Good Doctor: Episode 4

by gummimochi

Communication is key when it comes to establishing any kind of relationship, be it professional, casual, or intimate. Because how else will you be able to convey how you feel to the other person? But often times, communication can be the biggest hurdle when you’ve got so many other things to worry about. ‘Cause that life isn’t going to save itself.

Good Doctor is still going strong with an upward tick to 15.8%.

SONG OF THE DAY

투빅(2BiC) – “I Am In Love” (사랑하고 있습니다) [ Download ]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

EPISODE 4 RECAP

We dive back in as the surgical team is faced with an impossible dilemma with no other alternative in sight. They’re running out of time, and to make matters worse, the preemie is crashing.

Shi-on hones in on the bile tract, and says they need to drain the infected area. Although Yoon-seo argues that it’s a risky move, Do-han backs up the idea and makes the call.

As they wait, Do-han pointedly affirms in front of everyone that Shi-on’s clinical judgment was sound. He resumes the operation when the drainage tube arrives, and everyone waits with bated breath.

They save the baby, which earns Do-han another round of praise for successfully completing the risky operation. He takes note of how Shi-on keeps watch over the preemie’s incubator.

The baby’s parents tearfully thank Do-han for not giving up on their child, to which they’re told it’s all thanks to the baby’s strong will to live. Unfortunately, Do-han and Shi-on aren’t out of the woods just yet, and they’re called back to resume their hearing.

Shi-on trails behind his boss, but interestingly, Do-han orders him to turn back to the staff room.

Meanwhile, the ethics committee members argue over the details of Do-han’s punishment. The assistant chief suggests they take recent events into account, adding that Do-han’s absence would look bad for the hospital. He also rallies that they look over Shi-on’s involvement as well, since he was merely following his attending supervisor’s orders.

These ideas are met with outcry from the opposition, and Doctor Choi notably remains silent during this exchange. That’s when Do-han enters the room alone, here to face the committee on his own.

Then Doctor Choi lays out the conditions of Do-han’s punishment: a week’s suspension and a month’s paycut. Do-han accepts the decision without argument.

The residents are in disbelief at the committee’s decision, and that Do-han bore the full brunt of the consequences. They don’t hesitate to take out their anger on Shi-on when he enters the room, and point the finger of blame on him.

Their spiteful words cut deep as the resident spy Il-kyu scoffs that Shi-on lacks the mental capacity to feel sorry about the situation. Jin-wook raises his voice, but it’s Yoon-seo who puts her foot down.

She reminds them through gritted teeth to act as normal around their boss, and then leads Shi-on away outside.

Yoon-seo tells him gently that every resident makes mistakes, but what’s more important is their professional demeanor—does he feel guilty at all?

Shi-on just says the baby can survive now, an answer that irritates her. She yells back that she’s talking about their team; she won’t be able to cover for him anymore if he keeps this up. “I can’t feel a need to protect [someone] who doesn’t understand what teamwork means.”

His silence frustrates her, and she stalks off.

Yoon-seo heads for Do-han’s office, and acknowledges that her boss was right when he said Shi-on’s medical knowledge far exceeded her own, because it enabled him to make the right calls whereas her conclusions fell short.

She honestly admits that she’s confused because Shi-on’s clinical skills alone are enough reason to keep him on the team, but she can’t draw judgment on anything else beyond that.

To that, Do-han presents her with a hypothetical: a gifted doctor who doesn’t have common sense or an average doctor who does. Which would she rather pick?

His point is that he needs a colleague with whom he can communicate with because that’s what’s best for the patient. That prompts her to ask if he allows Shi-on to remain with them for the chief of staff’s sake. He sends her out without an answer.

Chae-kyung comes right out with it when she meets with the assistant chief, and asks if bringing Shi-on down wasn’t enough. She won’t stand for it if Do-han becomes a casualty in this power battle. The assistant chief assures her that as long as he remains at this position, no one will become a victim.

