Trolley season 1 episode 16 recap, review & ending explained

Open Go TV / February 21, 2023 / Reviews

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Trolley season 1 episode 16 concludes the show as Hye-Joo reveals her husband’s crime to the world while Seung-Hee finally learns the truth and contends with the regret that it brings to her.

Recap

Hye-Joo holds a press conference and reveals Joong-Do’s sexual assault of Yeo-Jin, as well as her son not being a sexual assaulter at all. Meanwhile, Soon-Yeo gets upset at her and Yeo-Jin for going public with this revelation since it’ll only increase the bullying at school.

Woo-Jae asks Joong-Do to not confess to any of his misdeeds and that they’ll figure out a way to get out of this. However, Joong-Do is unable to pay any heed as he’s almost shut down from the burden of all that has transpired.

He later listens to Hye-Joo’s audio message where she tells him that he was wrong to decide the path to atonement himself and that she can’t allow others to suffer the consequences of his actions.

Later on, he shuts off communication and drives away, following which Woo-Jae calls Hye-Joo about it and she drives away to the beach he wanted to go to after the elections. She finds him as he’s just about to drown himself.

After saving him, she lashes out at him for trying to opt for the cowardly way out of his guilt. She tells him to own up to his actions and live with all the guilt and shame instead of doing what will only bring pain to her and many others.

Kim Soo-Bin decides to go after Jung-Dae and get justice delivered to him, eventually succeeding in doing so. At the same time as Hye-Joo reveals it all at the press conference, Assemblyman Soong-Hong confesses to his land deal scam as well, promising to sell the land and donate the profits to the public.

Ki-Young informs Lee Yoo-Sin and Seung-Hee about it and in a mad desperation, Yoo-Sin slips up and ends up confessing that she lied about Hye-Joo’s molestation. Seung-Hee gets her mother’s lie confirmed and is aghast at the revelation.

It’s revealed that Woo-Jae actually saw Ji-Hoon downing but stopped himself from trying to rescue him, all in order to prevent him from potentially tanking his father’s political career.

Jung-Dae is arrested and Joong-Do confesses to his crimes and apologizes to the public and Hye-Joo, following which he also tells her that he won’t be appealing in the trial at all, as she hands him the divorce papers.

Seung-Hee meets Hye-Joo and apologizes to her for her actions thus far. Yoon-Seo also ends up coming around and apologizing to her mom for being so rude and cold to her. Kim Soo-Bin, it’s revealed, has started working with Hye-Joo at her shop, as the two live happily along with Yeo-Jin and Yoon-Seo.

Trolley season 1 ending explained:

What happens to Joong-Do?

After Hye-Joo weighs in on the moral equation of her silence on Joong-Do’s crimes the consequences of which have to be suffered by a dead person and alive victim, she chooses to make public it all.

At the press conference, she reveals her husband’s crimes, following which Joong-Do tries to commit suicide, repeating the pattern of all the males in the show who took the cowardly way out of their guilt and shame, not to mention their victim’s suffering.

However, Hye-Joo ends up saving him and making him realize that he has to live with the guilt and shame for what he did. He does that, and apologizes to her, following which he apologizes in front of the media.

He’s not only expelled from the Daehan party but also from the Assembly. Thereafter, he’s sent to prison while he awaits the trial, in which he intends to not appeal at all and accepts whatever punishment the jurisdiction decides.

Meanwhile, he receives the divorce papers from Hye-Joo and apologizes to her for the last time, before Trolley season 1 concludes.

What happens to Kim Soo-Bin?

Kim Soo-Bin decides to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend Heo Jung-Dae. After telling him that her baby belonged to him and not Ji-Hoon, she threatens him, ultimately managing to help realize those threats.

She goes to the police to get Jung-Dae charged for the illegal use of her bank account. Additionally, she also tells the police about his role in prostitution, mentioning Soong-Hong’s chief advisor as well.

At the end of Trolley season 1, she receives news that Jung-Dae has been arrested. Elated, she texts Hye-Joo about it and just before the credits begin rolling, she can be seen in the photographs that Hye-Joo has put up in her workshop, working and smiling alongside Ms. Kim, Yoon-Seo, and Yeo-Jin.

Does Seung-Hee learn about the truth?

Seung-Hee finally learns the truth of her brother’s sexual assault allegations by Hye-Joo. All this time, she was being led astray by her mother, who finally confesses to her that it was her son for whom she’ll do anything, including lying about his disgusting crimes.

Seung-Hee is taken aback at the revelations and goes to Hye-Joo to apologize for whatever she has done to torment her all this time. She asks Hye-Joo, repeatedly, to sue her mom and herself. Hye-Joo can only smile to see her once best friend finally coming around and being on her side.

Meanwhile, her relationship with Ki-Young comes to an ambiguous end of sorts, as she bids him farewell at the airport.

As he departs for Australia, Ki-Young asks her to come with him, but Seung-Hee tells him that she has to atone for her actions and that she will eventually reunite with him. As the two embrace each other, Seung-Hee’s expressions are one of uncertainty and despair.

Review

Trolley season 1 episode 16 wraps up the Kdrama with a finale that sees a lot going on. Joong-Do’s crime becoming public, his suicide attempt thereafter, Seung-Hee’s realization, Woo-Jae’s hand in Ji-Hoon’s death, Kim Soo-Bin’s revenge, Soong-Hong’s confession, Yoon-Seo’s objection and eventually come around, and Joong-Do’s trial are most of the things that transpire in the finale.
Meanwhile, the runtime for the finale is nowhere reasonable to provide gratifying closures to so many arcs and threads. One of the more biting deficits here is that of Seung-Hee’s deserved fate that she never quite gets, in spite of all that she put Hye-Joo through.
Joong-Do apologizes a lot of times to Hye-Joo, but not to Yeo-Jin, although his fate at the end of Trolley is justified and deserved.
Kim Soo-Bin is hinted to have edited “Ms. Kim” to “Mom” (possibly) in her contacts list, before showing that she has started working with her at the renovation shop.
It’s revealed that the Namgoong Sol’s Law will be scrapped soon but the sentiments it sparked remain asunder still, albeit with significantly less vigor than before.
Hye-Joo listens to this news with a heavy heart, but not one that feels guilt necessarily, since the revelation of her husband’s crimes are not hers to hold off, especially when she has suffered the same trauma that Yeo-Jin suffered at the hands of Joong-Do.
Yeo-Jin is also shown to have improved her mental health, even if not completely, and has to take pills to help with her insomnia.
Back to the loose threads and unsatisfactory closures, Woo-Jae doesn’t get much consequence for his actions at all, having essentially been the killer of Ji-Hoon and a constant, mighty force that made it possible for Joong-Do to keep up his “greater good” facade while being a monster himself.