"Taxi Driver" Korean drama season two: Episode three recap

 

Air Dates: 17th until April 15, 2023. Friday and Saturday nights at 9:00 pm on SBS/ViuTV

Director: Lee Dan    Screenwriter: Oh Sang-Ho.... This episode's rating: 13.2%

This series ran for 1070 minutes or close to 67 minutes an episode.

Main Cast: The five heroes from Jang's 'Revenge Squad' are also in this second season. The only major character who didn't return was the prosecutor Kang Ha-Na so don't know if Jang's crew will be feeling any pressure from the authorities. She was mentioned in the opening minutes and also her superior won't be in this series. The top five names below are the 'Revenge Squad', think at least one more major character will be added in plus will be doing a lot of editing in the first half of the series. The bottom characters will be the guest stars for the story, for the first case will leave them there for two recaps. If you didn't read the posts or view the first season highly recommend that you do as it's my top drama from the last three years. Here are the links to the final two episodes of season one if you want to get a feel for the series:

Episode fifteen .... Episode sixteen

 Lee Je-Hoon as Kim Do-Gi.... Everyone on Jang's team is important but Do-Gi is the most essential part of the team. He used to be a member of the Special Forces of the Korean military and is truly one unbeatable fighter. Shortly after Do-Gi was discharged from the military his mother was murdered by a serial killer and that was a key story in the first season. After that killing is when Do-Gi was recruited by Jang to be a part of his 'revenge squad', after being together for over three years the team was disbanded at the end of season one. But Do-Gi kept in touch with his mentor and after two years rejoined fighting evil with Jang, soon the other three completed the team.

 Kim Eui-Sung as Jang Sing-Chul.... Leader of the 'revenge squad' and for well over a year it was a solo project. Jang also owns the Rainbow Taxi company which is a semi cover for his team, he also runs a victim's organization called Blue Bird. At the end of the first season Jang felt his squad had done all they could do so disbanded the team, think he was also worried for their safety. However Jang did secretly keep in touch with Do-Gi and in the first episode the pair did work on two revenge cases. The second case was so intense the rest of the old 'revenge squad' found out some details about it and Jang eventually brought them back into the fold. Jang below was telling the police after the squad's disbandment that he did everything by himself but the charges were soon dropped.

Pyo Ye-Jin as Ahn Go-Eun.... Her sister had been framed by a sex con artist and because of that had committed suicide. That was over five years ago and after hearing Go-Eun's story Jang recruited her to be a member of his squad. Go-Eun is the techno whiz of the team and there's seemingly nothing computer related she can't do. After Jang broke the team up Go-Eun took the civil service exam, when the series began she was working for the police in their Information Management division though soon returned to Jang's squad in the second episode.

 Jang Hyuk-Jin as Choi Kyung-Goo.... Was the head mechanic at Rainbow Taxi and really knew how to 'soup up' Do-Gi's vehicle. When the 'revenge squad' was disbanded Choi went back to being a researcher testing out new automobiles but he really missed working with his mates. At the end of the second show he, Park and Go-Eun all quit their new jobs to return to Jang's 'revenge squad'.

 

Bae Yoo-Ram as Park Jin-Eon.... In real life him and the above man are a comedy team who also appear in many dramas together. Below is Park on the left, Choi is on the right. Park comes off as being a bit goofy but what an intelligent man he is! What he did after the team broke up was to work for Korea's version of NASA designing spaceships but was about to be transferred to Russia(?) for five years.

Shin Jae-Ha as On Ha-Jun/Kim Don-Woo.... New driver for Rainbow Taxi who we first met in the third episode. There are two names for him as On is the alias he's using while working as a driver. Don't know much about him yet so will be editing this bio info but it appears he's a mole working for the below man who we haven't seen much of yet.

 Park Jong-Hwan as Park Hyeon-Jo.... Don't know much about him yet but think he will be a major character and also a thorn in the side of Jang! Park works for the Northeast Seoul PD and is also an executive at the Geumsa Organization which appears to be a shady outfit.

 ****Guest stars for the second story which lasts for two episodes, will update/change the names for every story and most last for two episodes.

Byun Joong-Hee as Lee Im-Soon.... Elderly woman who was the victim for the second revenge case. She had been duped badly by the next character and her meager savings had all been stolen from her. Im-Soon had thought about jumping in front of a train as the shame was too much to bear but right at that moment noticed a decal for Jang's 'revenge squad' and called him for help.

Ko Sang-Ho as Yoo Sang-Gi.... A ruthless scammer who usually preys on the elderly as they're ones who rarely contact their family or the police. Yoo dupes these people by putting on free musical shows and does have a talent for making others believe everything he says. In the end he often gets them to sign up for fraud credit cards and also sells them damaged goods.

Kang Young-Taek as Lee Dong-Geun.... One of Yoo's henchmen.

