"My Perfect Stranger" drama: Episode six of sixteen recap

 

 Air Dates: May 1st until June 20, 2023 on KBS 2, Monday and Tuesdays nights at 9:45 pm

Director: Kang Soo-Yeon, episodes are 65 minutes in length and subs done by iTs

Rating for this episode: 4.0%, not high ratings as KBS2 is a cable network which means the numbers are very respectable. 

Main Cast: This drama was originally scheduled to air in the Autumn of 2022 but got pushed back twice. Have been looking forward to this series as it stars my second favorite Korean actress who is Jin Ki-Joo and hasn't seen her in any show for two years. Writing much of this up after viewing the first episode, there will be a lot of editing to the characters and more of them will be added in. This is a time travel drama, it began off in 2021 when the main male star Hae-Jun found a car that can travel in time either forwards or backwards! But think most of the drama will be set in 1987 and it could be nostalgic for any older K-drama fans who may visit here. 

**** When Yoon-Young was transported back to 1987 it was the evening of May 9th, dates will be important as a serial killer murders his first victim on May 14th.... or will he be stopped????

Kim Dong-Wook as Yoon Hae-Jun.... 32 year old KSBC anchor who one night happened to find this time travel car at the entrance to a tunnel! He believed in only facts but thought why not read the user manual to see if this car could travel in time... it could as Hae-Jun went to the year 3089! Shortly after returning to the year 2021 Hae-Jun took another trip and this time to 2037, what he found out is one of the main stories to this series. Hae-Jun discovered he was murdered in 2022 by a serial killer and went to visit this killer in prison upon returning to 2021. This man Go wasn't the true killer of many people way back in the year of 1987 but had been framed for the killings, Hae-Jun believed this man and to clear his name and also to save his own life Hae-Jun went back to the year 1987 to find out who the killer really was and to possibly stop the murders. The location will be the smallish country city of Woojung.

 Jin Ki-Joo as Baek Yoon-Young.... Editor in chief for a very popular woman author of murder novels though Yoon-Young seems to do most of the work. In the first episode she was fired by this author who was named Mi-Sook and it had to be a relief to be fired! Right around the time of Yoon-Young being fired her mother killed herself and she blames herself for the death, also her alcoholic father. A few days after her mother's death Yoon-Young was wandering near a tunnel when the time travel car driven by Hae-Jun came close to hitting her, at the time the machine was set to travel to 1987 which is where the pair ended up at. Of course Yoon-Young thought it was a dream but when she realized she had travelled back in time she was thrilled! The second main story will be of  Yoon-Young stopping her parents from meeting each other and getting married, if so what will happen to her???? Like Hae-Jun's story it will be set in the smallish city of Woojung. In the third episode Yoon-Young began to impersonate as a high school student to get closer to her mother. Yoon-Young is around thirty in age but claimed to Hae-Jun she could pass for being 22, she told everyone she had to stay back a few years because of family problems.

**** The above two are from the year 2021 but most of the action will take place in 1987, here are the main characters from that year. The location is a smallish city named Woojung-ri.

Seo Ji-Hye as Lee Soon-Ae.... In 1987 she was 18 in age and the top girl in her senior high school class. However she had no true friends and spent her time writing stories as she was such a fan of novels. Soon-Ae is actually Yoon-Young's mother and now that she somehow ended up in the year 1987 she's trying to prevent Soon-Ae getting married to Baek. So you have to wonder if Yoon-Young is successful would that mean she never existed?

 Lee Won-Jung as Baek Hee-Sub.... Yoon-Young's father though he too was only eighteen in 1987. He was a bit of an innocent lad and actually was quite nice back in 1987, Hee-Sub loved music but never began a band. He eventually became such an alcoholic and that was one of the reasons for Soon-Ae committing suicide in 2021. Hee-Sop is also a new transfer student at Woojung high school, he began on the same day Yoon-Young did.

Park Soo-Hyung as Hyung-Man.... Soon-Ae's father who owns a combination tea shop, general store and bus stop for travelling to and from Seoul.

Kim Jun-Young as Ok-Ja.... Soon-Ae's mother and has two other children.

Kim Ye-Ji as Kim Hae-Kyung.... Friend of Soon-Ae's, like Hae-Kyung the other girls Soon-Ae hangs out with none of them are 'true friends' and all love to party which at times has gotten Soon-Ae into trouble. On the left below is Hae-Kyung, the other two are her cronies Eun-Ha in glasses and Yu-Ri, all bully Soon-Ae.

