Recap Korean Drama "Taxi Driver" Season 1 Episode 5

Jul 22, 2022

Episode 5 of Taxi Driver begins with Do-Ki awakening in hospital after a bad dream. The ghosts of his past continue to haunt him as fragments of his Mother flash into view. Eventually he bolts upright, breathing heavily.

Go Eun shows up to check on Do-Ki, calling out Sung-Chul for not being more caring. As the pair act kinder in front of her, Go Eun eventually leaves, prompting the pair to comment how scary she is.

After, all of our Deluxe Taxi members join together on the rooftop for dinner. While they do, Ha-Na continues to research. Specifically, she starts looking into psychological trauma. Her earlier visit to Blue Bird’s group gets her thinking and she wonders what she would have done in that situation.

Well, it seems all of our Deluxe Taxi employees are suffering and Do-Ki eventually takes Go Eun out for a drive. As they pass the twinkling lights on the road, Go Eun reflects on the fun she used to have with her sister.

Another case comes in and this time it’s Ha-Na who makes the first move. She looks over the case at the prosecutor’s office. Park Yang-Jin, Chairman of U data, is accused of beating Young Min.

As we find out later on in the episode, it all started back when Young Min was a new recruit. He closed his eyes during the recruitment meeting and was eventually told to leave. Despite the Chairman arriving and seeming to be okay, it didn’t take long before that façade was shattered.

Heading out for drinks, the Chairman demanded the new recruits begin slapping each other. This only got worse at the office in the following weeks. The slaps continued, this time when Young Min issued a refund for a customer. It’s the right thing to do but the company directors certainly don’t see it that way. After half a year of abuse, Young Min quit.

Young Min posted a comment online, eventually calling out the bosses for their role in all this and reminding them that employees are people too. Unfortunately this resulted in Young Min being picked up by U Data’s goons. They took him to an abandoned warehouse and confront him about the message.

Even though Young Min deleted the comment, the Chairman and the others are not happy. Park Yang-Min begins hitting Young-Min with a baseball bat, giving him 45 strikes to match the syllables used for his message.

After hearing this harrowing story, Ha-Na arrives before Jin-Woo who reveals that the charges have been dropped in the U data case. Ha-Na is not happy and demands to know who withdrew it. He refuses to tell her though, and simply tells the girl to stop wasting her energy on this case.

Ha-Na is furious but ignores her superiors and continues to investigate. She even heads to the hospital and listens to Young Min’s Mother, who discusses the company.

Given the nature of this case, Do-Ki is handed the files by Sung-Chul. He too begins to investigate, looking into the case and deciding to use the arcade console himself, on behalf of a hospitalized Young-Min.

The team are brought together and get to work. Do-Ki poses as a new recruit at the company, donning the glasses once more. This is all a ploy of course to make himself look like an easy target. Because of his impressive fake resume, he’s immediately made a manager.

While Do-Ki approaches this case head-on, Ha-Na tries to find a legal way of dealing with this company. And it looks like she may have found it.

Jeon Jin Won reported Yang-Jin for assault on May 24th 2020. The only trouble is, he’s living on a remote island off the main coast of Korea. Visiting him doesn’t help (given he runs away) and heading back to the company throws up a big surprise. Ha-Na runs into a disguised Do-Ki in the hallway. Uh oh!

During the epilogue, Go Eun is encouraged to open up about her sister. The doctor tells her to repeat the mantra “It’s not your fault.” Well, Go Eun is full of rage and she wants to know who’s actually responsible if not herself. Now it becomes clear that this anger is what’s fueling her to keep working for Deluxe Taxi.

There’s a “Hidden Track” segment at the end of this episode too, which shows more of Jung Min’s story. It’s a brief segment in truth, and one that doesn’t do a lot other than show the boy now at peace.

The Episode Review

Taxi Driver returns this week with a brand new case. Here, we’ve got a big corporation acting shadily, with Park Yang Min the typical bully that completely abuses his staff.

The physical abuse that the employees are suffering from is pretty brutal, especially seeing Young-Min being struck so many times with a baseball bat. In fact, the entire chapter banks on this being as difficult to watch as possible, leaning into the revenge angle beautifully.

This time though, Taxi Driver’s latest case switches things up slightly. There’s a really interesting dynamic at play between Ha-Na and Do-Ki, with big questions asked around the nature of right and wrong – along with revenge and justice. It’s a clever juxtaposition and one that helps give this show a little more depth than it normally would with an ordinary revenge story.