My Perfect Stranger (2023) Episode 6

Episode 6 of My Perfect Stranger begins with Hae-joon returning home, reprimanded by Yoon-young who’s annoyed about him showing up so late. He apologizes, finding it difficult to face her and reveal who the blue cap man was. Of course, we know it’s Hee-seob but before he says anything to her, we cut back 3 hours prior to see what happened in the Bong Bong Cafe.

Hee-seob shows up and Hae-joon starts to doubt the validity of this whole story. Did he really kill Soon-ae and the other women? Hae-joon tries to look at things from a level-headed perspective, knowing that Joo-young was supposed to show up and meet someone she didn’t intend to. And that seems to be Hee-seob. Could an argument have broken out between them?

Hae-joon is snapped out of those thoughts though when Beom-ryong bundles in through the front door, and tells Hee-seob about Joo-young’s past, including how she’s a commie. Hee-seob is not in the gossipy mood and hands over the ring, telling him: “How can a friend do something like that?”

Remember the gap in the toilet stall? Well, Hee-seob actually head in and found that himself when Beom-ryong rushed out the stall. He found the ring belonging to Joo-young, which Beom-ryong had initially stole. “You shouldn’t do anything shameful to the person you like,” Hee-seob says, before walking away.

Beom-ryong follows, and Hee-seob concedes, promising to keep this a secret as long as he gives their student teacher back the ring. However, tellingly here, Hee-seob actually happens to be with his brother, who looks strikingly similar from behind. Bear this in mind, dear readers!

Hae-joon follows the pair out and decides to keep a distance and watch Beom-ryong from afar, given he follows the same route that Joo-young takes. He’s distracted momentarily though when he oversees Mi-sook being kicked down and hurt by Min-soo, who takes her money and starts bullying her.

Hae-joon shows up and stops him. Now, back in the present Min-soo told Hae-joo he was carted off to the countryside to go and study and wasn’t in town during the murders.

We’re not seeing everything here, as Mi-sook decides not to charge her brother and leave things as they are. She wants to keep this between them and not arouse suspicions, especially from her mum. Alas, the plot thickens as Hae-joon heads back outside the motel again and both Hee-seob and Beom-ryong show up. All three suspects are there and any could be involved… but then similarly so too could Mi-sook as well.

So what does Hae-joon tell Yoon-young? He lies and tells her that he doesn’t know who the blue cap guy is. However, this is broken up by Soon-ae arriving and deciding that Yoon-young should have a sleepover at her place, especially after the traumatic knife incident.

Soon-ae can’t sleep that night though as she keeps thinking about Hee-seob. He told her he was pretty the first night, and also that she’s immersed in her own poetic world and how she was smiling to herself. He’s never seen anyone so cool in his life. Yoon-young can only listen and remembers the direct contrast to what happened between her parents during the darkest times. In fact, the editing here is wonderfully done, contrasting with bright colours for the Bong Bong Cafe scenes and dull, cold blues and greys. It’s great stuff.

In the midst of all this, there’s tensions between Detective Baek and the Captain, especially after the school incident. Thankfully Principal Yoon is at hand to calm things down.

In the morning, Hae-joon hands over the ring and wishes Joo-young a happy, long life. She leaves town on a private bus but on her way out, Detective Baek gets a look at her and realizes Hae-joon has helped her escape town. Just before things blow completely out of proportion, a fire engine races past, distracting them. It turns out there’s been a huge fire over at the persimmon tree house.

The fire incident in our timeline apparently didn’t kill anyone… but things have changed. Baek was supposed to pick his kids up in the correct timeline and with the fire still raging, Hae-joon and Baek both charge over and find one of Baek’s kids inside. Thankfully they rescue him but it’s certainly touch and go for a while.

When Hae-joon stumbles out, a further twist in the tale arises as he notices Min-soo before him. And guess what colour hat he’s wearing? Yep, it’s blue. But Hae-joon feels guilty for changing the timeline and that’s weighing heavily on his mind right now. He can’t stop feeling guilty over almost killing a couple of kids for the sake of Joo-young’s life.

Hae-joon is on a short fuse, and that spills over to his later chat with Yoon-young, who tries to point out that she can crack the blue hat case by using her mum’s writing. After all, her mum used to write about “blue head” but she thought initially it meant blue hair. Could it actually he referencing a blue hat?

Hae-joon eventually turns and admits the truth to Yoon-young. He’s back here to figure out who the killer is, not just to try and resolve the case, but also to prevent his own death. Because of one variable, everything might change and he’s very conscious of this.

Hae-joon tells her he feels like his head is going to explode and of course, the big variable comes from Yoon-young herself. He lets slip that he wants her out the way so there aren’t any wild deviations in the timeline but she’s having none of it. She tells him she’s going to find out what’s happening here with or without his help.

While Yoon-young tries to make sense of her mother’s writing, who tellingly reveals that whoever wrote those words did so deliberately, we cut across to Hae-joon who ends up dreaming of being beaten down by one of the three boys. But which one is the real killer?

When he awakens, Hae-joon is shocked to see the timeline change right before his eyes. Just like in Signal, it happens right before our protagonist’s eyes as May 16th is circled, with the ominous words “First Murder”. The photos have all changed too, as have the details in Hae-joon’s file, which are now completely blank. It seems Joo-young doesn’t die in this timeline.

Yoon-young though, gets a crucial clue from Mi-sook, whom she questions about a specific line from her mother’s work. Namely that involving “a man stood between the sun and the moon vacantly”. As we soon find out, Sun and Moon is actually the name of a record store.

Yoon-young shows up and sees the blue cap guy for herself inside. The identity of which, will be revealed during the shocking climax of this chapter.

That night, Yoon-young meets with Hae-joon who apologizes to her for not revealing everything. Just as he’s about to reveal the truth, Yoon-young gently stops him, admitting she already knows. She also knows why he kept this info from her because he’s family. Hae-joon admits Hee-seob is just one of the suspects.

Yoon-young is confused. She didn’t see her father inside the record store. Instead, she saw someone whom Hee-seob looks more fondly on than anyone else. But who could that be? Well, it’s her uncle, Baek Yoo-seob. He’s not even a suspect, but of course we know he was there that night too.

During the epilogue, we cut back to the fateful night at Bong Bong Cafe. Yoo-seob was waiting for someone at the cafe and he handed over the hat to his brother, letting him wear it inside.

The Episode Review

Cor, this is really getting interesting now. Who could the killer really be? With the timeline changed, we’re now stuck with four, maybe five potential suspects. There’s some similarities to Beyond Evil here in the intensity and depth of the mystery, but likewise, it’s really difficult to figure out who the real killer is in all this.

Th first couple of episodes really eased into this and then it felt like episodes 3 and 4 messed around with the tone a bit but now, we’ve got the perfect balance and the mystery is really front and center here.

The hook is solid and the fact that the timeline has shifted slightly really opens up a whole world of possibilities for what’s going to happen next. If the timeline has changed, does that similarly mean that the murderer has too? If not, the theory I’m personally gunning for here is one of swapped identities. The way this episode is framed, not to mention the differences between Hee-seob in the past and present timeline, seems to indicate that we might actually be looking at something far more sinister than we first thought.

Could it be that Hee-seob figured out the truth about his brother being a psychopath, tried to stop him and ended up getting killed for it? And instead of revealing all this, Yoo-seob took his brother’s identity and decided to hide in plain sight, taking on the role of Soon-ae’s husband. Yoo-seob’s guilt and personality differences caused him to drink constantly and could explain the fights the pair constantly have with a younger Yoon-young in the present. Then again, take that theory with a pinch of salt!