Recap Korean Drama "Taxi Driver" Season 1 Episode 10

Jul 24, 2022

Episode 10 of Taxi Driver begins with Go-Eun and Do-Ki doing their research on just who this ringleaders in charge of the voice phishing scam are. Well, it’s fronted by our Edna lookalike Lim Bok Ja. By day it’s a voice phishing scam, by night she runs a gambling den. That’s how these guys are making so much money.

This catches us up to the moments last episode, as Do-Ki plays the role of an orphan well-versed in the ways of scamming. Bringing his bag to the table, Do-Ki produces 100 burner phones and uses them as collateral. With the stakes high, Bok Ja watches in disgust as her associate reveals the yellow ball in his hand. He was scamming Do-Ki this whole time and he’s been found out for it. Bok Ja immediately fires him.

Next, she turns her attention to Jin-Eon, berating his “chump change” from different customers. Realizing they need to play in the big league, Bok-Ja visits Ha-Na. She tests his knowledge, with him managing to pass the test thanks to Go-Eun’s guidance.

After showing his skills through fending off a small gang, Do-Ki agrees to work with Madame Lim – but she needs to buy the burners off him first. While that works well, Jin-Eon’s plan goes awry. He’s caught speaking ill of the company and doubting his abilities in the toilet. Bok-Ja finds the bug on him and looks set to hurt him.

Just before Jin-Eon meets a grisly end, Ha-Na shows up and claims Jin-Eon is a cop. After punching him in the face, So-Ki shows off the bag of burners and follows them out at sea.

Jin-eon is bolted into a barrel, all ready to be thrown overboard. Ha-Na reminds Bok-Ja that the police are fast and smart. After kicking the man out at the ocean, Jin-Eon is eventually picked up by Kyung-Koo who happens to be waiting at the shore for his opportunity. The only trouble is, Ha-Na is tailing him.

With the burner phones all primed and ready to go, Go-Eun starts to work on cracking Bok-Ja’s account number. With texts flying around, now all she needs is the password.

At the same time, Do-Ki sits with Bok-Ja and the two start growing closer together. This is, of course, all a big ruse to distract her from what’s going on inside Ssangyong.

Ha-Na starts to piece together what’s going on, realizing that Do-Ki’s days off from the taxi firm match that for the times the U Data goons went missing. Ha-Na is smart and follows Do-Ki the next day while he’s dressed as his gambler alter-ego, Mr Wang.

This eventually brings her head into Bok-Ja’s gambling den. Unfortunately Ha-Na receives a call from Investigator Wang and is called away. This is just the opportunity Do-Ki needs to pretend he’s being chased by the police.

This hilariously over the top “romance” continues to blossom as Do-Ki settles into his role and has Bok-ja see him off at the dock. He gives her his number, saving it under Wang Tao Zi. And that is the end of Bok-Ja.

She forgets to deposit her money, her account is completely emptied and the voice phishing team are in disarray. Remembering Do-Ki’s words, she believes the police have emptied her accounts. She rings Ha-Na and encourages her to run and hide.

Bok-Ja wants to get on the same boat, which eventually sees her duped by leaving stacks of cash inside a parcel locker…which the Blue Bird team gracefully snatch up.

Bok-Ja heads out on her boat where everything falls apart for her. Do-Ki reveals himself as Bok-Ja’s heart shatters. She tells him she trusted him but Do-Ki scoffs, telling her he never cared and wanted the girl to experience exactly what all these scammed patrons have felt.

The cherry on this satisfyingly iced cake comes in the form of multiple transfers initiated back to clients. The case comes to an end in the best way possible, with the bad guys captured.

Ha-Na shows up at Ssangyong Spot and learns, to her surprise, that all the voice phishers have disappeared. As she leaves the scene, Ha-Na watches as Do-Ki drops off his unmarked deluxe taxi back at HQ. Now she’s onto him.

As the episode comes to a close, an emotional epilogue shows Kyung-Koo stop off with the recycling woman and drop off the 1000 dollars she was scammed out of.

The Episode Review

Taxi Driver finishes this phishing scam case with a satisfying conclusion, ending with a simple but resolute conclusion. After the long U Data case, it was perhaps inevitable that we’d only get a small one to serve as a stop gap between a much larger conflict. Judging by the preview for next week, that certainly looks like the case.

For now though, Taxi Driver delivers a surprisingly comedic episode with Do-Ki poetically scamming Bok-Ja into letting her guard down. It’s precisely what was needed to teach her a lesson and the episode does a wonderful job portraying that.

While Jin-Eon’s inclusion here didn’t really amount to anything, Do-Ki does get another chance to show off yet another flamboyant disguise. And boy does he play the role of Mr Wang well!

With Ha-Na now closing in on Do-Ki, next week’s follow-up looks like it could well be a very exciting one. We’ll have to wait and see what the show has in store for us though!