Perfect Family: Episodes 5-6

by starrygazer

Is our protagonist really under threat from her parents? Or is she being seriously gaslit and used as a pawn to trap her parents for a mistake made in the past? Our heroine’s mind is becoming more fragile by the second (I hope she will survive this!), and this week’s installment continues with a ton more questions and no answers. Will we ever get to the bottom of what’s going on?

 
EPISODES 5-6

Our story picks up with Sun-hee chasing after someone who looks like Soo-yeon (from behind) walking away from her. Sun-hee runs into traffic to try and catch up to “Soo-yeon” and is nearly hit by a big black van. Hyun-woo pushes her out of the way but ends up bumping his head, and they both end up in the emergency room. Hyun-woo points out that the car didn’t break; it accelerated, feeding Sun-hee’s already shaky mindset that her parents are out to get her. When Dad arrives at the hospital, both Sun-hee and Hyun-woo notice him balling his fists; is this because Sun-hee survived – or is this because he knows who did this? I’m leaning towards the latter.

Back at home the police arrive to ask about the “hit and run” in the same set up as last week — Sun-hee is the rabbit in the headlights in between Mum and Dad while the police sit opposite. Dad places a warning hand on the back of Sun-hee’s neck making her (and me) very uncomfortable — is that a warning to watch what she says, or a misguided protective gesture? The police tell Dad the van came from his company and was rented in his name. Poor Sun-hee looks totally freaked out and Dad asks the police to leave. The police later find out it wasn’t Dad driving. And so the list of new questions starts: How did the police know if the accident wasn’t reported? Even if Dad has done questionable things, is he being set up? If Mum and Dad were really trying to kill Sun-hee they would have done it already; it’s bothering me that we keep getting pointed in this direction with no clarity.

Following the police visit, Dad receives a phone call from Granny informing him of Sun-hee’s visit to her last week. Dad is not happy. He goes home and trashes Sun-hee’s room to find the photo. Sun-hee falls apart and asks all the questions she has: What happened at Kyung-ho’s house? Who is the boy in the picture? Why is Soo-yeon’s stuff in Dad’s car? Sun-hee begs her parents to answer because she’s scared of them (she doesn’t want to believe it, but it does look bad). Dad’s answer wasn’t what I was expecting. He tells her he’s scared of her because she… and Mum cuts him off. What happened? Why isn’t anyone explaining anything?! Argh this is so frustrating!

Sun-hee decides to reach out to her “relative” and ask him instead. When Sun-hee meets him and asks him about a boy in their family, he asks what her parents said and then changes the topic to how a lot of strange things are happening around her. Is she okay? Can somebody anybody answer a question in this show please; we need some answers! This “relative” does disclose he is not actually a relative. He is DETECTIVE CHOI HYUN-MIN. Detective Choi says he lied because her parents pleaded with him to — he claims to have known Dad for a longtime and he thinks Dad has a hidden side to him. Detective Choi says Dad used to be a prosecutor and uses his power to cover things up. Then he tells Sun-hee that it was her parents’ real son who died.

Then Detective Choi tells Sun-hee about a huge kidnapping and arson case that happened thirteen years ago — it was all over the news and Dad was the prime suspect, but someone unrelated to the case was arrested and now all traces of said case have disappeared. Now it’s Detective Choi’s time to turn creepy when he says: if Sun-hee dies he could pin it on Dad and make him pay for his crimes. But then Detective Choi back pedals. He says he wants to protect Sun-hee, and that she shouldn’t talk to other detectives — just trust him as who knows when a bigger authority will step in and cover up what’s happening now up just like the arson case. Then Detective Choi says he’s sorry but he’ll arrest Dad: Sun-hee’s parents owe him since they stole his child from him. What?! Wait just a minute — are they kid-snatchers now? It is so confusing having more loose ends turning up at the halfway point of this show. What is Detective Choi’s actual goal? (Because I don’t trust this dude.) And who’s this “bigger authority”? (Yet more questions!)

Mum is waiting for Sun-hee when she gets home and wants to chat. Mum tells Sun-hee that the boy in the photo was her older brother; he died in a fire before they brought Sun-hee home. This is obviously a painful memory for Mum, and she says she regrets not dying in the fire trying to save him. (Is this why Dad was hesitant when they went to pick up Sun-hee at the orphanage?) Mum asks Sun-hee to trust them and they will protect her, and this prompts Sun-hee to ask Mum directly what happened when she went to Kyung-ho’s house. Mum tells her Kyung-ho was still alive when she got there and told her to leave as his parents would be home soon, and that Sun-hee did nothing wrong. Mum had picked up Sun-hee’s belongings and left, and on her way out she saw what we assume to be his parents’ car arrive. (So why on earth did things end up the way they did?!) Just then Dad comes in and hands Sun-hee a brochure for a school abroad and says she should go and they will follow her soon. It was always the plan, but Mum and Dad are moving things up. Was this the plan they were talking about last week? Who are they running away from? (More questions.)

A very unsettled and doubtful Sun-hee is alone in her room and decides to look up the arson case Detective Choi told her about. As suspected, all news coverage and websites have been wiped, but why and how? After receiving a message from Hyun-woo saying he went to the police station and reported the texts and they didn’t come from Soo-yeon’s phone — Sun-hee is even more on edge. (Hold the phone — he went to the police station and that’s what he reported?)