Yoo Dong-Hoon as Goo Jae-Seung.... Another of Yoo's henchmen, the pair are below on the right.

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two

 Here's a different kind of video which is a behind the scenes one featuring Pyo Ye-Jin as the tech whiz Ahn Go-Eun and am I smitten with her!!!!

   

   

 

 Up until now our hero driver Do-Gi had driven an orange colored taxi for his revenge missions. He still drives an orange one but just when he's a regular taxi driver. In the top screenshot above is a brand new, super duper taxi the two returning mechanics have created for Do-Gi. Haven't seen all of the features yet but it's much faster, has more cameras and microphones hidden in it and perhaps even some powerful weapons! That's not good news for the scammers Jang's team will be targeting for when Do-Gi says 'A taste of their own medicine' then they're in serious trouble!

 Am writing this up before viewing the fourth episode so may have a few errors with what I think may happen. Hopefully you read the first two recaps for those assumptions have to deal with that story. Do-Gi had gone to the fictional city of Cotaya which was in Vietnam to locate a missing man. That man and many others from Korea were being held prisoner and had to design illegal web gambling games. Do-Gi of course was victorious in the end and the main boss of this outfit was a corrupt Seoul police captain named Kim. He was shot and killed at the end of the second episode so figured that story came to it's conclusion. That doesn't appear to be the case as what took place could be a minor storyline for the series and will explain why in this recap. Jang is in the below top screenshot and he's welcoming his 'revenge squad' back as all had quit their previous jobs and have returned to him.

 Before Do-Gi became a driver for Rainbow Taxi and began working on Jang's 'revenge squad' he was the top member of the elite Korean military's 707th Special Mission Group. There was where Do-Gi learned so much about fighting and other skills he's used to take down all of the evil criminals. In a few of the screenshots above Do-Gi was at his regular job as a taxi driver and happened to pick someone up from the airport who was a current member of the group. This man's name was never mentioned so will use Jung for now and have a feeling we may be hearing more about him in the future. Do-Gi had said a few comments about the military and before long Jung recognized Do-Gi who is still a legend at the base. Do-Gi was asked if he ever had any plans on returning to the military which he said no for to him driving a taxi was quite fulfilling, he couldn't tell Jung the real reasons. You will see Do-Gi above slumped against his taxi, that was after hearing a whistle at the base and he still has flashbacks about the day his mother was murdered, why a whistle would trigger a flashback isn't known right now. In the intro did talk about the corrupt police captain Kim being killed by a sniper in Vietnam, the Cotaya city police and the regional police have decided to abort the investigation and why was that?

 Which is what Do-Gi's leader Jang wanted to know also as he 'traveled' to Vietnam for some answers. Kim being a Korean citizen was a reason he was given for the case being dropped but there was much more to it than that, a possible X-Files conspiracy???? Jang checked out the location where Kim had been shot by a sniper, the bullet used was from Korea and the distance had to be over 500 yards away where the sniper shot from. Only an elite marksman could have hit Kim in the heart from that distance, was this shooter part of the Korean military or was there an underground gang that targeted Kim's illegal gambling activities? Upon returning to Korea Jang told Do-Gi of his findings and warned him that Do-Gi too may be in danger from this unknown gang. For now that was the last we heard of it and this could turn out to be an ongoing minor storyline. What I was thinking when Do-Gi had picked up Jung from the airport was he returning from Vietnam and could he possibly have been the sniper???? It's very likely and let's see if this prediction could turn out to be correct. In the bottom screenshot above is one of Jang's decals to advertise his revenge business, of all places it was attached to a railroad track in the remote and fictional village of Hwajun.

 Now it's time for this season's third revenge case which will continue on into the next recap. The location for the beginning of it will be that village of Hwajun and the person seeking revenge is an elderly woman named Lee Im-Soon. She's not wealthy at all and struggles to survive daily working on the docks dealing with the fish that had been caught that day, so don't many other elderly residents. Im-Soon has a son who we didn't meet and his life in the big city isn't going so well as the company he works for isn't doing so well, there's no way she could ever ask him for help then. So when Im-Soon had been scammed badly she thought the only way out was by death and was prepared to throw herself in front of a train at the village's small depot! That's when she noticed the decal for Jang's revenge service and called him, soon Do-Gi was sent out to the remote village to hear Im-Soon's tale. A month or so ago a small group of about five men settled in the village who seemed quite friendly and helpful to the large elderly population. The group would put on a free musical show with food and also had raffles where they gave away prizes. The leader of this group who will be in many screenshots is in four of them above, he's the singer of the group whose name is Yoo Sang-Gi. What a creep this man is who is about 35 in age but he is so charismatic and everyone took an immediate liking to him.

