Trolley – K-Drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

Sincerity

Episode 9 of Trolley starts with Hye-joo reading the messages between Ji-hoon and Soo-bin. The final one “I’m going to kill myself” shakes Hye-joo to her core, as she realizes that it wasn’t an accident after all. When she attempts to speak to Soo-bin, Hye-joo is shocked to find her room completely empty and she’s left her phone there.

When Yeo-jin heads over, Hye-joo begins crying and is worried about Soo-bin. She’s determined to try and find her, and Joong-do not answering his phone isn’t helping. Eventually he does though, but it comes with Hye-joo being rushed to hospital after collapsing. Yeo-jin hands back the red phone before she leaves, as Joong-do sits with his wife and holds her hand.

Joong-do apologizes for keeping the phone a secret and admits he did so to protect his wife from the truth. Woo-jae was the one who wanted to use Soo-bin as the true culprit in all this, blaming her for what happened.

Soo-bin visits her mum and questions why she doesn’t care about her own flesh and blood. It’s clear she’s playing favourites with Yun-seo (her other daughter) and acts like Soo-bin is a complete stranger in front of her during a revealing flashback. Soo-bin’s other phone was apparently with her so she could hear from her mum but since announcing her pregnancy, Soo-bin’s mother hasn’t even bothered to phone or get in touch. When Soo-bin goes on to bring up Yun-seo, her mum hits back and demands she never mention her again or there will be trouble. Eventually Soo-bin leaves, but she struggles to hold back tears when she does so.

Meanwhile, Seung-hee heads off to visit Seung-kye’s parents, trying to convince them to team up so they can take out the Assemblyman. According to Seung-kye’s father, Sol was working as a call girl and as such, the rules around filming would be slightly different. Seung-hee deliberates over whether she can weaponize this against Hye-joo’s family.

Speaking of secrets, Joong-do speaks to Yeo-jin who points out he should have been more thorough in hiding his phone. Joong-do brings up his disdain for Soo-bin, and specifically how he hid one of the messages from her. He was angry about the whole situation and that seemingly explains why he has been resentful toward Soo-bin all this time.

Soo-bin – having left her phone with her mother – wakes up and realizes that it’s missing. Her mother answers Soo-bin’s phone and learns that a call has come in from someone claiming to be her boyfriend. As a result, some girl shows up (off-screen) to collect the phone.

At the Book Repair Center, Hye-joo looks through Ji-hoon’s phone and finds out that Soo-bin never cancelled the contract like she said she did. It’s still connected. Hye-joo tries to ring through but struggles to connect. As a result, she messages from her son’s phone, telling Soo-bin she needs to contact her when she gets the message.

Elsewhere, Ki-young decides to go out for a date with Seung-hee but it all goes wrong when Seung-kye’s father gets in touch. Following an online post going viral he’s livid and claims he’s going to sue. Now, the post in question actually has the video of Joong-do being abused by Seung-kye’s father at the hospital, which is something Woo-jae filmed a few episodes back.

Naturally, Sol’s grandmother heads over to see Joong-do that night, accusing him of using her and unhappy about the double standards, claiming that he was just using Sol to his advantage for his campaign. Joong-do tries to explain that as a parent himself, he knows what it’s like to lose a son, but she’s having none of it. When she shuts the door on him, Woo-jae points out that every action he takes has a reaction and he did warn him not to go to the hospital.

Yoon-jeo heads home and she too is upset. She’s seen the video of Joong-do being “beaten up” and is concerned. Joong-do does have bruises all over his stomach and we know he’s in pain, evidenced by him holding his chest and side earlier in the episode. As Joong-do and Hye-joo talk, they eventually kiss and end up lying in bed together. “I’ve never doubted your sincerity.” Hye-joo says, but as we cut to the past, it turns out Joong-do was well aware of the video that night and told Woo-jae to hold onto it “just in case.”

Back in the present, Soo-bin rings through to her phone and a shady guy answers.

The Episode Review

A few big revelations come to the foreground in this episode, and it opens things up in a tantalizing way for the rest of the season. We’ve known for a while that Joong-do is not being wholly truthful and this chapter all but confirms it. He fabricated that entire event at the hospital, seemingly aware that Seung-kye’s parents might try to make a move against him. Well, he’s seen through that and the video was his contingency plan to use against them. It’s definitely smart and shows that he’s well aware of the cut-throat nature of the political world.

Meanwhile, the trolley dilemma comes to the fold again because on the one hand, Hye-joo can allow Seung-hee to stir up trouble and go against her, but Joong-do and Woo-jae can easily turn that and destroy her whole family, given the dirt they’ve uncovered.

A lot happened in this episode and given it has been meandering on for some time, it’s nice to get development and a few big answers. The Soo-bin situation is definitely tantalizing and the ending proposes that she may actually be about to get into a world of trouble. Either way, the next episode should be quite the intriguing watch.