In the end, Crash concludes much the way it started, with a dose of humor and a great deal of heart. No good deed goes unpunished, but our heroes bounce back in an unexpected way — one that’s only made possible through the sheer strength and sincerity of their bond.
EPISODES 11-12
To my surprise, Commissioner-General Pyo’s kidnapping doesn’t last very long. Although Hyun-soo’s father is prepared to drive them both to their ends, the mention of a report proving Jung-wook’s guilt gives him pause, and his hesitation allows Chae-man to put a swift stop to the abduction.
At Jung-wook’s trial, Kyung-soo testifies against both father and son, but concrete evidence is needed for a conviction. Our team follows up on the report about the tire marks, which had been swiped from Min-sung’s house by Tae-joo. It’s now in Commissioner-General Pyo’s hands, and Tae-joo advises him to reveal the report himself and control the narrative before the TCI team gets the chance to. With that, Commissioner-General Pyo submits the report to the court alongside the claim that he’d received it through anonymous mail, painting himself as an upright citizen who would place justice above his son.
Blindsided by his father’s callous betrayal, Jung-wook bursts into hysterical, tearful laughter. (Such spine-chilling acting from Kang Ki-doong!) If his father can desert his own son just to save himself, then two can play at that game. Since it’s come to this, Jung-wook finally admits to the murder — then details how Commissioner-General Pyo tampered with evidence and covered up the crime.
The testimony of the report’s author corroborates that Commissioner-General Pyo took the report and never followed up on it, effectively confirming his guilt. Even better, an anonymous insider (whose name starts with “Lee” and ends with “Tae-joo”) submits a letter to the police’s auditing director, exposing Commissioner-General Pyo’s corruption and collusion with Jae-young’s father.
At the end of it all, Yeon-ho gets the final word against Commissioner-General Pyo: “It’s a relief your son takes after you.” Just as he threw his son under the bus, Jung-wook is now throwing him to the wolves in order to reduce his own sentence. Ultimately, our villains get their just desserts — ten and a half years of incarceration for Jae-young’s father, twelve years and a hefty fine for Commissioner-General Pyo, and twenty years for Jung-wook. They’ll all be languishing in prison for a long time to come.
Alas for our team, what awaits them after their successful case is not a reward, but the repercussions of apprehending someone numerous ranks above them. The TCI team is dissolved and assigned to different posts, much to their dismay. So-hee finds Yeon-ho deep in thought on the rooftop, where he admits that contrary to his teammates’ worries, he’s actually relieved he’s being sent to a remote island; he’s been wanting to take a break from the bustling city, after all.
Sincerely, Yeon-ho expresses his gratitude to So-hee for everything she’s done for him. It’s all thanks to her that he’s managed to come this far. She returns the sentiment, to which Yeon-ho promises that he’ll pick Dad up once he’s discharged from the hospital, no matter how far away he may be. Aw, it’s a bittersweet feeling looking at the empty TCI office, which once used to teem with stacks of case files and the boisterous energy of our beloved team.
One year later, we catch up with Yeon-ho on Hwapyung Island, where he’s one of only four officers there. Rather than the fancy cars of the city, his traffic cop duties here have him overseeing tractors and tipsy farmers, LOL. Yeon-ho’s on friendly terms with the high-school student SEUNG-AH (Han Ji-won), whose father is too busy maintaining his vacation home to pay her much attention. Having moved from the city, the father-daughter duo often find themselves the subject of the locals’ ire for hogging most of the island’s resources and revenue.
Seung-ah’s relationship with her quick-tempered father may be strained, but it’s not for a lack of caring. When Seung-ah heads out to a friend’s birthday party late at night and doesn’t return by morning, her father is beside himself with worry, and his despairing heart only sinks further when Seung-ah’s shoes are discovered on the bank of the island’s reservoir. Furthermore, Seung-ah’s schoolmates reveal that she’s a loner, but they’ve witnessed her spending time with a boy. It’s too soon to make any conclusions though, and Yeon-ho resolves to investigate Seung-ah’s disappearance.
That means Yeon-ho is unable to join the long-awaited TCI reunion back in Seoul, but never fear, because their dinner soon ends up turning into an assist mission to help their friend in need. With that, the understaffed island force now has four extra officers, and our gung-ho squad is back in action. Yay, I wasn’t expecting such a reunion, but it’s so fitting for them!
