So much is revealed in this week’s episodes of My Perfect Stranger. Although it’s a little bit tedious to keep going in circles to figure out who the murderer is, at least now we know who is not the suspect. Finally, there’s some understanding of what went wrong for Hee-Seop all those years ago and resulted in him behaving unfavorably towards his wife and child. But why did Hee-Seop take the blame for his mother’s wrongdoing, and what was it that his brother did? We find out all in the latest two episodes of My Perfect Stranger.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 9?
Hae-Joon is convinced that Hee-Seop is not the culprit because when Hae-Joon asks him “what” the bloody shirt is, he simply answers ‘it is mine’, clearly trying to hide something and save somebody else. Even though Hee-Seop’s uncle believes the evidence points towards Hee-Seop, he can’t believe his nephew would do such a thing. Before taking him to the station, he asks Hee-Seop why he would commit murder, and Hee-Seop doesn’t understand what’s happening. The crime he’s confessed to has nothing to do with murder, and this is when things get really confusing. The thing is, Hee-Seop couldn’t have committed Kyung-Ae’s murder because he was with Soon-Ae all night. When Soon-Ae’s father hears this, he doesn’t want anybody to tell the police about Hee-Seop being with Soon-Ae. He’s destroyed by the fact that his neighbors and the whole town are spreading malicious rumors about his dead first daughter, saying she went out to drink with men and ended up dead, so he can’t have his second daughter be insulted in the same way. Hae-Joon and Yoon-Young are also part of this conversation.
At the same time, Yeo-Seop’s necklace with the lock has been found somewhere in the street, but it’s not evidence enough to arrest somebody else instead of Hee-Seop. Still, when Inspector Baek shows it to Hee-Seop, he says it’s his necklace and not his brother’s, making him look more suspicious. Previously, the shirt that was valuable evidence ended up being contaminated and lost, but this time around, Hae-Joon makes sure it is sent safely to forensics. In the meantime, he himself plans on looking for Yeo-Seop to free Hee-Seop as soon as possible. In a flashback, we understand why Soon-Ae wants to protect Hee-Seop, but her father and even Yoon-Young don’t let her go to the station. After searching all day in Seoul, Hae-Joon returns with no real answers. After a while, it is proven that the blood on the shirt is not either of the victims’ or Hee-Seop’s, but before anything else can be done about it, two detectives from the Seoul district arrive to take Hee-Seop away. Even with Baek’s protest, they take Hee-Seop away because they’re looking for his brother, who has committed a bigger crime than murder, by taking part in the protests.
Hae-Joon follows the car out, which looks like it’s going in circles in the same neighborhood until they take Hee-Seop to the motel. Yoon-Young, on the other hand, gets a hint as to where her uncle might be through memory from the future. There’s a bunker in the house, and Yoon-Young is successful in finding her uncle there. He’s wounded and asks immediately about his brother. At the same time, Hee-Seop gets tortured by the “police” so that he can give out his brother’s location. Hee-Seop is wounded and in massive pain, but he doesn’t let anything slip.
What Happened To Hee-Seop And Yeo-Seop’s Parents?
In the 1980 Gwangju protests, many university students were massacred. Hee-Seop had a second brother who was in university. So, seven years earlier, Hee-Seop’s parents were told that their older son may have been murdered by the military. In their fear of losing their first son, the parents decided to leave the other two locked inside their home and not let them come out until their parents returned. Unfortunately, both their parents were killed in front of the house while the kids were still locked in. Hee-Seop and Yeo-Seop had made a promise to their mother to always look out for each other. This is why Hee-Seop always showed care for his brother before anyone else, even in the future.
Yeo-Seop tells Yoon-Young that the person the police are looking for is him and not his brother, so she should take him to the station. Hae-Joon redirects them to the motel, and Yeo-Seop tells Yoon-Young to wait downstairs as it would be dangerous to go up. Yoon-Young complies, and soon enough, a maimed Hee-Seop shows up. He’s unable to walk, and Yoon-Young remembers how he will limp in the future and realizes it is from this day that he got the limp. She doesn’t know how to comfort him, and the episode ends with them both crying. Hee-Seop because he doesn’t understand what he and his brother did to deserve such a fate, and Yoon-Young because she finally sees her father for what he is.
What Happens In Episode 10?
Yoon-Young attempts to take Hee-Seop to the hospital, but he refuses to go. While she’s struggling to take him, a media team arrives, and it happens to be Hae-Joon’s future company. Hae-Joon had tipped them off for an event happening in a motel in Woojung-ri, and they had said they would arrive in around 50 minutes. Hae-Joon had also requested Yeo-Seop to stay put inside the room for just 15 minutes because he knew the team would arrive by then. Exactly 15 minutes later, the team arrives, and the police officers are caught torturing high school children. Both boys are saved and taken to the hospital.
