Everything has gone to pot in Dr. Stranger and yet I can’t stop watching. It’s like eating a county fair fried abomination which shouldn’t exist like a deep fried chocolate covered pickle and being unable to stop taking another bite. Even weirder is that I can’t stop writing about it, I actually have things to say about something that makes zero sense. The acting is just bad all across the board now, so even hecklers who liked to call out Jin Se Yeon for being the weak link can now heckle everyone for equally going through the motions in a collective haze. I don’t even have the urge to say “told ya so” to the shipping domination of the drama discussion now resulting in the complete reduction of Soo Hyun’s character to crying second female lead because it genuinely sucks for anyone who just wanted to watch an entertainment drama. Episode 15 was like watching a basketball game where everyone is on the court ready to shoot some hoops and Soo Hyun shows up dressed for a hockey game waving her stick around. Wrong arena babycakes doesn’t even cut it. Her entire purpose in the drama has been relegated to crying over Park Hoon which irks me to no end.

Soo Hyun was the strong capable doctor at the beginning of the drama while Jae Hee/Seung Hee was the damsel in distress. Now Seung Hee is manhandling Comrade Cha and plotting to sabotage a sabotage while Soo Hyun actually misses work to sit home and cry because her daddy screwed over Park Hoon’s daddy and her crush gave her the proverbial hand. I wish her story had stakes but there are none whatsoever no matter which way I slice it. The only thing left to give her story heft is for her to go back to Jae Joon and have the two of them work through their combined daddy angst. Hoon and Seung Hee have a President to save and a corrupt villainous Prime Minister to bring down. I didn’t want to reveal the outcome of the third and final surgical battle until I got to the end of this intro because it may make everyone spit up blood. The elimination battle actually ended…..with a draw. Now we’re onward to a fourth added battle to keep beating this dead horse until it resembles nothing whatsoever on this earth. Poor DS, now the only thing left for it to aim for is to beat out Dr. Jin and Fashion King for being the most mentally challenged plot ever.

Episode 15 recap:

Hoon wants to win this third and final surgery battle against Jae Joon because he won’t let Seung Hee enter any OR alone anymore and have to shoulder all the burdens by herself. The patient is wheeled into the OR with Dr. Yang as Hoon’s number 2 for this particular difficult VAD heart surgery. Dr. Yang sabotages Hoon by not telling him about the patient’s blood disorder which would make the proposed surgery impossible. Nothing is impossible for the strange doctor from the North and Hoon declares he’s switching the surgery to do an even more difficult operation called Saver. He makes it sound as easy as deciding to go from making hamburger patties to making a meatloaf.

Dr. Yang worries that switching the procedure requires family consent but that’s not going to stop Hoon since if he doesn’t do the surgery the patient is dead anyways. Hoon gets Seung Hee to put the patient under and his scrub nurse is also ready to go along. Dr. Yang reluctantly joins the surgery as Hoon cuts into the chest.

The President is watching the surgery duel with PM Jang narrating. He wonders how to determine the victor and PM Jang explains that after the surgery the heart will be monitored for how effectively it’s been repaired to work properly.

Dr. Kim is watching the live feed as Hoon is drilling through the patient’s ribs and talking about how bloody it is to be a surgeon. He sees Chang Yi delivering water and calls her over to watch Hoon operate. He tries to get in some touchy feely with her but Chang Yi stomps on his toes to get him to back off.

As Nurse Min hands the electric saw over to Hoon, she remembers seeing Dr. Yang touching it prior to surgery and hesitates for a moment. Hoon takes the saw and is about to use it when Nurse Min asks him to check the tool again. He doesn’t have time and just start sawing. Seung Hee notices Dr. Yang looking shifty and tells Hoon to stop but it’s too late as the knife blade snaps off and cuts the palm of Hoon’s right hand.

Hoon continues with the surgery and calls for another saw blade while putting another glove over his bleeding hand. Both Nurse Min and Seung Hee shoot Dr. Yang a look. The President and PM Jang continue to watch the surgery as does everyone in the hospital. Hoon finishes sawing through the rib cage and asks Seung Hee for a vitals update. She reports his blood pressure isn’t doing so well but is worried about his injured hand. Hoon tells her to worry about the patient and gets Nurse Min to fix his glove.

