Shards of Her is a Netflix drama that follows the life of Lin Chen-Hsi as she navigates her life in a misogynistic world. The series deals with the consequences and trauma of sexual assault on the victim and their families.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot Summary
Lin Chen-Hsi works as a headhunter for a company named Polar. Her boss introduces her to his cousin, Danny, who is jealous of the recognition she gets for her work. To get her off her path to success, Danny tries to tame her through harassment. Chen-Hsi fights back and escapes. She gets into a car accident.
Chen-Hsi wakes up in her childhood house and is shocked to see her father and brother alive. She realises she is in a different reality. Her parents explain to her that she got in a car accident and suffers from memory loss. They tell her she hallucinated her headhunting job and her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend from her hallucinations does not recognise her. He works as a police officer and is currently looking for Chen-Hsi’s ex-classmate, Sheng-Hua. Sheng-Hua is the primary suspect in the murder of her physics teacher.
Chen-Hsi meets her high school friends who are hiding something from her. She investigates her past and eventually starts regaining her memory in bits and pieces as she realises her role in the murder mystery.
Shards of Her ending explained in detail:
Does Chen-Hsi hallucinate her life in Yilan County?
After her traumatic confrontation with her history of sexual assault, Chen-Hsi gets back to her life as a headhunter where she realises she disassociated from her life in her childhood home to cope with her trauma.
She imagined a life where her brother and father were still alive and her rapist was dead. Her twin brother died in an accident when they graduated high school and she moved out and stopped contacting her parents. She blamed them for not believing her story of assault. Her father apologised to her on his deathbed.
Hsiao Liu was the police officer who tried to help her when she was a teenager. He got transferred as a consequence. She imagines a life where he is still around to help her with the appearance of her boyfriend.
Does Chen-Hsi sue Danny?
After regaining consciousness, Chen-Hsi goes back to her workplace where Danny accuses her of harassing him. Chen-Hsi tries to tell the truth but gets fired instead. Her boyfriend, Li Hao, barges in and takes a stand for her. He asks Chen-Hsi to find evidence to sue him.
Chen-Hsi contacts Sheng-Hua who is now married to Danny. She asks Sheng-Hua to help her by getting her the recording she requires to sue him. Sheng-Hua opens up about her life after being abused by the same teacher. She carries her trauma in her marriage with Danny too.
Sheng-Hua decides to help Chen-Hsi and he gets arrested. She files for a divorce. Chen-Hsi gets justice and starts processing her trauma in a healthy way.
Does Chen-Hsi’s health improve?
After suing Danny, Chen-Hsi starts seeing a therapist who helps her navigate her reality and overcome her struggle in maintaining a social life. She reconciles with her high-school friends.
After knowing the truth, Li Hao seeks advice from Chen-Hsi’s ex-boyfriend. He joins a support group for the relatives and friends of sexual assault survivors. They discuss how the psychological trauma of a sexual assault survivor may pass on to their close ones.
Li Hao opens up about his feeling to Chen-Hsi and asks her to marry him. She tells him about the role he held in her imagined reality and how she has always wanted him to understand her. She tells him she still needs some time and he agrees to wait for her.
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