The most dangerous mission for the Rainbow Taxi team became their quietest victory. In the tense episodes 13 and 14 of Taxi Driver Season 3, the team found themselves prisoners on a remote island run by a brutal international fraud ring. With their usual methods of force impossible, they crafted a brilliant and risky new plan: they stopped fighting the criminals and decided to join them. By pretending to be greedy investors, they set a trap with a fake money handover that dismantled the entire criminal operation from the inside.
The episodes, which aired on January 2 and 3, 2026, pushed the team into their most claustrophobic and psychologically demanding case yet. The island of Samheung-do is not just a hideout but a fully operational criminal headquarters where every resident, from the police chief to the local monk, is part of the scheme. After being captured, team leader Kim Do-gi had to use his legendary talent for disguise in a new way, not by changing his costume, but by crafting a flawless fake identity as a major criminal to save his friends.
The Island of Crime and the Performance of a Lifetime
The team’s investigation into a simple online shopping scam led them to the isolated Samheung-do island, which they discovered operates as a corporation for crime. A man known as “Writer Go,” a former prosecutor, designs complex fraud scenarios. His partners include a tech programmer, a logistics expert, and a corrupt police chief who ensures no outside investigation reaches the shore. The team learned the horrifying truth that the bodies they had seen dumped at sea were not random victims but journalists, police officers, and whistleblowers who had tried to expose the island’s secrets.
The situation turned critical when, one by one, team members Go-eun, Jin-eon, and Chief Choi were tracked, kidnapped, and brought to the island by the criminals. Facing execution, their only hope was Do-gi, who was still free but under intense scrutiny. In a high-stakes meeting with Writer Go, Do-gi delivered what fans are calling his greatest performance. He wove a detailed backstory, using his real past undercover identities from previous seasons to present himself as a seasoned, high-level criminal looking for a new business venture. His story was so convincing that Go chose to believe him.
“I’ve decided to trust Mr. Kim Do-gi once,” Writer Go stated, shaking Do-gi’s hand and officially bringing him into the fold.
This trust was the first crack in the criminals’ armor. Do-gi was reunited with his team, not as fellow prisoners, but as his supposed partners in crime. They were given a tour of the operation, witnessing how the fraud kits were created and shipped globally from a mainland fish market. The scale was staggering, confirming they needed to destroy the system, not just arrest a few people.
Planning the Fake Handover to Create Chaos
With the criminals watching their every move, open communication was impossible. The Rainbow Taxi team had to plan their counterattack through coded conversations and subtle signals. Their goal was to gain access to the central server room in the island’s temple, which controlled all the fraudulent websites and operations. To do this, they needed a major distraction.
The plan was built on the criminals’ own greed. Do-gi proposed making a large investment, offering seed money from his associate, Sung-chul. The scammers, eager for the cash, agreed to a formal handover meeting. This setup was the perfect bait. The team’s real strategy had multiple layers:
- Jin-eon would leave for the mainland, supposedly to retrieve the investment money. In reality, he would get the hacking equipment they needed.
- The team would stage internal conflicts, pretending to argue and betray each other to sow confusion and distrust among the criminals.
- During the handover, the physical distraction would allow Go-eun to slip away and hack the server.
The psychological warfare was intense. As the team pretended to turn on each other, suggesting that only one of them should survive to handle the deal, Writer Go and his men became increasingly paranoid and unsettled. Unbeknownst to the Rainbow team, the criminals had their own betrayal planned: they intended to take the investment money and then kill everyone. Both sides were playing a double game, but only one was fighting for justice.
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The Hack, The Escape, and Exposing the Truth
The climax of the plan was executed with precision. When Jin-eon returned with a case full of cash, all eyes were on the money. Do-gi, Sung-chul, Jin-eon, and Chief Choi engaged Go and his men, creating the necessary commotion. In the chaos, Go-eun infiltrated the temple’s server room. In a silent and swift sequence, she accessed the system and began shutting down the fraudulent websites one by one, crippling the international operation at its source.
The criminals realized the deception too late. As the Rainbow Taxi team tried to escape, the island erupted into a violent chase. The team split up to divide their pursuers. Do-gi was cornered at a cliff’s edge, with three cars ramming his taxi until it hung precariously over the edge. In a final defensive move, he activated an electrical device on his vehicle, disabling the attackers and saving his own life.
Writer Go attempted a final escape by boat. Do-gi, catching up to him, shot the boat’s engine, causing an explosion that ended Go’s reign. A key ally emerged in the aftermath: an undercover reporter who had been hiding on the island for months, gathering evidence after his colleague was murdered. He set fire to the corrupt police station—a symbolic destruction of the island’s false authority—and joined the team.
The victory was not marked by celebration, but by revelation. The reporter went live on air, broadcasting all the evidence to the public and finally exposing the truth about Samheung-do. In a quiet, powerful final scene, the exhausted but relieved Rainbow Taxi team simply watched the broadcast together. They shared a meal in silence, their work done, the harm stopped.
Fan reactions online have praised the tense, clever writing. One viewer noted, “The amazing thing today was that there wasn’t a single action scene, but it was crazy fun,” while another said, “My palms were sweating the whole island episode. I was completely immersed”. Many highlighted Do-gi’s performance, with one fan commenting, “Do-gi is really a god-tier character. He’s physically gifted, but his intelligence is on another level”.
Taxi Driver Season 3 is streaming on Viki. The final two episodes of the season are scheduled to premiere on January 9 and 10, 2026.
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