I'm glad I was right about the brothers being innocent (and elder bro being a student protester) but good lord that was a difficult watch. What's worse is that the brutality is true to life. Lee Won-jung did an excellent job throughout - you could really feel Hee-seob's helplessness and pain.

I was quite frustrated with Yoon-young preventing Soon-ae from testifying. She must have known what police interrogations were like in 1987 after all. Still I'm glad she and Hae-joon came through in the end and managed to change some key outcomes.

Not a fan of the new who's-the-mother guessing game but the writer has been doing a really good job keeping the story moving so I hope this will tie-in to the overall murder mystery as well.

Breaking News, Melonia Front Page Exclusive: The Queen watched past episode 6!

Footnote: ... she did not however, make it past episode 9.

If only thw two brothers had a proper adult around, things wouldn't have turned this dire. Neither the uncle nor Soon-ae's father did anything right. And I really liked the scene where Hae-joon's grandpa scolded those beasts of officers and warned them not to repeat those barbaric actions. The best depiction of their actions.

Mi-sook holds the key to everything. Yet I don't want her to be Hae-joon's mother. That would be a catastrophe thrown at the poor guy.

Oof, the 1980/1987 police brutality and government repression were tough to watch. The way the motel beating visually recalled the real-life room where Park Jong-cheol was murdered made my skin crawl.

I’m not thrilled by the incipient romance. Neither party has any reason to be interested in the other and it feels abrupt and inorganic - and a bit creepy, since they've been acting like the uncle and niece they're pretending to be. It doesn’t help that Jin Ki-joo is really not showing any acting skills here; she almost always has the same immobile, slightly stunned expression no matter what’s happening to or around her. It’s especially striking in the scene where Soon-ae is weeping and clinging to her, begging to go to the police station after Hee-seop’s arrest, and she’s just standing there blank-faced. On the flip side, I was newly impressed with Lee Won-jung as 1987 Hee-seop. He’d been a bit clownish and green in earlier episodes, but he brought some serious pathos to the torture and brother-interaction scenes.

I already said this on my fanwall. This week, My Perfect Stranger took me on the journey of forgiveness, hearing the other side of the story, redeeming a character I had said I would not feel sorry for. My dislike Hee-seob and by extension Yu-sub didn't stem from the fact that they found themselves in the 1987 story as suspects, it was actually how miserable they made the life of Soon-ae in the future that had me disliking them. Time and time again, Hee-seob consistently kept on choosing his brother even though he knew it was causing a rift and great pain to his own made family. "I didn't show up at the hospital during your mom's stay because I knew you would be there", that statement sent me fuming in rage cause it is a bit selfish and very inconsiderate of the person you call your wife. Not even 5 minutes, he couldn't spare 5 minutes.
And then, MPS took me on a journey to hear their own side of the story and it was so sad, heart wrenching, and very emotional. I now perfectly understand why Hee-seob acted the way he did in the future and why he was so tight lipped in 1987 to he point of his own detriment. Actually I commend him highly for protecting Yu-sub in the way he did. But I can't completely forgive his actions in the future. Why did he have to put Soon-ae in that unhappy life if she really was the ultimate love of his life? I get his act of sacrifice, and following the last words their parents gave them(another short backstory that kinda broke me). But it's not an excuse to treat his family the way he did. I know that with what happened in ep 9&10, the future is going to change and I pray it puts Hee-seob and Soon-ae in good places, and Yu-sub isn't dependent on them. Still, I hope they get to ask for forgiveness from Soon-ae and Yoon-young for the consequences of their actions in the original timeline. Or at least, Yoon-young gets the apology here in 1987. I know Yoon-young is on the way to loving her father and forgiving him as she now understands what prompted his unlikable behavior, I just want a proper closure that's all.

Hae-joon's mom has to be Chung-a. She's the only age appropriate person to qualify as Hae-joon's mom.

Seoul police who...have no compunction about torturing this high school kid to find his brother. It’s brutal.
Exactly. It was very uncomfortable to watch. He's only in high school and not even in college yet but they remorselessly battered him up like that.

Yoon-Young's family never communicated and it's really the key now. Her parents never talked about their past and why her father's leg is like this. And as a child, she was too angry to ask.

It was really sad she let her father in Police without really thinking what it meant in this area. And Hee-Seob was such a good boy and enthusiastic, I hope he won't loose it.

I think they need to save the people by helping them to make the good choice and not to stop the murders.

The fact that the mother was still trying to find her daughter years after when she was already dead, I really hope this time he could save the victim.

I was not expecting a mother mystery in addition to the murders. I hope for him that Mi-sook is not his mother... The fact she's still a teenager made his father not really nice and has a penchant for violence and stealing work of others.

The main characters are really cute together. I like how they support each other.

Episode 9 was really great. I don't cry easily when watching films and series, but here the dam was broken at some point. The killer could have murdered so many women in this episode and caused a bloodbath, I wouldn't have cared about the question of the killer at that moment, I was too captivated by the fate of Hee-seob and his brother.

I found the scene in the alley with the beaten-up Hee-seob particularly tragic and touching, because both Yoon-young and the audience know how much the events will shape the brothers' lives and change them for the worse, from which not only the two but their entire family will suffer.

I am a little worried by Hae-joon's optimistic statements that by changing the past with the following events, the future of Yoon-young's family will also be much better. I really hope that Yoon-young will not experience disappointment when she travels back to the present.

I wanted to shake Yoon Young for not caring about her father being held up and tortured in prison. She knew he wasn’t the murderer so did she really hate him so much that she wanted an innocent man to suffer? What if what had happened he him that night was the catalyst to how he became what he became in future? That was unnecessary cruel and I hope her trajectory changes now regarding separating her parents.

