Copycat Killer recap guide: All 10 episodes explained

Copycat Killer episode 5 recap

Copycat Killer episode 5 is a wild ride from start to finish and a turning point for the season. I didn’t love the reveals in this episode, and, honestly, it killed some of the hype I had for this show during the first four episodes. I’m hoping it gets back on track in the second half of the season, but we’ll have to see!

To begin, Copycat Killer episode 5 picks up immediately after Yong finds the body at the park playground. Luckily for him, it’s not Yu-tong, but it is Zih-cing. Yu-tong is still alive, for now. It seems like Hsaio-chi was onto something when he suggested that not doing what the killer wants would buy the victims more time.

As for why Jia-wun chose this park, there was a time when Yong left Yu-tong there by mistake because he got caught up at work. We see a flashback to a young Yu-tong crying because she thought her father didn’t want her anymore. It’s heartbreaking, and the memory just compounds Yong’s guilt regarding the way he’s treated his daughter. He feels like he’s a terrible father.

We established in the previous episode that the real killer is the Kink DJ Jia-wun. And he does have a disturbing connection to Jian-ho. When they were kids, Jian-ho was ruthlessly bullied and tormented in school. Jia-wun was his only friend and would often intervene on his behalf and protect him. During one particularly nasty bullying incident, he assaulted a girl and nearly killed her. That’s the assault case Jian-ho was blamed for when in reality, it was Jia-wun behind it all along.

Jia-wun has quite a traumatic backstory. His mother had a daughter before he was born, but she tragically died at just two months old. When she gave birth a second time, she was already in a deep depression, and when her son was born, she refused to see him as anything but a substitute for her late daughter. Jia-wun’s mother even named him Jia-wun after her daughter and spent years trying to force him to be a girl and act like his sister, making him wear dresses and lipstick and hitting him when he refused.

Those years of abuse caused Jia-wun to fester in hatred and rage. He started to hate all women and became a serial killer to express his rage toward his victims. On top of all of this, his sister’s spirit appears to be haunting him, appearing in spectral form throughout the episode as a malevolent entity hovering nearby every time Jia-wun does anything.

Jian-ho suspects his friend has something to do with the killings and even calls a lifeline to report him before backing out.

Meanwhile, Hsaio-chi and Da-chao investigate the girl Jia-wun put into a coma all those years ago. Unfortunately, she’s since killed herself, but they discover she’s written Jia-wun’s name all over her bedframe. Once they have his name, it doesn’t take long for them to connect Jia-wun to the nightclub and to Jian-ho. Hsaio-chi brings Jian-ho in for questioning to get to the bottom of their relationship, but Jian-ho is still reluctant to turn on Jia-wun. We don’t see the end of their conversation, but Hsaio-chi seems to have enough information to confront Jia-wun.

He confronts Jia-wun in an interrogation room and lays out all the evidence they found at his mother’s house, complete with violent videos and photos from his childhood. Hsaio-chi has figured out that Jia-wun’s mother tormented him and that he’s been living in his sister’s shadow his entire life. Jia-wun gets close to confessing, but then his lawyer shows up, leaving Hsaio-chi and Da-chao frustrated.

Concerned that Jia-wun might get away with all of this and at his wit’s end, believing himself to be a bad father, Yong sets out to kill Jia-wun once and for all, implying he intends to kill himself or turn himself into the police after. He calls Hsaio-chi before going after Jia-wun to ask him to take care of his daughter, tipping Hsaio-chi off to the fact something is amiss.

Yong follows Jia-wun to an abandoned building, and the two get into a violent altercation. Yong comes close to shooting Jia-wun and killing him, but Jia-wun taunts him. If he dies, then Yong will never find his daughter. Yong falls on top of Jia-wun and strangles him to what appears to be dead, but apparently not because Jia-wun springs up afterward and turns the tables on Yong, pushing him over the edge of a balcony where he seemingly plummets to his death as Jia-wun escapes into the night.