The Promise
Episode 7 of Trolley starts with Seung-hee awaiting Hye-joo’s arrival. Only, she’s starting to doubt the validity of her own story, wondering whether Hye-joo could actually be innocent after all. At the same time, Joong-do learns from Woo-jae that when Seung-ho died the case was closed with no one to indict. However, he receives a second call from Ki-young after, who informs him of exactly where his wife is going and at roughly what time. Hye-joo heads up to Seung-hee’s but ignores calls from her husband all the way there. In fact, she switches her phone off. This catches us up to the end of last week’s episode, as Joong-do angrily shows up at the door. Seung-hee is unsure what to do as Joong-do becomes more and more erratic. Finally he’s let inside before smashing the gate down and tells his wife to leave. When Seung-hee scoffs at all this and brings up Seung-kyu’s death, Hye-joo turns it around and points out that the investigation back then went nowhere. With news of Seung-ho’s death spreading, Hye-joo’s words about the assault fell on deaf ears as the investigation was closed. Hye-joo has the conviction, now that her husband is right there, to tell the truth. She brings up that Seung-ho molested her and she too was a victim. Seung-hee refuses to listen and tells her to leave, going on to reveal that she can’t be held responsible for what follows from here on out. After pointing out that Ji-hoon isn’t her biological son (receiving a swift slap to the fact for her troubles) Joong-do gets involved and promises that he’ll make Seung-hee pay for her mistakes if she tries to contact Hye-joo again. The pair do eventually leave, and as they do Joong-do phones Woo-jae and has a tow-truck sort out Seung-hee’s car which is pretty banged up. Woo-jae shows to see Ki-young, explaining the situation both parties find themselves in. It’s certainly tricky, and could expose a lot of uncomfortable truths should this one reach the court. At the same time though, there’s bound to be repercussions for all this, given Woo-jae is in collusion with one of the reporters and Seung-hee happens to be working secretly with Kang Soon-hong. The latter tells Seung-hee not to provoke Joong-do as he could retaliate badly. Joong-do and Hye-joo head home, with both revealing how they ended up at Seung-hee’s place. Joong-do tells her she’s doing the right thing in leaving this and he even tells her that he’s going to resolve all of it for her. However, a letter outside her house that night happens to be from Ms Cho. She’s in a bad place but she’s not answering her door. Authorities get involved and show up, where they find Ms Cho on the floor, surrounded by empty pill packets. It would appear she’s attempted to commit suicide. It turns out Ms Cho showed up at the school and overheard students revealing that Seung-kyu was misunderstood. She decided to give up and kill herself, choosing to end her life in a bid to help shed light on what’s happened. Her note to Joong-do also implores him to make sure her death is not in vain. Joong-do decides to do just that. Back home, Soo-bin asks Joong-do how Hye-joo is. However, Joong-do threatens her in return, promising big consequences if she messes with her. Back in her room though, Soo-bin receives a call from someone called JD. Is this the same Joong-do or a red herring and actually someone else? We shall see. The thing is, there are wishes over at Seung-hee’s household too, as Ki-young finds himself caught in the middle of this familial issue. That’s only exacerbated by Seung-hee’s past, where she revealed to him 3 years back that she wanted to study abroad. Back in the office, Joong-do proposes a slight change to the sex crime act he’s been trying to push through. Within this, he wants to make it so investigations can continue by retaining the prosecution’s right of arraignment even when the suspect is deceased. It’s a big amendment and it’s clear it won’t be easy to pass. Even if it doesn’t though, Joong-do is confident that public opinion could be enough to swing things in their favour, especially with elections coming up. Meanwhile, Hye-joo meets with Ki-young and as she does, Joong-do decides to brief his team on what’s happened with his wife.
The Episode Review
What a snooze-fest! I’m all for a slow burn but this trolley’s wheels are in danger of falling off after that. We get very little for Soo-bin and her storyline this time around, which just seems to have been abandoned at this point, while the situation involving Seung-hee and Ki-young feels like window dressing and a pretty annoying side-quest that needs to be completed before getting back on with the main story. Unless of course, this is the main focus now! The rivalry between these two families is fine unto itself but the way it’s been presented here, and especially these past few episodes, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a shame because there’s definitely potential here, given how good the opening few chapters have been, but sadly this episode was pretty poor.
