Recap Korean Drama "Trolley (2022)" Episode 1

Trolley episode 1 starts with a frantic Kim Hye-joo at a police station telling an officer that her daughter Nam Yoon-seo is missing. They ask her all sorts of questions, even alluding to the fact that she might have been abducted and all of these questions put Hye-joo further on edge.

13 hours ago, Hye-joo is taking care of a bunch of books at home as part of her job. She runs a book conservation and strikes up a conversation with a customer. Whenever she asks her remotely personal questions, Hye-joo looks rather uncomfortable and doesn’t go too in-depth with her replies.

Still From Trolley Episode 1

Afterwards, she rushes to attend a casual lunch meeting with Yoon-seo’s classmates’ mothers and there, too, she feels highly uncomfortable when they ask her personal questions about her daughter’s study methods and about her husband. She ignores their questions and doesn’t go too in-depth with her answers.

However, she runs a free food centre and seems to be quite close to the establishment’s cook and manager, Yeo-jin. After helping a little girl to eat, she almost gives her away her hometown address to another worker there, but her friend helps her out of an uncomfortable situation.

We learn a little bit about the secretive Hye-joo from everyone around her – that she had a rough childhood and donates all her earnings and that her husband is the district assemblyman Nam Joong-do of the Daehan Party.

That’s when we meet Joong-do, who seems like an honest politician trying to eradicate real estate speculation and pass a new bill. Those against him aren’t happy with his demands, but his colleagues really do sing his praises – saying that he’s the perfect husband since he always stuck by Hye-joo even though she never came out to support him during his election race.

But, regardless of the work that he has throughout the day, he is very into his wife and tells her the little things happening in his life.

Still From Trolley Episode 1

That night, Hye-joo and Yeo-jin enjoy a beer together, and they discuss their lives. Hye-joo thanks her friend for always being there for her. Eventually, Joong-do comes home, and immediately, the husband and wife start ribbing each other playfully. Their relationship is quite cute, and it’s clear that they love each other a lot.

That night, when she goes to her daughter’s room to check up on her after their explosive fight in the evening, she is shocked to find her not in bed. As we catch up to the first scene, the police start to search for Yoon-seo with both her parents. Everyone desperately tries to find her, but with no luck.

As night turns to morning, Hye-joo is desperate to find her daughter. Joong-do tries to calm her, but with no leads, for the time being, no one really has anything that they can do. However, when the police get to know of Joong-do’s true identity, they immediately scramble to get the higher-ups involved.

Joong-do immediately asks them not to give the case any special treatment, but Hye-joo begs him to reconsider since something might happen to their daughter if they waste time. With no other option, he reluctantly agrees. As the case turns into a missing person’s case, Hye-joo sighs a breath of relief, and the detectives start working with all their might to find her.

Still From Trolley Episode 1

That night, Hye-joo hands out missing person posters to people on the road, with Yoon-seo still nowhere to be found. Just then, she gets a call unknown from an unknown number, and the two of them rush to the river bank, where they have found a body in the river.

Joong-do goes to see the body, while Hye-joo thinks back to her son playing with her daughter and being excited to have a little sister. In a rather shocking twist of fate, it turns out that the body is of their son Ji-hoon. Hye-joo thinks back to telling her son to disappear after he got in a drunken brawl.

In the meantime, Yoon-seo gets back home safe and sound to an empty house.

The next morning during questioning, it turns out that Ji-hoon isn’t actually Hye-joo’s son and that his biological mother passed away when he was young. He was released 15 days ago when Hye-joo went to pick him up. She seems nice to her stepson and even goes as far as to give him an apartment and some money to start his life off after prison. However, the friction is still there, and things aren’t that great from Ji-hoon’s side.

Either way, Ji-hoon doesn’t seem to have mended his ways, and the police find drugs and a burner phone on his person. While the two of them try to understand what is going on with their older child, Yoon-seo rushes in to hug her mother, and it’s a rather heartbreaking moment as the entire family grieves their loss.

Still From Trolley Episode 1

At the funeral, several people talk in hushed whispers about a child’s death. But among those people is a mysterious mourner who rushes off before anyone can see them.

Trolley Episode 1 Ending

3 weeks later, a heartbroken Hye-joo cleans out her son’s apartment and finds a lipstick stain on one of the cups. Later, she breaks down while filling up Ji-hoon’s death certificate. Later that day, she comes face to face with a woman who claims to be pregnant with her son’s baby.

As the news breaks out about drugs being found on Ji-hoon’s person, which concerns Joong-do, Hye-joo is similarly left shocked at the latest development.

Trolley Episode 1 Review

Well, that was a rather good start to the episode, and honestly, with Hye-joo’s secrecy, I almost thought she would be the one doing something wrong. However, the little twist, in the end, comes right out of the left field and will leave everyone feeling rather shocked.

There are so many questions here – was Hye-joo awkward with giving away too much information because of her stepson, or is there something darker in her past? Is she really telling the truth about her interaction with Ji-hoon the day he got out of prison? And also, is Joong-do really the clean politician that he is showing everyone?