SBS hit drama “Taxi Driver” has wrapped up its run and has done so spectacularly. Achieving the fourth-highest ratings of any Friday-Saturday drama in SBS history. It was a fun stressful ride and I am here to recap “Taxi Driver” Episode 16 and discuss my thoughts on it as well.
Note: this will be a spoiler review of the said episodes in the title. This is a subjective review.
“Taxi Driver” Episode 16 recap- the highlights
Oh Chul Young meets with Mr. Jang and reveals he’s publishing his book, Mr. Jang promises to do whatever it takes to stop that.
Do Ki visits his mom’s grave and is then united with Mr. Jang and the rest of the team who say they should take revenge but this time, they won’t harm anyone or break the law.
During their meeting to discuss their strategy, Mr. Jang reveals Oh Chul Young dearly cares for his son despite being a psychopath. They discover the son is suffering with his mom’s medical bills, she has dementia and requires attention. He also owes many loan sharks.
Do Ki pays a visit to the son and finds that he’s being harassed by loan sharks, he kicks their ass and sits down to chat with the son at the stall he operates at night. They discuss their families casually and Do Ki finds out the son literally has no idea who his father is. Do Ki offers to find his father for him.
The next day, Do Ki pays a visit to Oh Chul Young and runs into his son at the prison, the son is also not aware his father is the one beating him up. Do Ki tells the son he has something to tell him after his meeting with Oh Chul Young is over.
Do Ki chats with Oh Chul Young who shows arrogance, his demeanor changes when Do Ki brings up his son and says rather than killing him, he’d harm his son and ruin his life. He kneels before as begs for his son not to be harmed. Do Ki tells him to do as he says and ask for a prison transfer. He obliges.
Do Ki meets with the son and offers the foundation they run to pay for his mother to be transferred into a better facility for free. The son cries. Do Ki decides to lie to him and to never tell him who his father is.
Do Ki meets Prosecutor Kang and she ask whether he’ll ever reveal to Oh Chul Young who his son is, he refuses to do so to torture him.
Baek Sung Mi is being interrogated by Prosecutor Kang, she informs her there is no CCTV footage that proves what she’s saying about the taxi service. When Sung Mi tells her to ask criminals whom she’d locked up, she says they could well be lying and she can’t find the truth through them.
Oh Chul Young departs the prison to another one. He shakes the guards hands and squeezes his son, he then beats him up so badly that he requires hospitalization for two weeks. Meanwhile, Mr. Jang finds out that his mother has passed away.
Turns out, because of his hospitalization, he couldn’t visit his mom. His mom went out looking for him and tripped on the stairs and passed away.
Mr. Jang visits Oh Chul Young in prison and tells him who his son was and explain he just killed the only family his son had left. Oh Chul Young is unable to accept the truth and collapses in tears when he sees a photo that proves it.
Mr. Jang then meets with his friend the chief prosecutor and he admits to running the taxi service and asks to be arrested and trialed.
At night
Do Ki meets Prosecutor Kang and says he’s done with his revenge, he sticks out his hand to be arrested but she refuses to do so. She recalls the deal she told Baek Sung Mi when interrogating her, she tells her to plead for harboring criminals instead of adding more crimes on top while trying to incriminate Mr. Jang. Baek Sung Mi can tell she’s trying to protect the taxi service and tells her she’ll grab her by the collar for this.
Prosecutor Kang tells Do Ki she won’t arrest him and will bury the case, he attempts to persuade her otherwise but she thanks him for protecting all the people they missed, he did break the law but punished the ones the law couldn’t. She also admits she knows the law is broken.
At the prosecutor office
As a result of knowing she covered up for their crimes, Prosecutor Kang hands in her resignation letter and finds out that her superior had already resigned, he takes her letter and rips it and repeats that he’s the one who covered up their crimes not her. [shifting the blame]
He tells her to keep working hard to catch criminals.
At the taxi service hideout
They close the service and everyone goes back to their place. Do Ki will travel around and relax. Go Eun will take the civil servant exam.
