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Crash: Episodes 7-8
by solstices
A case buried in the past leaks poison into the present; vengeance begets even more tragedy, trapping its bearer in a vicious cycle of hurt. Amidst filial love and fractured friendships, a life is ruined, while another might finally have a chance at redemption.
EPISODES 7-8
Our case of the week starts out deceptively simple — a car has stopped in the middle of the road. Perhaps the driver dozed off? Unfortunately, the truth is far more macabre. The driver is dead, having been pierced in the neck by a metal piece that flew through his windshield.
An autopsy reveals the metal part is a ratchet buckle, used to secure cargo on trailers. It’s been deliberately cut, which means there’s been foul play, and it aligns with a car carrier rollover that occurred nearby. Looks like that pile-up, and this accidental manslaughter, arose from a case of premeditated murder.
The driver of the car carrier trailer may have survived, but he’s in poor shape. Despite being a mere grunt worker who had to follow orders, he’s being blamed for overloading his trailer, and his guilt is only assuaged somewhat when the TCI team informs him the broken ratchet buckle isn’t his fault. Witness testimonies — such as that of the young driver SEO DONG-WOO (Yang Byung-yeol) — point to a man in a green cap, who was seen carrying bolt cutters. Security isn’t tight around the drivers’ rest area, which means anyone could have snuck in to tamper with the trailer.
Our team pursues the green cap lead, and what do you know, the one driver that wears a green cap turns out to be Kyung-soo. So-hee and Yeon-ho chase him down the highway, but it soon becomes apparent that his brakes aren’t working. Kyung-soo isn’t the perpetrator; he’s the next target.
Thankfully, the inevitable crash ends with no casualties apart from Kyung-soo’s injuries. Amidst the wreckage, Yeon-ho discovers a copy of his news article — and since Kyung-soo’s a poor liar, Yeon-ho quickly finds out the article had been sent to everyone involved. Kyung-soo’s paranoia is at an all-time high, and the astute Yeon-ho infers that he’s hiding something about the truth of his accident.
Yeon-ho soon figures out that the rest stop’s yellow lighting would make blue caps look green as well, just as the team finds two more similar pile-up cases. All the victims have ties to a certain logistics company, and when Dong-ki and Hyun-kyung pay a visit to the CEO, Dong-woo just so happens to be inside — wearing a blue cap and confronting the CEO about an unreasonable contract.
Years ago, Dong-woo’s father had been pressured into signing the exact same contract, which claimed any overloading was voluntary and absolved the company from responsibility. After getting into an accident and being forced to shoulder the damages, Dong-woo’s father sued the CEO for fraud together with his fellow trailer drivers — the same ones involved in the series of accidents — but the rich CEO filed a counterclaim, forcing the others to drop the charges. Alone in his crusade and saddled with debt, Dong-woo’s father had eventually ended his own life.
Embittered and grieving, Dong-woo is now taking revenge on the drivers whom he believes abandoned his father in his time of need. The last one left is Dong-ki’s father, but Dong-woo doesn’t hold a grudge against him — he’s the only one who apologized to his father. Instead, Dong-woo’s final act of revenge is against the CEO, but Hyun-kyung speeds over on her motorbike and apprehends him just in time.
In the interrogation room, Dong-woo confesses to Dong-ki that he’d only planned on gathering evidence at first. Yet when he could find no recourse in the legal system, he realized that merely exposing the CEO’s crimes wouldn’t serve him justice. The CEO’s lack of remorse further stoked Dong-woo’s anger, and thus he’d been driven to extreme ends.
Still, a crime is a crime, and for all that Dong-ki sympathizes with Dong-woo over their shared childhoods with their trailer dads, he has to let Dong-woo know what his actions have snowballed into. When Dong-woo learns the stray ratchet buckle he’d cut had killed a child’s father, he’s wracked with gnawing guilt; he’s inadvertently inflicted his same suffering onto an innocent party.
As for our main villains, Jung-wook’s father is promoted to COMMISSIONER-GENERAL PYO (Heo Jung-do). When he learns Jae-young’s brake lines had been cut, likely by the driver of that mysterious black car, he deliberately assigns the case to a reluctant Chae-man. Keep your enemies closer, as they say.
Meanwhile, Kyung-soo approaches Jung-wook, brazenly asking for money to repair his wrecked trailer. If Jung-wook doesn’t cough up, he’ll reveal the truth of Yeon-ho’s accident. At this point, Kyung-soo has nothing left to lose; he’s either dying to debt or to Jae-young’s murderer. Jung-wook seethes, but that’s about all he can do.
Commissioner-General Pyo is equally — if not more — afraid of the long-kept secret coming to light, and he calls Kyung-soo out that night. Anticipating cash, Kyung-soo goes, but instead he’s met with a gang of men that deliver a brutal beating. Kyung-soo barely manages to escape — only to run right into the black car’s path.
Kyung-soo attempts to phone Yeon-ho for help, but right then, the TCI team is called to an accident site. On the ground lies an all-too-familiar keychain, and So-hee’s heart sinks with a dawning horror as she recognizes it. This time, the accident victim is her father, and So-hee can only watch in despair as his injured body is loaded onto a stretcher.
Nooooo. I should have seen it coming, given the focus on fathers in this week’s episodes, but I hadn’t wanted to entertain even the slightest possibility of So-hee losing her precious relationship with her doting dad. (Yoo Seung-mok, I’m sorry for introducing you so late!) That comment from So-hee’s father, about Yeon-ho no longer needing his ride offers now that he’s driving again, is so much sadder in hindsight. I really hope he’s just wounded, not lost forever.
Yeon-ho is drawing ever closer to the truth of his accident, and I love that he’s opened up to Chae-man, rather than tackling everything alone as he used to — but is Chae-man truly the right person to confide in? Alone in the office, Chae-man watches CCTV footage of Jae-young’s accident, and behind his desk lies trekking poles that look suspiciously similar to the culprit’s.
However, Chae-man isn’t the only suspect. Under orders from Commissioner-General Pyo, Tae-joo’s found out that the person shadowing Jung-wook is Hyun-soo’s father LEE JUNG-SEOB (Ha Sung-kwang), who also uses a trekking pole as a walking aid. Is he the driver of the black car, or is he simply following Jung-wook for some other motive? And what actually happened on the night of Yeon-ho’s accident?
Since it seems a little too coincidental for all three high school friends to be involved if Commissioner-General Pyo was behind the wheel — especially since Kyung-soo isn’t as close to the other two, and would have been an unnecessary liability — I’m theorizing that Jung-wook may have been driving illegally as a minor without a license, along with his friends in the backseat. That would explain why Commissioner-General Pyo rushed to cover it up; not just for his own career, but also for his son’s future.
Last but not least, to end on a lighter note — it’s downright adorable how earnestly Yeon-ho takes advice to heart! Ever since So-hee’s passing remark about his glasses potentially being uncomfortable, Yeon-ho has been wearing contact lenses, and though I mourn the loss of his cute nerdy glasses, I love what this adds to his character.
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