Hoon calls Dr. Yang to start his part of the surgery but Nurse Min starts screaming for him to leave the OR right now. LOL what? She repeats it multiple times and everyone stares in shock. Dr. Yang leaves the OR just like that and turns to glares at Nurse Min before storming off. The other OR hears the crazy going on in Hoon’s OR what with his electric saw blade breaking and now Dr. Yang leaving.

Seung Hee goes to call for another surgeon to pinch hit but hears that every other surgeon is conveniently in surgery. Nurse Min apologizes for kicking Dr. Yang out and reveals he likely sabotaged the equipment. Hoon calls over to the other OR to ask to borrow one of Jae Joon’s surgeons.

Jae Joon offers him the inexperienced Dr. Kim. Soo Hyun stares at Jae Joon in horror as the call is made to summon Dr. Kim to scrub into the surgery. Jae Joon’s surgery heads into the heart transplant section as the donated heart is brought into the OR. Soo Hyun asks to go over to the OR to help Hoon since Dr. Kim can’t do it. Jae Joon asks if that’s the only reason she wants to go? He brings up again that she’s just interested in new things and she needs to cut it out now. I can’t believe these two are having a lover’s discussion in the middle of heart transplant surgery. Soo Hyun pauses and then asks Jae Joon if it’s really like that? LOL Soo Hyun, why are you asking him about your own feelings?

Dr. Kim arrives all scrubbed in and Jae Joon directs him to the other OR but Soo Hyun is determine to keep jumping teams. She tells Dr. Kim to stay and walks into the other OR. I can’t even, this drama is so stupid. Everyone watching the surgery stares at the mess going on but Soo Hyun is all business as she walks right up to the surgery table. Hoon makes Soo Hyun switch sides with him and shows off that he can do the entire surgery with HIS LEFT HAND. Everyone stares in shock and awe that Hoon can do the surgery with his left hand as easily as his right. Even the President and PM Jang look impressed.

Jae Joon’s team cuts out the patient’s heart and implanted the new one as their surgery goes swimmingly. Hoon’s surgery is also going well as he has Soo Hyun help him out but still manages to do the difficult procedure with only his left hand. Jae Joon’s surgery gets the new heart in and shocks it into beating. Chairman Oh looks pleased that Jae Joon’s successfully completed his surgery.

Hoon’s side is also done and starts shocking the heart. Everyone watching the surgery nervously stares and it takes a couple of tries but the heart eventually starts beating as well. The surgical team lets out a big sigh of relief. Hoon looks up and waves at Dr. Moon in the viewing room. Chang Yi smiles to see Hoon successfully complete the surgery.

Jae Joon’s surgical team is wheeling their patient out when they hear that Hoon successfully completely his surgery as well. Jae Joon walks over to look inside the other OR and sees Soo Hyun sewing up the patient.

Hoon lets out a sigh of relief and proceeds to hug all the ladies in the OR in his usual flirty way. When he hugs Seung Hee, he quietly says “good job” and they give each other a quick look. Hoon is about to hug Soo Hyun when she bear hugs him first. Hoon is taken aback and looks at Seung Hee and the couple exchanges a look with Soo Hyun clinging to Hoon like a forward koala.

Hoon heads out to speak with the patient’s family and explains the surgery was a success and the heart should function normally going forward. The wife wonders when her husband will wake up and Hoon says in about three days. The wife is relieved that her husband isn’t in a coma because the surgery failed.

Soo Hyun wants to talk with Hoon but he’s not in the mood and says to talk another day since it’s been tiring for everyone. After he walks off, Soo Hyun wonders if Hoon knows how hard it’s been for her lately.