Ji Hye-Won as Ko Mi-Sook.... Another 'friend' of Soon-Ae's who we met near the end of the second episode. She's the same woman who became a popular writer many years later and of all things Yoon-Young was her editor in chief! Mi-Sook's first novel was a huge hit but she had actually stolen the story from Soon-Ae who never said a word. Mi-Sook was such a creep back in 1987 and was even worse in 2021! Mi-Soon does come from a very wealthy family so her snobbery began on the day she was born!

Kim Yeon-Woo as Ko Min-Soo.... Mi-Sook's older brother and the same man Hae-Jun met in 2021. In that year Ko had just been released from prison after serving 34 years for murders he never committed. Though innocent for those crimes Ko is still such a creep who may have raped some girls back in 1987 and almost did so to Young-Yoon!

Choi Young-Woo as Dong-Sik.... Hee-Seop's tough uncle who is a detective. We learned in the third show Hee-Sop's parents are dead and he's now moved in with his uncle. Baek is married with two young children.

Joo Yeon-Woo as Yoo Bum-Ryong.... High school student who became Hee-Sub's first friend in Woojung and we didn't meet him until the third episode. Bit of an oddball who is on the suspect list of some upcoming murders!

Jung Ga-Hee as Lee Joo-Young.... We met her in the fourth episode, she's attending school at Seoul University. Joo-Yung arrived in Woojung on May 12th, that's her below on the right. She's going to be a student teacher at the high school working with Hae-Jun. He knows that on May 14th she'll be the first victim of the killer, can he possibly prevent it? That happened and on May 15th Lee returned to Seoul.

Kim Jong-Soo as Yoon Byung-Gu.... Principal of the Woojung high school, on the left above.

**** The below group of characters we met in the first episode who are from the year 2021, unsure if we'll be seeing much more of them as most of the drama takes place in 1987.

Lee Ji-Hyun as Lee Soon-Ae.... Yoon-Young's mother and the pair didn't get along so well, it was a reason for Soon-Ae committing suicide in the first episode.

Lee Kyu-Hoe as Baek Hee-Sop.... Yoon-Young's father who is such a waste as all he does is drink, him and his wife lived off what their daughter sent them in cash and he's the other main reason Soon-Ae killed herself.

Kim Hye-Eun as Go Mi-Sook.... Popular writer of murder mysteries, Yoon-Young was her editor who seemed to do most of the work until she was fired in the first show. Mi-Sook also lived back in Woojung in 1987 and had known Yoon-Young's mother, actually she stole the story for her first novel from her!

Im Jong-Yun as Ko Min-Soo.... Man who was accused of killing many people in the small city of Woojung back in 1987. However Go was innocent and after 34 years is about to be released from prison. No one had listened to Ko's pleas for all those years until Jae-Hun visited him the day before his release and has vowed to discover who the real killer was. 

 Whew, big cast and sure more characters will be introduced so that section above will be increasing for the first few shows and of course will also be updated.

Links to the previous recaps, may help to read a few of them and especially the first.

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Short promo video for the sixth episode.

     

 Once again not as much editing for the above characters but there will be for the next recap as so much did take place in this episode, more than any other show. May even be adding another new character in who we saw once before but only for a minute however at the very end it appears this man could be a key figure to the story. Not sure where to begin as so much did take place in this episode which was by far the most intense show of them all. There was a lot of jumping back and forth between scenes so hope it's easy enough to follow and will try to keep the events separate. As I had been wondering will what Hae-Jun has been doing back in the year 1987 change life for everyone back then and also in the future? That question was answered towards the end which was so interesting and did raise more questions.

 The above two screenshots are how this episode opened up, sure you read the previous recap. Dates are extremely important and the current date is May 14, 1987 when the first of three murders took place in the small city of Woojung. The new student teacher Lee was supposed to be the first victim though of course being from 2021 Hae-Jun knew that, she's safely hidden away at his house. He went to the Bong-Bong Teahouse where Lee had a mini spat with someone in a blue hat. Hae-Jun was waiting there for the person as he feels this was the man who was the true killer and could nab before any murders took place. That first screenshot above is of Yoon-Young's future father Hee-Sub, as you can see he's wearing that blue hat and could he possibly be a serial killer?  Seems unlikely and though the police had three suspects on their list Hae-Jun thinks two others could also be the killer. In that second screenshot Yoon-Young was dying to hear what took place at the teashop as Hae-Jun was gone for three hours, she and you viewers will soon learn everything on what took place.

