Voice (Season 4) (2021) official poster
📺 K-Drama Guide · Action · Thriller · Mystery

Voice (Season 4)

보이스 시즌4: 심판의 시간 · 2021
✅ Completed · 14 eps
🎬 tvN · Tubi · Prime Video
⭐ 8.4 / 10 MDL 🔞 15+
⚡ Updated · Jul 23, 2026

📋 Drama Overview

Everything you need to know before you hit play.

Voice (Season 4) (2021) official poster
CompletedCULT SERIAL KILLER PICK
Voice (Season 4)
보이스 시즌4: 심판의 시간 (Boiseu Sijeun 4: Simpanui Sigan) · 2021 · South Korea
WriterMa Jin-won
DirectorShin Yong-hwi, Yoon Ra-young
Episodes14 eps · ~63 min each
AiredJun 18 – Jul 31, 2021
GenreAction · Thriller · Mystery
Content Rating15+

tvNTubiPrime Video
Serial KillerEnhanced HearingDissociative Identity DisorderCultPolice Procedural

Kang Kwon-joo relocates to Vimo Island chasing a killer who hears the world exactly the way she does, and the emails he sends her stop reading like threats and start reading like a preview — he tells her what’s about to happen before it happens. Calling himself Circus Man, he builds his crimes around families and manipulated teenagers, and the season’s first real gut-punch lands early: whoever he is, his face looks disturbingly like hers.

Derek Jo, an LAPD detective still working through his sister’s death, becomes Kwon-joo’s reluctant partner in tracking him down, and what starts as a straightforward manhunt turns into something much larger once Sonang Village enters the picture — a community that looks like a quiet fishing town and functions like a cult protecting its own. Fourteen episodes later, the season closes its case but leaves Kwon-joo walking away from the team that’s defined her since Season 1.

Episode Progress
14 / 14 ✅ Completed

⚡ Quick Verdict

One box. Everything you need to decide.

⭐ Worth it?Yes — the franchise’s most unsettling villain yet, even if the digital-predator detour wobbles
⏱️ Commitment14 episodes · ~63 min each
💛 VibeIsland cult mystery colliding with a killer who has as many faces as personalities
📺 Skip if…You want the LAPD crossover to be the main event — Sonang Village’s cult takes over the back half

⭐ 8.4 / 10
· MDL Score · 5,141 ratings

▶ Official Trailer

🎭 Cast & Characters

Lee Ha-na and Song Seung-heon lead a new international manhunt while an island cult hides Circus Man in plain sight.

Lee Ha-na as Kang Kwon-joo in Voice (Season 4) (2021)
Lee Ha-na
Kang Kwon-joo

Lead

Song Seung-heon as Derek Jo in Voice (Season 4) (2021)
Song Seung-heon
Derek Jo

Lead

Son Eun-seo as Park Eun-soo in Voice (Season 4) (2021)
Son Eun-seo
Park Eun-soo

Supporting

Kang Seung-yoon as Han Woo-joo in Voice (Season 4) (2021)
Kang Seung-yoon
Han Woo-joo

Supporting

Baek Sung-hyun as Shim Dae-sik in Voice (Season 4) (2021)
Baek Sung-hyun
Shim Dae-sik

Supporting

Kim Joong-ki as Park Joong-ki in Voice (Season 4) (2021)
Kim Joong-ki
Park Joong-ki

Supporting

🍿 Where to Watch

Stream Voice (Season 4) on these platforms.

