My Perfect Stranger (2023) Episode 5

Episode 5 of My Perfect Stranger begins with Yoon-young and Hae-joon talking. The former admits that there’s an incident that’s about to go down, with our student teacher chased down by the river by an unknown assailant. They want to try and find who it was but they’re too late. They find Joo-young cowering by the water, but a hooded figure charges down the street. Hae-joon gives chase and almost catches him, but a car carrying Detective Baek gets in the way.

When Hae-joon learns that Min-soo has been released, he’s not happy that Baek has been “following orders” and tells him that someone’s life is in danger. Baek admits not happy about it but he’s forced to follow the chain of command. It’s no good though, Hae-joon loses his man and eventually tells Baek to stay out of his way.

Hae-joon returns to Joo-young but she’s intentionally cagey and won’t reveal what’s happening. You can tell she wants to but she stays quiet. As the camera pans up, Detective Baek actually happens to be watching this transpire. But Hae-joon and Yoon-young are seemingly none the wiser and they follow Joo-young home to make sure she’s okay.

Yoon-young and Hae-joon show up at the Bong Bong Cafe to talk. Hae-joon reveals that he’s a reporter back in 2021 and knows that two women will go missing across two days. However, Yoon-young reveals that there’s actually a third death, as evidenced by what’s written in Mi-sook’s novel. Mi-sook herself even claims, during flashes back to the present, that she’s been keeping a “confession” for 30 years regarding the perfect crime. Could it be the death of our student teacher?

Even if it’s based on true events, Hae-joon reminds Yoon-young that this is still just a novel and as such, they can’t use this as evidence. However, if Mi-sook stole the work then it may not strictly be her own but her mother’s writing embellished with Mi-sook’s confession.

However, a commotion on the other side of the café sees Hee-seob confess his feelings to Soon-ae but is met with a swift rejection. Oh, and also a few hits from Yoon-young, who gets involved. Soon-ae speaks up though, revealing that she’s already dating someone else and they’re actually waiting outside for her. It’s Beom-Ryung. Hae-joon follows, and he learns the truth about Yoon-young’s ties to Soon-ae. After hearing her story, he decides they should get some rest.

Joo-young is on the phone in her motel, telling someone she can’t stay there any longer and she similarly can’t trust the police either. “Who could it be who knows who I am?” She thinks to herself. Joo-young also has a message which appears to be in the matchbox she received: “Someone is watching you.”

As for Hae-joon, he circles back to Hee-seob as the potential suspect, believing that Soon-ae’s rejection could be a possible reason for his outburst. Hae-joon leads Yoon-young down to the river, telling her there’s something she needs to know. He admits that he doesn’t have a good relationship with his mum but understands the love she feels for Soon-ae. For now though, they need to focus.

Specifically, that focus is to be directed on the upcoming murder. The matchbox is going to show up of course, with the note inside reading “A woman who reads is dangerous.” Hae-joon is curious as to why the river of all places was used, given how familiar it is. This gets him thinking, as Hae-joon theorizes that it could well be that Yoon-young’s mum didn’t commit suicide 34 years from now. She may well have been confronted by her killer and it was made to look like suicide, hence the letter, which Yoon-young misinterpreted as a suicide note. This causes our female protagonist to start crying before Soon-ae in the classroom, and they hug.

At school, Hae-joon tells Joo-young that he hasn’t told anyone about what’s happened but does notice a strange ring on her finger. Meanwhile, the kids get their 12th Grade Midterm ranking. Soon-ae is top, followed by Mi-sook and then Yoon-young is, well, nowhere to be seen to be honest! Hae-kyung shows up and reprimands Soon-ae after exchanging a suspicious glance at Mi-sook, claiming that Soon-ae is emotionally manipulating people.

Speaking of strange glances, Beom-ryung gives a weird look Joo-young’s way while she’s walking down the hallway. Anyway, these moments all add up to Yoon-young mulling over Hae-joon’s confession to Yoon-young. He doesn’t think Mi-sook is the culprit here, going on to mention the chase and how the person he followed was wearing a blue cap. He’s still going to watch Mi-sook, promising to capture the real killer, but right now he doesn’t believe it’s her.

Detective Baek mulls over what he’s learned so far and believes that Hae-joon has set all of this up so he’d overhear down by the river regarding Joo-young. Baek realizes that Hae-joon knew she’d be in trouble and heads out to try and track him down. However, three guys show and confront him at the entrance. Thy reveal that Joo-young has had 3 prior convictions.

Detective Baek shows up at school the next day and reveals what he’s learned to Hae-joon, warning that he could have been seriously hurt by Joo-young. Quite what these convictions are remain a mystery but as Joo-young flees out the back, Yoon-young follows and tries to track her down. She’s a quick runner and Yoon-young struggles to catch up.

Joo-young grabs a token for a bus but Yoon-young gets there first. She suddenly threatens Yoon-young with a knife, telling a charging Hae-joon that she can’t go back to the police. When the police do show up, Hae-joon and Yoon-young work together to hide Joo-young.

Hiding in the wardrobe, both Yoon-young and Hae-joon offer a helping hand to Joo-young, telling her that she’s not alone and they’re there to help. At the café after all of this dies down, Hae-joon waits for the blue-cap man to show up and watches as he flips a ring in the air. The same ring Joo-young was wearing. He catches sight of the man’s face… it’s Hee-seob!

The Episode Review

Alas, the plot thickens. Whether this is actually true that Hee-seob is the real killer here or it’s another red herring remains to be seen but it’s certainly an intriguing turn of events. Hee-seob is very clearly entangled in the thick of this and the show has done a good job of keeping this mystery going and keeping us guessing.

This episode in particular deepens the mystery and cuts back on the comedy, which is a really beneficial move. Beom-ryung is also not out of the woods yet, given the way he looked at the student teacher and it’s pretty suspect the way his eyes glazed over and he stared at her down the hallway. It certainly points to signs of psychopathy, right?