The previous episode of “Trolley” ended with Soo-Bin leaving Hye-Joo’s house for good as Hye-Joo’s advice affected her emotionally. She also had lost her child due to miscarriage, which also could be another reason for her leaving the house. Hye-Joo, on the other hand, had sent in pictures of her reconstructed books, Ji-Hoon and Soo-Bin, that she had taken for printing. Before she received her delivery, somebody else had swiped only Soo-Bin’s pictures and left the rest for Hye-Joo. Hye-Joo, not noticing, had thought of sending some pictures of Ji-Hoon to his maternal grand-parents, and had found his phone amidst searching for envelopes in Joong-Do’s study.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 9: Recap And Ending – Will Soo-Bin’s Past Also Catch Up to Her?
“Trolley” Episode 9 begins with Hye-Joo finding Ji-Hoon’s phone while looking for envelopes in Joong-Do’s study. She experiences betrayal from both Joong-Do and Soo-Bin as she reads through the texts. She feels betrayed by Joong-Do, as he told her that Ji-Hoon’s phone was not found by the police. She felt betrayed by Soo-Bin because Ji-Hoon’s chat with Soo-Bin proved two things: Soo-Bin was in fact his girlfriend, and that Ji-Hoon might have committed suicide due to Soo-Bin asking for a breakup. She rushes to Soo-Bin’s room only to find it empty, as Soo-Bin had left earlier and therefore Hye-Joo could not clear her doubts with her. She goes over the texts and discusses the situation with Yeo-Jin as they try to contact Joong-Do. Hye-Joo has to then leave for her studio as her customer from “Trolley” Episode 1 has returned with her son for the repaired book. Hye-Joo converses a little with the customer as the customer mentions her conception dream and also asks Hye-Joo about her dream regarding Ji-Hoon. This conversation and the chats overwhelm Hye-Joo to the degree of experiencing a full-blown panic attack right after the customer leaves her shop. She experiences this while she quickly calls Joong-Do. Joong-Do calls Yeo-Jin, who takes her to the hospital as he rushes to his wife’s aid. As he accompanies Hye-Joo, Joong-Do has a flashback regarding Ji-Hoon, which casts even more suspicion onto him regarding Ji-Hoon’s death. In the flashback Joong-Do is seen discussing Ji-Hoon’s untimely death and also covering it up by suggesting probable ways. He also discusses the idea of pinning the whole blame on Soo-Bin with Woo-Jae after reading the texts where Ji-Hoon had threatened Soo-Bin with self-harm if she broke it off with him. The flashback ends with Joong-Do comforting his anguished wife. Later they go home and agree on not letting Yoon Seo know about these incidents so as to not worry her. Hye-Joo visits Yoon-Seo’s room as she assures herself of her daughter’s presence while Joong-Do drinks his grief away. Both parents deal with the grief of losing their son by themselves as Joong-Do takes the next day off to visit Ji-Hoon with Hye-Joo as they go over their memories with him together after seeing Yoon-seo off to her school.
Soo-Bin had left earlier, and with her leave, another mystery unravels itself as she visits her birth mother, who had abandoned her for her new family early on in Soo-Bin’s life. Her birth mother presents herself as indifferent to Soo-Bin’s personal life yet has a completely different personality for her other daughter, Yun-Seo. Soo-Bin experiences heartbreak over this interaction, as she had a similar experience from when her birth mother refused to acknowledge her in front of Yun-Seo. Soo-Bin accidentally leaves her phone with her birth mother as she tries to find a place to stay for the night. Meanwhile, Hye-Joo tries to contact Soo-Bin’s old number in an effort to find her and talk to her about the whole incident. Soo-Bin lives at a hostel and then is reminded of her missing phone. However, Soo-Bin’s birth mother had already given the phone away to a stranger who had claimed to be Soo-Bin’s friend sent by her “boyfriend.” Soo-Bin panics as the episode reveals the person she was trying to run away from. The person turns out to be a pimp who had pretended to be her boyfriend and was trying to get a hold over her. Soo-Bin had turned out to be a call girl, who had used this side profession to earn her fees for the college and thus relating her to Seung-Kyu’s case as Gwi-Soon’s granddaughter had been a call girl as well. The profession paid well and had helped them with their expenses and fees, which is why a lot of them chose to willingly be a call girl. Seung-Kyu’s parents had found out that Gwi-Soon’s granddaughter had been a call girl, and so they tried their best to keep it under wraps and let the case blow over because they were tired of the malicious comments. Meanwhile, they had only admitted this fact to Seung-Hee as she had visited them in their restaurant to ask for their cooperation to bring Joong-Do and Hye-Joo down together. However, after admitting what they had found out about their son and fearing for their day-to-day income, Seung-Kyu’s parents had declined from being a part of the entire fiasco. The news later came to the public’s view after Assemblyman Kang had found out about it through his secretary, who had on several accounts asked for Gwi-Soon’s granddaughter to entertain him. The secretary’s friend, who is a photographer and also works as a spy for different parties, found out about Soo-Bin’s photos as well. He had swiped her photo from when Hye-Joo had taken Soo-Bin and Ji-Hoon’s photographs to send them for printing in “Trolley” Episode 8. The Secretary recalled Soo-Bin’s features toward the end of the episode as he contacts the pimp, who is revealed to be the owner of the initials J.D. as Soo-Bin calls him through the payphone to ask for her phone back.
