Recap Korean Drama "Taxi Driver" Season 1 Episode 8

Jul 24, 2022

Episode 8 of Taxi Driver begins with Doo-Chul chuckling to himself as he steals a car and heads straight for Sung-Chul’s house. Chairman Baek is informed of Do-Chul’s actions and realizes Sung-Chul could be in danger. Well, Sung-Chul has issues of his own, as he learns that Blue Bird are on the verge of losing funding.

Out on the road, we return to the car chase, with U Data’s men ramming into Ha-Na’s car from either side. Do-Ki takes out one of the cars, driving in front of a forklift and suddenly moving at the last second so it crashes. The other, Do-Ki does a 180 turn and flashes his headlights on full-beam at both cars. Reversing, he obstructs their view so the Chairman’s men can’t kill Ha-Na and subsequently crash into roadworks.

Do-Ki next heads up to Chairman Park’s estate with Jin-Won. Do-Ki warns him that this could be dangerous, but he’s prepared to do what it takes to dismantle this despicable company. Well, Park immediately picks a fight with the wrong guy. He pours a drink straight over Do-Kis head.

Do-Ki’s loyalty is then tested when he’s handed a crossbow. With Jin-Ho tied down, blood tricking from his head, Park demands Do-Ki shoot the boy. He refuses, so it turns to Director Jung to fire. He doesn’t exactly look happy about it, but he follows Park’s instructions. Do-Ki has seen enough and stops him killing Jin-Ho at the last second.

Unfortunately that also sees Do-Ki knocked out for his troubles. With things looking bleak, both Kyung-Koo and Jin-Eon are captured too. Chairman Park eventually shows up and confronts Do-Ki. He warns him that he’s about to face an untimely demise.

Do-Ki remains nonchalant, repeatedly asking where the data mine is. Unfortunately that also sees him receive multiple baseball bat blows to the gut for his troubles. Do-Ki refuses to talk.

Meanwhile, Go-Eun heads over to Sung-Chul’s house and joins the fight. He thanks her for returning but she’s in no mood to joke around. She grabs the motorbike in the garage and takes off. She’s going to mass-broadcast her sister’s video and in doing so, uncover the source of the signal.

Sobbing, she contacts Do-Ki and demands he destroy them all. Do-Ki promises to get rid of U Data, as he breaks free from his binds and smacks Chairman Park in the face. Do-Ki follows, taking out all the guards who stand in his way.

Do-Ki heads straight for the data mine, which is exactly where Chairman Park happens to be waiting. Go Eun drives straight up in her van, ramming into the front door and leaving everything open. Do-Ki shoots Park in the arm with a crossbow and leaves him tied to a tree. With the deed done and the police inbound, the group head off and leave the police to mop up what’s left.

When Ha-Na arrives with her officers, she finds the place a complete mess. The ground is carpeted with knocked out guards writhing in pain. Chairman Park flees to his data mine, while Ha-Na finds the convenient boxes of files just strewn out in front of the house. The countdown begins and the shed explodes, sending Ha-Na flying across the ground and Park very much dead.

Meanwhile, Doo-Chul heads inside Sung-Chul’s house and holds him captive. Although this is left unresolved, a brief flash shows Sung-Chul bleeding out on the ground with a bullet hole in his stomach.

The Episode Review

A tough case for Do-Ki and the team comes to a close with an emotional and fitting finale. This action-packed episode is one of the best that Taxi Driver has broadcast thus far, typified by a slickly choreographed fight through the hallways.

Not only that though, Go-Eun finally gets to say goodbye to her sister with a fitting conclusion and being the one to blow up the data mines. While Ha-Na has played second fiddle to this case for most of these four episodes, I’d imagine she’ll play a much larger role in the episodes ahead.

The U Data case has been a pretty long one, and the four-episode arc has worked really well to flesh out the characters and show the severity of this case too.

With lots of unresolved character issues and big question marks over Sung-Chul’s wellbeing, the ending sets things up nicely for next week’s follow-up.