Episode Summary
A prosecutor turns himself in for murder, and the story flashes back to the complex case he was investigating: a woman who killed her abusive husband and claims self-defense. The appearance of a mysterious witness, who is also connected to one of the prosecutor's old cases, leads to a shocking theory that the murder was not a desperate act but a meticulously planned setup designed to exploit the law.
Spoiler Alert
Justifiable Defense: Episode 1 Spoiler
The story kicks off in the most dramatic way possible. On a dark morning, a prosecutor named Duan Hongshan drives a van into a local police station, covered in blood, and calmly announces, "I've killed someone."
The episode then flashes back five days to show us what led to this shocking confession. Duan Hongshan was reviewing the case of Jiang Ting, a woman who killed her husband, Zhang Yuan. She claims it was self-defense after years of abuse. When Duan meets her, Jiang Ting seems detached, explaining that on the day of the incident, her husband attacked her again. She says she grabbed a knife to protect herself as he cornered her on their balcony, but after the first stab, she panicked and kept going. Her only request is for Duan to take care of her pet fish.
At the prosecutor's office, most of Duan's colleagues believe it's a case of excessive self-defense or even intentional homicide. Duan, however, argues that they need to consider the three years of terror Jiang Ting endured in her marriage. He is inclined to believe it was a justifiable act of self-defense.
Just as they are debating, a new witness named Mei Zheng comes forward. She lives in the opposite building and claims she saw the whole thing. According to Mei Zheng, she saw both husband and wife holding knives. Fearing for Jiang Ting's safety, she shone a powerful diving flashlight into Zhang Yuan's eyes, momentarily stopping him. It was in that moment, she says, that Jiang Ting lunged forward and stabbed him.
The plot thickens when Prosecutor Gong, Duan's superior, brings up a 14-year-old case that Duan handled involving a man named Li Mufeng, which was also ruled as excessive defense. As Duan's colleague pulls the old file, they discover a startling connection: Mei Zheng was also the key witness in that case.
Things get even more complicated when an anonymous caller reports Duan Hongshan to internal affairs, claiming he and Mei Zheng have been in contact for years and that he plans to use his position to get Jiang Ting off on a justifiable defense plea. While trying to verify Mei Zheng's testimony at the scene, someone shines a flashlight at Duan from her building, proving it's possible.
The final twist comes from Deputy Chief Prosecutor Fang Lingyuan. She reveals that she was the one who shone the flashlight during the test, confirming the witness's story is plausible. However, this only makes her more suspicious. Fang theorizes that the murder might have been a setup. She suggests that because both Jiang Ting and Mei Zheng are connected to the old Li Mufeng case, they would be intimately familiar with the legal definition of justifiable defense and could have conspired to stage a murder to look like one.