As the news of Gwi-Soon’s granddaughter being a call girl makes its rounds due to Kang’s antics, Joong-Do and his staff are puzzled on how to counter this effectively. They release the video evidence of Seung-Kyu’s father beating up Joong-Do that Woo-Jae had captured in “Trolley” Episode 5. The video overpowers the other news and helps the party for now. The release of the news had brought trouble for not only Joong-Do’s party but also Seung-Hee, as she faces the probability of Seung-Kyu’s parents suing her for releasing the news that they had told her to keep confidential. Seung-Hee had thought of posting the news on her SNS, however, had stopped, but due to her uncle’s interference the whole blame lies on her. Meanwhile, Gwi-Soon is furious at Joong-Do for visiting Seung-Kyu’s parents after watching the video. She refuses to hear any of his excuses and feels betrayed by both Joong-Do and his wife, Hye-Joo. She had mentioned to Hye-Joo before that her grand-daughter had a side job that was paying her well and that she had wanted Gwi-Soon to stop her mill and take some much-needed rest; however, Gwi-Soon was unaware of what her side job was. Gwi-Soon had also not seen the news but had watched the video of Joong-Do getting beaten up after a reporter had shown it to her. As Joong-Do rushes to pacify Gwi-Soon with Woo-Jae in tow, Yoon-Seo returns from school and informs Hye-Joo of how Joong-Do got hit by Seung-Kyu’s father. Yoon-Seo was informed about the video by her friend in school, who was also dealing with problems of her own. Hye-Joo then watches the video, and as Joong-Do returns after not being able to reach out to Gwi-Soon, she asks him about his injury. The couple bonds over this incident as Hye-Joo feels guilt for not noticing her husband’s pain as well as sadness over the fact that he did not tell her. Joong-Do finds his solace in his wife’s arms after experiencing immense hardships for so long.
Final Thoughts
There are still suspicions about Joong-Do’s involvement in Ji-Hoon’s death, and the fact that Woo-Jae had suggested they pin the blame on Soo-Bin was also very suspicious. One thing about the series is that they show call girls with a rather gray outlook, neither in a negative nor in a positive light. The backgrounds of both Soo-Bin and Gwi-Soon’s grand-daughter had made them bound to look for such professions to pay their outstanding student loans as well as clear out debts. The series also emphasizes the basic human rights that every person deserves, with no exceptions to the rule. Digital sexual crime and other sexual crimes apply to all, and consent matters. No means no. In the case of Gwi-Soon’s granddaughter, although she was a call-girl at the time when Seung-Kyu had taken her video without her consent, it still does not place him above the law.
Although it does set back Joong-Do’s plans of pushing the amendment for the right to investigate even after the death of the perpetrator for the Victim’s justice. Joong-Do, albeit frustrated by the turn of events, still insists on the amendment, however, it does shed some light on how the public of South Korea as well as the society view sex workers. The turn of events makes it impossible for Soo-Bin to escape her past, as Joong-Do is going to face yet another obstacle due to Hye-Joo messaging Soo-Bin’s old phone, which was in the hands of Soo-Bin’s pimp. Also, this whole event might take a major turn as Soo-Bin’s mother had also informed him about her pregnancy, which she had kept under wraps, yet she had admitted otherwise to Soo-Bin. The question still stands: with all of this happening around Joong-Do, will he be able to get out of this scandal and actually run for the elections? Kang will obviously get sucked into another scandal as well due to his sister-in-law and Seung-Hee’s meddling, along with his own meddling as well.
