Perfect Family: Episodes 7-8

9 September 6, 2024September 6, 2024

by starrygazer

The misdirection in this show is starting to give me some serious whiplash. Everyone is still a suspect and the collateral damage is tragic this week. We gain another perspective of previous events but is it a true depiction of what happened? Or are we being led down the garden path again…

EPISODES 7-8

At the police station Dad is being questioned by Detective Shin, who has presented him with the circumstantial evidence they have. Of course Dad is a prosecutor-turned-lawyer and is not fazed by this questioning at all. In all honesty I think even Detective Shin is having some doubts about Dad’s guilt. Very pointedly, Dad asks if they have evidence he’s a killer — where’s the body? Dad has explained his car and the rental car being stolen, and questions the legality of the testing done on his car. Dad is not wrong here — they don’t have anything concrete on him. To add to this, Mum has left Sun-hee alone at home to come and give a statement as Dad’s alibi.

As all of this is unfolding at the police station, Hyun-woo has gone back to the alley that Sun-hee was hiding in when she was followed and pushed into traffic last week. At the end of the voicemail he left for Soo-yeon, he said he would meet her there — so he’s waiting for her to show up. Hyun-woo turns his back on the alley and a hooded figure materializes behind him and produces a knife. Excuse me while I dislodge my heart from my throat. Gulp.

Detective Lee interrupts this menacing scene as he has been following Hyun-woo to ask him why he left that voicemail on Soo-yeon’s phone, since the police think she’s dead. Hyun-woo tells Detective Lee he saw her the night Sun-hee got hurt that’s why he called her to meet. When Hyun-woo goes back to the alley, Soo-yeon walks up to him, stabs him, and runs away… Noooooo! Why stab Hyun-woo, you crazy female? Detective Lee hears the commotion behind him and frantically runs back to see Hyun-woo bleeding out on the ground. Detective Shin gets called out of Dad’s questioning to take a call from Detective Lee who fills him in. Detective Lee also tells him that Hyun-woo said, “It was Soo-yeon… she’s alive and dangerous” before he passed out. Detective Shin then rushes to the hospital to check on Hyun-woo.

On the way out of the police station, Mum and Dad are talking about going home to Sun-hee when they ask the chief where Detective Shin went. Both parents look horrified when they hear what has happened to Hyun-woo, and they rush over to the hospital instead of going home. Hyun-woo is in intensive care. Detective Shin is met by Mum and Dad, and Mum is trying to reach Sun-hee, but she isn’t picking up. The penny drops for Detective Shin when he recites what Hyun-woo had told Detective Lee about Soo-yeon being alive and dangerous. Our three unlikely allies run over to the house… only to find it engulfed in flames and Detective Lee unconscious outside. Oh my God! For all of Mum and Dad’s creepy calm, they seem genuinely worried about Hyun-woo and Sun-hee throughout these scenes. What is going on?! I will be very upset if anything happens to Detective Lee — he has been the light relief in the darkness of this story with his comedic input.

There have been a lot of overlapping scenes and back and forth throughout these two episodes. While all of this is happening, Sun-hee is home alone remember… Curled up on the floor of her room in the midst of a thunderstorm, Sun-hee is telling herself Mum and Dad aren’t like that. They would never do the things she’s suspecting them of. Suddenly she hears glass smash in the living room. Sun-hee goes running in to see a rock on the floor and then hears glass smash in her room. When Sun-hee turns around, she sees a hooded figure wielding a knife coming out of her room. Sun-hee tries to run away and gets glass in her foot, but she makes it outside. Sun-hee has fallen on the ground and the hooded figure is revealed to be Soo-yeon. Soo-yeon apologizes for the knife, but she ran into Hyun-woo on the way here. (Where’s my water bottle? The chills have returned and amplified just with that one statement. Poor Hyun-woo. *Sniffs*)

Soo-yeon tries to monologue about her evil plans, but all Sun-hee is interested in is what Soo-yeon just said about Hyun-woo. Soo-yeon’s crazy switch flips again — seriously this girl needs some help — and she whacks Sun-hee over the head with a shovel. When Sun-hee comes around, she is tied to a chair in her room and Soo-yeon is monologuing again, only now she is pouring gasoline everywhere just to terrify Sun-hee even more. Soo-yeon thinks that Sun-hee asked her parents to set the fire at Kyung-ho’s place and also hired someone to have Soo-yeon killed (she found the keyring in Sun-hee’s room). Soo-yeon definitely has to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic with this one. Who would murder and hire someone to murder on the say-so of their (seemingly) naive teenage daughter?

