Crash – K-Drama Episode 12 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Is The TCI Back?

Crash Episode 12 begins with Chae-man making his way from Seoul to Hwapyeong Island. While the others wait for his arrival, they learn that the villagers recently sold some land to outsiders for resorts and cafes. That’s why the number of tourists has increased. A local cop also tells them that a group called MCST is considering the island for development, which would grant the people ten billion won. Chae-man arrives and they get to work immediately.

The others give Chae-man an update on the last few days. After speaking to one of Seunga’s classmates, Yeon-ho found out that Seunga didn’t have any friends and was kind of a loner. The classmate did see her with a man though. Yeon-ho took the part of the car bumper to a mechanic, who tells him the model is a silver Stallone.

After narrowing down the list of cars, they ruled out any out-of-towners and focused on the villagers. This caused a bit of a ruckus since the villagers considered themselves a family. But the cars were clean. One thing they did find, was footage of a silver Stallone with a broken bumper entering and then exiting the road to the cliffside where Seunga’s shoes were found.

How does team TCI find the right car?

They head outside looking for more private CCTV cameras. As they search, the local cop says this island hasn’t had any crime since the name changed from Sujeong to Hwapyeong. The team eventually finds a camera with a high angle and uses the footage to retrace the silver car’s path. They end up by a small wooded mountain owned by the Gi family and used as their gravesite. Yeon-ho recalls a man named Gi Hyung-soo being one of the owners of the silver cars. But he has an alibi — he was at a sashimi place with a few villagers.

Chae-man says they need to confirm his alibi. Yeon-ho goes to meet Gi Hyung-soo and asks So-hee to visit Seunga’s father. He’s upset but So-hee promises to get Seunga home.

The others question the other people at the sashimi place and they agree that Gi Hyung-soo dropped them home. The village chief in particular gets angry about all the suspicion and denounces Seunga’s family as trouble since her father refused to pay for the island’s development.

Yeon-ho meets Gi Hyung-soo and asks if he drove somewhere after dropping everyone home.  Hyung-soo says he stayed home. But when Yeon-ho comes back to the office, he asks Dong-gi to check Hyung-soo’s car’s official VIN — a unique identification number. It’s different from the car’s number that Yeon-ho just saw. Which means he bought a new car and put the old licence plate on it.  But there’s no record of him buying anything, which leads them to think there’s an accomplice.

The next day, Yeon-ho and So-hee search for the remains of the old car on Gi’s mountain. They find an earbud that belonged to Seunga and her father confirms the same.

Who was involved in Seunga’s disappearance?

Just then, Hyun-kyung calls and says they found the new car. Back at the office, Dong-gi shows them a silver Stallone entering the island the day after Seunga went missing. It belongs to Im Ji-sook, the president of the women’s society. The local police chief reveals that she and Hyung-soo are cousins. They also find footage from just this morning that shows the same car with a broken bumper, exiting the island.

They call Im Ji-sook, who claims she got into an accident and went to see a fortune teller. Since it was bad luck, she scrapped it. Yeon-ho shows her that the VIN of her new car and Hyung-soo’s current car are the same. As she keeps claiming her innocence, the village chief comes in with Hyung-soo and another man. Hyung-soo says he switched the licence plates as a prank. The other man says he witnessed the whole thing.

Seeing the way they all band together, the TCI thinks everyone involved in Hyung-soo’s alibi must be protecting him. They realise they have to search the mountain to find Seunga but the islanders would resist that. Yeon-ho has another idea.

How do Yeon-ho and the others catch the culprit?

The next day, Yeon-ho announces to the villagers that they are close to finding Seunga’s body. He says a technician is coming the next day who will use her wireless earbud to locate the other one.

Later at night, they stake out the mountain. So-hee and Yeon-ho eventually see the four people involved — Hyung-soo, Im Ji-sook, the village chief and the other man. They mean to dig up the body they buried since the police are close to finding it. However, they are joined by one more — none other than Mr. Shin, the local cop who was helping them all along. A flashback shows that Chae-man suspected someone from the police was involved. Otherwise, how did Im Ji-sook know to scrap her car?

