At this point, the writers of The Killing Vote seem to have lost all regard for the story and are doing exactly as they please, without any thought for the effect of or on the series. This had started out as such an interesting concept that genuinely had the capacity to start conversations and engage the audience like nothing else probably had. That is why we were so excited for the show, but it proved to be a letdown very soon. The focus of the show should never have been Gaetal himself, but what he was doing and why people felt so motivated to support him. The Killing Vote could have been a commentary on the dynamics of the court of public opinion, but instead, we get an investigation where everybody is dancing to the beat of their own drum and is so incompetent in literally every situation. It has been nine episodes, but the police have not managed even a token victory against the villain and the anti-hero. We are beginning to believe that they probably deserve to lose at this rate. The makers of this show failed to understand exactly how the hypocrisy of the guilty conscience operates, and that remains this show’s greatest failure. Here is the recap of The Killing Vote Episode 9.
Spoiler Alert
What is Chae Dohee doing?
Essentially, for whatever reason, Gaetal number one somehow diverted the entire system to the control of Lee Min Soo, and since then, he has been the one pulling the strings. Min Soo’s mother, Min Young, plans on using Gaetal and reporter Chae Do Hee for her own political ambitions. If there are other reasons, we have not been able to decipher them, but this is it for now.
Do Hee finally premieres her ‘Gaetal Show,’ and it is the most ridiculous thing we ever saw. How would this be even legally allowed? Do Hee says that Gaetal has the entire nation’s support, and she goes on to support him more by saying that viewers could drop in the names of people involved in corruption, and the post that received the highest likes could be considered by Gaetal. While Do Hee assures everyone that the post and its engagement will be thoroughly vetted, that is far from the case. Min Young easily manipulates the posts and forces Do Hee to take up the cases that she wants her to. On the other hand, Do Hee also reveals on her news channel that Kwon Seok Joo was living in the police headquarters and not in jail. The public doesn’t know yet that he is Gaetal, and this revelation puts extra pressure on the police to find him.
Is Ji Hoon’s real identity discovered?
We don’t see Kwon Seok Joo do much of anything in this episode. He is currently living with Ji Hoon and his grandmother, and he suspects that the police may be able to locate them eventually, so he tells them what to say to anyone who knocks on their door. In the jail, when Joo Hyun finds the facilities available in Seok Joo’s cell, she understands the special treatment he must have been getting. When she tries to ask about the doctor he was visiting, she finds that it is none other than Ji Hoon’s grandmother. Joo Hyun notices all the things that don’t add up or add up too well, and she finds it odd that Ji Hoon is Min Soo’s student while his grandmother is Seok Joo’s doctor.
Joo Hyun and Mu Chan also investigate the identity of the boy that Seok Joo was about to adopt and find that his real name was Kim Tae Yang. They don’t find that Ji Hoon is that boy, but Mu Chan has his suspicions. Additionally, even Joo Min has started suspecting him since she has caught some of his lies. She knows that his address is false, and he spoke about a sister and a father, despite previously saying that he had no one. It’s not adding up, and the shock may be a little too much for her later since she already likes the boy.
Does Min Soo catch Joo Hyun?
Kwon Seok Joo couldn’t predict that one of his own would betray him, but he is on point when he guesses how Joo Hyun and Jo Dan will try to investigate Gaetal. That is how he manages to send them a clue. But couldn’t he have just said it directly instead of going in such a roundabout way, considering that there wasn’t much room for interception or corruption of the message? Either way, Joo Hyun figures out that Gaetal has accessed people’s phones through a second weather app, and he is spying on everyone through them. If people want to protect their privacy, they will delete the app. Despite this news, the number of users didn’t go down, and we believe this is another mistake by the writers. Everybody’s conscience has some dirt on it, and nobody would want to be vulnerable to Gaetal, so the uninstallation should have happened on a much larger scale. Either way, in the middle of this process, Joo Hyun also came to know that Mu Chan was the mole in the force, and he leaked information to Do Hee so that he could come back to work faster. Joo Hyun is angry with him and decides that she will separate the investigation from him and not work with him going forward. Bang Chun Sik, the man who committed the real estate fraud, was killed by Gaetal, and the police have this in their hands now.
During The Killing Vote episode 9’s ending, Joo Hyun and Jo Dan go to Min Soo’s house, pretending to be there to fix the internet connection. Joo Hyun manages to sneak into Min Soo’s room while Jo Dan guides her from outside. What Joo Hyun finds is another secret room that looks exactly like the place that Gaetal makes his calls from. As Joo Hyun tries to copy the files from his computer, she is unable to because of some technical glitches. Meanwhile, Min Soo is back home, and he saw the light in his room from outside, meaning that someone was there, and that is cause for alarm since nobody is allowed to enter his room. Joo Hyun finds the video of Na Rae on Min Soo’s computer, but before she can do anything, the door is opened. She has most likely been discovered, and even if Min Soo doesn’t see her, he would know that someone was there. He only needs to check the activity of the computer to realize who it could have been.
Final Thoughts
It is not easy to enjoy The Killing Vote. Putting aside our disappointment about the difference in the plot from what we expected, even the investigation feels so dull. We are positive that there is something wrong with the subtitles because they don’t seem to align with the dialogues and actions of the characters. Either way, we just hope that the show gains some spark going forward.