Poor Sun-hee is desperately trying to calm Soo-yeon’s anger and suggests they both calm down and talk for real. Soo-yeon being the slightly unhinged teenager she is, she goes berserk and throws Sun-hee (in the chair) to the floor and starts threatening her with the knife. Just then, Detective Choi arrives and smiles through the window. Creepy.

Detective Choi tells Soo-yeon what she is doing is dangerous, but she tells him to stay away or she’ll kill Sun-hee. In his ~~wisdom~~ crazy mind, Detective Choi laughs as he sparks up a cigarette and throws it inside the gasoline-laden room. WHAT! Is he kidding me? Isn’t he trying to “protect” Sun-hee? So setting fire to the room she’s in and can’t escape from is a good idea?

It seems “crazy” recognizes “even more crazy,” and Soo-yeon comes to her senses enough to be scared and free Sun-hee, and the girls help each other out the front of the house. Outside, Detective Choi stands on Soo-yeon’s hand and takes her knife, telling her no matter how angry she is, she shouldn’t start a fire. Detective Choi tries to force Soo-yeon back inside saying aloud that she killed her boyfriend (Kyung-ho) and tried to kill the witness (Sun-hee). Suddenly, Sun-hee asks if he really is a detective –I know right — and tries to stop him, yelling for Soo-yeon to run away. But Detective Choi throws Sun-hee against the wall knocking her unconscious and then starts to throttle Soo-yeon. What is happening?!

Detective Lee turns up and points his gun at Detective Choi telling him to drop the knife. Detective Choi explains this is Soo-yeon, that all of this was all her doing, that he is a detective too, and can Detective Lee come and help him move the victim away from the fire? (No Detective Lee, don’t listen to him!) Detective Lee holsters his weapon and goes to help Sun-hee — big mistake. Detective Choi stabs Detective Lee in the back (literally) and takes his gun, pointing it at Soo-yeon. When Detective Lee grabs Detective Choi’s leg in an effort to stop him, Detective Choi kicks him viciously until he’s unconscious. Not Detective Lee. I won’t forgive you, Show!

Detective Choi demands that Soo-yeon comes and takes her knife from him which she obediently does. Then he tells her she stabbed the detective and the detective shot her in return. A gunshot rings out, and the screen goes black. When the fire brigade, police, and Sun-hee’s parents arrive, the only person still on the scene is Detective Lee on the ground and the house is completely ablaze. We do see Detective Choi being driven by a friend (I’m assuming) with a passed out Sun-hee next to him on the back seat, and Soo-yeon in the boot of the car. This is getting crazier by the second; what is Detective Choi’s game? Why on earth would he attack the detective if he was trying to save Sun-hee, not to mention then kidnapping her? Nothing about him is adding up so far and I really don’t trust this dude as far as I could chuck him — which wouldn’t be very far.

In a heartbreaking scene, we see Detective Shin completely unravel at Detective Lee’s funeral — yes that’s right, they killed off Detective Lee! (Sobs.) Outside, Detective Shin is looking at the lighter gifted to him by Detective Lee, when Mum and Dad turn up asking if they can talk to him. In their conversation, which we only see brief glimpses of, Detective Shin tells Dad the police are working on the assumption Soo-yeon has an accomplice as she’s only a high-schooler. How could she pull all this off alone? (Very good point.) Dad interrupts him and says it’s not Soo-yeon. The culprit is Choi Hyun-min — yep, our very own “Detective” Choi. He was the one who killed their son and was in prison for twelve years with no intention of repenting, and if Mum and Dad don’t meet his demands, he will kill Sun-hee too.

