The Killing Vote (국민사형투표) is a crime-thriller Korean drama series directed by Park Shin-woo, written by Jo Yoon-young and based on the webtoon of the same name by Uhm Se-yoon and Jung Yi-pum. The series stars Park Hae-jin, Park Sung-woong and Lim Ji-yeon in lead roles. The Killing Vote Episode 1 has a runtime of 69 minutes.

– The Killing Vote Episode 1 Review Contains Major Spoilers –

The Killing Vote Plot

The crime drama series follows a mysterious man who doles out punishment to the most heinous criminals in the country who fall through the cracks of the justice system. His M.O. includes sending a text message when a criminal doesn’t face justice and citizens over the age of 18 can vote on whether or not they should die. If the results in favour of punishment receive 50% or more votes, then this mysterious figure, who operates through the internet, shows the said criminal a taste of the consequences of their actions. With such a dangerous precedent being set, Kim Moo-chan, Kwon Seok-joo and Joo Hyeon get embroiled in a wild chase to figure out who the punisher is.

The Killing Vote Episode 1 Recap

The Killing Vote episode 1 starts 8 years ago, with Mu-chan running down the street on a rainy night while someone is violently attacked by Kwon Seok-joo. As the latter stabs the man repeatedly, Mu-chan catches up to him and demands he stop. As the two men stare at each other, we are transported to the present, wherein Joo Hyun is doing her best to show off her dance moves at a seedy filming spot as Mu-chan and his team rush to find out where she is doing her undercover work.

Just as one of the head honchos is about to beat her to a pulp for not taking her clothes off and losing views, Mu-chan burst in through the door to Joo Hyun’s aide. After he beats everyone up, she hacks into the system to give her team access to track the IPs and then asks the women to get out of there. Oddly enough, Mu-chan plants evidence on the head of the operation’s room in order to nab the culprits and after the police make an appearance, Joo Hyun and Mu-chan get into a tiff about their respective work patterns.

Later on, during the questioning, the head, Jin-soo, tries to feign ignorance and tells him that he accepts whatever fine he has to pay but threatens him for breaking into his establishment without a warrant. Mu-chan, having realised that he will pull off this trick, brings out the evidence that he had previously planted in his office and goes as far as to injure himself to threaten him further into accepting the charges.

The next morning, the public shows its displeasure with the release of Bae Gi-chul, while Joo-hyun can’t help but be annoyed at Mu-chan’s good steady rise up the ranks in spite of doing so illegally. After Gi-chul’s release, it is clear that prison has taught him no lessons, and immediately after getting into his car, he starts to make plans to start his CSE video business once again. Elsewhere, in a talk show, Min Ji-young and Chae Do-hee talk about Gi-chul’s release and the state of the judiciary in the country.

Gi-chul gets ready to release a bunch of porn videos and then goes back home drunk to beat his poor wife right out on the street. It turns out that she is working with Mu-chan, who tells her to work for them so that the police can help her. After Gi-chul arrives and Mu-chan runs off, he can’t help but stop himself from beating the crap out of Gi-chul, of course, after destroying the security camera and covering his face.

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Meanwhile, Joo Hyun goes through Joo Min’s laptop in hopes of finding the culprit behind its virus infection and finds a video file hiding as a text file. She renames it and is shocked to watch a video of a masked person talking about the state of Korea’s judiciary system and how they have decided to eradicate the wrongdoers who don’t get punished. Joo Hyun is sceptical of what she finds and goes to work the next day to track the IP address. Unfortunately, she is unable to find it, and, of course, her boss doesn’t find it necessary for her to dig into this (because this obviously won’t turn into a big thing later on).

Anyway, they obviously ask her to hand over the evidence to the police, and in turn, sees Gi-chul making a ruckus at the station about getting attacked the night before. Elsewhere, as Joo Min’s class takes an exam, the invigilator talks to someone secretly over the internet, and they decide to start it – the Killing Vote. People all over the country get a notification at the same time on whether they want to execute Bae Gi-chul and they have an hour to decide.

Of course, there’s sudden chaos among everyone – the police scramble to figure out Gi-chul’s location while everyone else wonders whether this is true or not. However, in spite of the chaos, the verdict is clear – the public wants Gi-chul to be executed.

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In the next scene, we see Gi-chul tied to a chair as the masked vigilante ends his life. The police find his body in a pit of money, having been murdered by money being pushed down his throat. The forensics team lets Mu-chan know that there is no physical evidence of the attacker and that they should send his computer over to cybercrime in order to get more evidence. As Mu-chan leaves the building, the masked vigilante sends out a video message to everyone wherein he gives proof that he was the one who committed the murder and even provides Gi-chul’s own testimonial of how he went about with his illegal ways.

The masked vigilante then moves on to show how he murdered Gi-chul and then talks about the rules of voting about to take place in two weeks. Mu-chan eventually gets assigned to a special task force to catch the masked vigilante, while Joo Hyun promises his seedy supervisor that she will do what is right and will prove to him that she is a better cop. As the task force assembles to work, Jo Dan gets pulled into it from the cyber crime team, and everyone starts their work in hopes of catching the killer and understanding what happened to Gi-chul after leaving the bar.

The Killing Vote Episode 1 Ending

Joo Hyun decides to meet Mu-chan to show him the video and goes on to tell him that a phrase that the masked vigilante used in his speech is similar to something Kwon Seok-joo had used 8 years ago and that he might be the killer. The revelation leaves Mu-chan quite stumped, and he thinks back to when he had arrested Seok-joo and, as it turns out, he is still in prison.

The Killing Vote Episode 1 Review

With an intriguing plot, we are introduced to a world wherein the police’s apathy gives rise to the common man rising up to take revenge for the atrocities committed against them. The premise is interesting, and the series is watchable when it is not trying its hardest to deliver a flowery and fun moment through Lim Ji-yeon, who, incidentally, is much more believable when she is serious and focused. I don’t understand why she is supposed to be the funny character in the show; it’s an unnecessary addition and doesn’t go with the tone of the series at all. In fact, it’s super distracting, and Joo Hyun’s clumsy girl act is extremely annoying.

Apart from that, everyone clearly has a ton of backstories that we will be seeing soon, something that might just connect all of them together. I am interested to learn more about what happens in the upcoming episode. Here’s to hoping they don’t reduce Joo Hyun as the resident manic pixie girl.

The Killing Vote will air every week on SBS in Korea as well as on Amazon Prime Video in select regions.

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