Taxi Driver 3 episodes 1-2 recap: The return of Rainbow Transport team and a first case

South Korean television series Taxi Driver has returned with season 3. Taxi Driver 3 premieres its first two episodes on November 21 and 22. The season features Lee Je-hoon, Pyo Ye-jin, Kim Eui-sung, Jang Hyuk-jin, Bae Yoo-ram, Esom, and Shin Jae-ha in lead roles. Based on the webtoon The Deluxe Taxi (Red Cage) by Carlos and Lee Jae-jin, the series continues to draw inspiration from real-life heinous crimes.

Taxi Driver 3 centers on Kim Do-gi, a former special forces operative whose life takes a sharp turn after a devastating loss. In his darkest moment, he encounters Jang Seong-cheol, the head of Rainbow Taxi. It is a covert vigilante team disguised as a premium taxi service. Behind the façade, its drivers operate as undercover agents who respond to “revenge calls,” stepping in when victims of injustice have nowhere else to turn. Together, they deliver the justice the system fails to provide.

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Taxi Driver 3 episodes 1–2 recap: Rainbow Taxi takes on a human-trafficking ring in Japan

Taxi Driver 3 begins with a new case that takes Rainbow Taxi team to Japan. Episode 1 opens with a phone call to the Rainbow Taxi team from a young student named Iso. She reaches out to Jang Seong-cheol for help, but before she can reveal her location, she is suddenly dragged away by the people she has been running from.

The team begins investigating immediately. Jang Seong-cheol visits the phone booth where Iso made the call from and learns that she is a student who has been saving money for her grandmother's surgery. To gather more information, Kim Do-gi infiltrates Iso’s school by posing as her homeroom teacher. He learns that Iso has been missing for days and is believed to have gone camping. While investigating, he meets a girl named Ye-ji.

Ye-ji tells Do-gi the truth about Iso’s situation. Both girls have been drawn into a major loan-sharking scam through an online gambling game. The game tricks players into taking out massive loans, and the two students have ended up owing a huge amount. Iso, who has no parents and lives with her grandmother, has no way to repay the debt. The loan sharks then have offered her a way to pay it off by going to Japan to work. Iso accepts the offer under pressure, and since then, Ye-ji has been unable to contact her friend.

With this information, the Rainbow Taxi team begins digging into the case. An Go-eun joins the online gambling game herself to trace the scam from within. She is soon manipulated into taking out a loan. When she tells the loan sharks she can’t repay it, they abduct her and take her to Japan following the same route Iso has been forced into. The rest of the Rainbow Taxi team immediately travels to Japan following her.

In Japan, Go-eun is taken to a shady location. Do-gi follows her and they fight off the men who have brought her there. Inside, they find a room filled with photos of women and stacks of their passports and luggages. They find out that they’ve uncovered a massive human-trafficking operation.

As they dig deeper, the team discovers an underground fighting club. Winners of the matches earn a position as personal security for Matsuda Keita, the leader of the trafficking ring. To infiltrate the operation, Do-gi provokes a fight with the club’s strongest fighter and quickly defeats him, drawing attention. After demanding to be summoned by the boss, he steps outside — only to be stopped by police and an Interpol agent. They reveal that the man Do-gi defeated was actually an undercover officer they had been using to track Matsuda.

The police and Interpol ask Do-gi to work with them as an inside man to get close to Matsuda. Do-gi refuses and continues with his own plan. Soon after, Matsuda summons him. Do-gi demands compensation for his shoes that Matsuda’s men had ruined, which Matsuda provides — but then orders Do-gi to cut off his finger to prove loyalty, even pressing his men to enforce it. Instead, Do-gi fights back and defeats them all. The police intervene again, prompting Matsuda to flee with Do-gi. While on the move, Matsuda again asks Do-gi to join him, but Do-gi rejects the offer. The police approach him once more, but he refuses them too.

Meanwhile, Go-eun hacks into all of Matsuda’s servers and uncovers plenty of data, but finds no trace of Iso or the other missing girls. Realizing more trust must be gained, Do-gi gets closer to Matsuda. He “accidentally” encounters him again. Matsuda tries recruiting him once more, even offering him a woman — a move that confirms to the Rainbow Taxi team that Matsuda is indeed holding multiple captive girls.

Do-gi then receives a freelance job from Matsuda’s group to act as security for an upcoming deal — an auction involving trafficked women. On the night of the auction, Do-gi infiltrates the venue disguised as one of Matsuda’s men, while the rest of the Rainbow Taxi team positions themselves outside. Once the auction begins, the team storms the location. A fierce fight ensues, and the Rainbow Taxi team rescues the batch of women being auctioned that night. However, Iso is not among them.

To create a deeper opening, the team stages another setup. Someone linked to Matsuda’s group falsely identifies Jang Sung-chul as the person who ambushed their operation the previous night. Matsuda’s men confront him; Sung-chul arrives with Choi Kyung-goo and Park Jin-eon. To gain Matsuda’s trust completely, Do-gi executes a staged stabbing of Sung-chul using a retractable knife. The act convinces Matsuda’s team that Do-gi is loyal.

Now trusting him fully, Matsuda asks Do-gi to take a brotherhood pledge — drinking together before an altar as a symbolic bond. Do-gi agrees. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Taxi team secretly prepares an ambush, enlisting ex-gang members who once ruled the territory before Matsuda took over. These former gang members storm the ceremony, overwhelming Matsuda’s men.

During the chaos, Do-gi drags Matsuda out and drives him in the rental taxi to Matsuda’s base — the location where Iso and the remaining women are held. There, Do-gi finally confronts him. Matsuda retaliates, but Do-gi easily overpowers him. Cornered, Matsuda grabs a gun and aims it at Do-gi. Before he can pull the trigger, the Interpol officer intervenes and shoots Matsuda dead.

The remaining girls, including Iso, are rescued by Go-eun and the team. Interpol and the local police take command of the site while the Rainbow Taxi team prepares to return home. As compensation, they receive part of the money Matsuda had accumulated from his trafficking business, recovered from his private locker.

Back in South Korea, Do-gi tracks down the two men who were running the Korean side of the trafficking circuit. He confronts and defeats them, delivering justice domestically as well. Iso returns to school and reunites with Ye-ji. The two friends embrace, relieved that Iso is safe at last.

With their reunion, the Japan arc concludes — wrapping up the intense first two episodes of Taxi Driver Season 3.

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Taxi Driver 3 airs every Friday and Saturday, with episodes 3 and 4 scheduled for November 28 and 29. This season is available for streaming on Viki.

Edited by Adrija Chakraborty