In season 2 of The Victims’ Game, Fang Yi-jen is considered the lead suspect in a cold case handled by his mentor 15 years ago. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Fang Yin-jen’s mentor Lin Ching-jui has passed away and Fang is at his memorial. Chao Cheng-kuan tells him that the police are opening an old case handled by Jui.
Prosecutor Chang Keng-hao is convinced that a cover-up was involved and medical examiner Hsueh Hsin-ning discovers new evidence.
Chiang Hsiao-meng is living with Fang but she doesn’t like his persistent calls and messages checking up on her or telling her what to do.
Fang’s relationship with Hsu Hai-yin is also struggling and she is reconsidering her career after her editor capitalizes on a heartfelt article she wrote about young children.
Jui was the only person who believed in Fang when he was younger and taught him how to use his skills to his advantage and become a forensic investigator.
The idea that his mentor would do something despicable like cover up a murder made Fang very uncomfortable.
Hsaio Cha-ying and Chen Yang-yu’s bodies were found in the mountains and it was ruled as a murder-suicide with Cha-ying labeled the murderer.
Her mother Hsaio Min-chun believed that her daughter was murdered and tried to convince Fang to look into it but he trusted Jui.
Keng-hao keeps an eye on Fang because his signature was on the forensic report of the crime.
Min-chun asks Fang to meet her but before he can, she is found dead and Fang is considered the primary suspect.
They also find a link to popular singer Yuan Chi-ling, who is accused of murder in an anonymous letter sent to the news channels.
Chi-ling was friends with Cha-ying but she undersells how close they were. Fang investigates the case with Kuan and Hsin-ning’s help.
Hsiao-meng is fed up with living with her father and goes to the Sevenleaves Foundation which houses children in a tough spot.
Lin Ming-cheng, Jui’s son, founded it. He also offers Hai-yin a job as the foundation’s PR director since he knows how strongly she believes in the children.
Fang wants to question Chi-ling but he finds her dead and is once again considered a suspect since he was first to the scene.
Looking into the crime scene, they discover her connection to the designer Liu Shu-yen. Fang discovers that Shu-yen was friends with Chi-ling, and Cha-ying when they were in school.
He and Hsin-ning find a group photo with Shu-yen, Chi-ling, Cha-ying, Yang-yu, and three other individuals on a trip.
Fang believes that all those people are the targets and the killer is among them too. One of those people is Wu Chun-lu, who confronts Ming-cheng at the foundation.
Hsiao-meng gets a job cleaning up crime scenes with an old inspector and she feels like she was meant to do that job.
Hai-yin takes the job at Sevenleaves but suspects Ming-cheng because he isn’t always forthcoming with his answers.
Shu-yen also turns up dead and Fang is certain that they need to find the others before another dead body shows up.
They set a trap for the killer and Chun-lu shows up. Fang gets his hands on him and he accuses Ming-cheng of being the killer.
Keng-hao’s belief that Jui covered up a crime is strengthened when they find out that Jui’s son is involved.
Records show that Chun-lu’s ex-girlfriend Kuo Hsin-pai, who is also in the picture, died five years ago after an argument with her drug dealer.
Chun-lu got back into drugs following her death and was removed as one of the founders of Sevenleaves.
With the identities of the people in the photo confirmed, Fang’s goal is to find out what happened on their trip and whether there was a cover-up.
He visits an old colleague who worked on the case back then and realizes that there is a piece of evidence hidden in the original file.
It confirms that the crime scene was staged and the murders happened elsewhere. Fang then admits that he didn’t double-check the forensic report because Hsiao-meng was hurt back then and he was worried about her so he trusted Jui.
Wun-lu is also killed and Ming-cheng is the only one left in the picture. In a flashback, it is revealed that the children stole a bus and ran away from their homes.
Fang remembers that the bus was still there at Shu-yen’s father’s garage and he goes there with Hsin-ning.
They confirm that the bus is where the deaths occurred and Hsin-ning faints. Fang takes her to the hospital and then confronts Ming-cheng with Hai-yin.
Ming-cheng reveals that he shot Yang-yu by mistake and Cha-ying was hurt in the crossfire. He then called his father who helped them all cover up the crime.
Kuan finds some evidence in the prosecutor’s office and confronts the real killer but he is shot and taken into surgery.
Fang goes back through all of the evidence they found and realizes some irregularities point to Hsin-ning.
They discover that Min-chun worked with the real Hsin-ning and then got plastic surgery after Hsin-ning’s death from cancer so that she could carry out her revenge.
She was involved from the beginning and used her position in the investigation to kill her victims and frame Fang for it.
She kidnaps Ming-cheng and Fang goes after her with help from his daughter and Hai-yin.
Ending explained:
The final victim
Hsin-ning takes Ming-cheng to her old home and records his confession while torturing him. By the time Fang arrives, Ming-cheng is dead.
Hsin-ning takes Fang hostage and drives him to a different location so that she can get his confession because he was involved in her daughter’s death too.
He apologizes for his negligence and tells her that he knows where she was going on that trip so that Hsin-ning can finally find out why her daughter left her.
Pushing her away
The children who stole the bus were united in their dislike for their parents and they wanted to live life their way.
They had their fun but once things got difficult, the pressure fell on all of them. When some threatened to go back, Ming-cheng brought out a gun.
During a scuffle, Yang-yu was killed and when Cha-ying tried to stand up for Ming-cheng and grabbed the gun, she was suffocated to death by the others accidentally.
She had the strongest desire to leave home because her mother was paranoid that her daughter didn’t love her.
Cha-ying would get scolded every time she brought up her father and Hsin-ning suffered from some disorder that didn’t allow her to love her daughter unconditionally.
Holding her secret
Fang takes Hsin-ning out to a tunnel in the middle of a national park because that was where Cha-ying went.
Hsiao-meng figures this out too and rushes over there with Hai-yin. Fang shows Hsin-ning a box that Cha-ying hid filled with her father’s things.
Hsin-ning cannot fathom that Cha-ying wanted to remember her father because he used to beat her.
She admits to killing her husband back then and Fang explains that Cha-ying witnessed that but didn’t tell anyone.
She came to this place so that she could see her father one last time and leave him in the past but it ended in tragedy.
Hsiao-meng arrives and tries to talk Hsin-ning into letting them go. She tries to kill herself but Fang stops her.
More mysteries to solve
With Hsin-ning arrested and charged with all the murders, Fang is free to go back to his normal life.
His relationship with his daughter and Hai-yin is improving and he is learning how to understand people better.
Prosecutor Keng-hao was secretly working with someone throughout and a woman referred to as “Madamme” is released after Jui’s cold cases are re-opened.
Kuan watches on from a distance as some mysterious group plans to dig into the past of the department and uncover more secrets.
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