Is Seunga alive?

While the TCI team arrests all of them, we see that Chae-man broke into Hyung-soo’s warehouse. Inside, he found a woman tied up – Seunga! So whose body is buried in the woods?

The detectives bring Seunga home and father and daughter are reunited. She then tells them what happened. She befriended a boy named Armin. They were walking down the road when Seunga gave him her headphones to listen to a song. Mr. Shin was driving the car despite being two drinks down, being the least drunk of the whole group.

When the car rushed towards the youngsters, Armin pushed Seunga out of the way and got hit instead. The group realised Armin was dead and decided it was better to bury both of them. They wanted to save their skins as well as the ten billion won from the redevelopment.

At present, Chae-man narrates how all the people in this group used to be homeless children on the island back in the day. They were ill-treated and became part of a group that buried bodies in secret. Then they grew up and became the village heads themselves. Even now, they show no remorse.

Does Chae-man resign?

Later, the team discusses how they want to TCI to band together again. Chae-man reveals that he’s officially resigned.

For solving the missing girl’s case on vacation, the four others are given awards and a promotion. Chief Gu and the others congratulate the team. Chief Gu offers to buy them a meal but they have other plans. Other plans being having a meal with their old chief, Chae-man, at their regular restaurant. Hyun-kyung says they should meet here and have a meal together every once in a while. Everybody agrees.

Does the TCI get back together again?

Sometime later, Chae-man is working as a traffic guide on the road. He’s approached by the judge who went after Myung-hak. She’s now been promoted to the position of Director of the National Office of Investigation. She calls him in for a meeting and asks Chae-man why he started the TCI. He says it was because of the hit-and-run case that killed his wife. He never found the culprit. He also realised that people don’t take such cases seriously. She offers to work on his goal together.

Meanwhile, So-hee’s father is still recovering in the hospital. He and So-hee are both in good spirits. The next scene has the entire team back at the TCI office, except it is now under the National Office of Investigation. Everyone is there and ecstatic to be part of the TCI again. Except for Yeon-ho, who calls and tells them he’s already chasing a reckless driver on the street. The others go to help him and Chae-man sighs and says nothing has changed.

Later, So-hee and Yeon-ho go to a showroom and buy Yeon-ho a new car. She asks him why he bought it and he says he’ll need it soon. They smile at each other.

How does Crash Season 1 end?

Afterwards, So-hee meets Tae-ju, who congratulates her on rejoining the TCI. So-hee says that as part of the NOI, she can reopen old cases, clearly referring to Tae-ju’s unlicensed taxi case. He threatens her but she tells him they will face off properly this time.

Yeon-ho visits Hyun-soo’s resting place and meets Jung-sub as well. He says Min-sung is in a good place now. He tells Yeon-ho to also go live his life well.

We then see Yeon-ho driving himself and So-hee to the hospital, to pick up her father as he’s getting discharged from the hospital. Just as he had promised. This is what he’d meant earlier. A voiceover from both of them muses over the importance of a journey and how you meet different people but also how it’s crucial to be safe at the end of Crash Episode 12.

The Episode Review

The season finale of Crash is not one of its more perfect episodes. It’s a tad slow and stretches out the denouement much after the main conflict has been done and dusted. Still, the long run time is compensated for by some solid storytelling. The Hwapyeong case for instance, takes its time to unfold but is incredibly intriguing when it does.

Having the entire group of people commit a crime made for a compelling mystery and the cop being involved was a good, delicious twist. Chae-man revealing the connection with their childhood past is a bit haphazardly put together and not really needed, but it doesn’t sour the taste of a good mystery.   

The latter half of the episode continues at a leisurely pace. It gives the team an emotional goodbye at their usual eatery and they all get ready to go on their pathways. Then Chae-man finally gets the chance to talk about his wife and the tragedy that set him on this road, which brings the TCI back together again.

The last few minutes bring everything full circle, although they are in a more secure position and So-hee has the chance to take on Tae-ju head-on now. Yeon-ho has overcome his trauma completely and the team are back where they belong, as a family. All in all, a slow but incredibly sentimental ending that hits all the right notes.