📺 Episode Guide

Spoiler-light recaps — enough to remember where you left off, nothing that ruins the ride.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 1 — The Fourth Golden Time/New Emails
EP 01
The Fourth Golden Time/New Emails
Jun 18, 2021
Kang Kwon-joo starts treating the emails from someone calling himself ‘Circus Man’ as a nuisance, right up until his messages predict a murder before it happens. Derek Jo’s manhunt in Korea takes a personal turn when his own sister, Jo Seung-ah, becomes the next name on the killer’s list. The premiere saves its real gut-punch for the closing minutes: whoever Circus Man is, his face is unsettlingly close to Kwon-joo’s own.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 2 — Where the Dogs of the Netherworld Live
EP 02
Where the Dogs of the Netherworld Live
Jun 19, 2021
Kwon-joo and Derek finally meet in person at the Vimo Provincial Police Agency, and the introduction goes about as badly as it can — airport CCTV puts her face on the suspect list, and Derek responds by pointing a gun at her. The Golden Time team spends the rest of the episode proving Circus Man used prosthetic makeup to frame her, which clears her name but does nothing to calm the tension between two people who now have to work together. By the end, Derek’s decided the partnership is worth it anyway.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 3 — Where the Dogs of the Netherworld Live Part 2
EP 03
Where the Dogs of the Netherworld Live Part 2
Jun 25, 2021
A frantic 112 call from a missing woman, Jang Ye-sook, becomes the case Kwon-joo’s hearing was built for — she pulls details out of the audio a normal transcript would miss entirely. The search doubles as an introduction to how Circus Man actually operates: not through brute force, but by finding people already isolated enough that no one notices they’re gone. Vimo Island, two episodes in, is starting to look less like a backdrop and more like a co-conspirator.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 4 — The Old Female Diver's Whistling Breath
EP 04
The Old Female Diver’s Whistling Breath
Jun 26, 2021
The team’s pursuit of a fleeing suspect, Gong Su-ji, gets interrupted by a stranger case entirely: an elderly haenyeo diver says she’s found her granddaughter’s body sealed inside a cauldron at sea. It’s the kind of crime that only makes sense once local custom and old secrets get pulled apart together, and Kwon-joo’s hearing does the pulling — piecing together fragments of ocean noise and a dying woman’s last sounds.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 5 — Running Away From Danger
EP 05
Running Away From Danger
Jul 2, 2021
Circus Man escalates from emails to video, and the psychological pressure on Kwon-joo ratchets up along with it. The hunt for Su-ji and a missing girl named Ga-eun turns up a will near the beach, and local police are ready to close the case as a suicide before anyone’s finished asking questions. Derek isn’t buying it, and his refusal to accept the tidy answer is exactly what keeps the investigation from stalling out early.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 6 — Circus Man's Multiple Personalities
EP 06
Circus Man’s Multiple Personalities
Jul 3, 2021
Kwon-joo’s read on Circus Man shifts hard once she realizes she isn’t chasing one consistent killer — he has Dissociative Identity Disorder, and his methods and motives can change from one crime to the next. A stabbing call yanks the team into an emergency response mid-revelation, no time to sit with what they’ve just learned. An unpredictable villain is scarier than a calculating one, and episode six makes sure everyone feels that shift.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 7 — 28 Years Later
EP 07
28 Years Later
Jul 9, 2021
Kang Man-ho’s father, officially declared dead decades ago, turns out to be very much alive — the kind of family secret that reframes everything the audience thought it understood. Derek gets his own version of the same shock, discovering his mother’s death 28 years earlier wasn’t the suicide he was told it was. Two personal histories collide with the main case here, and Vimo Island’s corruption starts revealing just how far back it actually runs.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 8 — The Missing Teen
EP 08
The Missing Teen
Jul 10, 2021
A missing local teenager, Kwon Saet-byeol, pulls the Golden Time Team into an online community built around a manipulative YouTuber — a much more contemporary hunting ground than Circus Man’s earlier crimes. The case doubles as a warning about how easily digital platforms let predators reach kids without ever leaving a physical trail. Finding Saet-byeol before she becomes the next victim means learning a whole different kind of investigation.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 9 — Hidden Room
EP 09
Hidden Room
Jul 16, 2021
A teacher named Hyo-joon tries to rescue his student from a motel room where she’s being held, and walks straight into a trap the YouTuber built specifically to catch anyone who came looking. It’s a rough lesson in how deep Circus Man’s network actually runs — he’s not just isolating victims, he’s isolating the people who try to help them too. The episode plays less like a rescue and more like a cage closing.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 10 — The Birth of Circus Man/Short Kidnapper
EP 10
The Birth of Circus Man/Short Kidnapper
Jul 17, 2021
Kwon-joo comes face to face with Dong Bang-min — the real Circus Man — and a knife, until Derek and Shim Dae-sik intervene in time. He walks free anyway, sprung by his grandfather’s influence, which tells the team everything about how deep Sonang Village’s corruption goes before they’ve even started asking. Digging into Bang-min’s past uncovers the trauma behind his multiple personalities and ties him to an old, unsolved kidnapping case.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 11 — Kwak Man Taek's Confession
EP 11
Kwak Man Taek’s Confession
Jul 23, 2021
The team arrests Kwak Man-taek, and he confesses to being Circus Man outright — a confession that falls apart the moment he has a seizure mid-interrogation. Kwon-joo goes back to the emails and pulls a voice detail out of them that points somewhere else entirely, toward a conspiracy bigger than one confessed suspect. The neatest possible ending to this case turns out to be the wrong one.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 12 — The Vimo Plant
EP 12
The Vimo Plant
Jul 24, 2021
Sonang Village stops looking like a quiet fishing community and starts looking like exactly what it is — a cult, with residents manipulated and kept in line by a hallucinogenic plant tied directly to Circus Man’s methods. Confronting the village elders means confronting people who’ve spent years quietly enabling Dong Bang-min’s crimes rather than a single guilty party — the cover-up turns out to be as damning as the crime itself.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 13 — Time of Judgment
EP 13
Time of Judgment
Jul 30, 2021
Kwon Saet-byeol’s kidnapping forces the chase into its final stretch, and the confrontation with Dong Bang-min finally gives up more of his traumatic backstory — where the violent personalities actually came from. Dismantling Sonang Village’s cult means fighting through brainwashed residents and corrupt leaders who have every reason to keep protecting it. Two episodes from the end, the season finally lets its central conflict come to a head.

