“Taxi Driver 2” is the much-anticipated sequel to the 2021 hit “Taxi Driver”. Back together after a short break, the crew at Rainbow Taxi uses their service as a way to help those who have been the victims of an unequal and often corrupt society.  As a skilled driver and a master of disguise, Kim Do Gi is out in the field, working for justice and revenge for their clients, while the others offer tech and logistical support from close by.  This season, we see Rainbow Taxi cross paths with a mysterious secret society who always seems to be a step ahead of them.  But each case leads them closer to finding out who this group is and what their motivations are. 

Pyo Ye Jin as Ahn Go Eun

Ahn Go Eun left the disbanded group at the end of Season 1 to fulfill her dream of becoming a police officer.  But she soon finds that being a part of the system offers far fewer opportunities to actually do good for those in need than she had with Rainbow Taxi.  And when she finds out that Do Gi is not only out in the field again but also in extreme danger, she jumps at the chance to return to the job she really loves.  Her hacking skills are at the heart of the group’s investigations.  When she gets the chance to join Do Gi undercover she is hesitant, but rises to the occasion to play a happily married couple trying to buy their first home.  

Ahn Go Eun, like everyone involved in Rainbow Taxi, has her own wound.  After losing her older sister to suicide, she mostly kept to herself before she joined the vigilante team.  But her close relationship with the other members has given her a new family.  I love Go Eun’s shy personality and her sincere affection for all of the taxi team, but especially Do Gi and Mr. Jang.  Pyo Ye Jin plays this role well, and I think she conveys both her strengths and vulnerabilities with a nice balance.  This role is a great fit for her.    

Jang Hyuk Jin as Choi Kyung Goo

Choi Kyung Goo is the lead mechanic for Rainbow Taxi.  He had returned to his original job during the group’s hiatus, but he is happy to lend his mechanical skills to the team and their mission.  He spends most of his time between cases adding special equipment to Do Gi’s premium taxi that help them chase and catch the villains their clients are fighting against.  

 ♥ Improvements from Season 1

There were a few elements that Season 2 offered that I felt were improvements over the first season.  As much as it worked for the story, the idea of our heroes holding human beings in cages as punishment never sat great with me.  For this new season, their private jail is gone and the team is forced to find other channels to enforce the punishment each villain deserves.  That just works better for me.  Also, I liked how this season, all the cases end up having a connection that kept it all cohesive.  Sure, you have to get over the idea that all those people somehow randomly all found Rainbow Taxi, but as a story tool, it gave the whole drama a great over-arching plot.

 ♥ Characters in Disguise

The way this drama uses disguises and undercover operations is always so fun, especially with Do Gi. Watching Do Gi pause a conversation and answer the phone in a totally new voice is hilarious every single time.  I swear there is no role he can’t play.  From newlywed to country farmer, he nails them all.  And having the others show up is always funny because it’s more unexpected.  Using this element throughout the series gives it a great versatility that allows each story to have its own unique flavor.

On Ha Joon

On Ha Joon has become a great villain in disguise.  He handles both the sweet, shy boy next door and the cold calculating killer with surprising ease.  And because he does both so well, I find his characters to be more sympathetic than the average villain.  I couldn’t help but hope that after Ha Joon found out the truth behind his own story, he would have been able to join the team at Rainbow Taxi.  Sure, it may have been hard to trust him at first, but I think he had the potential to be a part of their group.

Religious Crime Syndicate

I just found the whole religious sect as crime syndicate thing to be a bit strange.  The bishop character felt like the Wizard of Oz, hiding behind some magic curtain.  It just seems hard to believe that these steel-cold criminals would all bow down to any single individual as their own personal deity.  In Ha Joon’s case, because he saw him as a father figure, it made sense, but for others it seemed like a stretch.  Blending the 2 entities of crime and religion together in itself seems weird and believing the whole group bought into it seems even weirder.  

“Taxi Driver 2” ends by tying up all the loose ends from the Season 2 plot, while still leaving the team intact to pick up where they left off for Season 3.  After learning the truth about his past and all the ways that the Bishop manipulated him, including killing his own father, Ha Joon asks Do Gi to take him on as a client. The next thing we know, Ha Joon is  challenging Do Gi to a final showdown on the prison roof.  The Bishop and all the Geumsa VIPs have front row seats to the fight, but the Bishop becomes angry when it seems like Ha Joon is ready to surrender to Do Gi. Determined to kill Do Gi once and for all, he takes out a gun and aims it at Do Ji’s back.  In a moment of apparent clarity, Ha Joon sacrifices himself and sends he and the Bishop over the side of the building to their deaths.  While Do Gi escapes the prison safely, all of the VIP members and corrupt prison guards end up locked into solitary confinement to wait for the police to show up.  A one year time jump gives us a very sweet scene between Do Gi and Go Eun at their favorite spot on the rooftop of what must once again be their apartment building.  Go Eun shyly confesses that while it is still uncomfortable for her to be close to people, she is able to let Do Gi get closer than others.  Here’s to hoping that will set up some kind of romance story between these 2.  The final scene shows Do Gi obviously involved in a new case involving a military sexual harassment case.  Bring on Season 3!!