My Perfect Stranger (2023) Episode 9

Episode 9 of My Perfect Stranger begins with Hae-joon more convinced than ever that Hee-seob is not the one responsible or the murders. After all, why would be just suddenly confess to the bloody rag being his without an explanation?

That’s precisely what Soon-ae says too, when she comes racing in and tells Yoon-young, Hae-joon and her own family that it’s definitely not him. She has an alibi, given she was actually with Hee-seob up on the rooftop at the time. He agreed to wait for her until Kyeong-ae returned. No one else can corroborate that story but Soon-ae’s father believes it should stay that way and they keep this a secret.

In fact, he demands everyone keep their mouths shut, pointing out that in a rural town like this, rumours can spread like wildfire and that won’t be good for Soon-ae’s reputation.

Detective Baek confronts Hee-seob outside and demands an explanation. He’s obviously unaware of the alibi and when he points out someone has died, Hee-seob is wide-eyed and shocked. “What do you mean kill?” The thing is, Baek has actually seen Hee-seob writing out a variety of different notes for matchboxes in the past, and he believes Hee-seob is the one behind all of this now.

Hee-seob is taken down to the police station where he’s eventually arrested. At the same time, Soon-ae makes a startling revelation to Yoon-young. Kyeong-ae head off that night to see Yoo-seob, who happens to be the last person she was seen with. This also appears to be who her father is trying to protect here.

Yoo-seob lives in a boarding house within Sillim-dong, and is actually a third year in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Seoul University. This would give Joo-young a connection to him, given our first victim was part of that same establishment. There’s also a padlock necklace found too, which belongs to Yoo-seob. Hee-seob’s necklace is that of a key, and there’s a flashback later on that fleshes out more of this history. The pair are basically inseparable as a result and will move heaven and earth to protect the other.

Hae-joon is aware that this is a crucial piece of evidence and decides to go out of his way to try and preserve this and save Hee-seob from an awful fate. Not only that, but he also knows that the bloodied shirt ends up as contaminated evidence thanks to a clumsy police officer spilling coffee all over it outside.

This time though, Hae-joon changes the future by getting there first. He forces the officer to bag up the evidence and takes his drink away too. Now they should get some solid answers. As for Hae-joon, he’s heading over to Sillim-dong to investigate further.

Soon-ae is determined to stand by Hee-seob’s side. She made a promise to him that night, determined to do right by him and make sure that she’ll be there during his darkest times. He told her he was worried to get close, given everyone precious to him either leaves or disappears. When she promises not to leave him, the pair share a kiss!

As Soon-ae tells Yoon-young about this, the latter shrugs it off and claims that everything is better this way, reiterating that the “adults will take care of everything”. She’s also a little torn up over the future too, given she knows Hee-seob’s fierce loyalty for Yoo-seob has seen him pick his brother over Soon-ae.

But then there’s the situation involving Mi-sook too isn’t there? At school, she’s annoyed and claims that “he’s making things complicated”. That complication extends over to the boys’ room too, as they’re all convinced that Hee-seob is guilty. Beom-ryong is quiet as he stares out the window. We don’t see much more of these two but Mi-sook’s comments are certainly intriguing.

Hae-joon returns from Sillim-dong, where he asked around about Yoo-seob. There are key witnesses there that claim to have seen Yoo-seob, so it doesn’t look like he’s their guy either. Thankfully, the police get back the blood test results from the bloodied shirt and that confirms that the blood on that rag doesn’t belong to either of the victims, nor does it belong to Hee-seob either.

However, officers from Seoul show up and take Hee-0seob away, pointing out that they need his help in finding Yoo-seob. Shady gangsters blindfold him and use Yoo-seob as leverage to make him comply. Unfortunately, they torture him and demand to know where his brother is.

With Hee-seob gone, Yoon-young remembers something her uncle mentioned about hiding in the present timeline. And just like that, Yoon-young finds Yoo-seob alive, hiding in an attic and in a rough way. He’s bloodied (confirming that the shirt and blood belongs to him) while the injuries seem to have been as a result of protesting. This explains why Hee-seob is so desperate to protect his brother.

Yoo-seob is desperate to save his brother and tells Yoon-young to take him to Hee-seob. They run into Hae-joon on the way, and together the trio head over to the motel which is actually where Hee-seob has been taken and brutally tortured.

With Yoon-young waiting outside, Hae-joon and Yoo-seob head in together. Hee-seob comes stumbling out after, limping and battered – but alive. Yoon-young sees him leave and immediately realizes that her father went through hell just to protect Yoo-seob from protesting, rather than murder. Yoon-young talks to him outside, and makes a solemn promise that in his darkest hour that she’s here for him.

The Episode Review

So now we’re back to square one again but we do have a newfound respect for Yoo-seob and also Hee-seob. The brothers are clearly dedicated to each other and Hee-seob’s tragic fate here is heartbreaking to watch. He’s literally prepared to go through hell to make sure Yoo-seob is protected and in the end, the latter is guilty of being a protestor and that’s how he lost his necklace.

The ending with Yoon-young is a nice way of encapsulating her feelings on the matter, including how she’s been underestimating her father all this time. Sure, he wasn’t there for Soon-ae as much as he could have been, but in this timeline he’s righteous and is doing the best he can.

As for the mystery, it’s clear that Mi-sook is a big part of this but quite to what extent her involvement has, remains to be seen. This was a heartbreaking chapter no doubt, and the preview for the next episode shows that this rollercoaster is about to take another stomach-churning drop into thriller territory!