Copycat Killer (模仿犯)is a Taiwanese crime-drama-thriller series starring Wu Kang-ren, Alice Ko, Ruby Lin, Ko Chia-yen and Fandy Fan, alongside other cast members. The series has 10 episodes, each with a runtime of 60 minutes. The series is based on the novel “模倣犯” by Miyabe Miyuki.
– Copycat Killer Ending Explained Contains Spoilers –
Copycat Killer Recap
The series follows a hard-headed but empathetic prosecutor who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of a slew of serial killings wherein the killer will stop at nothing to manipulate the victims, their families, the police as well as the media in order to make his horrible work a media sensation.
In the end, the killer turns out to be not one but multiple people working together to hurt and abuse others. But, is Prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi able to bring justice to this sordid mystery?
Copycat Killer Ending Explained: Who is the Copycat Killer?
After a tough cat-and-mouse game, Copycat Killer episode 10 gives us all the answers. Although we get the name of one of the killers early on in the fourth episode, we see who the mastermind is at the end of the saga. However, we are given the final reveal in episode 8 itself, wherein a known face becomes the biggest enemy of our prosecutor and, as a result, everyone involved.
It is shown in the end that Chen He-ping and Shen Jia-wun were the two people working together, with He-ping working as the puppet master to manipulate everyone and everything. Only Yao Ya-cih was able to see the twisted man inside him, but she never really understood the full extent of his darkness.
But why did He-ping commit these crimes? Well, he was simply a psychopath- when he was young, he tortured animals and eventually murdered his parents as well. Meanwhile, Jia-wun was abused by his mother when he was a young boy. His mother, suffering from depression after his sister’s birth, went off the deep end after she died as a baby and started to force Jia-wun, also named after his sister, to dress like a girl and essentially take over her place. Of course, this broke Jia-wun psychologically and messed him up pretty well.
The two of them met at an underground pornographic den called Sodom, wherein you have to be a member to be a part of the live shows. Essentially, the “exclusive” club dealt in more “extreme” forms of sex and pleasure. It is from here that these like-minded people found each other and then moved on to torture and murder instead of just watching it all happen from a table.
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Copycat Killer Episode 10 Explained
In episode 9, we see a tragic loss for Kuo Hsiao-chi – after thinking that it’s his uncle who is in danger, he finds out that Hu Yun-huei was the one who was actually the killer’s target the whole time. Breaking down at his friend’s loss, he vows revenge on He-ping, who has destroyed too many lives in the past few months. He fights He-ping in the car park, and the latter constantly taunts him, which pushes Hsiao-chi to attack him more.
After He-ping pushes him off the edge asking him whether Yun-huei could hear her own skull breaking thanks to him, Hsiao-chi shoots the serial killer but doesn’t kill him. Of course, this ends in the prosecutor being sent to jail and He-ping gaining sympathy from the ordeal.
Afterwards, He-ping tries to manipulate the victims’ families once more, but Mr Ma sees through his facade and mentions how his book on the serial killings has too much information about things that he shouldn’t know, forcing He-ping to drop some subtle hints about his sick nature before walking away.
In the tenth episode, Hsiao-chi, after getting some well-versed advise from Mr Ma, decides to go to He-ping’s show in order to confront him covertly and let him expose himself as a killer. Thanks to his narcissism, He-ping has someone else impersonate as a killer and ask Hsiao-chi uncomfortable questions, but remembering Mr Ma’s wise words, he turns it on He-ping and questions the integrity behind his work.
Thanks to his quick thinking, He-ping finally breaks live on TV and admits that he is Noh and Jia-wun was just a pawn in a game he created from start to end. He further illustrates how he murdered Ya-cih by crushing her skull and that the ashtray is still in his office. Either way, he incriminates himself pretty well, proving what Hsiao-chi knew already.
It turns out that this was a plan Hsiao-chi concocted with his superiors which turned out rather well in their favour as He-ping served himself up on a platter. He-ping is arrested and found guilty but is stabbed right after by a masked person and dies right outside the courthouse in front of the media and his followers.
After this entire ordeal is over, Lu Yan-jhen becomes the leading journalist of TNB and as it seems, she’s taking a different approach to news. Hsiao-chi is still in prison but he keeps in constant contact with Yan-jhen and seems to be doing much better than before.
Things mostly gone back to normal and after Hsiao-chi gets out of prison, it turns out he has become a public defender and helps those in need. Things have mostly turned in his favour and he has definitely learned from this experience, although the same can’t be said about the society as a whole.
Why Did He-ping Expose Himself In front of Live TV? Hsiao-chi knew that thanks to He-ping’s narcissism, he won’t be able to accept any criticisms against his “work” that he holds to high and mighty. Thus, he arranged for You-wei to call in as the killer in order to provoke He-ping’s ego and himself accused him of being irrelevant. These taunts, on top of Ya-cih’s words that he is a nobody pushes He-ping off the edge and he starts to ramble on about his murders and how there is no one as unique as him.
In the end, he exposes himself as the killer and gives away key information that makes it easy for the police to swoop in and arrest him.
Copycat Killer is streaming on Netflix.
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