Recap Korean Drama "Trolley (2022)" Episode 4

Episode 4 of Trolley starts with Soo-bin overhearing Joong-do and Hye-joo talking. She heads outside, takes one look back at the book repair shop and walks away. Joong-do stays, and in fact he takes the afternoon off. It’s the first time he’s done that too, which certainly gets the Assemblyman’s team talking. After all, those who have served under him for years know that he works harder than most, not bothering to stop and even continuing to work through his paternity too. This, of course, ties into the debate last episode.

Woo-jae is concerned though. He decides to follow Joong-do, believing he’s going to show up at the wake for Seuk-hyu. He knows this would be bad news. However, he notices Soo-bin leaving and corners her. He insinuates that Soo-bin is actually a sex worker, explaining why he said the baby might not be Ji-hoon’s. With the dashcam disconnected, Woo-jae warns her to lay low, as if she’s dead.

During flashbacks, we cut forward in time to see Joong-do breaking the news to Hye-joo that he’s going to run as an Assemblyman. Assemblyman Woo gave a favourable recommendation, giving him a foot in the door. She’s not exactly happy but eventually agrees to go along with it, under the condition that she knows nothing about the politics. If things ever get hard, she wants him to share it with her. He promises to do just that. And as we cut back to the present, we know that he’s a man of his word.

Meanwhile, Ki-young reflects with his friend over his history with Seung-hee, including how they went to high school together but didn’t really get on. However, they’re now married, but she’s been away for three years studying. His mother in law is actually the owner of many buildings and happens to be a very wealthy real estate owner. Things between Ki-young and Seung-hee are tense though, especially if their frosty conversation back home is anything to go by.

When Joong-do and Hye-joo head home, Soo-bin is there. She’s done the test and it’s come back negative. Hye-joo decides they’ll stay civil and start to trust her. Joong-do is not so sure and tells her to be careful. There’s also the situation with their actual daughter Yoon-seo too, although in the morning an interesting encounter between Joong-do and Soo-bin ensues. The latter says good morning but Joong-do simply bumps past her, staring forward and refusing to acknowledge her.

The situation with Ki-young continues to deepen, especially when we learn that his mother in law, Lee Yoo-sin, walks all over him. After marrying her daughter, she actually gifted him a golf driving range, giving her leverage over him. Given Joong-do’s campaign involves the real estate he’s mixed up in, he encourages the team to find another way round this without involving Ki-young. It seems Joong-do empathizes with his situation.

Joong-do’s advisors encourage Joong-do to get his wife involved in his election a lot more, including bringing her to campaigns. He’s told that her absence makes him look bad and as if there’s something going on at home. Despite fierce scrutiny, Joong-do refuses and bows to Mr Yoo, telling him there’s no way he’s going to break the promise to his wife.

In private, Woo-jae questions his commitment to the cause, asking which he’d go for if pushed to the brink – his wife or his job. Joong-do decides he can try and push for both.

Hye-joo grows concerned when she notices Soo-bin’s lip balm on the floor of Joong-do’s car. She continues to press the subject, questioning Joong-do about who he drives around. She shrugs it off as a simple misunderstanding but there’s definitely something brewing between Joong-do and Soo-bin. The pair have another frosty encounter in the hallway and when Soo-bin gets changed in her room, she has the letters “JD” tattooed on her. Joong-do perhaps?

With Joong-do’s team begin sniffing around Lee Yoo-sin’s business, she sends Ki-young out to sort this out. The latter makes a few calls but when Seung-hee shows up he breaks the news to her, something he’s kept pent-up for a while. He’s not happy living there anymore and he needs to get away.

Seung-hee is broken and heads inside, speaking to her mum and noticing everything in the cabinet for her brother, Seung-ho. Despite it being twenty years since he passed away, Seung-hee continues to be overshadowed by her brother’s deeds.

Speaking of deeds, Joong-do’s new bill regarding shady real estate deals being conducted under the table – especially regarding ties to Assemblyman Kang and his sister-in-law – is flipped when he brings up Joong’s son and calls him out for being a junkie. He demands Joong-do get his house in order and eventually leaves in the middle of this heated debate, postponing voting on whether to pass this bill or not.

Meanwhile, Woo-jae messages Joong-do to let him know that Ki-young is en-route and wants to meet. Woo-jae agrees to take this on himself, but when Ki-young checks out the Assemblyman online, he notices a picture with his wife… who happens to be an associate of his from school.

As for Seung-hee, she shows up at Hye-joo’s place and calls her Kim Jae-Eun. “You murderer.” She says, as the episode comes a close.

The Episode Review

Trolley just casually dropping another grenade and just walking away for a week while everything blows up for our characters. More of the past is now revealed, with Ki-young and Seung-hee very much entangled with our main characters.

With elections coming up for Joong-do, everything here points at the entire house of cards coming crashing down around them in the most insane way possible.

We’ve got the whole Soo-bin situation which looks like it could be Joong-do who’s the father rather than Ji-hoon, which would explain the frosty reception in the hallway and the tattoo reading “JD”. She could well be obsessed with him, explaining the connection.

Then we have Hye-joo, who clearly doesn’t want to be in the public spotlight simply because she has a dark past. This past (much like Flower of Evil in a way) appears to be a tarnish on Hye-joo’s character and whether she actually killed this Seung-ho guy or not remains to be seen.