Switching over to Sun-hee, she wakes up in an empty building by the sea and tries to sneak out only to meet Detective Choi on the stairs. (I’ll call him Hyun-min from here on out, as it’s highly likely he’s not a detective after all.) Hyun-min gives her some shoes he picked up for her (as she didn’t have any on when he abducted her) and after making his ransom demand to Dad, he has decided to mess with Sun-hee in the meantime. Sending his friend out, Hyun-min tells Sun-hee she has to help him if she wants Soo-yeon to live. (Nice bit of blackmail there, Hyun-min.) He then says that her parents wear masks, and he is going to tell her who killed Kyung-ho and set the fire at his house — and who tried to kill Soo-yeon. Sun-hee is in a very fragile state right now (understandably), so I really hope she isn’t going to buy this, because I have a feeling there are some porky pies being told here.

Hyun-min thinks he’s dropping a bombshell when he tells Sun-hee he’s her biological father, and that she was taken away from him. But he ends up being the shocked one when Sun-hee coldly says she suspected as much — there was something familiar about him. Hyun-min explains to Sun-hee that her parents took her from the orphanage on purpose because she’s his daughter. According to Hyun-min, Mum and Dad killed their son and framed him for it, taking Sun-hee to keep him quiet and saying they would kill her if he didn’t do as he was told. Hyun-min continue that he was caught in their trap and had to serve twelve years. When Hyun-min was released from prison, he went looking for Sun-hee and found out who her parents were, so he decided to watch from afar. It seems plausible, but I’m just not buying it.

Alluding to the fact he was watching everything the night Kyung-ho died, Hyun-min suggests he saw Mum sneak back again later in the night and when she left the house was ablaze. The next day he visited Mum and Dad and they knew Soo-yeon had been at Kyung-ho’s house because she was yelling at Sun-hee in her room about it and told Hyun-min he had to get rid of the witness. Because Mum and Dad still need Sun-hee right now, she can’t go to prison. Apparently this is what prompted Hyun-min to follow and try to kill Soo-yeon. Hyun-min continues to say Mum and Dad orchestrated everything; he had no choice. Yeah, but you have made some pretty poor decisions without anyone’s influence since then, Hyun-min…

Amidst all the crazy this week, the most heartwarming (yet gut-wrenching) scene this week was watching Hyun-woo with his parents and younger siblings enjoying a meal, and Hyun-woo thinking about making his dreams come true so his family can smile like they do now. There has already been one casualty this week, and I am keeping everything crossed that Hyun-woo doesn’t fall foul to the elaborate revenge going on around him.

There is still little to no clarity as to why these things keep happening around Sun-hee, and at this point in the show I don’t trust whichever direction we are being nudged in. A lot of scenes are purposefully shown with parts or perspectives missing, making you distrust what you think you know about the events and the characters. We will just have to wait and see what happens next week.

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1 tabong

September 6, 2024 at 6:59 PM

@panshel you called it!

1. It's a little funny that even tho I read panshel's comment last week, I was still surprised by the plot twist. And then I was surprised that Seon Hui wasn't surprised. But at least that explains why she trusted him.

At least I kinda got right the part of him being the bad guy. I just didn't know why or how. LOL

2. I'm gonna miss detective Lee so much. T.T
To be totally honest with you beanies, I was suspecting him SO BAD at the beginning of the episode. I thought it was weird he didn't believe uri Hyun Woo about Su Yeon.
Blame the show, it makes everyone look sus all the time.

Anyway, the umbrella scene between those two was adorbs. I was like "I want to see more scenes of them together, maybe become bros or something..." and THEN THE SHOW TRIES TO KILL THEM BOTH. Oh my cat, I can't keep up.

I hope Hyun Woo survives. The epilogue with his family was bittersweet. Such a big family, him as the oppa and hyung of like five kids... YOU CAN'T KILL HIM SHOW.

And then I feel a little sad watching those flashbacks with Su Yeon. She really had a traumatic childhood, and her concept of friendship was VERY twisted but sincere. She tried to protect Seon Hui... even if she was the one who threw the gasoline in the first place.

3. I feel so bad for mom and dad. I think they were trying to protect Seon Hui, because telling your kid that her bio dad killed her oppa, and that she's next, and that he's using her to get money, and who knows what else, well... it makes sense their plan was to send her to the other side of the world all alone.

