5 Moments In Episodes 5-6 Of "My Perfect Stranger" Where Kim Dong Wook & Jin Ki Joo Alter The Future

“My Perfect Stranger” delves deep into the central mystery this week as Yoon Hae Joon (Kim Dong Wook) and Baek Yoon Young (Jin Ki Joo) seek to prevent the first murder. But there’s something suspicious about its intended victim, and the two quickly discover that their stranding in 1987 may not be as coincidental as they had believed.

Warning: spoilers for episodes 5-6 below.

1. When they find the student teacher before the would-be-killer does

In the original timeline, Lee Joo Young (Jung Ga Hee) vanishes on the night of her very first day and is found by the river, looking spooked. She insists that nothing’s wrong to those who question her but vanishes agin two days later and is found dead. Hae Joon knows the second half of the story from the police reports after Joo Young’s death, but Yoon Young knows the first half from Go Mi Sook’s (2021 self played by Kim Hye Eun) manuscript. She’s certain that Mi Sook has something to do with the murders, seeing as the novel was written in an autobiographical manner and in the form of a confession as though Mi Sook was letting the world know that she had gotten away with the crimes. Hae Joon isn’t as certain, especially since Mi Sook’s name wasn’t on the suspect list.

But how thorough was the police investigation back then? Because when Joo Young vanishes, it’s Hae Joon and Yoon Young who quickly find her by the river as per Mi Sook’s novel. Baek Dong Shik (Choi Young Woo), the local cop and relative of Yoon Young’s father Baek Hee Seob (Lee Won Jung), remains woefully behind our team of sleuths. In fact, Hae Joon’s outraged to find that he set free Mi Sook’s brother Min Soo (Kim Yeon Woo) that morning. Hae Joon spots a black-clothed figure watching Joo Young by the river (who could have killed her then and there) and gives chase but loses the figure when Dong Shik unintentionally interferes. With the mounting possibility that the investigation into the murders may have been horribly bungled, Hae Joon and Yoon Young warn Joo Young to keep safe. But Joo Young remains evasive, not explaining why she was crying by the river or why she kept saying that “it wasn’t her” when she was found.

2. When they protect Joo Young from the police

Hae Joon’s focus is on getting Joo Young out of town before the killer tries to target her again. Unfortunately, his repeated tirades at Dong Shik to do his job seem to have paid off in the wrong way. Dong Shik thinks that Joo Young is shady, instead of looking at why she was panicking in the middle of the night. He finds that she took part in some protests against the militant government at the time and was arrested for it. He sees this as proof that she’s a dangerous traitor and takes a whole ton of cops to have her arrested at school. What an idiot.

Yoon Young and Hae Joon manage to hide Joo Young in the nick of time. She starts to trust them and admits that someone was chasing her the previous night, threatening to out her to the school, hence why she was hiding by the river. As a result, Hae Joon insists that Joo Young stay with him and Yoon Young for safety reasons.

2. When they stake out every possible path and person Joo Young encounters prior to death in the original timeline

The timing to the first murder shortens, and our duo is out of clues, so they stake out every possible path between the teahouse where Joo Young was last seen (the same teahouse from which the killer took matchboxes to leave beside the victims). It’s a three-minute walk from the teahouse to the inn Joo Young is staying at, but she somehow vanishes in that time.

Hae Joon patrols the streets on what should have been the night of the murder and encounters all three suspects. Joo Young was seen speaking to a man in a blue hat. Hee Seob walks in wearing one. But he strangely isn’t there for Joo Young. Instead, he meets with his friend Yoo Bum Ryong (Jo Yeon Woo), the second suspect who had stolen Joo Young’s ring and seems to be blackmailing her.

Hee Seob demands that Bum Ryong return the ring or he’ll tell on him, and Bum Ryong reluctantly agrees. They leave in opposite directions, and Hee Seob goes with his brother Baek Yoo Seob (Hong Seung An). Hae Joon also runs into the third suspect Min Soo, who’s beating up Mi Sook in an alley. Hae Joon interferes to stop the fight, but Mi Sook doesn’t want to press charges. She just smiles despite her injuries and says that he’ll leave her alone now that he has stolen money from her. These two have such a messed up sibling dynamic. She genuinely hates him.