Nurse Min goes to confront Dr. Yang about what he did today. Dr. Yang doesn’t feel bad since the patient almost died to begin with because he couldn’t afford the surgery. Only Park Hoon made it possible but there is only one Park Hoon in this world and not everyone who needs his help can get it. So Dr. Yang is helping himself by making sure he has enough money for his family. He admits he did it for money which disappoints Nurse Min because their family needs a righteous husband and father more than money. Doesn’t he know that? Dr. Yang doesn’t want to keep being a lowly employee doctor. Nurse Min tells him to go apologize to Park Hoon but he won’t because he’s especially pissed at how talented and capable a surgeon Park Hoon is.

Dr. Yang storms off and Nurse Min chases after him only to see Hoon standing nearby having heard the whole conversation. She apologizes for Dr. Yang but Park Hoon lets it go and tells her that he has a short memory. Nurse Min thanks him but tells him to stop eavesdropping in the future.

Seung Hee keeps watch over the patient as his blood pressure drops. The nurse worries that something is wrong with the patient because the surgery wasn’t a success. Seung Hee chides the nurse for thinking too much and tells her not to worry the patient’s family standing nearby. Chairman Oh and Sang Jin hear this patient really will make it and decides to take matters into their own hands to make sure Hoon loses.

Sang Jin takes the patient’s wife aside to tell her that the patient’s surgery wasn’t the consented to VAD surgery but instead was a much more difficult Saver surgery. He suggests the surgeon just wanted to show off his skills. The wife had assumed Hoon went to Myung Woo University Medical School and ought to be capable and Sang Jin says Hoon came from North Korea and graduated from Pyongyang Medical School. He even reveals a patient died in Hoon’s hands during a previous surgery.

Dr. Moon goes to lobby Chairman Oh that the winner of the two successful surgeries ought to be Hoon since his surgery was harder. Chairman Oh concedes that point but will determine the winner based on the patients waking up.

The patient’s wife storms to confront Hoon about switching the surgical procedure to a more difficult one on her husband without getting her prior consent. She has a point there. Hoon claims he had no choice under the circumstances. The wife accuses him of lying, of killing a patient in surgery before, and from being from North Korea. How dare he do a surgery that has never been successfully done before. She threatens to sue him for murder.

Hoon stands with Seung Hee over the patient’s bedside and discuss that it’s natural for him to remain unconscious for a period of time after the surgery. Seung Hee wonders if she should just wake him up but Hoon cautions doing something that can harm the patient simply because the family is raising a fuss. Seung Hee worries about Hoon getting in trouble with the disciplinary committee for doing the surgery without getting consent. He wants her not to worry and keep watch over this patient and to not wake up him even if others order her to do so.

Jae Joon and Soo Hyun have an awkward encounter in the hallway and he asks if she has nothing to say to him? Soo Hyun apologizes for leaving the surgery midway but Jae Joon wants to talk about her feelings for Park Hoon. He’s not suitable for her and she’ll get hurt. Soo Hyun knows that, Hoon has Jae Hee already. But Hoon might not find Jae Hee, right? Jae Joon points out that even if Hoon doesn’t find Jae Hee, she’s still in his heart. Soo Hyun knows that, she knows Hoon has Jae Hee but she can’t help but still like him.

Initially Soo Hyun was just curious and later tried to stop herself but she can’t. She just likes him and right now she’s struggling as well and constantly wants to cry. She apologizes to Jae Joon and tries to leave but he grabs her hand and tells her not to leave him. Soo Hyun asks that he left her go, she’s sure he’ll forget her and do better. Soo Hyun walks away leaving poor Jae Joon wallowing in his own misery.

Dr. Kim tries to pick up Chang Yi using a medical equipment that is used to measure whether the patient has regained consciousness. He places the BIS sensor on Chang Yi’s forehead and teases that he can use it to determine what she is thinking. Chang Yi pulls it off and asks if he knows what she’s thinking right now? Dr. Kim stares down at the water bottle that is about to be smashed over his head again.

Jae Joon’s team goes to wake up his patient and Dr. Eun successfully wakes the patient up. She’s alert and stable. Dr. Moon worriedly walks over to Hoon’s patient who is still unconscious.

