REVIEW: ‘Trolley,’ Episodes 7-8 “The Promise” and “The Right Thing To Do”

With the last episode’s cliffhanger ending leaving Assembly Man Nam outside Jin Seung Hee’s door, determined to stop his wife from accepting fault for a situation she was nothing but a victim in, Trolley Episodes 7-8 had a lot of expectations riding on how it would play out this pivotal plot moment. But even after the opening confrontation passes, the series doesn’t let up for the entirety of these two episodes.

Hitting the halfway point of the series is when a slow-burning drama show often starts to lose momentum. You can only drip-feed moments and hint at building problems for so long before you have to give an audience something to keep them hooked. Trolley Episodes 7-8 deliver an astounding amount of engaging, powerful plot for those who have stuck with its gradual build-up so far. It addresses the current plot points at the forefront of the series for the front half of the show while seamlessly morphing several of them into new strands of intriguing story potential. It all has me itching for next Monday’s episode.

The story doubles back a bit this week to flesh out how all the characters reached the point where we left them last time. While this initially frustrated me, I think it was the right call in the end. Getting the full details on how Nam found out about the ensuing meeting at Seung Hee’s house was important for the story and helped inform the moment. The confrontation itself is delivered in a way that was equally complicated and messy. When emotions are riding as high as they are in this scene it is difficult to envision anyone being able to say all the right things. As the drama unfolded, I found moments where I winced when someone I generally agreed with misspoke or presented an argument I couldn’t get behind. This imperfection lent the moment a sense of realness.

Following this highly-charged scene, Trolley Episodes 7-8 slow down for a bit to allow the cast to process and to recompose themselves. During this period we get some great moments of emotion between Nam and Kim. With Korean media generally portraying romantically attached couples in a much more reserved way than their western counterparts, it is often hard for me to gauge just how close some couples are. But the moments between these two in the rest of episode seven speak volumes about the affection the pair feel for each other.

The second episode in this week’s releases sees the plot move forward as it follows Nam and how he plans to use his position to fix the clear shortcoming in the law where sexual violence is concerned, as well as refocusing the narrative back onto Soo Bin. I can’t talk much about these threads without going into spoilers, but both plotlines deliver some big moments. While Nam’s side of the story left me intrigued, Soo Bin’s moments are where the emotion in this episode lies. Her struggles have only deepened with time. And while she doesn’t always make the right choices, her decisions throughout the episode always make sense. I feel for the poor girl, and the episode’s final revelation brings her struggle and discomfort into a whole new light.

Trolley Episodes 7-8 manage to simultaneously deliver on the plots it has been building up while also shifting the series into new threads that only heighten the show’s already keenly felt drama and tension. This pair of episodes are everything I could’ve asked for to spur me on into the back half of the season.

Trolley Episodes 7-8 are streaming now on Netflix, with new episodes airing on Mondays and Tuesdays.