During one of In-hye’s check-ups, she can’t help but notice Jin-wook’s ear-splitting grin towards her sister. So she pulls Nurse Jo away in order to give the two some alone time. Aw, you’re a cute sister.

The air suddenly turns awkward-cute as Jin-wook shows concern for her health and adds that she can consult him anytime. She politely declines the offer. His face falls.

Outside, In-hye playfully scolds Nurse Jo for being so clueless. Nurse Jo insists that he was quite the ladies’ man back in the day. When he’s asked if he likes someone in the hospital then, he looks directly at Nurse Nam. D’aww.

Yoon-seo is called away to handle a situation where a cake lay smashed on the floor. It’s Rocket Boy and his mother screams Shi-on’s ear off at his insensitivity for bringing her son a cake when he clearly can’t have any foods containing flour.

Shi-on says that it’s okay for him to eat it since the ingredients are safe enough for him to metabolize, but she won’t hear a word of it. Yoon-seo sends him out and apologizes to the mother on his behalf.

She sighs at Shi-on’s medical lingo-filled explanation which boils down to how the brain will undergo stress and anxiety without enough sustenance, and she draws the conclusion that Shi-on was worried about the little boy. She understands his good intention, so she lets him off with a warning this time.

I’ll be quick with this next sequence: Evil Board Administrator yells at Doctor Pomade for screwing up again and tells him to use his noggin’. Doctor Pomade balks, and is told to think of something without the assistant chief knowing.

Il-kyu taunts Shi-on in the library, saying that it must be nice for him to be able to retain so much knowledge. Shi-on just blinks at his snide comments that he’s better off working in variety than in medicine, and has to be pulled away by another resident.

Chae-kyung remains optimistic about Do-han’s suspension during dinner. She encourages him to see it as a vacation, even thinking of date ideas. But when she asks if he can’t quit working at pediatrics, citing that he’d have a much easier job at a different department, he freezes.

Her real reason for saying it is because she doesn’t want Do-han’s name to be involved in the hospital politics with the chief of staff. Do-han says he doesn’t care for politics since he’s a surgeon, but it matters to her as his fiancée.

Do-han tells her not to broach the topic of pediatrics anymore, to which she wonders if it’s because of the chief of staff. He suggests that they drop the subject, but Chae-kyung points out that he’s never told her the reason why.

Shi-on eats his usual kimbap for dinner and watches TV before he heads off to bed. Ha, I love how his fridge is actually full of kimbap—that’s smart product placement. He finds himself unable to sleep at first, murmuring indiscernible words until he falls asleep.

Do-han speaks with his mother over the phone, who wonders if he went to see his brother Soo-han recently because she noticed fresh flowers at his memorial. Ah, so it was his brother’s resting place in the first episode. He lies that he didn’t.

As Shi-on and Yoon-seo ride the same bus to work the next day, she notices Shi-on drawing on his sketchbook. He shifts around in his seat when she looks in his direction. I would find it hilariously adorable if it’s a sketch of her.

Yoon-seo points out to Do-han that he looks tired today, teasing that there isn’t anyone else to perform the children’s surgeries if he faints on them. I’ll say. She grows excited at the chance to perform surgery herself in the near future.

Robot Boy smiles at the idea that he’ll be discharged from the hospital soon, only to frown when it won’t be for a few more days. She says he must be happy that he’ll get to see the pretty doctor (meaning, herself) until then, and he pouts: “You always call yourself pretty.” Keh.

Shi-on notices a string of children smuggle something out of a room under their clothes. He follows them into the storage room as they celebrate their loot. Ha, it’s snacks.

He promises not to tell their parents, and asks if he can play with them. One of the children says that he can “but on one condition.” Uh oh, those are the same words his childhood bullies told him.

That triggers the painful memory of when he was stuck in the mine with Hyung. Shi-on grows dizzy and his vision starts to blur. He holds onto one of the stacks, but it ends up falling on the children, glass and all. Eeeek!

