想继续看这篇文章的重点词汇、地道表达与拓展讲解，可以关注公众号 「英语小秋秋」，查看完整版精读笔记
来源｜ TIME · Kayti Burt · Sep 19, 2026
Breaking Down the Devastating Ending of The Scandal
拆解《The Scandal》令人心碎的大结局
It’s not easy to adapt a classic novel across cultures, but The Scandal does it beautifully. Like The Handmaiden before it, the Netflix series transposes a story originally set in the Western world—in this case, the frequently adapted 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses—into the setting of 18th century Joseon. Under Jung Ji-woo’s masterful direction, the story of two aristocrats who toy with the lives of others for fun moves seamlessly into the rigid, Confucian society of the East Asian kingdom.
译文｜跨越文化去改编一部经典小说并不容易，但《The Scandal》完成得相当漂亮。和此前的《小姐》一样，这部 Netflix 剧集把一个原本发生在西方世界的故事——这里指的是那部被多次改编的 1782 年法国小说《危险关系》——移植到了18 世纪的朝鲜王朝。在郑址宇娴熟的执导下，两个贵族以玩弄他人人生为乐的故事，自然而然地嵌入了这个等级森严、深受儒家规范约束的东亚社会。
There, Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You, Decision to Leave) stars as Lady Cho Yun, a deeply intelligent woman whose potential is hindered by her sex. Bored within the limitations placed on her, Lady Cho suggests a game with her cousin Cho-won, a writer and consummate libertine. If Cho is able to seduce An Hui-yeon, the widow who vows to remain chaste following the death of the husband she never met, then Cho will sleep with Cho-won after years of denying him. However, if he fails to do so, then he must impregnate So-ok, the aspiring concubine of Lady Cho’s husband, Lord Yoo.
译文｜剧中，孙艺珍饰演赵氏夫人尹。她极其聪明，却因为女性身份而处处受限、才华难以施展。长期被困在这些限制中，她感到百无聊赖，于是向表亲赵元提出一场游戏。赵元既是作家，也是个彻头彻尾的浪荡子。如果赵元能够引诱安熙妍——这位从未见过丈夫、却在丈夫死后发誓守贞的寡妇——尹就答应在多年拒绝之后与赵元发生关系；如果他失败了，就必须让素玉怀孕。素玉正试图成为尹丈夫柳大人的妾室。
As the game develops, things get messy, leading to a conclusion that is as devastating as it is inevitable.
译文｜随着这场游戏继续发展，局面开始变得混乱失控，最终走向一个既令人心碎、又仿佛早已注定的结局。
What is The Scandal based on?
The Scandal is based on Les Liaisons dangereuses, the 1782 French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The book’s many adaptations include a 1988 film starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was also the basis of 1999’s Cruel Intentions, which transposes the action to contemporary Manhattan.
译文｜《The Scandal》改编自皮埃尔·肖代洛·德·拉克洛于 1782 年出版的法国书信体小说《危险关系》。这部小说曾被多次改编，其中包括 1988 年由格伦·克洛斯、约翰·马尔科维奇和米歇尔·菲佛主演的电影。1999 年的《危险性游戏》同样以它为蓝本，只不过把故事搬到了当代曼哈顿。
In 2003, Korean filmmaker E J-Yong directed an adaptation set in 18th century Korea. Called Untold Scandal in English, the film stars Lee Mi-sook as Lady Cho, Jeon Do-yeon as Lady Jeong, and Bae Yong-joon as Cho-won. While The Scandal Netflix series does not follow the exact same plot as Untold Scandal, it is quite close. In this way, The Scandal is an adaptation of Untold Scandal as much as it is an adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses.
译文｜2003 年，韩国导演李在容曾执导一版以 18 世纪韩国为背景的改编作品，英文片名为 Untold Scandal。李美淑饰演赵氏夫人，全度妍饰演贞夫人，裴勇俊饰演赵元。虽然 Netflix 版《The Scandal》并没有完全照搬 Untold Scandal 的剧情，但两者非常接近。因此从某种意义上说，《The Scandal》既是对《危险关系》的改编，也是对 Untold Scandal 的再改编。
The ending, explained
In the final act of The Scandal, Lady Cho’s scheme spirals out of her control. In an attempt to seduce Hui-yeon, Cho-won convinces her to run away in the middle of the night. Everyone thinks she has finally done the respectable thing and killed herself to join her dead husband, and begins celebrating her extreme virtue. Her mother-in-law pressures Lady Cho into writing to the King to request that a memorial gate be built in Hui-yeon’s honor.