 In that top screenshot is the new student teacher Lee, she's hiding out at Hae-Jun's house and is being guarded by Yoon-Young. Of course the main reason Lee is there is to prevent her from being the first victim of the killer. The other is that the police are after her and not sure why, they did try to arrest her at the end of the previous episode. Lee has three prior convictions but all were minor as they were from protesting when she was at Seoul University but perhaps arrests mean you can't teach? As mentioned dates are so important, this first long scene with flashbacks took place on May 14, 1987 between 10:00 pm and midnight. Hae-Jun was waiting at the Bong-Bong teahouse for the man with a blue hat and entering the shop at about 10:10 pm was Hee-Sub. According to the shop owner he was the only person besides Lee at the teahouse but was that accurate? No, for this woman went into the backroom for a few minutes and during that time another man entered the shop. It was the above person Bum-Ryong who met with Hee-Sub and neither seemed to notice Hae-Jun was spying on them, did either of them know that Lee was supposed to be at the teashop then? Bum-Ryong may have as he had stolen a wooden ring from Lee, it came into the possession of Hee-Sub who gave it back to his only friend.

 Bum-Ryong had been smitten with Lee ever since she arrived in town which was only only three days ago. He had stolen a few other of her items and had stashed them in a secret hiding place at the Woojung High School. One reason for Bum-Ryong being on the list of suspects was because of the items he had stolen and during their brief chat with Hee-Sub he promised to return them to her. Lee is staying at the Woojung Inn which is only a few blocks from the Bong-Bong Teahouse, it's less than a five minute walk. So Bum-Ryong headed to the inn to return the ring but of course Lee wasn't there as she was hiding out at Hae-Jun's house. He had followed Bum-Ryong there as left the inn quickly for Lee wasn't there, soon also arriving outside the inn was Hee-Sub and much of that is in the above screenshots. Bum-Ryong confessed to Hae-Jun why he had tried to visit Lee, while a bit of an odd young man don't think Bum-Ryong could be considered a killer, have the same thought about Hee-Sub. But as Hae-Jun is saying above someone has to be the culprit and were either of the boys lying to him, if so why? On that list of possible suspects was a third man who seems to be the most likely suspect, a minute after Hae-Jun left the boys he ran into this man who is nothing more than a lowlife creep.

 After seeing the pair of boys off Hae-Jun heard the screams of a female from around the corner and dashed there, those are the top three screenshots above. Being attacked and having her money stolen was Mi-Sook, the attacker was none other than her brother Ko! Hae-Jun immediately went into action and for the second time in this drama gave Ko a good beating. His sister Mi-Sook refused to contact the police even though she hates her brother immensely, their family is well known in Woojung so having a scandal would be a serious no-no. As she said above Ko will be returning shortly to a boarding school which is in the country, it was the first Hae-Jun had ever heard of that and now he's beginning to wonder is he helping out the right man? If you've read these recaps you know that in 2021 Ko had been released from prison after serving 34 years for the three murders. Ko had sworn he was innocent and had been nowhere near Woojung when the murders took place. That alibi was just blown up as Ko certainly was in Woojung on the night of the first murder and if it was easy to get there from that school why couldn't he have done the other two killings also? Hae-Jun had believed Ko had been famed for the killings but after what he did to Mi-Sook and almost to Yoon-Young he's now #1 on the suspect list!

 But at least Lee is safe and sound at Hae-Jun's house, now that the first victim wasn't killed what about the other two? Some of that will be learned at the end and now that everything seemed to be calm Hae-Jun headed home. Where he met up with an anxious Yoon-Young who demanded to know everything! But got so few answers from Hae-Jun, he said the man in the blue hat never showed up which of course was a lie and he didn't want to tell her the man was her future father Hee-Sub. Hae-Jun left out most of the other details, Yoon-Young realized quickly he was keeping many things hidden but for now will remain mum. During that mini chat knocking on Hae-Jun's gate door was Soon-Ae and asked if Yoon-Young would be spending another night at his house? That was the plan and with Soon-Ae thinking they're almost the same age(!) invited Yoon-Young to spend the night at her house, Hae-Jun readily agreed as it meant Yoon-Young wouldn't be hounding him for what took place at the teahouse. This was really the only scene we saw Soon-Ae as so many intense incidents start taking place the following day. To Yoon-Young's hidden fury Soon-Ae did admit during the sleepover she already has such a crush on Hee-Sub though he's only been in town for four days. Naturally those were words Yoon-Young didn't want to hear but didn't try convincing Soon-Ae that she was so mistaken with those thoughts, there's more pressing matters that Yoon-Young has to worry about such as two more killings are set to take place.