Voice (Season 4) Episode 14 — Judgment Hour
EP 14
Judgment Hour
Jul 31, 2021
The finale’s confrontation with Dong Bang-min exposes his grandfather’s manipulation and the village’s buried history all at once, and Derek learns the ugliest version of his mother’s death yet — killed by the grandfather, Dong Bang Heon-yeop, who abused both Derek and his sister for years. Shim Dae-sik, back with the team, has his own trauma to face down in the same final stretch. Justice for Bang-min closes the season’s case, but Kwon-joo accepting an invitation to leave the Golden Time Team is the note the finale actually chooses to end on.

🏁 Ending Explained

Full spoilers ahead — everything that happens in the finale and what it all means.

⚠️
Spoiler Warning — This section covers the full finale of Voice (Season 4). Stop here if you haven’t finished the series.

What actually happened The Golden Time Team finally corners Dong Bang-min in a last confrontation that strips away every alias — Circus Man, the center director, the mediating ‘master’ — down to the frightened, damaged person underneath all four personalities. His grandfather’s decades of manipulation and Sonang Village’s complicity come out in the same breath, and Bang-min is taken into custody as the cult’s protection finally collapses around him.

Voice (Season 4) (2021) — The Golden Time Team confronts Dong Bang-min in the finale

Derek’s reckoning Derek’s half of the finale is its own gut-punch: his mother wasn’t a suicide, she was murdered by the grandfather, Dong Bang Heon-yeop, who spent years abusing both Derek and his sister before either of them understood why. Justice for Bang-min and justice for his own family turn out to be the same fight, just arriving fourteen episodes later than he expected.

Sonang Village’s reckoning Dismantling Circus Man’s actual crimes matters less than dismantling what let him operate for so long — a village that chose to protect its elders’ secrets over its own children, generation after generation. The hallucinogenic plant that kept residents compliant is the season’s ugliest reveal, worse in some ways than anything Bang-min did himself.

Voice (Season 4) (2021) — Sonang Village's cult is exposed

Shim Dae-sik’s quiet return Shim Dae-sik’s return to the team gets its own quiet resolution here too — he faces down Bang-min alongside everyone else, closing a personal loop the season never made a big deal out of but clearly cared about finishing.

The KDW verdict Kwon-joo accepting an invitation to leave the Golden Time Team and study her hearing on her own terms is the choice the finale actually wants you to sit with, more than the arrest. Four seasons in, Voice finally lets its lead walk toward something instead of just closing another case, and that’s a stronger note to end a season on than a clean conviction.

Voice (Season 4) (2021) — Kang Kwon-joo leaves the Golden Time Team

✍️ KDramaWorlds Editor’s Take

Our honest read on why this drama is worth your time — and who it’s for.

🏝️ Island Cult Mystery
🎭 Multiple Personalities
🚔 LAPD Crossover
📞 Golden Time Race

Dong Bang-min’s introduction plays like a magic trick — four personalities sharing one body, and Lee Kyu-hyung never lets any of them blur into the others, which is the difference between a gimmick and an actual performance. Season 3 already proved this franchise could make its villain’s psychology as compelling as the manhunt itself; Season 4 raises that bar by giving the killer four separate psychologies to track at once.

Voice (Season 4) (2021) — cinematic still

Bringing in an LAPD detective as co-lead could have played as a gimmick bolted onto a Korean procedural, but Derek Jo’s grief over his sister gives the crossover an actual emotional spine instead of just a subtitle-friendly excuse for English dialogue. Shows built around a killer’s fractured psychology run the risk of turning diagnosis into spectacle; Mouse hit that same wall a few months earlier, and Voice Season 4 mostly avoids it by keeping Bang-min’s trauma tethered to a specific, traceable childhood rather than an abstract theory of evil.

Sonang Village doing double duty as both crime scene and cult is the season’s smartest structural choice. It’s not a twist so much as a slow accumulation — every episode adds one more resident who knew, one more elder who looked away — until the reveal barely needs to be dramatic because the audience has already done the math.

👍👍👍 BEST FOR 👍👍👍
🏝️ Fans who want the franchise’s manhunt format taken somewhere completely new
🎭 Viewers who want a serial-killer plot built on genuine psychological complexity, not just a mask
🚔 Anyone curious how Voice handles an international crossover four seasons in

⚖️ Final Verdict
What works
Lee Kyu-hyung turning four personalities into one genuinely unsettling villain
Derek Jo’s grief giving the LAPD crossover real stakes instead of gimmick value
Sonang Village’s cult reveal escalating gradually instead of arriving as a last-minute twist

What to know first
Episodes 8-9’s digital-predator detour shifts tone hard from the main cult mystery
Some of Bang-min’s secondary personalities stay underexplained even after the finale
Following Kwon-joo’s arc is easier with the first three seasons behind you

8.4 / 10— A franchise four seasons deep that still finds a genuinely new way to unsettle you.

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