译文｜到了《The Scandal》的最后阶段，赵氏夫人的计划开始彻底脱离她的控制。为了引诱熙妍，赵元说服她在深夜逃走。所有人都以为她最终做了那个在当时看来“体面”的选择——自尽追随亡夫——于是开始颂扬她极端的贞烈。她的婆婆又逼赵氏夫人写信给国王，请求为熙妍建一座旌门，以表彰她的“美德”。
Unfortunately for most of the powerful people in this story, Hui-yeon is not actually dead. Also, now that she has further interpreted the religious teachings from the secret Catholic gatherings she has been attending, she now believes that it would be wrong to take her own life. When she and Cho-won sleep together, she falls in love with him, finally believing his months of vows that she is also the one he loves. Hui-yeon realizes that she wants to live.
译文｜但对故事里的多数权势人物来说，麻烦在于：熙妍其实根本没死。她参加秘密天主教聚会后，对宗教教义有了更深入的理解，也开始相信夺走自己的生命是错误的。她和赵元发生关系后爱上了他，终于相信他几个月来反复说的那些话——她也是他所爱的人。熙妍由此意识到，自己想活下去。
Meanwhile, Cho-won has been tasked by the King with finding Hui-yeon’s body so that he can rule on the memorial gate request. When he brings these updates to Yun, she outlines the easy solution: Hui-yeon must be convinced to kill herself, wrapping up this situation in a nice, tidy bow. However, Cho-won has begun to develop feelings for Hui-yeon. He decides to run away with her, asking his servant Chil-seong to prepare a ferry for them to leave Joseon.
译文｜与此同时，国王命赵元寻找熙妍的遗体，以便决定是否批准旌门的请求。赵元把最新情况告诉尹后，她提出了一个“最简单”的解决办法：必须说服熙妍自尽，这样整件事就能干干净净地收尾。但赵元已经开始对熙妍产生感情。他决定和她一起逃走，并让仆人七星准备渡船，带他们离开朝鲜。
The situation is a heartbreaking echo of the plan Cho-won once had with Yun. Years prior, when the two were young, they decided to run away together, rather than allow Yun to marry someone who wasn’t Cho-won. They booked the ferry, but before Yun could sneak out of her home, she found her father crying. When she asked what was wrong, he lamented the fact that she was born a woman, and therefore she could not reach the heights of her massive potential. The conversation convinced Yun to stay and marry Lord Yoo. Cho-won was left waiting for Yun at the ferry port until daybreak. Following the heartbreak, Cho-won fell into the life of a notorious playboy, never fully giving up on Yun.
译文｜这一幕令人心碎，因为它呼应了赵元过去和尹曾经做过的一模一样的计划。多年前，两人年轻时曾决定私奔，而不是让尹嫁给赵元以外的人。他们甚至已经约好了船。但尹准备偷偷离家时，看见父亲在哭。父亲感叹她偏偏生为女子，因此无论她多么有才华，都无法真正施展自己的巨大潜力。那番话让尹最终选择留下，嫁给柳大人。赵元则在渡口一直等到天亮。经历这场心碎之后，他逐渐活成了一个臭名昭著的花花公子，却始终没有真正放下尹。
Worried that Cho-won will face harsh repercussions for lying to the King, Hui-yeon flees to Lady Cho’s in the middle of the night, not knowing Yun’s role in her predicament. When Cho-won finds her there, Yun asks him outright: Who do you choose? In that moment, Cho-won decides he cannot go with Hui-yeon, as he had planned. Even if he loves her, he realizes he is not willing to let go of Yun. A heartbroken and betrayed Hui-yeon runs into the night.
译文｜熙妍担心赵元因为欺骗国王而遭受严厉的后果／惩罚，于是深夜逃到赵氏夫人那里，却不知道尹正是她如今困境的重要推手。赵元找到她后，尹直接问他：“你选谁？”就在那一刻，赵元决定无法按照原计划和熙妍一起离开。即使他爱熙妍，他也意识到自己仍然不愿放下尹。心碎又感到背叛的熙妍独自冲进夜色。
Lady Cho believes she has won, and that she still has Cho-won’s complete loyalty. However, after he leaves, he finds Hui-yeon and gives her the gat. He tells her the truth, and she tells him that she will live with the resentment she now has for him. They part ways. Meanwhile, Lady Cho realizes that Cho-won has gone to Hui-yeon, and worries that she has lost him. She tears apart her wardrobe in anger before asking her servant to help her look pretty.
译文｜赵氏夫人以为自己赢了，也以为赵元依旧对她绝对忠诚。但赵元离开后还是找到了熙妍，把自己的笠帽交给她，并告诉了她真相。熙妍则说，她会带着如今对他的怨恨继续活下去。两人就此分开。与此同时，赵氏夫人意识到赵元还是去找了熙妍，也开始担心自己已经失去他。她愤怒地把衣柜翻得一片狼藉，随后却又让仆人帮自己打扮漂亮。
Later, Cho-won brings the official report on Hui-yeon’s supposed death. Written by Lady Cho, it outlines how a papermaker saw a woman fitting Hui-yeon’s description jump from a cliff into the raging river below. The King decides to grant Hui-yeon’s memorial gate in recognition of her exemplary virtue as a lady, but later calls Cho-won into a private meeting. He knows that the report was false because the details of a torrential downpour the night before the death do not match up with his other reports. Cho-won is shocked, either set up by Lady Cho or felled by her showy arrogance in coming up with the vivid imagery of the report. The King tells Cho-won that he shall never again be welcome in his presence.
