The Killing Vote (2023) Episode 6

Episode 6 of The Killing Vote picks back up at the chaotic scene at the hospital regarding Doctor Oh. Min-soo, seated in a car nearby and listening in on the police radio, hears about Kwon Seok-joo being on the loose.

The man himself is striding confidently through the hospital, against the crowd. But in a turn of events, he turns up right in time to save Hyun who is chasing the delivery man (who left the bomb on the hospital floor).

Ji-hoon is still trapped with Doctor Oh, who suspects him of being Gaetal’s spy. Then, someone claiming to be part of the bomb squad tells Oh to open the door. Before he can, Mu-chan calls Oh and warns him against it. The man outside sticks a pipe in through the gap under the door and the room begins to get flooded with gas.  

Min, panicking by now, bumps into Mu-chan and tells him about Ji-hoon. Elsewhere, Seok-joo knocks the delivery man unconscious and Hyun is relieved. The other police officers arrive there and Hyun hears about a student being held hostage by Oh. Assuming it is Min, she runs off to help.

Oh has indeed left his room and is holding Ji-hoon at knifepoint. The masked man puts his gun down since he doesn’t want Ji-hoon to get hurt. But when Oh steps towards the gun, Ji-hoon pushes him away, earning a scratch to his neck in the process. The tables turn in the ensuing scuffle and the masked man is now about to kill Oh with the knife.

But Mu-chan’s timing is impeccable and now the masked man is at gunpoint. Hyun and Seok-joo arrive as well. The masked man describes how Oh raped Lieutenant Lim and spread videos of her and asks Mu-chan if he really wants to save him. Mu-chan agrees but he wants to do it within the law. Seok-joo then activates the sprinklers on the ceiling. Mu-chan shoots the masked man but he manages to slice the blade across Oh’s neck anyway.  

Mu-chan stops the masked man from killing himself and arrests him. Afterwards, Ji-hoon is treated by one of the doctors. Min arrives and promptly bursts into tears. Mu-chan argues with Seok-joo, saying that if he hadn’t put the sprinkler on, Oh might have been saved.

At the police station, the team realises that the masked man has no ID or fingerprints. He confesses to being Gaetal but Mu-chan knows he isn’t alone. He notices a scar on the man’s ear that matches the one Mu-chan gave the man who attacked him in Seok-joo’s house. The team figures out that the man’s name is Jung Jin-wook. He was Lieutenant Lim’s fiancé. After his military stint, he was given a new ID.

The next day, Hyun takes Seok-joo to his house in return for saving her life. She even gives him ointment for the injury on his wrists. Hyun says that Jin-wook is not the same as the man in Gaetal’s test video and looks for more clues in his daughter’s room. In one of Na-rae’s drawings, there are two other people and Seok-joo tells her that the second person is a boy who used to be her best friend.

When Hyun claims to understand Gaetal’s rage for the death of a loved one, Seok-joo empathises with her. He also tells her that Mu-chan knows what that’s like as well. Before they leave the house, we see that Hyun has been recording the whole conversation.

Mu-chan storms into his supervisor’s office and asks him why the investigation unit is being disbanded when Jin-wook obviously had an accomplice. The supervisor says in the public eye, Gaetal has been caught and anyone who tries it again will be deemed a copycat.  

Back at the office, the team finds out that Jin-wook tried killing Oh once before but was unsuccessful. After being given a new identity by the military, he was assigned as a guard at Oh’s hospital. In the security footage, Jin-soo notices Min-soo sitting in his car in the hospital’s parking lot.

On the rooftop, Hyun tells Mu-chan about her conversation with Seok-joo. He orders her to send Seok-joo back to prison and she isn’t happy with the decision. Meanwhile, Jin-soo meets Mu-chan and tells him about Min-soo, who used to be assemblywoman Ji-young’s son, Lee Yun-seong.  

Min meets with Ji-hoon and asks him why he hasn’t been coming to school. He confesses to blaming himself for Oh’s death. He thought it was the right thing to do but seeing Oh die was harder than Ji-hoon expected. Min reveals that her parents were killed by a drunk driver. Min says if someone would kill him for her, she’d let them. She assures Ji-hoon that he didn’t kill anybody.

Mu-chan tells Seok-joo to let him know once Number One Fan writes to him again. He’s going to let the team be disbanded and set a trap for the real Gaetal. Seok-joo flares up and compares this to Mu-chan setting a trap during Na-rae’s investigation as well. Seok-joo knows that Woo-taek had an accomplice but he doesn’t know who it was. He tells Mu-chan to go ahead and use him as a trap but this time, he better not fail.