Sun-hee hears some unsettling snippets of conversations outside of her parents bedroom — especially Mum’s use of the words “Blood is the problem, they need to kill quickly.” Sun-hee has also found peanut powder in the kitchen at this point — she’s severely allergic and right now her levels of paranoia/suspicion are going through the roof. (Whether her paranoia/suspicions are justified or not — we just don’t know at this point.) When Mum comes into her room with food and tries to spoon feed her with the trademark creepy smile, Sun-hee knocks the spoon out of her hand and rushes out of the house.

Taking shelter from the rain, Sun-hee shakily calls Hyun-woo who tells her to stay where she is, and that he’s on his way. But Sun-hee is being watched from the shadows, and being on high alert she runs away and ends up at some traffic lights. As Sun-hee turns around she is shockingly pushed into oncoming traffic and hit by a car. Hyun-woo hears the sirens as he is buying an umbrella and looks to see where they are headed. He happens to see a hooded figure he recognizes running in the opposite direction and jumping into a taxi. Dad shows up (looking for Sun-hee?) and exchanges pleasantries with Hyun-woo until Dad gets a phone call to go to the hospital because Sun-hee was in an accident.

At the hospital, Dad is called to talk to two detectives (fun guest appearances by L and Kim Do-hyun). Meanwhile, Mum is being asked by the hospital staff about Sun-hee’s allergies, and she tells them about the peanut allergy. When Hyun-woo enters the hospital room, Sun-hee regains consciousness and starts screaming. Mum had come into the room and asked how she was still alive and started to throttle Sun-hee. Was this a dream, or reality?! Meanwhile, the detectives are showing Dad the black box footage of the car that hit Sun-hee. They suggest she was pushed, and Dad is being tight-lipped and not saying anything. Again – why?

When Sun-hee finally calms down she calls over Hyun-woo and within earshot of Mum, Dad, and the two suspicious detectives, she asks Hyun-woo to save her because Mum and Dad are trying to kill her. Then she passes out. The next day Sun-hee wakes up and Mum is asleep lying next to her holding her hand. Sun-hee apologizes saying she said some weird stuff and it was just a bad dream. Sun-hee calls Detective Choi when she’s alone and asks him to save her, and he promises to meet her when she can. Interestingly enough, Detective Choi is looking at the black box footage from Dad’s car of Soo-yeon running away in the wasteland. Why and how does Detective Choi have that? Was it Dad in the car or Detective Choi? How far would he actually go to stitch Dad up? This is all so confusing!

The waters are getting muddied for our two detectives hanging around Sun-hee. However, they do add some light relief every now and again — like when DETECTIVE LEE (L) is planning to go and see a movie with his wife and it’s a Japanese horror movie where a whole family is destroyed. But after Soo-yeon’s wig and student ID were found in the water at the wasteland, it would seem DETECTIVE SHIN (Kim Do-hyun) knows Soo-yeon. The lines are blurred again as to whether this is reality or a dream, but Soo-yeon appears and asks Detective Shin if he remembers her or not. (How are they connected?)

After Sun-hee claimed her parents were trying to kill her at the hospital, the Detective Shin wants a search and seizure warrant for Dad. The two detectives rather clumsily cause an accident so they can procure Dad’s car and do illegal forensics testing on it. They find Soo-yeon’s blood in the footwell of the passenger seat and set out to arrest Dad at home. If Sun-hee wasn’t already on the verge of a nervous breakdown I think she might be now.

There has been a lot of misdirection going on so far, but Dad going to see his mother’s secretary and being warned to stay away from car accidents was a huge red flag for me. There are so many unanswered questions and suspicions being thrown around I’m not even sure Sun-hee is completely innocent at this point. Without any real explanation it’s difficult to interpret what is happening and how it is all going to tie together. They arrested Dad for kidnapping and murder — but on what grounds? The amount of blood in the footwell isn’t enough to prove murder, and Hyun-woo is convinced he saw her after the accident.

There have been some beautifully shot scenes this week that feel like they belonged on a theater stage. One was Hyun-woo walking in the spotlight of his memories, and the other happened in Sun-hee’s head when she was asleep in the hospital. On a stage, little Sun-hee is sitting in front of the pile of rubbish with the matches that caused the fire at the orphanage. Then, a grown-up Soo-yeon is goading her with all of her worst fears, including being the cause of her death, and Soo-yeon sets the rubbish on fire and is engulfed in the flames. It’s very symbolic to highlight what state of mind Sun-hee is in right now and how it circles back to where this all started for her.

With many unanswered questions and frustrations, I am really hoping things start to become more clear in next week’s episodes. If Sun-hee is being gaslit, this is on a huge scale with many players. How much blood do Mum and Dad have on their hands, if any? There must be a reason as to why they have always planned to run away. And just what is Granny planning and how much power does the retired chairwoman still yield? I strongly doubt that there will be a redemption arc for Soo-yeon now, but there has to be more to her anger. Is she working with Detective Choi? So. Many. Questions.

 
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