译文｜之后，赵元呈上了关于熙妍“死亡”的正式报告。这份报告由赵氏夫人撰写，里面称一名造纸工看见一个外貌符合熙妍描述的女子从悬崖跳入下方汹涌的河水。国王决定批准为熙妍建旌门，以表彰她作为女子的“典范美德”，但随后又私下召见赵元。国王知道报告是假的，因为所谓“死亡”前夜那场暴雨的细节，和他收到的其他报告并不吻合。赵元大吃一惊——要么是赵氏夫人故意设局，要么就是她为了把报告写得生动而表现出的炫耀式傲慢，最终反过来害了他们。国王告诉赵元，以后他再也不准出现在自己面前。
In a letter to Yun, Cho-won spares his cousin of this particular outcome, instead saying that the report moved the King to tears and was a resounding success. Lady Cho asks her servants to bring in celebratory drinks and food. She doesn’t yet understand that her schemes have lost her Cho-won forever.
译文｜赵元给尹写信时，没有把这个结局告诉她，反而说那份报告感动得国王落泪，是一次彻底而响亮的成功。赵氏夫人于是让仆人端来酒菜庆祝。她此时还没有意识到，自己的那些算计已经让她永远失去了赵元。
Does Cho-won die?
Cho-won dies in the final episode of The Scandal. After breaking Hui-yeon’s heart and realizing that Yun will never choose him, Cho-won goes to the Mapo port, where he had previously prepared a ferry to bring himself, Hui-yeon, Chil-seong, and Eun-sil to Yanjing. However, before the ferryman can bring him all the way across, Cho-won jumps off of the boat into the water. The ferryman looks for him in the darkness, but can only see his gat, floating in the water. Cho-won is gone.
译文｜赵元在《The Scandal》最后一集中死去。伤透熙妍的心、又终于明白尹永远不会选择自己之后，他来到麻浦渡口。此前，他本来准备从这里带着熙妍、七星和恩实乘船前往燕京。但船还没有渡到对岸，他就从船上跳进了水里。船夫在黑暗中寻找他，却只看到他的笠帽漂在水面上。赵元就这样消失了。
Does The Scandal have a happy ending?
Definitely not. As in the novel on which it is based, the cruel machinations of Lady Cho and Cho-won could never lead to happiness. They could only ever lead to the confirmed status quo of their miserable lives as lords and ladies. Yun gets what she ostensibly wants: a continuation of the comfortable life she leads as Lady Cho. However, without Cho-won, she has neither a way to get her writing to a broader audience, nor a confidant in her games. The final shot of the character sees her alone, at her writing table, “left with nothing but longing.” Longing for a love that she will never see again, and for a life she didn’t choose, with no one left to write to.
译文｜当然没有。和原著一样，赵氏夫人与赵元那些残酷的阴谋算计，从一开始就不可能通向幸福。它们最终只能让两人重新回到贵族生活那种表面体面、内里痛苦的既定状态。尹看似得到了自己想要的东西：继续以赵氏夫人的身份过着舒适生活。但没有赵元，她既失去了让自己的文字被更多人看见的渠道，也失去了陪她玩那些危险游戏的知己。她最后一次出现时，独自坐在写字桌前，“除了渴望，一无所有”。她渴望一个再也见不到的爱人，也渴望一种自己从未真正选择过的人生，而如今，她甚至已经无人可写信。
Hui-yeon is not doing particularly well, either. She is alive, and committed to her Catholic faith, but she has to live life in the margins. When Eun-sil comes to a secret Catholic service of which she is a part, Hui-yeon has to take off into the night to keep from being discovered. She travels to Cho-won’s old home, where she sees a stack of letters Lady Cho has continued to write to her cousin. Cho-won’s loyal servant comforts her, and beckons her inside for a warm cup of tea because it is what Cho-won would have wanted. She cannot, however, offer Hui-yeon the comforting lie that Cho-won is still alive.