A pair of concerned mothers approach Yoon-seo about Shi-on’s clinical judgment. She assures them that their children are in capable hands, but then the sound of several cries interrupts them.

They run in to find the children crying and bleeding from the broken glass. They point to Shi-on as the culprit. Eek, this definitely doesn’t look good.

It only confirms their doubts about Shi-on, who can only stutter in response. The children are transported immediately, and Yoon-seo glares at him, fuming.

She screams that being book-smart is utterly pointless if no one wants to have Shi-on as their doctor. Shi-on says that he has to be a doctor.

Frustrated, Yoon-seo shouts at him, saying she’s tired of being disappointed in him every day. She knows she shouldn’t be angry with him, but she can’t help that she is.

She storms out and fights with the broken vending machine, taking out her frustration on the inanimate object. Then a little girl holds up her drink, and Yoon-seo’s anger melts away.

Doctor Pomade is left flabbergasted when the assistant chief says he believes the latest incident was just an accident. Offended by the brush-off, Doctor Pomade uses his power card to say that he won’t let it go.

So Doctor Pomade speaks to the mothers, who all cry for Shi-on’s termination. He simply tells them that it’s out of his hands, but if they took the matter to the higher rungs of the hospital administration… Look who’s crackin’ out of their evil cocoon.

At the same time, the assistant chief is informed of the plan from a mysterious informant.

Elsewhere, In-hye talks to the injured kids, who admit that Shi-on didn’t hurt them on purpose, saying they shunted the blame off to him because they were scared. They cry that he’s a really strange doctor, but In-hye concludes that it wasn’t Shi-on’s fault.

Doctor Pomade orders that Shi-on’s cases be reassigned to the other residents, which would only strain the others’ caseloads even further. Doctor Pomade mutters an off-handed remark under his breath that that’s better than Shi-on killing a patient by accident.

Yoon-seo calls her sunbae out on those harsh words, saying it wasn’t Shi-on’s fault. Do-han tells her to do as she’s told.

One of the little girls complains about stomach pain, and In-hye leads Shi-on in to see her. But the mother lets out a shrill cry, and tells him not to come near her daughter. Shi-on shuffles away. Aw.

Do-han gives his team final instructions before he leaves for his week-long suspension. He leaves Yoon-seo in charge. He runs into Shi-on on his way out, and tells him to do nothing except eat, sleep, and breathe.

He asks if it bothers Shi-on to see patients in pain, and Shi-on says it does. So Do-han tells him to reflect how much it pains his colleagues whenever Shi-on acts of his own accord.

Shi-on sits outside observing a group of doctors play basketball. One of them invites him to play with them, and Shi-on mostly stands around the court, watching them play. Then one doctor passes the ball to Shi-on. He catches it.

Shi-on jumps to shoot the ball. It soars up into the air… and falls straight down. Hee.

Yoon-seo visits the preemie’s parents, and she notices a drawing of the mother and child hanging over the bed. She asks who drew it, and is surprised to hear that it was Shi-on.

Then we hear Shi-on’s voice narrate that he hopes the boy grows to love sports like his Hyung. He even has a name for the child: Dong-soo (comprised of the hanja dong “to move” and soo “hand”).

Yoon-seo smiles as they tell her how honored they are that their baby’s savior gave him his name. She checks on the preemie, and as she holds its hand, it gently grasps hers.

Moved, tears well up in her eyes as she tells it not to hold her hand too hard. So this time, when Shi-on volunteers to meet with the stubborn Robot Boy, she allows it.

Shi-on finds the little boy trying to fall asleep by counting sheep. He grumbles at the sight of Shi-on, who says the method only works in English because the two words “sleep” and “sheep” are similar.

The boy racks his brains trying to think of something similar in Korean, and Shi-on suggests “dragonflies” or jamjari. Robot Boy immediately tries it, and it works. And Yoon-seo smiles from the other side of the door.

In-hye and her sister have such an adorably close relationship. Gah, and then she plays matchmaker and texts Jin-wook so that he can oh-so-casually run into her sister. Best Sister Ever.

