‘Copycat Killer’ Ending Explained: What Is the True Identity of the Noh Killer?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for Copycat Killer, a new Netflix crime series coming straight from Taiwan. The serial killer genre is quite compelling for audiences. Watching people do the most outrageous things and then getting caught and put to justice seems to have a cathartic effect. In that regard, the genre excels, so whenever someone sees a new serial killer show, they are grabbed like flies to the light. Copycat Killer ends up being one of the best Netflix shows of the year. A show that even non-fans of the genre can enjoy.

The strongest element of the show is the characters. Characters are key when it comes to maintaining people-watching. It all comes apart if your audience can find a good character to latch onto. Some of the biggest shows on TV and film franchises in cinema only thrive because they are able to tell important stories about characters. In this case, we have a fantastic cast of characters that feels quite varied and also interesting. They are fully three-dimensional, which means it feels quite satisfying when the season’s conclusion finally comes.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Copycat Killer. Read at your own risk.

Who Is The Noh Killer, And Why Is He Killing?

Copycat Killer follows the story of Hsiao Chi Kuo, a prosecutor who works in law enforcement. Hsiao Chi is quite serious in life. His entire focus seems to be devoted to his job, and he feels quite annoyed when the people around him don’t take it in the same way. This is a shame because this attitude has closed the doors of many relationships. He doesn’t relate very well with the rest of his co-workers, and they don’t bother to relate to him either. Hsiao Chi is a lone wolf who feels very comfortable that way.

However, even if he likes to work alone, Hsiao Chi is very good at his job. In an early example, when a young man is blamed for the death of his parents, Hsiao Chi goes above and beyond in his investigation and ends up clearing the young man’s name. You can feel that Hsiao Chi will do things that no other prosecutor will do. However, his devotion to the law has made him inflexible. He sees the world in black and white, and those who don’t agree with the law are then put into his black book. Hsiao Chi ends up making enemies this way.

In one opportunity, he catches a fellow prosecutor receiving a bag of money in exchange for secret information on a case. To leak information and receive money for it is, of course, illegal. Maybe another prosecutor would think twice before incriminating a fellow prosecutor and putting a bad spotlight on the law system. But this is who Hsiao Chi is. He cannot let this infraction pass and tells on his co-worker. The result is that the co-worker goes to jail. His co-worker Ci Yang Liao tells Hsiao Chi that this behavior will get him in trouble one day.

Hsiao Chi keeps looking at his cases and is called to a very strange one day. A woman’s severed hand has been found inside a gift box in a park. Hsiao Chi visits the scene and is fascinated by what he sees. He investigates and discovers that the wounds on the hand resemble those on a case some years prior. As more victims are found, all of them women. Hsiao Chi concludes that they have a serial killer on their hands. He starts building a killer profile with his psychiatrist friend, Yun Huei Hu.

What Is The True Identity Of The Noh Killer?

This is the point where our other co-lead makes an appearance. We are talking about Yen Jhen Lu, a reporter working for a local TV station. Yen Jhen and Hsiao Chi meet, and they discover that there has been a rise in the number of missing women. Among the missing women, there is a personal friend of Yen Jhen. This reason sends her to collaborate with Hsiao Chi in discovering who the killer is and what he wants. Yun Huei’s profile also starts becoming more elaborate.

The investigation goes public, and the Killer, who named himself Noh, starts sending videos to TV stations. Suddenly, the killer becomes a celebrity and begins taunting Hsiao Chi into capturing him. Yun Huei declares that the killer is quite narcissistic and seeks attention. Yun gets so close to finding the truth that she is killed. This torments Hsiao Chi to the extreme, as he has feelings toward Yun. More killings happen, but finally, Hsiao Chi gets his prime suspect, the killer himself.

The killer in question is a man named He Ping Chen, and he is a reporter who works on the same TV station as Yen. How could this be possible? In fact, everyone starts suspecting He Ping when he writes a book about the case that makes him famous. Hsiao Chi believes that only the killer could have written a book like that. He shoots at He Ping but doesn’t kill him. Hsiao Chi knows Yun wouldn’t like him to become a murderer. However, Hsiao Chi is arrested, and He Ping becomes even more famous after surviving the incident.

He Ping gets his own show and keeps milking the murder cases to get his show the highest ratings. In prison, Hsiao Chi meets with the colleague he sent to jail, Ci Yang. Ci Yang tells him that Hsiao Chi’s personality got him in trouble because he is too unyielding. He confesses that he accepts the money to get inside the corrupted network. He suggests that sometimes, to capture the bad guys, you must do things that are not the most standard or legal. This gives Hsiao Chi an idea. However, he is assaulted in prison and sent to the hospital.

However, this is all part of Hsiao Chi’s plan. He planned to get hurt to get out of prison, and then he wanted to appear in He Ping’s TV show. When he is there, he apologizes to the nation live but remembers what Yun said about the killer. Hsiao Chi starts to declare that the killer, Noh, is not original and that he will soon be forgotten. This triggers He Ping, and he admits live that he is the assassin. He only cares about having attention. He is sentenced to life in prison, but when he gets out of court, he gets stabbed and dies.

Meanwhile, Hsiao Chi returns to be a lawyer and keeps searching for the truth, whatever the case might be.