 Yoo has a pair of cohorts named Lee and Goo who we saw often but Yoo is by far the most important man in this scamming group. At these 'free shows' when a person won a prize they would still have to pony up the money for the taxes and utility charges. Im-Soon happened to win a grand lamp but ended up refusing it for she couldn't afford the fees. Seemed Yoo knew right off the bat she could be swindled easily and concentrated on her as the other citizens appeared to have a bit more common sense. Yoo had done some checking around and knew a bit about Im-Soon's life. Such as that she had a five year old grandson who was sick and in the hospital often, Yoo soon gave her a tale which was that his own five year old son was going through the same ordeal! Soon the pair became much closer and Im-Soon began to think of Yoo as a second son which would be her downfall. To make money Yoo and his cronies did have a stand where they sold inexpensive goods such as handbags, coats, etc. that he had gotten from stores going out of business. In the third to last screenshot above Yoo had given Im-Soon a sob story about how he couldn't get a credit card, could she apply for him and then he would take care of all the bills? As far as common sense goes Im-Soon didn't have enough as she fell for Yoo's story and did apply for that credit card, that was the first of a few major mistakes she made.

 Things went downhill so quickly for Im-Soon after getting that credit card for Yoo. He began to store some of that shoddy merchandise at her small home and Yoo even asked her to watch the stand for a few days. Which she readily agreed to and was able to make quite a few sales to her fiends who soon became Im-Soon's enemies! The merchandise was of such shoddy quality and soon everyone wanted their money back! Which of course Im-Soon couldn't do and she was taken down to the Hwajun police station because of that. Her credit card that Yoo had been using bought all of the merchandise so legally everything was in her name plus some people had noticed Yoo giving Im-Soon some money. The police knew Im-Soon may have been scammed but their hands were tied and the one thing that Im-Soon could not see happen is for them to contact her son. He would have to repay the bills and what shame she brought to her family and to top it off things became even worse!!!! For Yoo had been able to use Im-Soon's name to get a few more credit cards, purchase a dozen or so cellphone plans and even more crappy merchandise! So being in such heavy debt is what led Im-Soon to stand at the depot ready to throw herself in front of a speeding train.

 Yoo and his cronies had skipped town before all that took place and the creeps have been living it up. Jang's tech whiz Go-Eun was able to find out some info about Yoo and he's had a history of scamming the elderly. Mainly because they're not people who would go to the police or their families when in trouble and scammers such as Yoo can skate away without being prosecuted. When Jang's team heard the entire story they of course all voted to help Im-Soon with the first plan of action finding out where Yoo and his small gang have disappeared to. Though such a lowlife Yoo is very intelligent and knows he can't stay in one location for too long. He looks for smaller towns or villages that have a high percentage of elderly people, he'll stay a week at one making a 'killing' and move on to another place. Go-Eun is such a whiz at technology and somehow her skills are even higher than they were in the first season. It seems Jang has gotten a new computer system which is much more advanced and Go-Eun went to work hunting for Yoo via her computers. She was able to track his new credit cards which are in Im-Soon's name and has discovered he's moved on to the village of Yongsori. The bottom screenshot above shows Yoo running the same scam there with a musical show and doing other things to find out who among the residents can be easily duped.

 In this small village of Yongsori Yoo's gang has even opened up a shop that was selling stolen goods and it appears they may be there more than a week. Also arriving soon to the village was the 'revenge squad' minus Jang. He was back in Seoul and we did learn he's still running that Blue Bird organization which was set up to help victims of crimes. The mechanics Choi and Park always drive a van to a location that's made up to appear as they're from some company. Hidden in the back of the large van is always Go-Eun and what a computer setup she has there. Don't know how she does these things but Go-Eun was able to hack into Yoo's phones and could track every call. She discovered that his group had opened a scamming shop and soon to visit the place was none other than our hero Do-Gi! He had wanted to cancel a phone plan and you can see what the response was by one of the goons above. Huge mistake on his part as Do-Gi was able to take down that man and about five others within a minute! Do-Gi then lit a fire in a wastebasket where he dumped all of the fraudulent  phones that were being sold at the shop. Do-Gi also threw their computer into the fire but not before he inserted a USB chip and Go-Eun was able to download all of the gang's information plus was able to cancel all of the fraud cellphone accounts that had been set up in Im-Soon's name.

 Only a few minutes to go by now and Yoo has a few possible victims on his list in this new village though who he may swindle won't be known until the next episode. Yoo was unaware of what Do-Gi had done to his shop and was prepared to travel back to Seoul for more shoddy merchandise. While he and his two cronies were in the middle of nowhere their truck broke down, think the mechanics Choi and Park may have tinkered with the engine. It would take hours for any tow trucks to arrive so how can these goons get out of this jam? 'Help' is on the way for as you can see in the bottom screenshot above who should be going by on a tractor than farmboy Do-Gi(!) which is how this episode ended. What will be taking place will be in the fourth show which is the next post. Do describe most of what takes place but not everything as that would make these recaps much longer. But the screenshots are helpful to look at as they do have some incidents which I may not have discussed all that much.