I just have one question... why did they adopt Seon Hui, the daughter of the man who killed their child? It most have been a very difficult decision. Now everything makes sense: dad's reaction in the flashback, grandma...

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GySgt213

September 7, 2024 at 5:04 AM

I was enjoying the cops mainly because they were not being depicted as typical K-drama cops. By typical I mean self-righteously arresting and investigating the wrong people usually instigated by an idiot boss. That changed this week when the script called for them to become stupid.

Other than that I still think there is something we have yet to learn about the so-called bio dad.

I felt really bad for Su-Yeon this week and I hope she is not dead. The actress playing her was so good at showing how broken her character is or was.

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tabong

September 7, 2024 at 9:27 AM

Yeah, this wasn't their best week for our detectives. But I think detective Shin will be back on track next week.

I felt bad for her too. I don't know if she'll survive till the end, but it would be nice if they gave her a moment to find closure with Seon Hui.

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panshel

September 8, 2024 at 4:51 PM

I wasn't surprised that Seon-hee was his daughter, but I was surprised that she knew she was his daughter. There was a scene where he stares at her wistfully, and she asks, "Why are you looking at me like that?" so that could be the moment she realized it.

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tabong

September 9, 2024 at 12:10 AM

And maybe she remembered something from her past.

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2 kay4625

September 6, 2024 at 7:21 PM

I do think Hyun-min's story has truth to it, along with some convenient lies. I can believe he's the biological father, and that the parents adopted her with ulterior motives, as that would explain why dad acted so weirdly when they adopted her. I do believe that they then gradually came to love her over the years. Their reaction to the fire was the most genuine I've ever seen them be. I don't think they'd react like that if they didn't really love her.

What he said about Kyung-ho was probably partly true, but I think he's leaving out his own involvement to make himself appear innocent. But also, I don't think the parents are actually innocent either. There has been too much creepy and shady behavior for them to be fully innocent. I keep thinking back to the breakfast in episode 2. Because if mom truly didn't have anything to do with the fire, why was she acting like absolutely nothing was wrong when that news hit?

What Hyun-min said about the conversation between himself and the parents was probably partly true as well, but probably twisted in a way to make himself seem innocent again. It does line up with the scene where dad was standing outside their door looking very creepy, so I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.

And, yeah, I might be stating the obvious, but I don't think Hyun-min really cares about his daughter all that much. He seems dead set on getting his revenge for whatever happened, no matter what, while his daughter is really just a means to an end.

Also, I know she's crazy and messed up and all, but part of me can't help but feel bad for Soo-yeon, and I'm glad she didn't die here, even if she might die later. Hyun-woo better live through all of this though. Come on, it's just a stab wound, so act like a male lead and walk it off!

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3 GySgt213

September 7, 2024 at 5:09 AM

I love the creepy mom's performance in this series. She shows so much with just facial expressions.

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4 panshel

September 8, 2024 at 4:52 PM

I miss when Seon-hee's parents were still suspicious. After a while, they started acting normal, which took the fun out of this drama. Hyun-min is too much of a cartoon villain. I couldn't even pay attention to his retelling of the night Kyung-ho died and Mom and Dad blackmailing him because I knew it wasn't true. Kim Byung-chul and Yoon Se-ah are better at playing gray characters, so I wish this drama were a psychological thriller.

When Soo-yeon cut Seon-hee's rope to help her escape from the fire, I thought, "Soo-yeon's forgivable after all" until I remember she stabbed Hyun-woo. I know it was plot-convenient, but why did Soo-yeon not get up when Hyun-min was distracted by talking to Detective Lee?

R.I.P. This is why L was a special appearance. The whole time Detective Lee held Hyun-min at gunpoint, I was scared he'd get hit from behind by the guy who drove Hyun-min and was waiting outside. Did Detective Lee not see his car?

The fire must have been so traumatizing for Mom and Dad since it would've been the second time they had to watch their child burn to death but couldn't save them.

Soo-yeon's voiceover about Kyung-ho was so freaking delulu. "I’m taking Kyung-ho, Seon-hee. If you let me have him, I'll forgive you for everything." Let's ask Kyung-ho what he wants! He's not a thing that can be passed around!