At home, Hae-Joon and Yoon-Young have a special guest. Yeon-Woo is finally here to fix the car, and the interaction between Hae-Joon and Yeon-Woo is quite interesting to see. Hae-Joon enjoys treating him informally as a younger man, and Yeon-Woo obviously has no idea that he’s, in fact, dealing with his own son from the future. We can understand that they will have a wonderful relationship in the future as Hae-Joon looks fondly over a picture of them together in his wallet. On the other hand, Go Min-Sook’s next target is supposed to be Kim Hae-Kyung, according to Yoon-Young. The proof that she has is not in the script but in her memory. Min-Sook had told Yoon-Young how she would write the next murder and had mentioned that Hae-Kyung had a crush on Min-Sook, which she was aware of. Min-Sook took advantage of Hae-Kyung’s feelings to befriend her, but after she began asking questions regarding the murders, Min-Sook was frustrated by her. Hae-Kyung knew that Min-Sook wanted to frame her brother, and we can also speculate that she knew Min-Sook was actually the murderer.
Hae-Kyung’s mother runs a bar, and her homeroom teacher has fallen in love with her. Hae-Kyung’s mother reciprocates these feelings, but Hae-Kyung completely hates them, of course. She’s already insulted enough for having a single mom and one who runs a bar. One of her mother’s customers gets touchy with her one night, and the homeroom teacher intervenes and beats up the man. When Hae-Kyung arrives, there’s a ruckus outside the bar because the man is a parent at her school. His wife and daughter are both there, and they insult Hae-Kyung’s mother before leaving. Hae-Kyung gives her mother a warning to leave her homeroom teacher, threatening to leave the house if she didn’t. In fact, in the past, she had actually left and never returned home. Hae-Kyung’s mother never found out that she was actually dead, so for years, she stood in front of Hae-Joon’s office and handed out flyers looking her daughter.
In her anger, Hae-Kyung writes a letter to her mother and leaves, but right at the door, Hae-Joon is waiting. This time around, he won’t be letting her go to her impending death. Hae-Joon takes Hae-Kyung on a short trip and explains to her why it’s important to stay home. When she returns, her mother tells her that she’s not going to see the homeroom teacher anymore and Hae-Kyung is all she needs. In the hospital, Soon-Ae goes to see Hee-Seop, and he comforts her regarding Kyung-Ae’s death. He understands that she might be burdening herself with the thought that everything that happened was her fault, but he assures her that it wasn’t. Yoon-Young watches them together and finally understands why her mother never left her father, even after all those years of trouble.
What Does Hae-Joon Find Out About His Mother?
Yoon-Young is extremely happy for the first time in a long time, and she can imagine a better life with her parents now that things have changed for them in the past. She wants to buy Hae-Joon a meal, and he takes her to a cheap street vendor. Yoon-Young enjoys her meal there, and they both share drinks. Yoon-Young is really excited to be friends in the future world too, and it looks like Hae-Joon is catching feelings for her. After getting drunk, Yoon-Young plays in the water and then falls asleep in Hae-Joon’s lap. He calls it a catastrophe, probably talking about his feelings or possibly the fact that he has to take a drunk Yoon-Young back home. Either way, he’s in trouble. At home, he gives Yeon-Woo the sandwich he requested for dinner and tells him it’s 10 p.m. Yeon-Woo rushes out because he’s supposed to be seeing a movie on a date at 9:30. Hae-Joon hears the title of the film and realizes that it’s the first film that his parents watched together. In hopes of finding out who his mother is, Hae-Joon heads for the movie too. In a flashback, we see Hae-Joon’s grandfather, the chief, tell him that his mother abandoned him without even hugging him, so he should not ask about her ever.
There is a woman with a bow on her head sitting next to his father. Earlier, we saw one of Min-Sook and Hae-Kyung’s friends giving them all the same headband, but the Bong Bong cafe owner had also taken one. We sure believe she is Hae-Joon’s mother, but the episode ends with Min-Sook exiting the cinema hall with the same hairband too. Now Hae-Joon is in a terrible predicament! In the preview for the next episode, Min-Sook has already become a novelist by stealing Soon-Ae’s work. We see Min-Sook threatening Soon-Ae when she claims she will tell everyone the truth; is this what possibly quieted Soon-Ae all those years ago? And this means that she always knew who Yoon-Young worked for and that her work was stolen. How come she never told Yoon-Young what Min-Sook had done to her? We can only know next week on My Perfect Stranger.
