‘The Killing Vote’ Episode 4 Recap & Ending Explained: Does Kwon Seok Joo Get Released From Prison?

There is a reason we keep saying that The Killing Vote shouldn’t release only one episode per week because the excitement that the fourth episode has produced is second-week level. In its fourth week, the story should have been far more developed than it is, but we are still only getting hints so far. The time vs. episode schedule determines the anticipation one feels for the story, and The Killing Vote has not matched up accordingly. We don’t have more opinions about the episode since this one was alright, but nothing exemplary. So, let us take a look at its recap now.

Spoiler Alert

Kim Mu Chan and Joo Hyun

Since Kim Mu Chan’s secret is out, he boldly admits to the media that it was all his plan to turn the tide in favor of the investigation. Mu Chan sends a direct message to Gaetal that he is wrong and will be hunted down at all costs. And since he has caused this whole mess, he has no place to be, so Joo Hyun takes him to her house. Obviously, he clashes with Joo Min, who is a Gaetal fan, and she asks what makes Gaetal so wrong in the face of regular injustices due to incompetencies of law and order. Mu Chan points out that such victims don’t obtain the right to ordain someone to carry out justice for someone else. It is murky waters, and neither has an answer at that moment. But Mu Chan has started looking at Joo Hyun, and he even gets the hint that her family’s passing away in a car accident a few years ago has something to do with Joo Min’s strong views right now.

Later, Mu Chan tells Joo Hyun everything about his past with Kwon Seok Joo. He had failed to find the right evidence that would put the criminal behind bars, which had caused Kwon Seok Joo to go off the rails and commit murder. Therefore, it all circled back to Mu Chan in a way. But there was something fishy about the case. The accused was a neurodivergent man who had multiple such cases against him, but they had all been paid off by his dad’s boss. It is highly likely that he took the fall for someone related to the Assemblywoman, probably her son, but the detectives never got around to finding that out. In the present day, that son assaults his girlfriend, and it seems as if it was understood that she would keep her silence. Yet, the Assemblywoman assaults her further and disfigures her face, making sure that she won’t be able to work again as an actress, thus protecting her son forever from her.

In school, Ji Hoon is aware that Lee Min Soo keeps ogling at the girls, and more specifically, Joo Min, but he doesn’t say anything. We understand why soon enough. When protecting Min against a group of bullies whom she calls out for playing The Killing Vote, he ends up in a hospital with her. Min finds that one of the doctors was trying to take unsolicited pictures of an unconscious patient and is just about to raise a hue and cry when Ji Hoon points out that she cannot prove it. Ji Hoon seems to have some past, and he is collecting evidence to prove the innocence or guilt of someone, until which time he needs to stay on the down low. However, his attraction towards Min is an impediment, and his grandmother also tells him to be careful since Joo Hyun is a police officer.

Meanwhile, Min is determined to be a “nuisance” so that she can prevent what crimes she can and keep the criminals on their toes. But this entire incident has put Hyun in Lee Min Soo’s line of sight. We are not sure whether he was looking at her as someone he was interested in or as someone that he should be wary of, but there is certain trouble here.

As for Joo Hyun, she is also hell-bent on being a nuisance. She believes that the reporter, Lee Da Hee, knows how to contact Gaetal and demands that she give her those details. It was Da Hee who had revealed that Joo Hyun was the whistleblower in the Min Ji Young case, which had ended up making her the social pariah of her department. Hyun did not want her name revealed at any cost, and we are guessing that Da Hee promised her that and then went back on it. Right now, she tells her that she doesn’t know how to contact Gaetal, so Joo Hyun threatens to scour her company’s entire website to find what she wants. Joo Hyun may have pulled Da Hee’s hair, but we appreciate her patience in not saying anything against her to Joo Min, who considers Da Hee her idol.

Why Does Kwon Seok Joo Get Released From Prison?

Kwon Seok Joo continues to prove just how much of a character he is. He has been doing something in the jail cell instead of manual labor for his punishment, and all that has somehow given him knowledge of the workings of Gaetal’s mind and motivations. There is a scene in The Killing Vote Episode 4, where we are sure he purposely got beat up. There is no way he took the blows because he was so captivated by the view outside. He wanted to be hit for some reason. We will know why in the upcoming episodes, but this is the same police officer—the only one—who is not in favor of the special treatment that Kwon Seok Joo keeps getting. He claims that a murderer should be treated like one, so he is either an extremely righteous cop or there is something more to him.

Whatever it is, Seok Joo has decided that he has paid his dues, and he wants to be out in the world, for which he orchestrates an effective little game. One of the officers gives some of Seok Joo’s mail to Mu Chan, and it consists of letters from the professor’s “number one fan.” As Mu Chan and Joo Hyun go through them, they understand that these must be from Gaetal, as they have the details about how they would like to kill the wrongdoers who have escaped the law. This ties right in with the victims of Gaetal so far. At the end of The Killing Vote episode 4, Kwon Seok Joo offers to help the police with the missing letters and pages, provided he is released from prison. The episode closes with Kwon Seok Joo finally breathing the air out of prison as Joo Hyun waits to pick him up.

Final Thoughts

Joo Hyun and Kwon Seok Joo have deduced that Gaetal’s next victim is going to be someone from the army. This is giving us D.P. flashbacks, but we want to know how the Assemblywoman and her son tie up in all this. Gaetal is not raising the right moral concerns and he is picking on the safe bets. What about the supposed philanthropists who are secret criminals, beloved celebs who have been charged with unproven cases of sexual assault, or even widely loved godmen, who would actually have people up in arms against their detractors? Will Gaetal ever target them? That’s what we want to know.