Hoon wants to talk with the wife outside and explain further what his situation is. She wants to talk right here where she can see the other patient has woken up already. Hoon explains that her husband’s condition was worse off prior to surgery and he was in worse shape, hence he may be unconscious for longer. He asks her to wait a few more days but the wife furiously asks why she needs to wait? Is it for Hoon to destroy the evidence? She refuses to wait and orders him to immediately wake her husband up.

Hoon is called before a surgical committee to explain his surgery and reasoning for doing this difficult surgery. Hoon explains its actually been done before successfully and when pressed where he explains he did it before. Dr. Keom asks where and Jae Joon pipes up to ask if it was in North Korea? Hoon admits it was and Jae Joon asks if all the patients survived? Not all the patients survived in Hoon’s previous surgeries but he’s not cowed and asks if all of Jae Joon’s former patients survived surgery?

Hoon knows that not all patients will survive but he has to try. If he fails and the patient dies, then he will beg forgiveness, but it’s better than not having tried to begin with. Jae Joon snarks that Hoon’s speech is so touching but it’s too early to beg for forgiveness since the patient isn’t awake yet. He accuses Hoon of purposely keeping the patient unconscious to cover up the failed surgery. Seung Hee looks upset but can’t say anything. Hoon assures Jae Joon the patient will wake up. Jae Joon warns Hoon the patient better wake up otherwise it’s not just about being picked for PM Jang’s surgery, Hoon will become a murderer in that case.

Hoon didn’t get the family’s consent prior to the surgery and now the family might sue him for murder. Jae Joon asks if he purposely didn’t want to tell the family about the surgery? Hoon says he didn’t have time beforehand due to the patient’s blood condition. Jae Joon asks Dr. Yang if Hoon knew about the blood condition beforehand and Dr. Yang lies that Hoon knew. Jae Joon points out that Hoon had time to get the patient’s family consent beforehand to do the surgery. Hoon tries to explain that he wanted to save the patient’s life but Jae Joon slams his hand on the table and tells Hoon to stop believing he is a doctor. Being a doctor requires getting consent as part of saving a life. Hoon is certain the patient will wake up and Jae Joon orders him to wake up the patient immediately to prove to the family that the surgery is a success.

As the surgeons are filing out, a few doctors are talking about Hoon behind his back and it makes Soo Hyun so angry she chews them out and has to be pushed out of the room. Seung Hee watches Soo Hyun stand up for Hoon. Later Soo Hyun sits in her office and appears to make up her mind about something.

Hoon demands Jae Joon not wake the patient up early, he needs to wait a few more days. Jae Joon refuses since he doesn’t think Hoon is all that trustworthy. Hoon used to believe that they could compete but still be friends afterwards, clearly he was wrong to think that. Jae Joon confirms that will never happen.

Hoon’s patient codes and is shocked back to life by Soo Hyun. He rushes there and Soo Hyun explains she briefly woke up the patient before having a complication. The wife accuses Hoon once again for why her husband isn’t waking up and Soo Hyun attempts to assure her that this is normal post-surgery complications but the wife will have none of it. She screams that she can’t be calm in this situation. Soo Hyun tries to argue with the patient but Hoon yells at her and drags her outside.

Hoon calls out Soo Hyun as a doctor for waking up the patient early. Soo Hyun saw the surgery was a success with her own eyes so she thinks its fine to wake the patient up. Hoon is furious and asks how she dares to make this decision on her own! Soo Hyun is worried about Hoon getting kicked out of the hospital if the patient doesn’t ever wake up. Holy shit, she actually risked a patient’s life to safeguard Hoon’s job? I can’t even. Hoon asks why she cares whether he gets kicked out?

Soo Hyun finally admits that she likes him which is why she doesn’t want to see him leave. She knows it’s her own feelings and doesn’t expect reciprocation. Hoon turns away and she asks if it’s because of Jae Hee? Hoon reveals it’s because of her dad Chairman Oh. He was the reason Park Hoon and his dad Park Chul were sent to North Korea. Chairman Oh colluded with PM Jang to send Hoon’s dad to North Korea so he couldn’t testify against the hospital. Hoon tells Soo Hyun to get a hold of herself and then walks away.