Through the security cameras, Hyun is listening in on this whole conversation. But Mu-chan whispers something to Seok-joo that she can’t make out. At home, Hyun keeps thinking about what she overheard. Min tells her that Ji-hoon seems depressed and should get some counselling.

Meanwhile, at the news station, Do-hee is upset about her show on The Killing Vote being cancelled. She tells her boss that they can have a new Gaetal. On the way to the prison, Hyun asks Seok-joo why he thinks Mu-chan is Gaetal. Seok-joo’s reply is vague and leaves her confused.

Mu-chan visits Lieutenant Lim’s father, who is standing on the street with a placard for his daughter. Mu-chan convinces him to come speak to Jin-wook. He does so and both the men break down on seeing each other. Jin-wook confesses that he did have an accomplice.

Hyun sneaks into her boss’s computer and gets the case report on Na-rae’s case report. She finds out about Lee Yun-seong, a.k.a Min-soo, being a witness. Later, she checks Min’s phone and gets Min-soo’s contact details. She also finds Min’s video of Min-soo giving two boys some money on the day of the second killing vote. From a cybercafé, Hyun tries to hack into Min-soo’s computer but he easily blocks her.

Jin-wook gives his statement, saying that he only ever spoke to the accomplice online. He was the tech guy while Jin-wook did everything in the field. He admires Seok-joo but also claims to be the person who destroyed what he loved the most. At the prison, Ji-hoon’s grandmother turns out to be the doctor who is treating Seok-joo.

Hyun reads Yun-seong’s witness statement. He said he saw Woo-taek leaving the house with a small pink backpack. Later on, she watches from her car as Min-soo exits the school and gets into his car. She wants to follow him but one of her tires is punctured. Suddenly, Min-soo turns up behind her and asks if she wants a ride.

Jo-dan finds information on Min-soo — he won several computer science competitions and majored in philosophy of law. When he wonders why they are looking him up, Jin-soo says Mu-chan suspected him of being the accomplice in Na-rae’s case but could never prove it.

In Min-soo’s car, he openly talks about being a murder suspect and knows that’s why Hyun came to see him. When she can’t respond, he speeds the car up and goes in the opposite direction to the police station, where they were originally headed. Hyun is shaken but Jin-soo calls Min-soo at that moment and tells him to accompany Ji-hoon to give his statement, as his teacher.

Min-soo agrees and Hyun hurriedly makes her presence in the car known to Jin-soo and Mu-chan who is listening to the call. Min-soo does indeed drop Hyun at the police station, having taken a longer route, but he seems to enjoy her panic. He promises to continue their conversation next time.

At home, Min-soo is relaxing and watching TV with his mother, Ji-young, when she asks him why he has been killing people again. We then see that the person who killed Bae Gi-chul’s Russian wife was none other than Min-soo. He laughs and admits to it but tells Ji-young that he has a present for her.

Later, Min-soo enters the police station along with Ji-hoon. Seok-joo is also on the way to the police station since he’s gotten a new letter from Number One Fan, this one with pictures of Gi-chul’s wife’s corpse. When he reaches the police station where Mu-chan is waiting for him, he comes across Ji-hoon and Min-soo as they are leaving. Min-soo and Seok-joo stare at each other as Mu-chan and Hyun realise that they know each other.  

Elsewhere, Ji-young gets a video from Min-soo — her ‘present’. The video is clearly taken in Min-soo’s hidden basement but shows a man dressed like Gaetal speaking to the camera.

The Episode Review

With one of Gaetal’s accomplices caught and the revealing conversation between Jin-soo and his mother, episode 6 of The Killing Vote ends the first half of the K-drama on a strong note. A lot has unravelled but a lot is still to be explained and The Killing Vote is doing a good job of keeping things interesting.

Mu-chan and Seok-joo’s relationship in particular — with the mess up of the investigation of Na-rae’s death and Seok-joo’s expectations of Mu-chan, we can see that there are a lot of layers to their relationship. Further, Mu-chan’s own righteousness falls somewhere in between Gaetal and the law, which is an intriguing balance. What’s more compelling, is whether he’s going to be able to maintain it.

The Killing Vote episode 6 delves into the central moral argument a bit more and I maintain that these are the conversations and arguments that make it a riveting watch. The accompanying action and chase complement these quieter, more profound moments with thrilling, high-octane scenes. Some of these are shot quite well, showing multiple character’s perspectives. Overall, the episode run time continues to be a bit long but the story and execution are enough to keep viewers hooked!