It’s one step forward, two steps back for our time-traveling leads this week. Preventing murders is no easy task, and when things don’t go to plan, our duo struggles to find a path forward in the dark. Luckily, now that they’ve learned to work as a team, they have each other to lean on.
EPISODES 7-8
With his preconceptions shattered after learning blue-hat man is Yoo-seob, Hae-joon lets Yoon-young into his secret serial-killer-catching lair, recognizing that he needs to rethink his process. He was so intent on investigating the official suspects that he never considered others. They start with their newest prime suspect: Yoo-seob. Yoon-young knows little about him – her memories of him are as an unwell man her father doted on, always taking his side no matter what and leaving Soon-ae and Yoon-young feeling secondary.
Yoo-seob’s behavior both in the past and future is certainly suspicious. When Yoon-young was a teen, Yoo-seob ripped up all her books for seemingly no reason. (Did he have a problem with women reading, perhaps?) And then in 1987, that night Hae-joon saw Bum-ryong and Hee-seob outside Joo-young’s motel, Yoo-seob sent Hee-seob to check if Joo-young’s light was on. Everything points to Yoo-seob knowing and watching Joo-young, but it’s all circumstantial so far.
This investigation clearly shows how differently Yoon-young and Hae-joon’s minds work. Yoon-young, like her mother, is a storyteller whose imagination runs wild with a single piece of info. The manuscript convinced her Mi-sook was the killer, and now she’s positive it’s Yoo-seob thanks to the hat and his suspicious behavior. Hae-joon, on the other hand, is much more measured. Ever the journalist, he’s not ready to believe anything without evidence and fact-checking. It’s a good combination because she thinks outside of the box, while he makes sure they actually have evidence to go on.
Yoon-young puts on a brave front, but the stress of the killer possibly being a family member is getting to her. Regardless, she prioritizes saving her mom, no matter who the killer turns out to be. So they set about the next stage of their investigation. This time, Hae-joon resolves to be more careful and merely observe. That’s going to prove challenging for Yoon-young after she learns who the next victim will be: her mom’s older sister LEE KYUNG-AE. Hae-joon assumed she knew, but Yoon-young was told her aunt died young from illness.
Hae-joon and Yoon-young have their work cut out for them with Kyung-ae. She’s infamous in Woojung-ri for her bold, strong-willed, and unpredictable nature. She’s determined to become Miss Korea, which her family treats as yet another ridiculous antic from their eldest. Her parents are old-fashioned and pour all their limited resources into their son, expecting nothing more from their daughters than becoming wives and homemakers.
Except that’s not the life either of the girls wants. Soon-ae dreams of going to college but receives no support from her parents. She’s been saving up some money for a tutor, but she ends up giving it to Kyung-ae instead to help her reach her dream. Kyung-ae already stole her father’s secret money stash and was ready to hand it over to men who promised to help make her a pageant winner (obviously, a scam), but now she feels bad for Soon-ae and changes her mind at the last minute.
Hae-joon and Yoon-young witness Kyung-ae’s meeting with the slimy scammers, and when she gets into a scuffle with the men, Yoon-young can’t just stand by. Next thing you know, she and Hae-joon get involved in an all-out brawl in the street. (Yoon-young holds her own with some well-placed kicks and knocks over the head.) Then, Yoo-seob arrives out of nowhere and helps them subdue the men, but he runs off when the police arrive.
That night, Kyung-ae performs a song for a crowd at the teahouse and catches Min-soo’s eye. He follows her out and when she rejects him, he attacks her on a bridge. Kyung-ae also holds her own, though, and manages to knock him over the bridge with her purse. Hae-joon arrives in time to hear Min-soo crying for his mommy and bemoaning his broken hand.
Meanwhile, Bum-ryong’s true nature is revealed when Soon-ae breaks up with him. He drags her to the motel and says he at least deserves some compensation since he spent so much time on her. What a gross, entitled creep. As he tries to force Soon-ae inside, Yoon-young arrives and hits him. He rounds on her, but Hee-seob shows up just in time. He checks on the girls and then hits Bum-ryong, declaring they are no longer friends.
Later that night, Hae-joon gets a call. It’s Bum-ryong who looks shaken and ominously says, “She’s dead.” Nearby is Joo-young’s body. She became the first victim after all; they merely delayed it. Despite the suspicious situation, seeing as Bum-ryong called Hae-joon to the scene, it doesn’t make much sense for him to be the killer. Besides, Bum-ryong seems more like the crime of passion type rather than a calculated serial killer who’s evaded capture for decades.
