The Park Min-ho case, a tragic story that first brought Rainbow Taxi together, reached its long-awaited end. Episodes 7 and 8 of Taxi Driver Season 3 saw the team dismantle an illegal sports betting ring and confront the powerful mastermind who killed a young athlete fifteen years ago. In a dramatic climax, driver Kim Do-gi faced off against the villain in a brutal, high-stakes showdown.
The Final Showdown at the Abandoned School
After saving Park Dong-su, the father of the victim, from a kidnapping attempt, Do-gi’s skills caught the attention of the main villain, Cheon Gwang-jin. Gwang-jin, now based overseas running illegal live-streamed fights, saw Do-gi as a potential asset for his violent business. He lured Do-gi to a remote, abandoned school that his grandmother had built.
Gwang-jin’s plan was cruel: force Do-gi to fight wave after wave of attackers in a deadly game broadcast on the dark web for betting audiences. Do-gi entered the school alone, taking on dozens of opponents in extended hand-to-hand combat sequences. While Do-gi fought, the rest of the Rainbow Taxi team executed their own plan. Jin-eon and Kyung-koo secretly emerged from the taxi’s trunk and infiltrated the school. Their mission was to find and secure the remains of Park Min-ho, which Gwang-jin had stolen to destroy the evidence of his crime.
At the same time, hacker Go-eun breached the school’s network. She systematically shut down Gwang-jin’s cameras and betting system, causing him to lose control and money rapidly. With Min-ho’s body safely recovered by his teammates, Do-gi was cleared for the final confrontation.
After a hard-fought battle, Do-gi defeated Gwang-jin and kicked him through a third-floor window. The villain fell into a freshly dug grave in the ground below. Broken and begging for mercy, Gwang-jin was buried alive as concrete poured over him.
Unraveling a 15-Year-Old Murder
The episodes revealed the full, heartbreaking story of Park Min-ho’s death through flashbacks to fifteen years prior. Gwang-jin was a sponsor and coach at Jingwang University, where Min-ho, Seong-uk, and Dong-hyeon were volleyball recruits. Gwang-jin bribed Seong-uk and Dong-hyeon with expensive gifts to fix matches, but Min-ho refused to cooperate and threatened to expose them.
In a locker room confrontation, Gwang-jin struck Min-ho on the head, causing a severe concussion. He then forced a terrified Dong-hyeon to hit Min-ho as well, planning to frame the incident as a simple fight. When Min-ho tried to leave, Gwang-jin and Seong-uk escaped through a CCTV blind spot. Gwang-jin then ran Min-ho over with his car, killing him. To cover up the murder, they buried Min-ho’s body next to Gwang-jin’s grandmother’s grave. They made Dong-hyeon wear Min-ho’s clothes to create a false timeline for the police, leaving Min-ho’s father, Dong-su, with a missing son and no answers.
When Dong-su later tried to investigate with Sung-chul’s help, Gwang-jin and Seong-uk ran him over with a truck. The attack left Dong-su with amnesia and a fragmented memory, explaining why he was so hard to find in the present day.
Rainbow Taxi’s Strategic Takedown
The team’s strategy across both episodes was a masterclass in psychological pressure and teamwork. The operation began with Do-gi infiltrating the gym run by Dong-hyeon, which served as the front for the volleyball betting scheme. Do-gi returned ownership of the gym to a confused Dong-hyeon and then introduced himself using Min-ho’s name, instantly shaking the guilty man.
To further destabilize the criminals, Do-gi and the team employed a multi-pronged approach:
- Disrupting the Betting Ring: Do-gi, disguised as a European volleyball scout named “Lorenzo Kim,” approached a player involved in the match-fixing. He encouraged the player to ignore his coach’s signals and play honestly, sabotaging the fixed bets.
- Creating Paranoia: Do-gi then appeared before coach Seong-uk wearing Park Min-ho’s old jersey. This, combined with Dong-hyeon’s panic, made Seong-uk believe the man they killed had returned. Terrified, he raced to the gravesite to confirm the body was still there, unknowingly leading Rainbow Taxi to its location.
- Eliminating the Middlemen: Their discovery alerted Gwang-jin, who returned to Korea. To tie up loose ends, he brutally tortured and murdered both of his former accomplices, Seong-uk and Dong-hyeon.
With the help of Go-eun’s research, the team learned that Gwang-jin’s wealth and influence came from his grandmother, a powerful businesswoman who founded the university and whose money funded his criminal empire.
A Father’s Long-Awaited Peace
The emotional core of these episodes was Park Dong-su. For fifteen years, he lived with the pain of his son’s disappearance and the trauma of his own attack. His final wish was for Min-ho to have a proper burial. After the showdown, the Rainbow Taxi team honored that wish.
In the final scene, Do-gi drove Dong-su in his taxi, carrying Min-ho’s ashes to their final resting place. The location offered a view of the sunset, a sight Dong-su imagined sharing with his son in heaven. The case that originally united the vigilante team was finally closed, delivering justice that the legal system could not.
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