译文｜熙妍的处境也谈不上好。她还活着，也坚定地信奉天主教，但她只能生活在社会边缘。恩实来到她参与的一场秘密天主教礼拜时，熙妍为了不被认出，只能再次逃入夜色。她后来来到赵元的旧居，看见赵氏夫人至今仍在不断写给表弟的一摞信。赵元忠心的仆人安慰她，并招呼她进屋喝杯热茶，因为那会是赵元希望她做的事。但她无法用“赵元还活着”这样的谎言去安慰熙妍——很明显，这个从赵元小时候起就认识他的女人也相信，他已经死了。
So-ok is doing comparatively well. She has become a concubine for Lady Cho’s husband, but she has continued her love affair with In-ho. When So-ok becomes pregnant, it’s pretty clear to everyone but Lord Yoo that the baby is In-ho’s. For now, So-ok is happy, but there’s an implication that it will not always be like this. What will her future look like? In-ho is unable to claim his child as his own, and So-ok is stuck as a member of Lady Cho’s household. Throughout The Scandal, we see examples of youthful characters able to withstand bitterness solely through their naivete. What will be waiting for So-ok when the ignorance of her youth fades?
译文｜相比之下，素玉的情况还算不错。她成了赵氏夫人丈夫的妾，却仍在继续与仁浩的恋情。素玉怀孕后，除了柳大人以外，几乎所有人都看得出来孩子是仁浩的。至少目前，素玉是幸福的，但文章暗示这种幸福不会永远持续。她的未来会是什么样？仁浩无法公开认下自己的孩子，而素玉又被困在赵氏夫人的家中。整部《The Scandal》里，我们不断看到年轻角色如何只凭天真，才得以暂时承受生活中的苦涩。等青春带来的无知消退后，又会有什么在等待素玉？
Much of the narration for these things left unsaid is given in the form of pansori, a traditional Korean art form that includes a single singer and a drummer. In the final episode, we learn that the pansori describing much of the plot is actually diegetic, as Lady Cho and other members of her household listen to the pansori singer describe their lives through the thinnest veil of fiction. This is a brilliant nod to Les Liaisons dangereuses’ status as one of the earliest and most famous examples of roman à clef, a French term translating to “novel with a key.” It is used to describe works of fiction that are about real-life events and public figures, overlaid with the facade of fiction.
译文｜那些没有被角色直接说出口的内容，很大一部分通过盘索里来讲述。盘索里是韩国传统表演艺术，通常由一名歌者和一名鼓手完成。到了最后一集我们才发现，剧中一直讲述剧情的盘索里其实是故事世界内部真实存在的声音：赵氏夫人和家中其他人，就坐在那里听歌者隔着一层薄薄的虚构外衣讲述他们自己的生活。这个设计也巧妙呼应了《危险关系》作为早期著名 roman à clef（影射现实人物与事件的小说） 之一的传统——现实事件和现实人物被覆盖上一层小说的外壳。
What is The Scandal ultimately about?
Like its source material, which famously depicted the French nobility as corrupt shortly before the French Revolution took hold of the country, The Scandal is interested in critiquing the ruling class, giving the series a complexity missing from many romantic historical dramas. Following Cho-won’s jump into the water, the man ferrying him across says aloud to the night, seemingly somewhat facetiously: “Do you know how hard it is to be born a nobleman?” The line serves as a judgment of Cho-won and Lady Cho’s life choices, which, in their carelessness, caused so much pain for those around them.
译文｜和原著一样，《The Scandal》真正感兴趣的是对统治阶层进行批判。原著在法国大革命爆发前夕描绘了腐败的法国贵族，而这种阶级批判也让本剧拥有了许多浪漫古装剧所缺少的复杂度。赵元跳入水中后，载他的船夫对着夜色说了一句近乎挖苦的话：“你知道投胎成贵族有多难吗？”这句话其实也是对赵元和赵氏夫人一生选择的评判——他们漫不经心地玩弄他人的人生，最终给身边人带来了巨大痛苦。
In the end, the couple that seems the happiest is also the poorest of our main characters. Prior to his death, Cho-won paid for the freedom of nobi Chil-seong and Eun-sil, who fell in love with one another while serving Cho-won and Hui-yeon, respectively. In the final episode, we see them happy with a baby, and with a steady income. In some ways, they serve as a representation of what Cho-won and Hui-yeon, or perhaps Cho-won and Yun, could have been, if they were not noble. But, in other ways, there is no comparison. A self-involved superiority, born of their social class, is integral to who they are as characters. That—as The Scandal argues through its constant, background depiction of the vibrant, working class life going on around these noble characters—is the point.
译文｜最终，看起来最幸福的一对，恰恰也是主要角色中最贫穷的一对。赵元死前替奴婢七星和恩实赎了身；两人在分别侍奉赵元和熙妍时相爱。最后一集中，我们看到他们有了孩子，也有稳定的收入，生活平静幸福。从某种角度看，他们像是赵元与熙妍，甚至赵元与尹如果不是贵族时可能拥有的人生。但从另一个角度说，这种比较又无法真正成立。因为由阶级出身滋生出的、自我中心的优越感，已经构成了这些人物性格不可分割的一部分。而这正是《The Scandal》不断把鲜活的平民生活放在这些贵族角色背景中所要说明的东西。