 That man in the bottom screenshot and three others above is the detective Baek, he's the uncle of Hee-Sub and the boy is currently staying with him. At the end of the previous recap Baek had been ordered by his superior to arrest the new student teacher Lee at the high school, because of those prior arrests protesting at college? But thanks to Hae-Jun and especially Yoon-Young Lee was able to elude Baek and his crew, she went to Hae-Jun's house where she stayed the night and doing so saved Lee's life! By now its around 8:00 am on May 15, 1987 and Lee was supposed to be murdered the night before but now history has been changed, Hae-Jun brought Lee to the mini depot where she hopped on a special bus driven by Soon-Ae's father and was whisked away to Seoul by him. Noticing the bus pass by him was a very inebriated Baek and why would he be in such a drunken state so early in the morning? We didn't know until around this time that Hae-Jun had set it up with the Woojung High School principal Yoon to keep the police at bay all night and until Lee hopped in that bus. Hae-Jun didn't want the police, especially Baek, interfering with his plans to find out who the real killer was and to prevent Lee from returning to Seoul. Yoon had said the celebration at this club was his treat and it was to thank the police for keeping Woojung so safe, with free drinks all night long no officer left the club!

 But Baek sobered up rather quickly after seeing Lee go by in the bus, shortly after he saw Hae-Jun at the depot and confronted him. Naturally Baek had so many questions about Hae-Jun's sly moves but was too drunk to fight. Baek is married with two young children, his wife went out of town to help her sick parents for a few days and with Baek attending that sham party he left his children with his mother. During this conversation between Baek and Hae-Jun running up to the pair was Soon-Ae's mother who said there was a massive fire at Baek's mother's house, her and his two kids were trapped inside! Hae-Jun recalled there being a fire the day after the first murder from the stories he read in 2021. However there were no children in that house and if it wasn't for Hae-Jun setting up that fake celebration to keep the police at bay the kids would have been home with Baek! So while Hae-Jun saved Lee's life he changed history because of that and the party, would his actions mean two innocent children will die in the fire? So Hae-Jun and the now completely sober Baek dashed to the scene where it appeared the firemen couldn't get into the house to save the children. Perhaps they couldn't but our semi-hero Hae-Jun couldn't let those children die, he zoomed into the burning house with Baek on his tail. Against all odds the pair were able to save Baek's children and though up until now Baek has hated Hae-Jun that may no longer be the case.

 Final segment as there's only about ten minutes to go in the episode and it's easily been the most action packed one to date. In the top screenshot above is Hae-Jun muttering to himself about Variables, he had once told Yoon-Young changing things in the past would alter history but never told himself that! Because of what he did with Lee and then the police party history did change and the result was two children almost died in the fire. However Hae-Jun can't stop with just saving Lee's life as two more killings will take place, the date is May 15th with the next scheduled murder to take place on the 16th and the third on the 20th. Not going in exact order of the events but by doing so makes it easier to understand. You'll see two very important screenshots above, one with a calendar and the other showing some blank pages. Hae-Jun had circled the dates of the murders on the calendar, now that the first one didn't take place the circle disappeared! Hae-Jun was baffled by that and when he opened the folder showing the details of Lee's murder the words evaporated right in front of him!!!! So history has certainly changed and Hae-Jun may be wondering what to do next as there will another killing tomorrow, if that gets changed could other lives be put in danger? After being a hero at the fire Hae-Jun had returned home and waiting there was Yoon-Young, Hae-Jun looked like such a mess but she didn't question him too much about that. She was more curious about that man in the blue hat and Hae-Jun wouldn't give her a straight answer to that. But for the first time he did reveal to Yoon-Young the main reason for returning to the year 1987. It's to nab the true killer for in 2022 he will be murdered by this person and he'll be the fifth victim, he's certain Yoon-Young's mother in 2021 was killed by this man.

 Yoon-Young said she would find out by herself who this man was in a blue hat. She has a clue to go on as in one of Mi-Sook's early stories she had referred to a term a few times which was 'Between the Sun and the Moon'. In that story the man in a blue hat was mentioned, what was Mi-Sook talking about? As you can see above it was referring to a record store and would Yoon-Young find this person there? Yes she did and this turned out to be one off the bigger clues to date of the killer in this drama. Later on that evening Yoon-Young met up with Hae-Jun near the riverbank, he felt so bad about how badly he's been treating her the last few days. With less than two minutes to go the pair talked about the man in the blue hat, of course Hae-Jun thought Yoon-Young was talking about Hee-Sub for when this episode began he had seen Hee-Sub at the teashop with a blue hat. But at the record shop the person wearing the hat happened to be.... Hee-Sub's older brother Yu-Sub and that stunned Hae-Jun to no end. We've only seen Yu-Sub for about two minutes so far in this series but like his younger brother is staying with their uncle Baek. So the episode ended on that alarming bit of news and now Hae-Jun's list of suspects in the murders had grown to five, will there be more? That finally wraps up this recap and this was the best show to date, have a feeling this series will keep getting better as we go along. Of course can't talk about every single detail so these screenshots at the bottom always help you follow the story a bit better.