This article contains major spoilers for the Copycat Killer Season 1 ending, especially the events of Copycat Killer Season 1 Episode 10.
Copycat Killer is adapted from a novel by prolific Japanese author Miyuki Miyabe and produced by Greener Grass Production for Netflix.
The story revolves around an upright prosecutor named Kuo Hsiao-chi who is on a collision course with a sadistic serial killer(s) determined to make the whole world a stage, manipulating the media, public, and law enforcement while deliberately tormenting the loved ones of the victims.
The series takes place across ten hour-long episodes littered with twists and turns. While multiple revelations occur prior to the finale, it’s the tenth episode that nonetheless brings the whole story together.
Copycat Killer Season 1 Ending Explained
Who is the Noh Killer?
Of course, the most crucial question of the series is the identity of the Noh Killer, who is murdering young women and using pieces of them to torment the police and media. Hsiao-chi is on the case since he’s a prosecutor who believes firmly in the responsibility of his station and is willing to go above and beyond. But he also has a pretty binary view of the world and tends to be inflexible in his methods.
The Noh Killer, then, challenges him to his very deepest ideals. Working with his psychiatrist friend Yun-Huei Hu, he begins to draw up a profile of the killer, most notably that he’s a narcissist and attention-seeker.
When the investigation becomes increasingly public Hsiao-chi works with TV reporter Yen-Jhen Lu, whose friend is one of the missing women. The Noh Killer is actually one of her colleagues, He-Ping Chen.
Why is He-ping Chen killing people?
He-ping is looking for notoriety.
As the profile suggested, He-ping is a narcissist. He milks the investigation into the killings into a bestseller, manipulates Hsiao-chi into taking rash action, and then benefits even further from the incarceration of the prosecutor.
He-ping is able to garner a lot of fame and even his own TV show. However, it’s this narcissism that also proves to be his undoing, since when Hsiao-chi finally confronts him, he tricks him into a confession by suggesting that the Noh Killer is an unoriginal creation and will ultimately be forgotten.
He-ping is also a garden-variety psychopath, having tortured animals as a child and eventually murdered his parents. He’s sentenced to life in prison but is stabbed to death before he can serve any time.
Does He-ping have an accomplice?
We eventually come to learn that He-ping, despite being the puppet master, was collaborating with Jia-Wun Shen.
Jia-wun was abused by his mother as a youngster after the loss of his sister as a baby drove his mother to a mental breakdown. She named Jia-wun after his sister, forced him to dress and live as a girl and eventually replace her, filling the hole that the loss of her daughter left in her life.
He-ping and Jia-wun met at an underground sex club built around extreme sexual appetites and fetishes. They eventually progressed from this kind of voyeurism to being actual perpetrators.
You can stream Copycat Killer Season 1 Episode 10 exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the Copycat Killer Season 1 ending? Let us know in the comments.