He asks her out, only to get shut down. Aw, poor guy. I think the best part of this scene is what follows as In-hye clucks with disappointment that boy gotz no game.

The assistant chief meets with a man whose face we don’t get to see at a baseball stadium. Okay, now I’m convinced the man loves baseball. He addresses his guest as “chairman,” and says he needs more time.

He asks why Creepy Chairman returned to Korea. Now we finally get to see his face (Kim Chang-wan) and he cryptically says that even a goose who lays golden eggs won’t lay any if it doesn’t feed. Creepy Chairman gives him three months.

And then he starts whistling. *shivers*

Chae-kyung sits down for dinner with president Lee and Doctor Choi. She’s pleasant enough with Doctor Choi and keeps to her cold demeanor with her stepmother.

She doesn’t hide her currently disgruntled feelings about the power struggle within the hospital. President Lee tells her not to worry about it, but Chae-kyung counters that she has to… because this hospital is a product of her father’s blood, sweat, and tears.

As Shi-on clips his nails at home, he recalls how Hyung once told him that Shi-on’s nail clippings reminds him of a crescent moon. So Shi-on holds up his thumb into the night sky, squinting his eyes to see it.

Then we move on to Yoon-seo, who smiles at her corkboard adorned with thank you notes and pictures from the hospital. She takes a teddy bear and records “We have to operate immediately!” in an imitation of Shi-on’s voice. She wonders to herself: “What kind of person are you, Park Shi-on?”

She finds herself unable to sleep that night and counts dragonflies until she falls asleep.

Our next medical emergency is with a little girl, who gets turned away from every hospital because a pediatric attending surgeon isn’t on call. Guess where they’re going next.

Meanwhile, Chae-kyung and Do-han are on vacation, and she has to pry his phone away, telling him to enjoy his time off. She turns it off.

At the same time, Yoon-seo and the team (including Shi-on) rush over to the ER when they receive the call about the little girl. She’s dehydrated, has abdominal pain, and her breathing is unstable. Shi-on suspects it may be a form of pneumonia. So basically, not good.

Yoon-seo reviews the x-ray and confirms Shi-on’s diagnosis. And you guessed it—they have to operate immediately.

Suddenly, the little girl goes into cardiac arrest, and they immediately start CPR. Doctor Pomade is informed of the case, but his eyes grow wide when he hears about the surgery.

He rips into Yoon-seo, saying the patient will go into cardiac arrest as soon as they begin surgery. But Yoon-seo counters that they can’t turn the family away again, and refuses to buy that they should do so because of the fear of a malpractice suit on their hands.

Yoon-seo declares that she’ll perform the surgery. Doctor Pomade demands to know why she refuses to listen to him, and she levels, “Because those are not the words of a doctor.” Ooh, burn.

She grows anxious at the thought of actually performing surgery, and Shi-on yells, “We can save her! We must save her!” That gives her a boost of confidence, and she barks out orders to her team.

Elsewhere, Do-han checks his phone when Chae-kyung isn’t looking, and sees a list of missed calls from Yoon-seo.

He calls her back and tells her to send a live video feed to his phone so that he can operate remotely until he gets to the hospital. What can I tell ya—he’s Super Doc.

Yoon-seo says that she’ll do it herself. He yells at her to listen and says that he’ll be the one who determines when she’ll perform her first surgery. He tells her to hang in there until he arrives.

He promises Chae-kyung that he’ll be right back after he finishes surgery. But we know that never happens.

Do-han’s phone dies while he drives back, so his team is unable to get ahold of him. Everything is set up to begin, and Doctor Pomade issues a final warning from the observation deck.

Yoon-seo looks up directly at her superior and announces that she will begin. Damn, I love her nerve. She mutes him. HA.

Then Yoon-seo prepares to make her first incision as Do-han speeds down the road.

