My Perfect Stranger (2023) Episode 8

Episode 8 of My Perfect Stranger begins with us returning to the crime scene. A murder has occurred after all, and in the rain-soaked streets, Hae-joon and Yoon-young rush out to investigate. Beom-ryong is there first, and he fingers the black ring before collapsing on the ground.

Mi-sook is fine though, and she narrates the whole experience, cryptically mentioning how one can’t reverse fate and a bunch of other statements that all seem rather conspicuous. Back at the crime scene though, Yoon-young finds the matchbox, right next to Joo-young and the familiar message of “A woman who reads is dangerous.”

Hae-joon is shocked and questions why Beom-ryong phoned, demanding an explanation. Beom-ryong claims that he and Joo-young ran into each other yesterday but he’s more concerned about the fact that he could get into trouble for talking to a “commie” than the murder itself.

This interaction though does confirm that Joo-yeong never left town after all and was here the whole time. Hae-joon is shocked, especially as the police arrive at the scene and begin to investigate.

That’s not all though, in a shocking turn of events Hae-joon finds another crime scene further up the road. And the victim? Kyung-ae. She too has the same matchbox on her, meaning the timeline has just been moved up a lot quicker than expected. Two murders in one night to be precise.

When Yoon-young shows up just after, she’s understandably shocked. Of course, Soon-ae and the rest of the family are only now being caught up to speed and it’s heartbreaking to watch as Kyung-ae’s father slowly gains the realization that his daughter is dead and has to be restrained by officers at the scene.

Hae-joon takes Soon-ae aside and believes that it’s hopeless. Despite the time and place changing, two people have still died and he believes there is nothing they can do to change anything. Hae-joon decides to work on fixing the car instead, so they can return to their timeline.

Mi-sook has been acting suspiciously for awhile but so too is Kim Hae-kyung. On their way to school, Mi-sook tells her to relax her face, claiming that she’s acting suspiciously. Baek is a good detective though and in the midst of all this, figures out pretty quickly that both victims have matchboxes next to them.

Detective Baek also checks out the message inside, but the chief just wants to close all of this out as quickly as possible, asking his subordinates to round up everyone suspicious so they can question them.

Asa result of all this, Soon-ae is heartbroken to see her mother acting erratically, completely traumatized by the experience. She imagines the phone ringing and even accidentally slashes her wrist while washing up. She’s not of sane mind so Soon-ae rushes out, leaving Yoon-young caught in the middle of all this, given she’s there witnessing it all.

Yoon-young rushes back to Hae-joon and admits that she’s worried something bad is going to happen to her grandmother and pleads with Hae-joon to use his efforts to help try and save her. She doesn’t believe they’re back at square one and should use what they’ve learned to try and leverage this in their favour. Specifically through saving her grandmother.

A new arrival in town sees a guy called Yeon-woo show up. This happens to be Principal Yoon’s son, and he greets his father warmly as they drive into town. He’s somewhat hesitant about meeting Hae-joon, claiming that he likes the name, but traffic is held up heading into the town center thanks to police arresting a couple of thugs. “Heh, Welcome to Korea,” Yeon-woo says.

Yeon-woo shows up at Hae-joon’s and drops off the Rubik’s Cube he’s been messing about with, claiming that he likes smart people and trying to get some words out of Yoon-young. Of course, now is not exactly a good time and she’s understandably unresponsive.

Soon-ae heads back home and finds her mum reminiscing on old times, seeing Kyung-ae in flashbacks across the living room. She wishes she hadn’t been so cold and had just given her daughter a hug. When Soon-ae heads into the living room some time after, she finds her mother has gone. But where? Well, it turns out she’s gone all the way up to the cliff-edge and looks close to jumping.

Hae-joon scrambles up there and manages to step up, stopping that from happening. He urges her to keep on living. “Will you be at peace knowing you’ve left them behind?” He says, pleading with her to keep on living for the sake of her family. She turns, holding out her hand, as Hae-joon manages to save her life.

Yoon-yougn is there too and although she doesn’t say anything, she does embrace Hae-joon that night as her way of thanking him for taking that step and saving her grandmother. Yoon-young also points out that Yeon-woo stopped by earlier on and it’s here we learn that he’s actually Hae-joon’s father!

Before we get a chance to digest this news, Hae-joon and Yoon-young go over the three potential culprits for the murders. Given Hee-seob’s wrist was badly hurt (not broken) he seems incapable of tying the ropes, while Beom-ryong’s fear of being arrested seems to chalk him off the list too, especially as he was unaware of Kyung-ae’s murder.

Min-soo is also a doubt as well, so that leaves the person who told the biggest lie – Go Mi-sook. She’s been wrapped up in all of this from the very start. And what about Yoo-seob too? It’s all very much up in the air at the moment!

Hee-seob is questioned by Yoon-young and Hae-joon, who end up finding a bloodied rag in his bag. He actually met with Mi-sook two hours earlier. Within this meeting, Mi-sook reiterates what she said at the start of the episode but this time there’s a little more context to who she’s talking to.

She claims to be able to take care of Hee-seob’s weakness, showing off the blue cap she retrieved from hospital. She tells him he should have thrown it out properly, and suggests they collaborate, whispering something in his ear.

As we cut back to the present, Hee-seob claims that he’s the real killer and the rags are his own. Yoon-young tries hard to keep it all to herself, bitterly retorting that Hee-seob is a pathetic human being.

However, Hee-seob suddenly experiences some weird mental issues, clutching his ears and claiming that there’s someone dying. Yoon-young and Hae-joon decide to leave him to his fate, and that comes from Detective Baek showing up and overhearing everything. He’s not happy but he grabs handcuffs and decides to arrest Hee-seob.

With her father arrested, Yoon-young believes that all of this will cause her to eventually disappear, especially if Soon-ae and Hee-seob don’t end up together. Hae-joon though, refuses to believe this is the case and in fact, reassures her that he’s more determined than ever to crack this. In another bombshell, he tells her that he doesn’t think Hee-seob is responsible and walks away.

The Episode Review

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say this episode is a filler, it also doesn’t really tell us anything more than we already knew. We do know that the timeline can’t be changed so simply and that the murders have still occurred, while Hee-seob, Min-soo and Beom-ryong all appear to be innocent in their own way, opening up the possibility that it could be any number of people.

I mean, it could even be Yeon-woo, which would be a nice little twist, and given we already know he’s smart, he could be meticulous enough to cover all of this up and frame others for what’s happened. This element of the drama has been really solid and My Perfect Stranger is definitely keeping its cards close to its chest.

However, this series is in danger of stagnating and turning into a repetitive series of melodramatic blows, as we’re no closer to finding any sort of solution to what’s going on. Hopefully next week can improve that but given how endearing this show has been thus far, it’s disappointing to find a few episodes that have slowed down in pace and plot progression.