John Do-Ki Wick
Episode 14 of Taxi Driver begins just before Do-Ki lays the smack-down on Baek’s goons. He confirms his plan with Ha-Na and tells her that every action has a consequence; he’s well aware that this could backfire but he’s willing to walk through fire. Do-Ki immediately gets to work, knocking out General Manager Lee and demanding answers. A call from Goo sheds some light though, who mentions where the girls may be held. Meanwhile, Go-Eun awakens to find herself with Maria, stuck before Jung-Geon and Choi Min with their camera. Kyung-koo is with Chairman Baek, and they’re taking his fingers off one by one. Do-Ki is irate when he learns this, and after threatening Lee with a wrench, finds out they’re being kept in storage. This storage area sees Sung-Chool make a big sacrifice to save Kyung-Koo. Unfortunately it also sees him go blind in one eye as a result. Meanwhile, Do-Ki shows up to save the girls, sporting steel knuckles. Go-Eun is a mess, especially when she’s forced to watch her sister’s video again. Do-Ki is not messing about though and he thwarts the threat, shooting Choi-Min in the groin with a nail gun several times. After repeatedly hitting him in the face, Do-Ki recovers the phone and symbolically has Go-Eun stamp it into obscurity. As Go-Eun and Do-Ki drive off together, Jin-Eon looks to meet them. Unfortunately he’s suddenly struck by the white truck of doom, driven by Joo-Chan. He plunges a knife into Do-Ki’s neck before driving off. Jin-Eon passes away, leaving Do-Ki and Go-Eun grief-stricken and enraged. Do-Ki drives after Joo-Chan, using the deluxe taxi’s auto-drive to jump out at the last minute and flip the truck. The chairman is down, blanketed in a mosaic of broken glass and sticky blood. Do-Ki breathes heavily. He’s thwarted the threat but there’s still more work to be done. Do-Ki knows this and heads off to save Sung-Chool and Kyung-Koo. He shows up with steel knuckles and prepares to work. Do-Ki takes out all the goons with a single, well-choreographed action sequence before confronting Baek and the others. Do-Ki manages to trick Baek, holding her up at knife-point and slicing a line across her face. In her fear-stricken state, Do-Ki convinces Baek to give the order and let Sung-Chool and Jin-Eon go. While Baek manages to get away, Suk-Tae is left behind to deal with Do-Ki. He knocks him down until Do-Ki is surrounded by thugs. Too many to fight this time. Ha-Na shows up with a gun though, followed by a whole series of other officers. In the ensuing chaos, Do-Ki manages to grab a police car and takes off. It turns out he has a tracker planted in Baek’s truck, and Do-Ki listens to everything she says. Ha-Na figures out what Do-Ki is up to and follows in her own car. With Baek out of time – and room on the dock – Do-Ki knocks the Chairman down as Ha-Na shows up to put handcuffs on her. Do-Ki admits he has faith in Ha-Na rather than the police force and begins walking away. As he does, the events of the episode catch up to him and he collapses on the floor.
The Episode Review
What an episode! Okay so yes this drama has devolved a little into makjang territory and taken some liberties with the logic but boy is it exciting. The show feels like it’s been ripped right from the pages of an anime, with Do-Ki fighting through waves of goons to save his friends. Interestingly, the writing team have changed on this drama and perhaps that’s obvious from the shift in tension and action over the past few episodes. The decision to bring back all these different crime bosses over the season is a clever one, and it helps tie everything together nicely. Jin-on’s death is quite shocking and certainly unexpected. However, it also feels necessary to level out the balance of power. Alongside that though is the intriguing conversation with Suk-tae near the end, discussing revenge and how one can exact that on both sides of the conflict. It’s a small, subtle inclusion but one that confirms that violence only begets violence. These past few episodes have been really solid and the preview for next week seems to hint that the Deluxe Taxi crew are going to be packing up the revenge business for the foreseeable future. We’ll have to wait and see of course, but this action-packed episode has certainly been an exciting chapter!