4. When saving one life nearly takes another

With all of the culprits in the area, Hae Joon is stumped on who could have committed the murder. He uses the principal’s (who may be his grandfather) fondness for him to get the police off his back (more like get them drunk and keep them drunk) until he can get Joo Young a bus out of town the next morning. He succeeds, and all seems well. Dong Shik finds out that Joo Young has left way too late to do anything about it. But as he’s arguing with Hae Joon, screams rise from a nearby building. Hae Joon isn’t fussed; he knows that the fire didn’t kill anyone, until he finds out that Dong Shik’s children were in the building.

In the original timeline, Dong Shik wasn’t forced to stay out late with his colleagues and picked up his kids, hence why there were no fatalities. But in this time line, to save Joo Young’s life, the principal kept Dong Shik there on Hae Joon’s orders. And no one picked up the kids. Hae Joon nearly goes insane, bursting into the burning building. They find the missing child, near death, and rescue him. But it could have been really bad. Never has the butterfly effect of his decisions been so clearly outlined to Hae Joon, and he panics, taking it out on Yoon Young when she asks him what’s wrong.

He reveals the truth to her, that the only reason he’s trying to prevent these murders is for himself and that he’s the killer’s fifth victim and her mother was likely the fourth. He’s brutal, treating her like an unwanted variable that could ruin everything, but Yoon Young refuses to take it, saying that she’s going to go investigate herself and protect those she cares about.

5. When Hae Joon and Yoon Young find a hidden fourth suspect

Yoon Young’s investigations lead her back to Mi Sook’s manuscript as she tries to find the clues in there. Police reports are impersonal and often don’t draw a clear picture of the people involved in the matter, but Mi Sook provides clear insight into the before, during, and after of the crime. Seeing as there’s no one who would know what Mi Sook’s words mean better than Mi Sook, Yoon Young causally asks her what she meant by “the man with blue hair stood between the sun and the moon for days after the murder.”

It sounds like depression, guilt, or fear. But “between the sun and moon” turns out to be the name of a record store. Yoon Young heads there and sees a man in a blue hat. She returns, shaken, to an apologetic Hae Joon. He’s prepared to tell her that he saw her dad in a blue hat when she tells him that she knows who it is. The man she saw, the original owner of the hat, isn’t Hee Seob. It’s her uncle, Yoo Seob. Hae Joon flashes back to his patrols and remembers seeing Yoo Seob waiting for Hee Seob outside the teahouse. They both realize that there was a fourth suspect that the police never considered, someone close to all the parties but who was practically invisible. And that’s a really dangerous perk for a killer.

Next week promises further murder-averting shenanigans. The second murder was two days after the first, which doesn’t leave Yoon Young and Hae Joon much time to avert it. But things are starting to fundamentally alter in 1987. There’s a whole person alive now that wasn’t alive then. Is Joo Young doomed to die in the future too? What made the killer start killing after 34 years? Could hunting down his killer in the past be the reason for Hae Joon, a seemingly unrelated person to the town of Woo Jung, becoming a victim? One thing’s for sure—this show is promising answers.

Check out the drama below!

Watch Now

What did you think of this week’s episodes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Shalini_A is a long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she works as a lawyer, fangirls over Ji Sung, and attempts to write the greatest fantasy romance of all time. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and feel free to ask her anything!

Currently Watching:  “My Perfect Stranger,” “Tail of the Nine-Tailed 1938,” “Stealer: The Treasure Keeper,” “Dr. Romantic 3,” “Black Knight”
Looking Forward to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask The Stars,” “The Girl Downstairs,” “The Worst Evil,” “Queen of Tears,” “Vigilante,” “Demon,” “Daily Dose of Sunshine,” and Ji Sung’s next drama.