They hear police sirens and assume they’re coming to the scene, but they drive past… to Kyung-ae’s murder scene. (Nooo, not Kyung-ae! I was hoping they’d find a way to save her.) Both women were bound with rope and killed in the same manner, seemingly on the same day. As often happens with crimes against women, the victim blaming starts immediately with the townspeople gossiping about how Kyung-ae always wore tiny skirts and drank and was otherwise unladylike.
Everyone in Woojung-ri is spooked. Everyone, that is, except Mi-sook who goes about her day with a smile. She runs into the bully girl in the street and chides her for looking so serious – some might think she’s the killer (would they, though?). Mi-sook cryptically tells her not to “make it obvious” and drags her over to Joo-young’s murder scene, saying it will be fun. The whole exchange is odd and fraught. Mi-sook may not be a murderer, but this girl has serious issues.
Adding to her sketchiness is that when she saw Hee-seob throwing away his brother’s blue hat, she picks it out of the trash with a look that says a scheme’s afoot. Mi-sook then offers him a deal. He’s got someone to protect, and she has someone to put away. We learn that in the original timeline, she managed to do just that. It was her eyewitness testimony that landed Min-soo in prison.
In the face of both murders, Hae-joon decides there’s no changing fate. They can change the details, perhaps, but the general outcome remains intact. They need to fix the car and return to their own timeline. On that front, Hae-joon’s father YOON YEON-WOO arrives in town from the US just in time. Turns out, he’s rather handy at fixing things, so there might be a chance to get the time machine working again.
Until then, Hae-joon shuts himself away, defeated. Yoon-young isn’t faring much better as she watches her family fall apart in the wake of Kyung-ae’s death, but she isn’t ready to give up just yet – she’s got her mom to save.
Hae-joon can’t completely ignore events around him, though, and interferes one more time to save Yoon-young’s grandmother from ending her own life after her daughter’s brutal murder. He manages to convince her to live, proving that some people can be saved (also like those teens he saved at the start).
After that emotionally draining day, Hae-joon offers Yoon-young a hug, sensing she needs some comfort. Yoon-young rushes into his arms like she’s been waiting all day for someone to hug her. It’s got to be hard watching from the sidelines while your family grieves, unable to connect with them or even acknowledge your relationship.
With renewed hope and determination, Yoon-young and Hae-joon get back to work. They rule out Min-soo since he broke his hand and couldn’t have tied ropes if he’d wanted to. They also rule out Bum-ryong given he’s the one who called them to the scene. That leaves Hee-seob, Yoo-seob, and Mi-sook as their primary suspects.
They pay a visit to Hee-seob who, according to their timeline, will soon be questioned by the cops. To Yoon-young’s horror, they find a bloody garment in his wardrobe. Rather than take Mi-sook’s deal and blaming Min-soo, Hee-seob blurts out, “I did it all.” Dong-shik overhears and, after asking Hee-seob if it’s true, arrests him on the spot.
Yoon-young is overwhelmed by guilt at the idea of her father being the killer, and she apologizes in tears to Hae-joon. Severely misjudging his feelings, Yoon-young tries to make him feel better by saying she won’t live a good life after this. In fact, since her father has confessed and been arrested, he won’t marry her mom – she’ll disappear. We end with Hae-joon vowing not to let that happen because he doesn’t think Hee-seob is their guy.
I find it highly unlikely that Hee-seob is the culprit; it seems obvious that he’s trying to protect his shady brother and would do most anything for him. Mi-sook and Yoo-seob, on the other hand, feel like they have serial killer potential. I still wonder if there’s an accomplice rather than one lone killer, especially with how close together those murders were in the new timeline.
On another note, I like how Hae-joon and Yoon-young’s camaraderie has slowly developed. While we got to know Yoon-young quickly, the drama took its time with Hae-joon. It makes sense since he’s much more guarded and harder to read than Yoon-young, an open book of feelings. He may have started this mission to save himself, but he also feels a responsibility to the other victims given the knowledge he possesses. I wonder if that’s the very thing that leads to his death. Why else would the killer target him, a man who doesn’t fit the profile? My guess is that Hae-joon’s mission puts him on the killer’s radar and gets him killed. See, this is why messing with the past is a generally bad idea, no matter how tempting.