This show finally made me emotional in these two episodes. The guy acting as Hee Seob is fantastic with his skills.

With only 6 more episodes, I wonder what other twist the drama is going to throw at us because I did not expect the mom mystery along with a murder mystery.

I found the Hee-seob/Yoon-young storyline in these episodes, both extremely touching, but also somewhat frustrating to watch. I'm always annoyed when we have a years - or decades - long misunderstanding that could have been resolved a long time ago if only people would communicate. Then I thought about how little I actually know of my own fathers's youth, and how much of what I do know was shared by my grandmother, or from seeing old photos.

I think when you're growing up you don't really see your parents as separate from you, or as individuals with a past that has nothing to do with you. This is what Yoon-young is getting to do, to see and understand her parents in a way she never would have otherwise, and getting to process through her childhood trauma and resentments. Hopefully this brings her peace when she returns to the future, no matter what that future looks like for her and her family.

I'm on the fence regarding the romance. I don't hate it, but I don't think the show needs it either.

Seeing the reality of the brothers and their story was heartbreaking. The police brutality was hard to watch. The police were freaking awful, not just the ones who attacked Hee Seob. Hope the uncle does better by his nephew and the victims.

The lake scene was pretty cute, but I'm not sold on the romance. I'm used to them looking and acting like uncle and niece. Yoon Young looks way younger than Hae Joon. Her hair in particular makes her look young. Her bangs, clips in her hair... I like when the guy falls first though and uses the "I have a problem" line about his feelings. They do have cute, teasing dialogue. Hope the romance builds gradually.

This week, I was getting impatient for more progress in their investigation. Shouldn't they keep track of Mi Sook? Tail her? But also leave room for other possible suspects? They saved the last victim, but shouldn't they be worried about a new victim? Of course, it's hard for them to figure out who. What are they planning to do....banking on their time traveling car. Go to the future, get some new clues, and come back?

I'm really enjoying this show for the balance of the murder mystery and the emotional parent reconciliation. I actually liked that this last episode brought in the issue of Hae-joon's parents as well (although the mystery here is a contrived cliff hanger--the Mom is definitely Chung-ah). Still, since Hae-joon has been closed off throughout this whole show, perhaps this will be his emotional opening moment.

I actually also appreciate that this show brought in the government police repression of student protests that was a part of South Korea in the 1980s. I had said that choosing the 1980s for time travel was a solid nostalgia choice--far enough away to seem old-timey, close enough that most viewers would be familiar with someone who lived as a student or adult through that era, but clearly there was no nostalgia in that brutal beating! I like that in this show and in Good Bad Mother there's a certainly honesty about the repressiveness of the S. Korean regime in the 1980s and before.

The one thing that makes me wary is that there have been many shows that I liked up through episode 10, only to see them crumble in the last six episodes. I sure hope that in a few weeks I won't have to go back in time and try to revoke my enthusiasm for this one!

this story has a lot of heart for me and I'm enjoying every minute.
these two eps were hard to watch bcs of the torture but I was surprised the drama went there, being as clear as they could with what was happening. its a terrible time for any country who went through similar tings, but we cant just pretend it never happened.

one good thing about this show I dont think I commented before is how well-cast the young/older characters were. teenager mom has the same calm smile as when she's older.

If I thought the emotional punch of Yoon-young meeting young Soon-ae right after the death of her mother already hit me hard, it was nothing compared to this moment. When she finally saw her father as a complex human being in his darkest night, instead of the disappointing parental figure who was largely absent from her life. It was painful to witness her staring at that reality in the face, finally knowing the complicated history behind every aspect in her life that so far she could easily lump together into the "father is disappointing and I hate him" box. It's hurt the moment she realized that those simple "frames" she painstakingly built all her life to protect her heart didn't fit in anymore with these new knowledges that continued piling up.

These 2 eps are one the hardest k-drama eps to watch (it was comparable to the traumatic one-sided war scenes from sageuk Nokdu Flower). There's something unbelievably brutal and undemeaning in witnessing people who should be upholding justice instead committed torture towards unarmed civilians. The fact that neither Hee-seob nor Yoo-seob ever indicated anything about this past experience despite Yoon-young's hatred and Soon-ae's disappointment spoke a lot of the true horror this period represented for them.

I was glad though that Yoon-young got to witness that difficult moment of her father this time around. It's true that she couldn't prevent this bitter history from happening, just like she couldn't prevent his aunt's death. But this time, she gave his father an adult who believes in him and has his back during his darkest time in the form of Hae-joon. She was there, representing help and care that he couldn't get in the previous iteration. Maybe this time, he wouldn't need to completely change from the bright, lovable, and slightly clueless young man we've known so far. Maybe this time, he wouldn't be too mired in his "us (the brothers) against the world" mentality. Maybe this time, he wouldn't need to continually chose Yoo-seob over Soon-ae and Yoon-young. They could become a whole family instead, supporting and caring for each other through thick and thin. And hopefully this little change would be enough to give a happier future life for this family.

Also, no matter how cliche, I couldn't help liking a well told story about people who was so much more behind their seemingly stereotypical facade. Just like the little tidbit about Hae-kyung as a child from broken home, trying to find a way to fit in while she was angry at her mom and ultimately the whole world for judging them away so easily. It was the kind of story that has been told over and over again, yet it still rang true, and that made this subplot a win too for me.

As for the candidate for Hae-joon's absent mom, I'm going to reserve my judgment for now, given the drama's penchant for red herring. Mi-sook is clearly the worst possibility though, especially with all the suspicion that is now...