Summary
Do-Ki and Ha-Na remain two sides of the same coin as a case begins that threatens to either divide them further or possibly unite them.
This recap of Taxi Driver season 1, episode 11 contains spoilers.
Vigilante thrillers always tend to work on the same basis, really. You can’t mete out justice, even to those deserving of it, without a more by-the-book counterpart to reflect the opposing side of the revenge coin, and in Taxi Driver episode 11, as with virtually every previous episode, that dynamic is best expressed through Do-Ki and Ha-Na. The former, having suffered through the loss and grief and the failures of the system that he has, represents an unbridled need for payback that he’s happy to take into his own hands. The latter represents a more traditional idea of “the system”, but crucially someone who is right on the cusp of embodying Do-Ki’s looser ideology.
The ferocity with which Ha-Na pursues the case again Rainbow is symptomatic of this, really. You get the sense that she’s eager to expose Do-Ki because he’s the embodiment of a type of justice that she isn’t that far removed from; that she probably desires, all things considered. Overcompensating to take down the heroes rather than the villains – though the definition of “heroes” in this case is loose – might make for a fun scene in which Rainbow is forced to hide in the basement while the authorities toss the taxi firm on the strength of a warrant, but it doesn’t lead to any more concrete answers on whether the law has its limits, which is what she and Do-Ki argue about after the raid ends up being a bust.
Taxi Driver season 1, episode 11 only takes these ideas further as it progresses and introduces a new case, the disappearance of Dong-Hee (Han Kyu-Won), the son of Pastor Ko (Pastor Ko), who was spirited away by Chairman Baek’s goon, Goo (Lee Ho-Cheol). Dong-Hee’s whereabouts and indeed whether or not he’s alive remain unknown (it’s cool to see the god-fearing Pastor Ko push the other button on Rainbow’s arcade machine), but both Do-Ki and Ha-Na predictably refuse to let the case drop.
This is especially interesting since it creates the starkest juxtaposition yet between these two’s means and methods. Ha-Na takes the legal approach while Do-Ki spies on Goo intimidating a witness by the name of Sim Woo-Sub (Jung Kang-Hee), and it’s from his perspective that we learn Goo has an identical twin brother, which only exacerbates matters. Beyond this obvious juxtaposition, there’s also an intriguing wrinkle with the direct involvement of Chairman Baek, who has always been intimately tied to Bluebird’s activities. Is revenge only possible when it’s being taken against those without common interests? That doesn’t seem like something that Do-Ki and Sung-Chul, not to mention Ha-Na, would get on board with.
Matters are inevitably complicated by the clashing of these motivations, ideas, and methods, but it’s Ha-Na, suddenly personally affected by the exploits of the Goo twins, who is left more of a victim than anyone. The question of whether her resolve will be strengthened, or whether she’ll veer more towards Do-Ki and Rainbow’s means of getting things done, is the most compelling dramatic question raised by Taxi Driver season 1, episode 11.
