4 Emotions We Went Through In Episodes 7-8 Of "Taxi Driver 3"
Kim Do Gi (Lee Je Hoon) finds himself truly tested this week as he encounters a dangerous opponent whose games are far more complicated and convoluted than anything he has faced before.
The recent episodes of “Taxi Driver 3” accelerate the investigation into Park Min Ho’s (Lee Do Han) death from 15 years ago. Just when Do Gi and his squad—Ahn Go Eun (Pyo Ye Jin), Choi Kyung Goo (Jang Hyuk Jin), and Park Jin Eon (Bae Yoo Ram)—believe they are nearing the finish line, they realize they have only scratched the surface. The truth is far murkier than anticipated.
The prime suspects, Dong Hyeon and Seong Wook, turn out to be mere puppets. The real strings are being pulled by Cheon Gwang Jin (Eum Moon Suk), a psychopath with a chilling penchant for betting on human lives. He revels in sadism, forcing people to wrestle for money and survival in grotesque games of his own design.
As the true mastermind behind Min Ho’s death, Gwang Jin appears to outwit everyone, including Do Gi. Pushed into deadly territory, Do Gi now faces the most perilous challenge of his career. The stakes are no longer just about exposing the past, but surviving the present and ensuring that a crime once erased is finally brought into the light. Ahead of this week’s episodes, here are four emotions we experienced in episodes 7 and 8:
Warning: spoilers from episodes 7-8 ahead!
Grief: Park Min Ho’s tragedy
Park Min Ho’s unresolved case from 15 years ago and the justice denied to his now-ailing father, Park Dong Su, continues to weigh heavily on CEO Jang. As Kim Do Gi digs deeper into the investigation, the circumstances leading to Min Ho’s death slowly unravel.
Min Ho, an upright and principled volleyball player, discovers that his teammates and close friends, Dong Hyeon and Seong Wook, have sold not just the game but themselves to Gwang Jin, who appears as a patron of the games. When Gwang Jin attempts to buy Min Ho’s silence and loyalty, he refuses to compromise his ethics. That refusal ultimately costs him his life.
Min Ho is brutally assaulted by Gwang Jin in the locker room, a moment made even more devastating when his own friends join in on the attack. He is mercilessly run over, dying a slow and painful death. What makes these scenes so difficult to watch is not just the violence, but the betrayal at its core.
Min Ho’s tragedy is a heartbreaking reminder of a promising life that never got a chance to grow and of justice cruelly denied as his attackers walk free for years, leaving his father trapped in grief and unanswered questions.
Horrified anger: Gwang Jin and his cruel ways
Gwang Jin is cunning, unscrupulous, and utterly devoid of a moral compass. He embodies both rage and revulsion through his calculated cruelty. As the true mastermind behind the illegal betting and online game manipulation, he operates from the shadows, using Dong Hyeon and Seong Wook as pawns while he moves on to far more violent terrain.
For Gwang Jin, human lives are nothing but currency. He orchestrates sadistic survival games purely for his own amusement, watching people fight for survival as if it were entertainment. When Seong Wook informs him that the final game has been exposed—and that Park Min Ho’s body has been discovered—his response is swift and merciless. Unaware of Do Gi and the Rainbow Taxi team closing in, he cold-bloodedly kills both Dong Hyeon and Seong Wook, erasing his loose ends without hesitation.
The horror deepens when it is revealed that Gwang Jin was also responsible for the accident that left Min Ho’s father, Park Dong Su, injured years ago. His intent to return and kill Dong Su marks a chilling escalation, which only fails because Do Gi intervenes, placing himself squarely in Gwang Jin’s line of fire.
Gwang Jin’s backstory makes him even more disturbing. As a child, he killed a classmate, a crime his wealthy family helped cover up. His grandmother knew the truth, and he resented her for it, hinting at his possible involvement in her death as well. In a final act of twisted control, he insists on burying Min Ho in her burial plot. He even transforms the correctional school she founded into a dystopian survival camp, rigged with cameras, where he watches participants kill one another while he places bets.
The anger stems from Gwang Jin’s complete lack of remorse and the horror you feel from how he casually destroys lives with no possibility of redemption.
Adrenaline rush: Do Gi raising the stakes
What makes this stretch so thrilling is how unflappable Kim Do Gi remains throughout. He approaches the investigation like a seasoned gambler, keeping his cool as he buys into the gym, observes the betting patterns, and quietly studies how money and influence move through the system. Nothing about his demeanor gives away how deeply he’s already calculating his next move.
Then comes the disguise. A master of reinvention, Do Gi poses as a slick Italian talent scout, using charm and credibility to gain the trust of one of Seong Wook’s players, of course helped by the cool Go Eun, who helps him to penetrate the operation from the inside. It’s through this carefully constructed persona that he begins to understand just how vast and how dangerous the network truly is. What initially appears to be match-fixing soon reveals something far more sinister.
Do Gi eventually lets himself be seen by Gwang Jin, fully aware of the risk he’s taking. Believing Do Gi to be someone paid off by Dong Su, Gwang Jin underestimates him, a mistake Do Gi knowingly allows. By stepping directly into Gwang Jin’s line of fire, Do Gi raises the stakes himself, choosing confrontation over caution.
The adrenaline peaks when Do Gi goes in alone into the school and enters the deadly games designed to break him. There are no backup plans here, only nerve, instinct, and resolve. By surviving Gwang Jin’s twisted playground and turning the tables on him, Do Gi doesn’t just expose the operation, he gives Gwang Jin exactly what he deserves.
Closure: Min Ho is laid to rest
For years, Park Dong Su has lived caught between memory and loss, holding onto his son even as time slips through his fingers. His recollections come in fragments, brief moments where Min Ho feels close, only to fade again.
When Min Ho’s body is finally found, that long suspension ends. Dong Su is able to give his son a proper farewell, and in doing so, something within him settles. It’s as if, for a fleeting moment, time loosens its grip and allows him to be fully present.
In his quiet conversation with Min Ho, Dong Su finds reassurance rather than sorrow. His son’s words feel like permission to stop searching, to stop rushing, and to simply live. The years of waiting finally give way to peace. It isn’t loud justice or triumph, but it is closure. And for Dong Su, that peace means everything.
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Puja Talwar is a Soompi writer with a strong Yoo Yeon Seok and Lee Junho bias. A long time K-drama fan, she loves devising alternate scenarios to the narratives. She has interviewed Lee Min Ho, Gong Yoo, Cha Eun Woo, and Ji Chang Wook to name a few. You can follow her on @puja_talwar7 on Instagram.