A search of the island turns up a fragment of a car bumper in the woods, alongside Seung-ah’s phone keychain. It seems an accident occurred last night, but all the cars of that particular model are intact. Worse yet, there are barely any CCTVs on the island, but thankfully farmers have installed their own to prevent crop theft, and one with a bird’s eye view captured the car’s movements that night.
Retracing the path, our team arrives at a mountain owned by KI HYUNG-SOO (Yoon Deuk-bi), but he has an alibi. There’d been a village gathering that night, and he’d driven three villagers home — all of whom vouch for his sobriety, and his innocence. The village head (Shim So-young yet again, hee) is particularly defensive, refusing to cooperate with any further investigation.
If you think that sounds suspicious, you’re right. When Yeon-ho checks the vehicle identification number of Hyung-soo’s car, it leads them to villager IM JI-SOOK (Kim Do-yeon), who bought a used car, then scrapped Hyung-soo’s damaged one after the swap. How did she know to scrap it immediately after Yeon-ho’s discovery? Well, there’s a mole in the island police force.
Having found one of Seung-ah’s wireless earphones on Hyung-soo’s mountain, Yeon-ho proposes tricking the perpetrators into acting first. Our team bluffs that they’ll call an expert from Seoul to track the signal from her other earphone, and that terrifies the villagers into returning to Hyung-soo’s mountain and digging up the corpse. Needless to say, they’re caught red-handed by our trusty team.
When our squad shines their flashlights on the corpse, though, it isn’t Seung-ah. It’s the boy she’d been with. He’s ARMIN (Kim Aaron), a foreigner whom Seung-ah had befriended, and they’d been listening to a song together through Seung-ah’s earbuds when a car sped towards them. Instinctively, Armin pushed Seung-ah out of the way, taking the brunt of the impact and dying instantly.
One by one, the pieces begin falling into place. Bitter about the gentrification by non-islanders, the villagers pinned their hopes on an upcoming island project. If their island is chosen for redevelopment, they’ll receive a grand sum in grant money. An accident would ruin the island’s reputation and affect its marketability, thus spurring the villagers to conceal their drunk driving murder. Thankfully, Chae-man finds Seung-ah tied up in the old welfare center, shaken but otherwise safe and sound.
This last stretch felt like a bonus case just so we can see our team back in action together, and though it felt a little out of left field, I’m not complaining in the slightest. Despite Chae-man breaking the news that he’s tendered his resignation — it’s been on his mind for a while, and he’s finally seeing it through — this case gives me reassurance that wherever they may be, our team will always stick together through thick and thin. (And with bonus promotions to boot!)
Better yet, their dissolution doesn’t last long. After hearing of Chae-man’s contributions and his reason for founding the TCI — he vowed to reduce road killings after an unsolved hit-and-run that took his wife — the director of the National Office of Investigation reinstates our full team. Hooray! Returning to their old office, the squad grouses about the unchanged interior, but it’s clear they’re all glad to be back.
As for Yeon-ho, he meets Hyun-soo’s father at her crematorium. Once again, her father urges Yeon-ho to live his life freely without guilt, walking towards happiness one step at a time, and his words finally resonate with our hero’s heart. Not only does he buy a (PPL-sponsored) car in hopes of properly returning to the road, but he also drives So-hee’s car to pick her father up from the hospital after his recovery, just like he promised he would. Aww.
With that, Crash wraps up its tale with a heartfelt address about the ubiquity of the road, its dangers, and how each and every life traveling upon it is precious. It’s a perfect reflection of the show, which was sincere in its simplicity, earnestly reaching out to its audience with endearing characters and helpful traffic law PSAs. The plot may not have been particularly novel or groundbreaking, but it was executed in an entertainingly compelling way, and I’m satisfied with that. Plus, it left the door open for a second season without sacrificing narrative integrity — I hope So-hee makes good on her vow to bring Tae-joo to justice for the unlicensed taxi case, but even if we don’t see it on our screens, I have faith that she’ll do whatever she can to uphold the justice she believes in so wholeheartedly.
Perhaps my favorite scene this week was Seung-ah teasing Yeon-ho that he probably doesn’t have any friends, only for Yeon-ho to reply that he does. While that assumption might have held true for the Yeon-ho of the past, the Yeon-ho we’ve come to know and love now calls the TCI team his friends with a smile. He’s grown so much, and so have his teammates. Each member has their own niche that they excel in, but they eschew personal glory in favor of honest and harmonious teamwork, which makes them an absolute delight to watch. Should a sequel be in the works, I’ll be looking forward to reuniting with our lovable team.