‘Taxi Driver 2’: ‘Black Sun’ Real-Life Sex Scandal Episode Drives Ratings to All-Time High
Taxi Driver Season 2 has K-drama fans on the edge of their seats as the Rainbow Taxi Company continued to take on revenge cases amid the threat of a major villain. Like the first season, the revenge stories are based on real-life criminal cases, with Taxi Driver 2’s “Black Sun” episode taking the team to a corrupt nightclub. The episode marked the highest ratings for the K-drama and its depiction of a real-life sex scandal.
[WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Taxi Driver.]
Do-gi rises from the dead to infiltrate a VIP nightclub
As fans are aware, the team is under the threat of a villain. It was proven to be Oh Ha-joon, the newcomer who is the boss of a criminal organization. Before the “Black Sun” episode, Do-gi realized the radio interference on his car coming back from a case was a bomb. He narrowly escaped, but the team decided to fake his death to fool Ha-joon or whoever was after them.
In Taxi Driver 2’s “Black Sun” episode, Do-gi returns from the dead to investigate a nightclub called Black Sun. While doing so with no official victim or case, the team realized the club was dirty, using the local police as their enforcers, drug scandals, and falsely accusing guests to keep their image. The club is a hotspot for VIP clients, celebrities, politicians, and more.
While infiltrating the club, Do-gi meets a reporter looking to take them down for murdering his friend, a police detective. They lied and made his death look like a suicide. The reporter suspected they killed him after he learned of their illegal crimes and likely had evidence. The “Black Sun” has taken up two episodes, with a third on the way.
The teaser for the third episode revealed that there are more crimes in the club. Do-gi had previously helped the reporter stop them from delivering an unconscious female to an unknown location. She was heavily drugged. In the teaser, fans see snippets of the guards cleaning up blood, their patrons’ indiscretions, and VIPS participating in “Doll Play,” where they select a woman. The scene then revealed an unconscious female in a hotel room with a male. A Google search of “Black Sun” revealed the Taxi Driver 2 episode is based on a real-life sex scandal involving Burning Sun nightclub.
Taxi Driver 2’s ‘Black Sun’ episode is based on a sex scandal at Burning Sun nightclub
According to Billboard, Burning Sun was a real-life nightclub, leading Taxi Driver 2 to use it as source material for their episode. Lee Seung-hyun, known as Seungri, was the youngest member of the popular K-Pop group BIGBANG. He had multiple business affiliations, including the club Burning Sun. In 2019, Korea faced one of its biggest scandals in history.
A reporter wrote about a crime from 2018 about a Burning Sun clubgoer being assaulted by a staff member. Police investigation into the case led to one of the biggest scandals involving prostitution, drug trafficking and police corruption, and sexual assault. Seungri was one of the club’s directors at the time and resigned due to his involvement in sexual bribery. The scandal worsened when singer and entertainer Jung Joon-young admitted to illegally filming his sexual relations with women.
It soon tied to Burning Sun as the videos were shared in a KakaoTalk chatroom. Seungri and other participants, many of which were celebrities like FTISLAND’s Choi Jong-hoo and Burning Sun employees, were included in the chat. Further investigation into Burning Sun and the chat revealed Seungri planned to bribe investors with prostitution. He also directed the club employees to find them.
The chat also revealed that members of Burning Sun had strong ties to the police. A club employee tagged “Anna” was also involved in drug use and distribution. Details unearthed during the case were tax evasion, embezzlement, and sexual assault outside Korea. The case into the club proved the defendant’s affiliation with each other, the police, and their crimes.
‘Taxi Driver 2’ reached its highest viewership ratings
The crime K-drama poked at the Burning Sun case not only with its storyline but with one of its villain characters. Do-gi is seen talking to a celebrity named “Victor.” It is a jab at the real-life BIGBANG idol Seungri, whose name in Korean means “victory.” Taxi Driver 2 has taken a few horrid Korean crime cases as a basis for their storylines.
The second season has addressed a church cult similar to Manmin church. Taxi Driver 2 also took on the sex crime and blackmail in the Nth Room case. But the K-drama’s “Black Sun” episodes have been awarded its highest ratings.
According to Koreaboo, the first episode of the case, Episode 12, received a viewer rating of 19.4% (metropolitan areas). It is the highest the drama has ever seen. It is likely due to many viewers catching on to the concept of the case the Rainbow Taxi company was investigating. There is no clear indicator like the very club named Black Sun. The Burning Sun scandal shook Korea to its core, primarily due to its high involvement of Korean celebrities.
