Recap Korean Drama "Trolley (2022)" Episode 12

Episode 12 of Trolley begins with Hye-joo receiving that dreaded call outside the Memorial Center. Joong-do brings up that Ji-hoon commit sexual assault against Soo-bin. She’s blackmailing Joong-do with this and as a result, he’s decided to hold a press conference in an hour’s time to play damage control.

Hye-joo doesn’t agree with this and attempts to get through to Soo-bin, believing there must be something that can be done. Unfortunately, she can’t get through to Soo-bin and she’s too late to see her husband, who heads infront of the TV and informs everyone that Ji-hoon commit sexual assault, bowing and apologizing.

Joong-do then proceeds on to publicly declare the bill amendments he wants to make, with the investigation continuing after said sex offenders have died. Now, given he’s just outed his own son as an assaulter, his words hold a lot of sway with the public.

Like clockwork, the phones inside the office go off constantly with people ringing in after this. As for Joong-do, he explains to Hye-joo that Soo-bin showed up that very morning and blackmailed him, forcing his hand. She even showed off her OBGYN records, confirming that she was referred to the sexual assault victim center and underwent counselling.

Soo-bin wanted 50 million won and instead of just paying her to be quiet, Joong-do decided to expose his own son. “No secret lasts forever.” He says. He also tries to justify all of this by claiming that it was a pre-emptive measure.

With how Joong-do is weaponizing and using his own deceased son to propose this bill to the public, Hye-joo starts to realize just how shady and corrupt the political world is. It’s not helped by a reporter hounding her outside, dehumanizing Ji-hoon and almost causing Hye-joo to kick off. Thankfully she’s saved by Chairwoman Woo who puts the reporter in her place.

Yoo-shin wakes up in hospital and sees her son in the place of Ki-young, telling him that she’ll make sure Seung-ho’s secret is taken to the grave. Basically, she knows that her son is an abuser but has decided to keep it all quiet… but not for long. Not now that Ki-young knows!

Yoon-seo’s teacher calls Hye-joo into school, where the other kids have turned on Yoon-seo as a result of the Ji-hoon confession. She’s had a fight with her best friend, who believes all sex offenders should just drop dead – that including Ji-hoon.

After sorting this mess out, a frazzled Hye-joo heads down the street and ends up bumping into Soo-bin. The pair talk in private, where Soo-bin admits that Ji-hoon didn’t actually assault her after all. Hye-joo quizzes Soo-bin over just why she’s blackmailing Joong-do into talking. Well, it turns out that she didn’t! Soo-bin didn’t blackmail him and is absolutely adamant about that.

Naturally, the seeds of doubt have been planted and Hye-joo struggles to work out who’s telling the truth between Soo-bin and her husband. Given we’ve seen two conflicting scenes from the past, it’s difficult to know who’s really telling the truth here. And it’s only made worse when this domestic spills over outside, with Su-Hyeon’s father showing up and making a big scene, blaming Hye-joo in particular for raising a bad son.

Joong-do is distracted, unable to focus and forgetting to wear his National Assembly pin heading out to the interviews for the day. Hye-joo steps on it and it immediately brings up memories of the past. Specifically how Joong-do claimed he needed to head out before sunrise to go to the wake. So where was he during the early morning? Was it to the funeral? Or somewhere else? That’s precisely what Hye-joo is prepared to find out!

We finally do get the truth regarding this blackmail situation though. It turns out it was Assemblyman Kang who had done some digging and learned from the woman at the abortion clinic that Soo-bin was enquiring about terminating her baby. The doctor wrote in her chart that Soo-bin got pregnant from sexual assault from her boyfriend. Kang then used this to blackmail Joong-do and force his hand into admitting to the public everything that’s happened.

Soo-bin said this as she was under the assumption that the only way to get an abortion was to be a victim of a sex crime. She had no idea that the law had changed and that this isn’t the case anymore. She also reveals that Ji-hoon didn’t get her pregnant from her and it was, in fact, her ex-boyfriend. Ji-hoon had no part in any of this.

Back in the present, Woo-jae is quick to point out to Joong-do that the Soo-bin situation has been resolved for now but there’s still Seung-hee to contend with. If that wasn’t enough, they’ve also got the elections coming up. But then Joong-do has already decided that the key to winning this election is telling the truth, so that’s just what he intends to do, regardless of who it may hurt.

Speaking of hurt, Soo-bin dropped one last bombshell to Hye-joo before leaving earlier in the episode. It turns out Joong-do was the last person to see Ji-hoon alive. Their conversation in the car turned ugly, with Ji-hoon promising to expose his father and make sure he’s never seen in politics again. Could this link Joong-do to his own son’s death?

The Episode Review

Trolley returns with a slower episode this time, compared to yesterday’s politically charged chapter. Everything here is simmering away and there’s a lot of fake-outs and misunderstandings we need to get to the bottom of. Trolley definitely doesn’t feel like it needs 16 episodes to tell its story though, as another feature–length episode of say 70/75 minutes could probably wrap everything up neatly.

As we’ve known for a whole, Soo-bin was only using the Assemblyman and staying with his family as a way of getting away from her ex boyfriend, making up that she was pregnant with Ji-hoon’s baby. However, it doesn’t explain the JD tattoo on her stomach which we still need to find out the meaning of.