The team discovers the problem in the intestinal area. They need to reposition the small intestine manually, and as Yoon-seo gently handles it in her hands, Shi-on repeatedly says, “Careful, careful, careful…”

She does it and moves on to the next step just as Do-han arrives at the hospital.

Jin-wook notices Shi-on jerk uncomfortably, and Shi-on says the child isn’t moving. He’s told that she’s under anesthesia, and he tries to get through to them, but Yoon-seo instructs the team to focus. And then the patient goes into cardiac arrest.

They hurry to remove the surgical tools and start CPR. But it isn’t enough, and the nurses bring in a defibrillator. Yoon-seo delivers the first set of shocks. Nothing. She increases the charge. Nothing.

Desperate, Yoon-seo begins CPR again… which is when Do-han finally arrives.

And then the dreaded flatline sound envelops the operating room.

COMMENTS

We’ve been getting some great cliffhangers this week, and I. Love. It. Never mind that I’m biting my nails right now, because we all knew this day would come the moment Super Doc stepped out that door and left Yoon-seo in charge. And it wouldn’t be a medical drama unless something went terribly, terribly wrong during her first-ever surgery on her own.

I have a fond admiration of Do-han and his leadership in this episode. Despite being a hardass boss (which we now know he learned from our loveable Doctor Choi), he’s a calm and collected team leader who knows when to give credit when it’s due, admits his mistakes, and cares about his team of residents enough to bear the brunt of the consequences of his residents’ actions. It would be pretty easy to zero in on how he criticizes Shi-on and doesn’t fully acknowledge him as a team member, but I love that when push comes to shove, he’ll protect his own. At this point, we can argue that it’s for Doctor Choi’s sake, but given how he skirts the question whenever it’s brought up, we can assume that there’s another underlying reason behind it. I admit that I have some suspicion that his brother Soo-han has something to do with it, but I’ll take it as it comes as we move forward with the series.

I love that we spent some time on Yoon-seo who has some impressive balls of steel. Her frankness and kind heart are qualities I really appreciate in her. Not only that, she’s incredibly self-aware when it comes to her strengths and weaknesses, and where she stands in comparison to her fellow colleagues. She knows how rough it is to be a resident and can empathize with Shi-on’s actions and behavior to a certain degree. We see the first growing pains with her relationship with Shi-on this week, because it would have been all too easy and too perfect of her to fully accept Shi-on the way he is from Day 1. I admit that there were times I was annoyed with her when she first doubted her initial judgment, but then I realized her internal emotional strife is essential for her to wrestle with her feelings about him (I mean this on a professional level; it seems too early for the romance part) and his savant syndrome and how that clashes within the hospital.

I could sympathize with her frustrations because she wants to be able to understand him, and yet she’s still responsible to those around her. For what it’s worth, I like that she was still able to identify Shi-on’s intentions in the cake incident and draw the conclusion that he really does care about his patients. Then I was super happy that we didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Angryland, and she came back around with Robot Boy and counting dragonflies.

Furthermore, I love how the show continues to explore Shi-on’s unique (to this dramaverse) way of communication. Take for instance the cake incident when Shi-on brought the cake to cheer the boy up, and that good intention was misinterpreted. I really enjoy his medico-speak because it shows that Shi-on verbally communicates in a way that he knows how: through medical terminology. And for someone to be able to recognize that as a strength and utilize it; I consider that incredibly insightful and self-aware. Then at that point, it really makes me wonder if we’re the ones who’s got it wrong the entire time because society has ingrained within us a certain set of etiquette rules; to be wary of a social faux-pas in the times when we should be calling the thing for what it is, pure and simple.

RELATED POSTS

• Good Doctor: Episode 3
• Good Doctor: Episode 2
• Good Doctor: Episode 1
• New set of posters and stills for Good Doctor
• The love triangle takes off in Good Doctor
• Joo Sang-wook and Moon Chae-won suit up for Good Doctor
• Upcoming drama previews: Master, Doctor, Who Are You, Her Legend
• Joo-won begins shoots for Good Doctor