The Election Episode 12 Recap

"Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times." - Winston Churchill

Ho Chun Pak (Samuel Kwok) does not show up to film a promotional clip for Yip Ching (Angelica Lee). She knows that he has no intentions of helping her anyways. They go ahead filming with Yip Ching and Fong Kai Chiu (Alan Luk) instead.

Poon Tsz Wan (Eunice Ho) finds Professor Lin Chi-Yun (Simon Lo) and learns his back story. Eight years ago, he travelled to the United States with his wife to treat her cancer. She was successfully cured, only to be killed in a traffic accident shortly afterwards. He sees it as karma for what he has done in the past.

Poon discusses her findings with Cheung Kwai Lung (Gregory Wong). Before Lin had left for the US, he had been commissioned by Song Man San (Liu Kai-chi) to write an environmental report to assess the government's proposal to build an industrial zone. The report turned out to be favourable, silencing many critics and allowing the government to pass the bill. Cheung theorizes that Song may have paid Lin to write a fake report.

Yip Ching's event at the high school is underway. There are many protesters outside, but few supporters inside. As they wait, Cheung expresses confidence that she will get the required amount of supporters. The caption says that the event lasted for six hours. In the first 2 hours, there were less than 200 people, but after that, supporters poured in. In the end, there were over 3000 attendees for the event. Combined with the Internet supporters, Yip Ching got 423,700 supporters in total.

Song secretly visits Professor Lin in his hotel room. He promises to make Lin the environmental minister once he is elected, but Lin says that it is not what he came back for. He shows Song pictures of people with varying degrees of lead poisoning. The poisoning was caused by pollution of the water source in a village near the industrial zone, a fact that had been known to Lin but purposely omitted from his report because Song had paid him $200 million. Song feigns sorrow after learning about the poisoning and assures Lin that he will do something about it. He asks Lin to give him all the information he has collected so that he can forward it to the relevant government department.

Song shreds all the information once he returns to his office. Meanwhile, Poon collects a water sample from the water source near the industrial zone.

A former legislative councillor, Tsui Kam Chuan (Daniel Kwok), has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for burning a flag. He promptly holds a rally in front of the DNRA office. He declares that his party, known as the "Frontline Alliance", will back Yip Ching for the election. Later, he shows up unannounced at Yip Ching's office and offers his help for her campaign, but she is resistant as they have different ideologies.

Tsui Kam Chuan is a parody of legislative councillor Raymond Wong Yuk-man, as they both have the nickname "Mad Dog". The Frontline Alliance is a reference to either the League of Social Democrats or People Power. Both are political parties co-founded by Wong (he is no longer part of either party) that take a radical approach, using tactics such as protests and filibusters. 

On her radio show, Poon exposes the evidence about the lead poisoning and raises questions about Song's role in this incident.

Song is hounded by reporters outside the DNRA building. He denies that the environmental report is fake and says that he will ask the government to investigate the exact reasons for the lead poisoning. Tsui arrives on the scene with his supporters. He challenges Song to drink a bottle of water from the poisoned source and demands that he apologize and resign. Song deftly avoids confrontation by leaving.

Afterwards, Tsui goes to Yip Ching's office again. Cheung politely humours with him and sends him off. Once he is gone, they talk bad about him. But unbeknown to them, Tsui has bugged their office and can hear every word that they say.

Yip Ching and Cheung go to see Professor Lin. They try persuade him to reveal the truth. Cheung recalls an incident in which Lin had insisted that any report must be accurate to the decimal point because it was his duty to let the public know the truth. Lin eventually agrees to do an interview on Poon's radio show tomorrow.

The next day, Professor Lin is on his way to Poon's place when Song's assistant comes to say that Song wants to see him. Lin is taken to the rooftop where Luk Wai To had died. Song uses both threats and promises to make Lin back down from going on Poon's show. Instead, Lin goes on the air at HKMG. He publicly admits that his report was riddled with mistakes because he had been distracted by his wife's illness and states that Song had nothing to do with the incident.

Yip Ching's poll numbers have pulled to within 9% of Song's. She and Cheung have a light moment at the cafe where they swap beverages. A family at another table is recording a video which catches them in the background. In Sum Suet Lai's (Violet Li) office, Song gives her a video clip of a woman who has cheated on her husband. That woman is his wife...

Election countdown: 28 days