The Killing Vote (2023) Episode 2

Episode 2 of The Killing Vote opens with the last day of the trial of Kim Seok-joo. Seok-joo defends the murder of the man who killed his daughter and blames all the people who allowed him to go unpunished. He calls them ‘devils who were deemed innocent’.

At present, Joo Hyun points out to Mu-chan that the masked man used the same phrase. But Seok-joo’s trial wasn’t released to the public. So, Mu-chan asks Hyun how she knows this. She says she was involved in a cybercrime case related to Assemblywoman Min Ji-young and found the trial’s tape in her data. When Hyun’s team leader tried to cover up for the assemblywoman, Hyun blew the whistle on him.

She then asks to be added to his team, but he refuses. Jin-soo then arrives and tells Mu-chan that the entirety of Bae Gi-chul’s crypto account was donated. At home, Hyun keeps looking into the matter of The Killing Vote. We also see a scar behind her ear.

In the morning, an inmate goes up to Seok-joo and shares that he got into college and thanks Seok-joo for his help. The topic moves on to Bae Gi-chul and the inmate claims to be happy that he’s dead. Mu-chan goes to visit Seok-joo but he refuses to see him. Apparently, Seok-joo knows the law too well for the policemen to try otherwise. One of the guards, Chul-min, offers his help in giving information about Seok-joo.

After he leaves, Mu-chan gets a call from his colleagues who have found information on the waiter who served Bae Gi-chul before his death. Turns out, the waiter complained about it online. He also seems to be in the habit of sharing videos of women in the toilets. Mu-chan gives the order for Joo Hyun to join the team. She is ecstatic and Jo-dan welcomes her with enthusiasm.

Jin-soo goes to meet the waiter and Mu-chan soon joins in, using his specific brand of violence. He finds the camera the waiter hid in the women’s bathroom. After threatening to burn his hidden cash, the waiter hands over the card of the cab driver who picked up Bae Gi-chul. Meanwhile, Hyun and Jo-dan investigate the origin of the test video they found on Min’s laptop. They trace it to a cybercafé and then find an IP address the malware came from.

Jin-soo and Mu-chan speak with the cab driver who turns out to be a substitute driver. He was hired by someone via text and then told to drive a taxi, pick up Gi-chul and leave him in the car. The team traces the car’s number plate, leading them to a junkyard where the car has already been crushed.

Meanwhile, the IP address leads Hyun and Jo-dan to Bae Gi-chul’s hideout, the same place he was found dead. Mu-chan and the other officers arrive too. Jo-dan gives the masked man a new name, calling him Gaetal. Hyun collects all the data from the machines there and finds that the test video was sent a month before Gi-chul’s release.

Meanwhile, The Killing Vote remains a hot topic of discussion even at Min’s school. Her teacher, Lee Min-soo, discusses it in class. A student named Ji-hoon seems to agree with the killing vote.

As the countdown to the next killing vote continues, the team doesn’t find anything new. Hyun finds out that while in prison, Gi-chul was beaten up by other inmates and then sent to solitary confinement. Finding this suspicious, Mu-chan allows her to interview the prison inmates. She does so and asks each person if they know of the phrase ‘devils who were deemed innocent’.

Seok-joo was not willing to participate but once he hears the phrase, he agrees to speak to Hyun. She tells him about the phrase and asks if he knows anyone who would use the same phrase. He suggests that instead of looking for the killer, they should look for the next victim. Once he leaves, we realise that Hyun was on the phone with Mu-chan the whole time.

The police chief berates Mu-chan for not finding anything as less than two days remain for the next victim. Mu-chan tells him about the connection with Seok-joo and insinuates that they will need to look into Assemblywoman Min Ji-young and ‘the kid’ as well.

At his house, Lee Min-soo once again chats with someone called the Executor online. But all of a sudden he has trouble breathing and the ring on his finger starts flashing. Alerted by the ring, his mother Min Ji-young rushes to him and puts him on an oxygen mask.

Meanwhile, Hyun has collected data on all the possible targets. One of them is Uhm Eun-gyeong and we see her make soup for her husband and put a blue coloured powder inside it. She then takes two kids and heads out, but pushes them in front of an oncoming car. This way, she uses them to get money. Later, when she’s on her own with the kids, someone kidnaps her.  

The police team gets ready for the day of The Killing Vote, with several teams on standby to rescue the chosen target. The Killing Vote begins at exactly ten o clock. Today’s target is Uhm Eun-gyeong, the woman from earlier who has been accused of insurance murder. And, Gaetal describes, she got away with it three times. Hyun sends over the woman’s address and the policemen rush over. Gaetal continues talking about how she uses the kids to get money as well.

Mu-chan and the others can’t find her in her house. When they search the area, they find her in a car, strapped to a bomb. Mu-chan realises that she is wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, with Gaetal listening to everything that’s happening. He asks Hyun to find an open space nearby where the explosion wouldn’t hurt other people. She suggests the schoolyard at her sister’s school.

Since the bomb isn’t wired to the engine, Mu-chan gets in the car and instructs Eun-gyeong to drive. Hyun, too, rushes to the school and finds Min, telling her to go home as fast as possible. The rest of the students are evacuated too. Hyun then runs towards the schoolyard.

Mu-chan and Eun-gyeong have reached and the car is in the middle. Mu-chan speaks to Gaetal directly and tells him that he will not get out of the car. Should Mu-chan die, Gaetal’s reputation will take a hit since he is only meant to target criminals. He threatens him with this and orders him to switch off the bomb. Outside, Hyun is running towards the car when it explodes.

The Episode Review

Episode 2 of The Killing Vote seamlessly carries the high energy of Episode 1 forward, ensuring an engaging experience. The quick-paced dialogue and plot development remain strong, holding viewers’ attention throughout the 70-minute runtime. And the cliffhanger at the end is definitely going to have viewers coming back to watch Episode 3.

While all the actors are doing a great job, Park Sung-woong’s portrayal of Kwon Seok-joo stands out. He draws up an air of mystery that complements Seok-joo’s enigmatic nature as well as his unexplained influence within the prison. The actress playing Eun-gyeong is the only one who goes slightly overboard in delivering a dramatic performance.

Overall, the mystery and thrill continue even though there isn’t much of a spotlight on the moral dilemma. While the story remains intriguing, shorter episodes might pack a stronger punch. There is quite a bit of risk here to unnecessarily drag things on.