“The Killing Vote” Ending Explained- Is Season Two Coming Soon?

The SBS drama “The Killing Vote” has concluded its run earlier today, let us talk about the drama and explain its ending.

“The Killing Vote” episode 12 recap

The episode begins with a flashback to the hardships Joo Hyun had to face following her parents’ death and how she came across Mu-Chan many times because of it.

When its back to the present Seok-Joo sees Ji-Hoon’s broadcast and the plan is failing. Voting closes and most people vote not to end his life but he wants to carry out the plan. Park Chul-Min escapes and Seok-Joo tries to take his own life.

Ji-Hoon and Joo Min see that people didn’t vote for him to end his life so they’re happy and he now wants to turn himself in but the bounty on him causes issues and some kids who Gaetal, they take them hostage and begin to beat him badly.

One of the kids gets very angry with him and his attitude so he hits him on the head with a huge rod. He falls to the ground as Joo Hyun shows up. She tries to do something and calls an ambulance but he loses his life in her arms.

Meanwhile, Mu-Chan saves Seok-Joo’s life performing CPR on him.

Kang Yoon-Ji shows up to Min Ji-Young’s home and want to arrest her for kidnapping the reporter, btu the reporter had cut a special deal with her and they make it so it seems that they were having a conversation. We don’t know what she said that made the reporter act differently and claim she wasn’t kidnapped.

After Ji Hoon’s death, Joo Hyun shows up to where Seok-Joo is and hits him for what he’s done to his son. He’s very sad and in disbelief hearing his son died.

At night time, Seok-Joo asks Mu-Chan to go see where he laid his daughter to rest and they have a conversation, but his righthand man had shown up to where police was and somehow kidnapped Joo Hyun. They have an altercation because the righthand man is angry because Seok-Joo didn’t sacrifice himself at the end.

He lures him in with a flash drive and says he can now change the word but then both of them end up brawling and both fall to the water. Mu-Chan goes after them but cannot find them. Police looks everywhere for them but there is no trace of them.

Police conclude the investigation with a bowtie and say they cannot investigate Gaetal because the two main suspects are presumed dead.

At his office at night, Mu-Chan is looking through evidence again and discovers he missed something at Min Ji-Young’s place so they go there to search it and discover blood after tearing down some bricks. They arrest her on the spot for her part in the murder and she just goes with them. Her husband also is filing for divorce from her.

On another day, both Mu-Chan and Joo Hyun visit the place where Seok-Joo presumably drowned. She asks why Min Ji-Young or her son’s names weren’t mentioned in the police briefing and he says he had to make a sacrifice. She says he screwed over Seok-Joo, again. She also refuses his offer to join his team.

1 year later

Joo Hyun is now the ace of her team and is known for being a hardworker. She gives lectures and does a lot of things. After leaving the lecture, she notices Kim Jo-Dan’s face on the walls as he won awards and notices the person who won 1^st place for hacking is nowhere to be found. When she asks Kim Jo-Dan about him, he says he’s so clever but he never saw him.

We find out that Choi Jin-Soo has since retired and opened a restaurant and he approves of Kang Yoon-Ji being in a relationship with Kim Jo-Dan.

Joo Hyun recalls the hacker she talked about with Kim Jo-Dan and looks through case files and finds a large file with Lrae.

At night, Choi Jin-Soo has a drink with Mu-Chan and says he began to understand Seok-Joo’s POV even more but he believes Mu-Chan can slowly but surely change things for the better.

We also find out that Min Ji-Young escaped justice and her secretary took the blame and then she had her secretary killed. She now volunteers at an elderly center and sees an assemblyman who defended Seok-Joo. He tells her she should share the sadness of the victims and their families.

After her volunteering ends, she’s escorted by the hacker Joo Hyun had been thinking about, she wants to start something similar to what Gaetal did. He’s helping her with it. She now wants to find a way to connect with her citizen in the country. He says he will only do what he likes and whats interesting.

She then says she wants her position back first, so he tells her to see the next page, she flips to see the same assemblyman she had talked to previously. She has her eyes on him now.

On another day, Mu-Chan is following a criminal and a masked man driving on a motorcycle hands him a file that has a flash drive with the logo of Gaetal on it. He then shows up to Joo Hyun’s workplace to get some forensics done. He asks her about the petition Seok Joo wrote for Ji Hoon, she says she knows nothing about that. But in fact, she knows and kept it with her.

At night, he comes back to haunt a crooked man he’s been following. He beats him up to a bulb and at the end of it, he sees the Gaetal mask, he wears it and exits the place. Is he now assuming the identity of the mask? what was in the flash drive that drove him to do this?

At the same time, Joo Hyun receives an email of a man being rescued around Japan’s waters. She now wants to go to Japan to see whats the deal is about. Could Seok Joo be alive?

In voiceover, Gaetal says, ‘hello citizens, let the killing vote begin.’

“The Killing Vote” ending explained- FAQ

What did you think of “The Killing Vote” ending?

“The Killing Vote” ending review

That was an ending…. that is … very bold, in a way. It made me wonder; did they wrap up shooting before they aired the drama?

So, I searched Naver, and yes, its true, they wrapped it up before it aired.

I say this because they would have NOT ended this drama like this if they’d known just how many think-pieces the ratings of the drama would get.

Remember what I said guys in the premiere episodes review? I said it’s a gamble on SBS’s part, and that gamble has failed.

Since I check out Naver weekly, I see headlines and such and I’ve seen like at least 10 deep-dive articles about “The Killing Vote” dwindling or ‘failed’ ratings and the system of airing one episode weekly. I often see that Cha Eun Woo drama in the discussion too.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we don’t want 1-episode weekly of any kdrama. I mean you can’t expect people to be so used to a certain format but then be okay with another one that’s so different from what they’re used to.

The ending is in a way not bad but also not good.

The drama was overall fine, I don’t think it deserved 12 episodes based on its premise and I don’t think it should’ve aired once weekly.

The death of Ji Hoon kinda makes sense, because even if you’re punishing bad people, you will be hit with karma one way or another, Seok Joo lost another child like that.

I highly doubt that Seok Joo is dead and I think Mu-Chan is reaching a breaking point or has reached it.

I think the idea SBS was going for might’ve worked in another universe where we didn’t always have two episodes per week of any short kdrama. Its like the other come up of a vigilante. It would make for a wonderful series with multiple seasons to tackle this exact premise they’re going for, but who will give it the time to grow and is it ultimately worth it?

The ending also mostly makes sense, in the sense that its foolish to expect what happened to change the system which is rotten to the core. It’s a sad realization that ultimately no matter how hard or even drastic one is, government bodies and systems are very difficult to tackle and the more corrupt they are, the more difficult it is. This is why people just give up.  

What I didn’t like was how open ending the drama felt but at the same time, I understand the angle the production team was going for. I genuinely believe they expected this drama to perform well in ratings but it didn’t, and for an SBS drama, 4% to 3% is just unheard of, maybe for MBC or KBS that’s another Tuesday, but SBS dramas usually perform much better.