Soo Hyn storms home to demand the truth from her dad about whether he was responsible for sending Park Hoon and his dad to North Korea? Chairman Oh openly admits it which makes Soo Hyun collapse. Chairman Oh is unapologetic since he did it to save Myung Woo and takes the time to warn Soo Hyun to keep her distance from Park Hoon. Soo Hyun doesn’t know how to face Park Hoon anymore and Chairman Oh tells her to not see him again then. Soo Hyun can’t stand it if she can’t see him and keep crying like her world just ended.

PM Jang pays a visit to Myung Woo hospital and asks about the outcome for the final battle. Jae Joon says Hoon’s patient hasn’t woken up yet. PM Jang decides to hinge the outcome on waking the patient up, if he wakes up then it’s a tie, if he doesn’t then Jae Joon wins. FUUUUCK. A tie? A fucking tie? That means ANOTHER SURGERY. *headdesk to infinity*

Dr. Moon confers with Hoon and Seung Hee about waking the patient up and Seung Hee has been monitoring his vitals and thinks it’s safe to wake him up since his vitals have been stable. Dr. Moon runs out to arrange it and Hoon wonders if it’s the right decision. Seung Hee believes its the right thing to do because she trusts Hoon did the surgery successfully so the patient will be fine. They smile at each other reassuringly.

Everyone is gathered around the patient’s bedside at Seung Hee proceeds to wake him up. The seconds tick away and the patient remains unconscious. Chairman Oh thinks the outcome is clear and Seung Hee is so worried that she abruptly screams loudly “PATIENT!” Everyone is startled and so is the patient who slowly opens his eyes.

Hoon checks on the patient as he opens his eyes. The wife leans down and the husband calls out for her as he recognizes her. The wife cries in relief as she hugs him.

Hoon and Seung Hee exchange yet another reassuringly smile. Chairman Oh looks pissed and storms off. Hoon and Jae Joon pointedly stare at each other as their competition continues.

PM Jang calls for an additional match since the battle remains at a tie. He hopes the added match will determine the victor. The entire viewing audience of Dr. Stranger hopes so, too.

Jae Joon is walking way when Hoon wishes him luck in the upcoming surgery. He wonders if Jae Joon is bipolar since prior to this surgery he was all buddy buddy and fine and now he’s a giant prick again. Jae Joon walks off leaving Dr. Moon happy since anytime Jae Joon is upset that makes him happy.

Jae Joon paces in his office and hears from Dr. Kim that Soo Hyun didn’t come to work today so he’s covering her shift. Jae Joon takes off his white coat and immediately heads out. Jae Joon finds Soo Hyun sitting in her living room looking majorly morose like someone killed her entire family. Jae Joon orders her to stop this and come back to the hospital. Soo Hyun insists she’s fine and just wants to be alone. Jae Joon worries about her collapsing and asks if she’s like this because Hoon yelled at her for trying to wake up the patient yesterday? Soo Hyun shakes her head and tells Jae Joon that Hoon is not like a new purse to her.

Soo Hyun cries that her heart hurts so much. Jae Joon can only stand there and watch as Soo Hyun cries over another man. He asks her to tell him what happened? Soo Hyun reveals she confessed her feelings to Park Hoon but he told her that they could never be. Jae Joon turns to walk away but he can’t just leave Soo Hyun like that so he walks back to sit beside her and pull her in for a comforting embrace. Soo Hyun just keeping crying like her world ended.

Jae Joon sits in his office moping and Dr. Kim comes by to have another princess and castle metaphor related conversation. Jae Joon asks what happens if the princess falls for another knight? The princess confessed to that knight and was rejected, so the first knight just comforted her and didn’t even feel rage. The first knight just felt sad for her. Dr. Kim says the first knight must really love the princess, it’s true love so the first knight isn’t going to get the castle because he’s lost track of his mission by falling for the princess.

Seung Hee makes Soo Hyun some porridge and asks her what happened to make her so down? Soo Hyun reveals she confessed to Hoon but he rejected her. Seung Hee looks stricken and then apologizes to Soo Hyun before pulling her in for a hug and saying sorry again. Soo Hyun doesn’t know why Seung Hee is apologizing but smiles and tells her it’s okay.

