Ha-joon Versus Do-gi
Episode 15 of Taxi Driver starts with a flashback from when Ha-joon was a child at a children’s welfare home. At the children’s facility, the Bishop (who was then only a priest) run a secret organisation where kidnapped children were brought in for reasons undisclosed. As a child, Ha-joon was bullied for not having a name of his own.
In retaliation to the bullying, Ha-joon ends up killing another child named On Ha-joon. The Bishop dismisses what Ha-joon has done and asks Officer Hyun-jo to dismiss the death of the real Ha-joon as an accident. He then praises Ha-joon for coming out victorious in the battle and gives him the identity of being the new Ha-joon.
As he grows up, Ha-joon follows the footsteps of the Bishop and gains the title of Manager On, the Bishop’s right-hand man. He is also initiated into the cult with a ring that all other members of the cult wear. Present day, Do-gi and the taxi crew discuss the same ring that they had seen many of the people at Black Sun wear. Do-gi mentions that the ring leader in Vietnam was wearing the same ring.
Go-eun claims that Pil-seung was spotted wearing the same ring. She adds that the sign on the ring, a cross and a snake were similar to the Feel Consulting logo. The episode then moves to Lee Si-wan, an employee that works at the foreign currency office. When Si-wan discovers that three individuals were depositing huge sums of money in two overseas businesses that had a similar logo – a cross and a snake – he files a complaint against the individuals.
However, that same evening, when Si-wan is on his way back home, the office worker is framed for trying to stab someone in the parking lot and immediately sent to prison. We are then taken back to the night when the Bishop made a call to Rainbow Taxi. As a client, the Bishop tells Do-gi that his son, Si-wan, was in prison for exposing three individuals.
These individuals are Kim Hyung-sub (leader of the Vietnam Gang), Kang Pil-seung (CEO of Feel Consulting) and Yang Mi-kyung (CEO of the Entertainment agency, as well as a named owner of Black Sun). The group concludes that these huge money transfers outside South Korea were connected with Black Sun and Ha-joon. They decide to take on the case and help protect Si-wan whose life may be in danger.
Since Si-wan is scheduled to be in court in a few days in order to testify against the foreign transactions, Do-gi, Kyung-goo and Jin-eon get themselves arrested at the same prison where Si-wan was locked up at. Meanwhile, a flashback shows that Sung-cheol had gotten a call from Police Chief Hyun-jo before his death.
The late police officer tells Sung-cheol that the Black Sun drug scandal was just the tip of the iceberg of the many fraudulent activities carried out by the cult. Hyun-jo asks Sung-cheol to look at an old case that had more details in exchange for saving his life. However, before Sung-cheol could act on the information, Ha-joon had already killed Hyun-jo.
Back to the present day, Sung-cheol pays a visit to the morgue where Hyun-jo’s body had been kept and finds the same ring on his hand. Sung-cheol manages to get his hands on the case file that Hyun-jo was talking about and learns about the children’s welfare home and how the children there were either deceased or reported to be missing.
In prison, Do-gi asserts his dominance by pretending to be a psycho and threatens all the thug inmates. Once he learns that there was a bounty on Si-wan’s head, he threatens to kill the inmate that would try to harm him. He also gives Si-wan a pepper spray bottle in order to protect himself when need be. After a few days in prison, Do-gi finds something off with what was going on.
He tells Go-eun that things were pretty normal and that Si-wan was not in any real danger which made everything much more suspicious. However, after a few days, Do-gi, Kyung-goo, Jin-eon and Si-wan are all released to go back home as part of their plan. Just as they are about to leave, the police chief takes Do-gi back to prison while the rest are made to go back home.
Sung-cheol, on the other hand, pays a visit to the children’s welfare facility and arrives at the place where Ha-joon operated from. Once inside the facility, Sung-cheol is shocked to see that the Bishop is none other than the man pretending to be Si-wan’s father. He also finds photos of the missing/deceased children, as well as Ha-joon with the Bishop. Sung-cheol is drugged and put inside a room.
Things get much more complicated for Do-gi in prison where he discovers that a bounty had been placed on his head. Ha-joon pays Do-gi a visit and threatens him by claiming that Jin-eon, Kyung-goo and Go-eun have been kidnapped. He also adds that Si-wan was killed and that Sung-cheol is being held captive by his men. Do-gi asks Ha-joon to let the others go as his fight is with Do-gi after all.
Ha-joon threatens Do-gi by saying that there’s a reason why he’s kept in prison on the day when Si-wan was to testify in court. He announces that the bounty on Do-gi’s head has been doubled which leads the inmates to go feral in trying to kill Do-gi. From his secret room, Ha-joon watches as Do-gi is hunted down by the inmates.
Ha-joon is impressed at how Do-gi manages to fight all the inmates. Eventually, Ha-joon brings Do-gi into the secret room with him for a meal and a game. At the same time, Sung-cheol wakes up in the welfare home and is invited to have a meal with the Bishop. Sung-cheol mocks him for being an assailant posing to be a clergyman for assaulting, exploiting and killing innocent children for his enjoyment and personal gain.
The Bishop claims that Ha-joon s hiis most trusted follower and poses a challenge to him on who among Ha-joon and Do-gi will win in this battle. Just then, Ha-joon asks Do-gi to pick one of his three friends that he’ll kill. Do-gi threatens to always remember what Ha-joon was doing to his people, adding that the victims always remember the injustice done to their loved ones and will come back to kill Ha-joon.
After stalling Ha-joon for a while, Do-gi claims that Ha-joon has already lost the game they were supposedly playing. Ha-joon turns on the news and finds Si-wan leaving the courthouse after testifying against the illegal transfer of funds related to Black Sun. A flashback takes us to the time when Do-gi was having his suspicions while in prison.
After Sung-cheol discovers the welfare facility, the group collectively decide to put themselves in danger in order to help Si-wan testify against Ha-joon’s cult. Kyung-goo, Jin-eon and Go-eun had managed to escape Ha-joon’s men by using pepper spray on them. Sung-cheol can also be seen voluntarily entering the welfare home in order to throw the Bishop off.
At the prison, Ha-joon is angered by the fact that he was outsmarted by Do-gi yet again. He snatches the gun from the police chief and points it at Do-gi, threatening to kill him with his own hands as the episode comes to an end.
The Episode Review
Wow, what an episode! With the way things ended here, I cannot wait for the season finale. While I knew Do-gi and the gang were not going to be so naive as to fall for the Bishop and Ha-joon’s plans, I am a little confused about what the organisation was doing with the kids at the welfare organisation.
The fact that the Bishop was so much nastier than what it seemed makes me want to see him die at the end of this. The promo for the next episode looks interesting and we know for a fact that Do-gi will be taking on Ha-joon as a client which means that there is a possibility for a redemption arc for this guy.
Not only that but it makes me hopeful that a third season of Taxi Driver is on the cards, with Ha-joon joining the team to bring the Bishop and all his organisations down. We can only wait and see!
