Copycat Killer Ending Explained: Who Was The Real Killer? How Does He-Ping Get Arrested?
The long-awaited series Copycat Killer premiered on Netflix, which is yet another Asian production and shows an overwhelming police drama with a breathtaking story of a serial killer who needs the media to keep his crimes in evidence. Although the story seems very didactic, a lot of things can leave you with doubts about what happens at the end of Copycat Killer. That’s why we’re going to tell a little of the history of this production and explain what happens in the last episodes with our characters.
Copycat Killer Review: The Story Plot
The first episode opens with a masked killer known as Noh sending a videotape to every television network in the city. In the video in question, the killer issues a challenge to Chief Prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi (Kang Ren Wu), while ending the life of a young woman at the push of a button. The narrative then jumps back eight weeks. It is 1997 and Kuo Hsiao-chi is a prosecutor in Songyan (Taipei); honest and extremely dutiful, he works late in the office and puts all of himself into solving the cases entrusted to him. After having a colleague in his department arrested for crimes of speculation and disclosure of inside information, the man hits the headlines of the local news, attracting in particular the attention of the sensationalist network TNB and its host Ya-chi (Ruby Lin).
However, the case of corruption within the prosecutor’s office is overshadowed when, in the middle of a public park, a severed woman’s hand is found inside a red box. Kuo, who has been entrusted with the case, immediately makes an incredible discovery: the hand found in the park has a sprained thumb, exactly like the one presented by a young woman killed two years earlier. The perpetrator of this last crime, however, had already been incarcerated: is it, therefore, the work of a Copycat Killer or, instead, was the wrong man arrested? The investigation brings Kuo and veteran detective Lin Shang-yong (Tsung-Hua Tou) together but also attracts the attention of intrepid reporter Lu Yan-Chen (Cammy Chiang).
Copycat Killer Ending Explained: Who Was the Real Killer?
With that, Hsiao-Chi comes up with the name of Yan-Jhen’s childhood friend, Shen Jia-Wun, who works as a DJ at the Kink nightclub, coincidentally the place where all the victims of the mysterious killer frequented. The series reveals the boy’s violent traits and leads us to believe that he is largely responsible for the crimes. During his childhood, Jia-Whun was always neglected by his mother after his sister’s death. Therefore, the woman started to dress him in women’s clothes, as a way of trying to replace the lost daughter – which brought great psychological damage to the boy.
Now, he’s seen torturing girls midway through the series, as a way of getting revenge for what happened in the past, which leads us to be pretty sure he’s the killer — or at least one of them. Probably his next victim is Inspector Shang-Yong’s daughter, Lin Yu-Tong, who disappeared a few days ago with no news of her whereabouts. With suspicion regarding Jia-Whun, the girl’s father despairs and decides to act on his own to find his daughter. He follows the criminal and gets into a fight with him but ends up being injured and ends up in the hospital. With the police heading to her address, the killer puts Yu-Tong in the trunk and takes off with her in the car, but they end up in an accident.
Happy Ending? Not Yet…
Jia-Whun dies, but Yu-Tong survives and is taken to the hospital to recover with her father, at the same time that it finally seems that we have a happy ending to the story, with the murderer dead and innocent lives saved. But we’re only halfway through the series, and in the first episode, we see an assassin named “Noh” challenging Hsiao-Chi on TV. This leads us to believe that this story is not over and that there is still a murderer on the loose, which is corroborated by He-Ping, Yan-Jhen’s colleague, who will go on to publicize the theory that there is another accomplice involved in the murders. Furthermore, Hsiao-Chi doesn’t want to close the case just yet, as he intends to eliminate any remaining suspicions involving Jian-Ho.
The prosecution and everyone at the TNB station is still willing to investigate the case, including the anchor Ya-Cih, who ends up coming to the name of He-Ping — who, to our surprise, turns out to be the murderer called “Noh” and the murderer. cruelly the anchor, taking her place on the station’s prime-time news. We found out that Jia-Whun was just a puppet in the hands of He-Ping, who was the one orchestrating all the murders, the mastermind behind it all. With a psychopathic mind, he has always had misbehavior, as he tortured animals and even killed his parents as a child. He met Jia-Whun at an underground pornographic club called Sodom, which dealt with extreme forms of sex and pleasure, which culminated in its members eventually becoming torturers and murderers – and not just spectators of the group’s events.
The End Draws Near
Hsiao-Chi becomes strongly suspicious of He-ping, but he doesn’t have any evidence that would warrant an arrest. At the same time, the criminal continues to act like a TV star, always with his method of provoking the law and the Public Ministry, accusing them of incompetence. Extremely narcissistic, the man does everything to make his crimes the center of attention and “Noh”, his code name, seems to be the supreme competence and above any law. He even published a book about the murders. This characteristic will be essential for the outcome of the story.
Even without the evidence, Hsiao-Chi is almost certain that He-ping is the murderer, and he becomes even more certain after the murderer kills Yun-hei in cold blood—which leaves him devastated and losing his mind. to the point of personally confronting the murderer and shooting him. Hsiao-Chi is unable to kill him and, on top of that, he is arrested for having a weapon and for attempting against He-Ping’s life, he spends a few days in the hospital recovering, but soon returns to active duty in his constant task of show society that authorities are useless.
The Masterstroke!
Even with a formal confession from the man arrested for the two-year-old murder that He-Ping is the killer behind all the cases, there is no evidence to arrest him, which causes Hsiao-Chi to set up a trap of sorts. to catch the criminal. For his plan to be put into action, he needs to leave prison, which happens through an assault that causes him to be transferred to the hospital. He asks for participation in He-Ping’s program and the criminal, thinking that he will manage to tarnish the image of justice even more, agrees.
During the program, a man calls claiming to be “Noh” himself — which at first glance seems like a setup by the presenter himself to put the prosecutor in front of challenging questions. But Hsiao-Chi manipulates the conversation to provoke He-Ping by diminishing the importance of the criminal on national television. Quickly, the real “Noh” appears with a clean face on TV and admits to being the criminal and that Jia-wun was just a piece on a board he created from start to finish. He even ends up giving himself away even more by coldly revealing how he murdered Ya-cih — crushing the presenter’s skull. This confession was only possible thanks to Hsiao-chi’s great intelligence and He-ping’s narcissism, as the prosecutor knew that the murderer would not accept criticism of his work. Therefore, he arranged for You-wei to call claiming to be the murderer to hurt the presenter’s ego, pushing him beyond his limits.
Now, Yes, a Complete Ending…
Obviously, with a confession of the genre, He-ping is arrested, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes, but on his way out of court he ends up being stabbed to death by an anonymous masked man, having the same tragic ending as many others. of its victims. Months have passed since the revelation and “Noh” is already forgotten by society, which is yet another attack on the killer’s ego. On the other hand, Hsiao-Chi is finally released from prison and becomes a public defender to ensure everyone gets proper representation. Yan-Jhen, who builds an enviable friendship with Hsiao-Chi, finally gets promoted and gets her own television show, where she tries to defend the names of all the women who lost their lives and teach people that women deserve to be treated better and better not belittled.