Hoon is drying clothes outside when Seung Hee walks up and reveals she heard about Soo Hyun’s confession. Hoon sighs and explains that he told Soo Hyun about what Chairman Oh did. She must be hurting now and he wishes he didn’t have to tell her. Seung Hee leans her head against Hoon’s shoulder and he asks if his mom is doing well? Yeah, whatever happened to the mom? Seung Hee takes Hoon’s hand and he asks again if all she needs is one month? Seung Hee nods and Hoon agrees to endure but asks her to take good care of his mom in the meantime.

Soo Hyun flashbacks to Hoon revealing what her dad did to his dad. She gets all dolled up and goes to the little clinic to see Hoon and breezes inside because the door there is always unlocked. She sees his laptop opened to the freeze frame of the Jae Hee in prison video. She clicks on the mouse and suddenly the screen saver disappears and in the laptop as the background image is a picture of Hoon and Seung Hee on a date after they first reunited.

Soo Hyun stares in shock and scrolls through various couple pictures of Seung Hee and Hoon. She remembers Hoon talking about Jae Hee having a kidney transplant two years ago and then rifles through Hoon’s desk until she finds Seung Hee’s medical records that Hoon swiped. She pops it into the laptop and stares in shock as the kidney x-ray shows Seung Hee is indeed Jae Hee.

She hears a sound and turns around to see Hoon and Seung Hee walk in hand-in-hand. Seung Hee looks very awkward but Hoon just stares pointedly at Soo Hyun as she takes in their joined hands.

Thoughts of Mine:

The mental fuckery of Dr. Stranger continues to morph and rise to ever more insane levels of crap masquerading as plot. We have ANOTHER SURGERY coming up to determine who operates on PM Jang standing in for the President? Three rounds isn’t enough? Why can’t this third round have gone to Hoon since his surgery by skill level alone was way more difficult than Jae Joon’s heart transplant? Not to mention he did it with his surgical hand impaired and switched to his left hand! Both patients woke up and so the win should have gone to Hoon, except of course there isn’t enough plot to drag this out for another five episodes so the rules have to keep changing to extend the pointless conflict. Remember when we were all bored from the surgery battling by episode 8? Ahahaha, those were the good times, now we’re heading into episode 16 and there are promises of more surgeries to come with still no real stakes on the outcome. I bet dollars to doughnuts that Hoon ends up operating on the President because Jae Joon doing it makes no sense. His story was always tied to just revenge on Chairman Oh, the whole spy and assassination skulduggery never quite fit his role in this drama. He exists as a rival for Park Hoon, and hopefully future ally, but the main arc has to involve Hoon otherwise what’s the point. It also symbolically bookends Park Hoon’s dad operating on the leader of North Korea and twenty years later Hoon operates on the leader of South Korea.

Does anyone wonder which hole Dr. Choi fell into? He disappeared four episodes ago without a by your leave and before that he was rather instrumental in keeping watch over Park Hoon. And what about the come and go as he pleases Comrade Cha? He was MIA in this episode which probably means he’ll swan back in the next episode and sneer in a threatening tone to either Hoon or Seung Hee about how their life is on the line unless they do what he says. This whole hot mess really ruined any momentum in the OTP romance, it’s hilariously settled into warmth and silent reassurances when really the reunion of Hoon and Jae Hee ought to be passion and life-and-death stakes. The latter still looms over them but the drama brings it up willy nilly so sometimes it feels like either can die at any time while other times I totally forget they are in any danger. The entire third surgery was an epic fail from beginning to end. The way the heart transplant victim randomly arrived at Hoon’s clinic and then conveniently was too poor to pay so Hoon could activate his savior hero mode. Chairman Oh bribing Dr. Yang to sabotage the surgery made zero sense since if the patient died then it would open up Myung Woo Hospital to a lawsuit, the very thing Chairman Oh has spent this entire drama avoiding at all costs. Then Hoon not getting a consent which would take minutes at most since all he needed to tell the wife was “your husband is dead if this surgery doesn’t happen” and she will undoubtedly say yes. Especially after the surgery was halted when Dr. Yang was booted and they had time to wait for a new second to arrive in the form of Soo Hyun. Finally the sputtering “wake the patient up” dilemma at the end only dragged out what was already a given, clearly this patient wasn’t going to die. Even the annoying screeching wife wasn’t as irksome since she was set up to push Hoon into a pointless corner. Sigh, this drama, always much ado about nothing.

