The Killing Vote (Season 1), Episode 7 opens with a gripping flashback, transporting us eight years into the past, where the seeds of the sinister mystery were sown. We witness the heated debate between Seok-joo, now a professor, and Assemblywoman Min concerning the revelation of suspects’ identities in court cases. As the investigation into the pet’s disappearance unfolds, suspicions begin to swirl around Yun Seong. Seok-joo confronts him, and Yun Seong’s feigned innocence only deepens the mystery. Mu-chan’s relentless pursuit of the truth eventually exposes Woo Taek’s criminal history and Yun Seong’s involvement in various illicit activities. Flashbacks reveal Ji-hoon’s troubled past and his connection to Seok-joo and Na-rae, painting a picture of a young boy yearning for a family.
This article contains spoilers.
The Killing Vote (Season 1), Episode 7 Recap:
The episode begins with a flashback to 8 years ago. We are shown everything that led to Seok-joo’s daughter’s murder and everything that went on in the trial and after. We see Seok-Joo as the professor and Assemblywoman Min in a debate about the identity of suspects being revealed in a court case. Young Yun Seong (Lee Min Soo) is in the audience and, after the debate, meets Seok-joo and asks him a couple of questions regarding the law. Yun Seong has an interesting viewpoint about justice, and Seok-joo offers to let him attend one of his lectures and allows him to present his opinion even if it is different from Seok-joo’s viewpoint. Assemblywoman Min tells him that he was home-schooled, but it would be a good change for Yun Seong. Na-rae, Seok-joo’s daughter, visits him, and they share a wonderful bond. Yun Seong does not seem to like this interaction.
Yun Seong kills Na-rae’s pet dog one day. Seok-Joo doesn’t know that the pet is dead but thinks it was kidnapped and asks Yun Seong about it. And he pretends he didn’t know how he could have taken the dog. He also asks Seok-joo to check the CCTV, and Seok-joo asks him if he knows that their CCTV was broken. Seok-joo tells him that someone had seen him getting out of his house, and hence, he was asking him, but the conversation was interrupted as the Assemblywoman and her husband came home. Yun Seong’s father asks the servants to dig in the backyard, and they find the dog. He hits Yun Seong and asks him why he has to take on killing dogs as he had done that with all the other dogs he had got him, and now he was killing other people’s dogs. Assemblywoman Min protects her son and hits Woo Taek, tells her husband that Woo Taek will take the blame, and tells the driver that was the agreement from the beginning. Woo Taek was a protective shield against all the wrong things Yun Seong did.
Woo Taek and Yun Seong have a conversation, and Yun Seong apologizes to Woo Taek but tells him that he doesn’t like nosy people, and he says the next target is Na-Rae. Yun Seong kidnaps Na-rae with the help of Woo Taek. One day, Na-rae was walking back home from the bus stop when Woo Taek stopped her and enticed her with information about her fluffy pet dog. She decides to go with him, and eventually, Yun Seong kills him. As soon as Na-rae died, the first suspect was Seok-joo. A lot of videos of him as a professor interacting with female students went viral, and that was used to create a bad image of Seok-joo. Assemblywoman Min fabricated this. Back then, Mu-chan trusted Seok-joo and was determined to catch the culprit. He had noticed Yun Seong’s evil smile as he watched Na-rae’s dead body, and he was already suspicious of him. Mu-chan investigates further and finds a video from a cycling group that had recorded Woo Taek with Na-rae before she died.
Woo Taek was taken into custody, and Mu-chan visited the Assemblywoman’s house. He enquires about why her family was paying for Woo Taek, and she makes an excuse for it. He sees Yun Seong and tells him that Woo Taek had said they were very close, but Yun Seong denies it. After digging deeper, Mu-chan found out that Woo Taek was involved in some petty crimes before, but Yun Seong was involved in some capacity or another. During the trial, Mu-chan decided to use Yun Seong’s DNA as evidence, which backfired, and they lost the case. After the case, Seok-joo apologizes to Woo Taek, and Woo Taek plays a recording of Na-rae saying she missed her father, and we also hear her saying to the kidnapper to take her to Seok-joo as they had promised. It is confirmed that Woo Taek was involved in his daughter’s murder.
One day, Seok-joo follows Woo-Taek and murders him. The episode ends with Yun Seong, now Min-soo, watching Seok-joo and vice versa. Ji-hoon had been called in for a statement, and after that, he was free to go, but Mu-chan held Min-soo back to discuss some things. Ji-hoon was curious and wanted to know why Min-soo was still in the station and was attempting to snoop around, but Joo Hyun found him and asked him for a favor. She sneaks into the school’s computer lab and wants to hack Min-soo’s email. Ji-hoon tells Joo Hyun that he knew the police suspected Min-soo to be Gaetal and helps her find the evidence.
In the station, Min-soo and Mu-chan are talking. Min-soo does not attempt to hide his real identity, and Mu-chan tells him he hasn’t changed. Min-soo responds by saying he was sure he hadn’t changed either, as he probably still broke some rules. Mu-chan gets straight to the point and asks if he had murdered Na-rae. Min-soo smiles, and in the next scene, we see Min-soo walking out of the station smiling.
The Killing Vote (Season 1), Episode 7 Ending, Explained:
Mu-chan’s Confrontation – Is Min-soo the Killer?
Mu-chan and Seok-joo are now having a conversation about Min-soo probably being Gaetal. Seok-joo asks for the motives, and they realize that the real Min-soo and Min-soo, Gaetal, have varying opinions, but he is the prime suspect. He calls Joo Hyun, and she tells them about the video they found on the school computer, giving evidence to think of Min-soo as a suspect. It is revealed what Mu-chan had said to Seok-joo in private in the previous episode. Mu-chan had told Seok-joo that if he were to be Gaetal, he would have gone after Min-soo first.
Ji-hoon gets out of the car and closes his eyes to feel the rain. We see a flashback to the time he was a child and had no one to call family or friends. Seok-joo and Na-rae get close to him, and he spends all his time with them. Ji-hoon was the boy Seok-joo wanted to adopt before Na-rae had died. We see young Ji-hoon watching Seok-joo kill Woo Taek as well. In the last scene of the episode, we see Joo Min bringing an umbrella over Ji-hoon’s head, making him look at Joo Min in the same way as he felt about Na-rae.
This episode gave us the complete details about the relationship dynamics between Seok-joo, Mu-chan, and Min-soo. It is now clear that Min-soo is the murderer, but in the next episode, we have to see if the traps set by Mu-chan will be successful and if the police will catch Min-soo and make him pay the price for his actions. Or will Min-soo put himself on the next killing vote and kill himself? This does not seem likely, as Min-soo does not seem to have any regrets for his actions, but we have to wait and watch. How and what will Ji-hoon do now that he knows the truth about Min-soo? Will he avenge Na-rae’s death?