At night
Go Eun meets with Do Ki and thanks him, she also hugs him and says she’ll miss him.
At the court house
The former chief prosecutor is now working as a lawyer, he represents the man who was falsely accused of killing Do Ki’s mother. Oh Chul Young shows up and admits to it, he kneels before him and apologizes. The man who was falsely accused is reunited with his family.
A year later
At the prosecutor office
Prosecutor Kang interviews Baek Sang Mi’s sister who is also running a prostitution ring. She caves in and asks her to keep her sister locked up and she’ll cooperate to the fullest extent.
Go Eun has become a cop and the rest of the gang also have respectable jobs, Do Ki is still resting. Prosecutor Kang then hears that there was a deluxe taxi who nabbed a criminal, she smiles.
At the trial
Baek Sang Mi is sentenced to 20 years instead of 10 years after filing for an appeal. The twins will also serve life in prison.
Crime is still rampage, the team gets a signal and is asked to gather again. A married couple throws away their child in the garbage and Do Ki comes and picks the child up.
The team assembles again and there is a new member, Prosecutor Kang is also in. The team gets to work again.
The end.
“Taxi Driver” season 2- when will it happen?
“Taxi Driver” ending hints at a possible second season as the service opens up again but this time the prosecutor is also involved and helping cover up their crimes. The team is now even more resourceful and able to tackle and take revenge on even more people.
Due to the ending, the topic of “Taxi Driver” season 2 has been coming up. There is a possibility for that because ahead of its finale, the lead actor Lee Je Hoon had expressed his wishes to return with a second season.
SBS has not publicly addressed the rumors of “Taxi Driver” season 2 but judging by the ending, many fans hope the broadcasting station soon confirms the drama plans for a second season.
“Taxi Driver” episode 16 review
“Taxi Driver” was truly a fun heartbreaking drama. It wrapped up exactly how I had hoped it would and honestly, its been a while since I’ve been satisfied with a kdrama ending.
“Taxi Driver” was a revenge drama but out of almost all the ones I’ve seen this takes the cake in its approach, its to my liking. It isn’t grandeur or far-fetched, even though it is a revenge drama, it goes about it the way I’d expect. And considerably better than for example “Vincenzo” which also takes a similar approach but does it differently.
“Taxi Driver” ending felt not only satisfactory but also morally right. I am not here to condone their actions but I understand their angle, the system is fucked up so badly that such a thing needs to exist. I am not against them being punished but they gamed the system in a realistic way to their advantage exactly how a villain weasels out of trouble in kdramaland or even in reality.
I love the fact that they’ve acknowledged their methods were at times too cruel. Revenge is cool and all but realistically speaking it will come to bite you in the ass. They got so close to dying and walked away bruised but enough to be able to still survive.
I like the message this drama presents. They also chose many stories based on actual real life events which infuriates me even more.
The writing did get slightly iffy towards episode 11 but I am glad it ended like that with the prosecutor joining forces and covering up for them. Changing the screenwriters turned out considerably better than I’d initially hoped and I am happy it did.
“Taxi Driver” wasn’t 100% perfect and this is due to the way Prosecutor Kang’s character was written but aside from that, I don’t think I have anything bad to say about this drama. Itt started out badly but towards the end, the new screenwriter made sure to redeem her character, a good call.
And instead of settling for outlandish dramatics, they wrapped it up well and took time exploring what happens after everything was over. Kdramas these days are not doing this which frustrates me at times.
I don’t mind the idea of “Taxi Driver” season 2, I look forward to seeing how it goes if it happens. I wouldn’t say I can’t wait for a second season but I’d watch if they do another one. There are so many real-life stories they can cover and I think they’ll do well.
Thank you to everyone who worked hard on “Taxi Driver,” to the actors, production team, and staff. Thank you for your hard work and for this amazing drama.
So these are my thoughts on “Taxi Driver”, so what about you guys? did you like the episodes? let me know what you thought in the comment section below.