I saved the whole Soo Hyun bit for last because she got a lot of screen time in this episode, likely at the expense of the spy parts of the story which didn’t appear once at all. I don’t mind an episode focused on her lovelorn woes IF it means she’s going to move on after all this crying and moping. There is nothing I can do to resurrect the Soo Hyun from the drama beginning, the woman who smashed a brick on Sang Jin in the car and who confidently smiled at her boyfriend as they walked into surgery together. She’s been reduced to a shell of her former self, and for no real payoff other than pleasing the portion of the audience who wants to see a love line between her and Hoon. Her romance with Jae Joon had all the earmarks of true conflict because her dad was the real reason his dad died and got no justice afterwards. Whereas the blame for Park Hoon’s fate lies more in PM Jang’s hand and the way he orchestrated sending them to North Korea and then stranding them there. Once Soo Hyun fell for Hoon that narrative thread dominated her story until that was all there is, when everyone else is off trying to save their own life and get some delayed justice.

Her behavior in this episode crosses all lines from the professional to the personal. The way she left Jae Joon’s OR was wrong, she’s in the middle of a surgery as part of a team. Unless the head surgeon tells her to go, walking off is dramatic but completely wrong. She ought to be dragged before the disciplinary committee as well. There was nothing wrong with Jae Joon sending Dr. Kim even if he was in a jealous snit because of it, Soo Hyun was on his team and he had every right to keep her there. Then she goes and tries to wake the patient up after surgery in some harebrained attempt to help Hoon was beyond the pale. How come Hoon doesn’t really rake her over for her unethical medical conduct the way he chewed Seung Hee out a few episodes ago for telling him not to do a surgery to save his life? Hoon thought that Soo Hyun is the doctor he wishes Jae Hee could be? Don’t make me laugh. Seung Hee/Jae Hee’s behavior when it crosses ethical lines hinges on a life/death choice and struggle. Soo Hyun makes decisions because of her crush on Hoon and for consequences as meaningless as Hoon gets fired from the hospital. Oh Boo Hoo, cry me a river.

Even though Soo Hyun lives in her own delusional world where she can do whatever she feels like, at least Jae Joon’s character still tries to be somewhat consistent with his actions. He needs to win over Park Hoon so continue his revenge plans, and he currently thinks Hoon is the son of yet another doctor who contributed to his father’s injustice so he’s back to being a prick to him. Even worse is his girlfriend falling for Hoon. I did laugh when Hoon called out Jae Joon for being bipolar and having totally different attitude shifts abruptly, but overall Jae Joon is pretty consistently one track-minded. His realization that he really loves Soo Hyun was a long time coming but likely too lately for him to get a second chance with her. She looks pretty gone to me. I was upset that Soo Hyun kept pressing her own feelings for Hoon even knowing all he loves is Jae Hee, with the flimsy excuse that maybe he won’t ever find Jae Hee. Er, girlfriend, that is the logic of a person who insists her own feelings are paramount and tries to find reasons to keep on down that path. If Hoon has moved on from Jae Hee then she’s got a clear signal to go, otherwise for all she knows, Hoon is a man who has a girlfriend that happens to currently be in North Korea. Confessing to a taken man and then asking “why not me?” is bizarre. I feel bad for her but it’s clearly the writing pushing her towards an unilateral crush on Hoon and then acting like her world collapsed when it’s logically not requited. Sadly all the emotion was with Soo Hyun this episode leaving Seung Hee and Hoon going through the motions without engaging the viewers on their romance. It’s like an uneven three-legged stool that’s teetered so far it’s collapsed leaving everyone with mud on their faces. It’s unsightly and leaves the rear end black-and-blue.

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