Emergency Couple: Episode 4

by Slappyunni

[Hey everyone, please join me in welcoming our newest contributor Slappyunni to Dramabeans. She’ll be bringing you Emergency Couple recaps along with her partner suneedelight, so please be patient as they catch up to the current episodes, and give them much love. -girlfriday]

A warm hello to you all. I’m Slappyunni, and I’ll be working with suneedelight to recap the remaining run of Emergency Couple. I’m new to both recapping and blogging, so if any weird technical glitches happen, it’s safe to assume it’s my fault.

Our heroine takes some big steps forward, then a step or two backward in this episode.

 
EPISODE 4 RECAP

Stuck in the elevator, Jin-hee and Chang-min panic. Neither has performed a tracheotomy before. Chang-min takes the scalpel and holds it over the patient’s throat. His hand shakes uncontrollably. Moments pass, and just as the scalpel is about to break skin, he loses his nerve and breaks away in frustration.

Jin-hee says resolutely that she’ll do it, and I’m liking that she’s taking control of the situation. Chang-min protests, but Jin-hee says that what needs to be done…needs to be done, and that Chang-min can coach her through the process. He hands over the scalpel.

Chun-soo, Ji-Hye, and a nurse run to the elevator. Chun-soo bellows in frustration while banging on the doors. Our two interns hear the commotion, but with the doors still shut, they’re out of time and options.

Chang-min coaches Jin-hee on the cuts she needs to make, and she finally makes the necessary incisions. The airway is open and the male nurse confirms that the patient is now taking in oxygen. Both Chang-min and Jin-hee are exhilarated and relieved.

The elevator doors open. Chun-soo and Ji-hye rush in, and Ji-hye confirms the tracheotomy was good work and immediately schedules for an operating room. Chang-min and Jin-hee exchange unguarded smiles, but awareness hits all too soon, and the smiles evaporate. Chun-soo winds up and smacks Chang-min hard in the face. “Why did you hang up the phone?” he yells.

Shocked, Jin-hee stutters to explain that it was her fault, but before she manages even a sentence, Chang-min grabs her wrist to stop her from talking. Chun-soo continues, “How dare you, an intern, perform surgery on your own. If something happens to the patient, are you going to take responsibility, you asshole?” Chang-min apologizes, which allows everyone to continue believing their mistaken assumption that it was he who had performed the tracheotomy.

As Jin-Hee and Chang-min wheel the patient to the operating room, Ji-hye asks Chun-soo whether he was too harsh, given that the interns had performed well under duress. Chun-soo says that rules need to be followed in any situation, but Ji-hye still takes issue with the face slapping.

She pointedly notes that Chun-soo must be treating the interns with particular harshness such that they themselves do not have to endure what Chun-soo endured in the past. It’s a deliberately oblique reference and damn, now I’m curious.

Yong-gyu rushes over to the other interns, and delivers the fresh gossip with gusto. The interns are duly impressed, saying that Chang-min must have “God’s hands.” Jin-hee and Chang-min show up and Chang-min seems surprised at everyone’s reaction. They congratulate him and now, both Chang-min and Jin-hee realize that everyone thinks he did the tracheotomy.

Chang-min starts to correct the misunderstanding, but this time, it is Jin-hee who grabs his arm to silence him. The interns disperse, and Jin-hee has a quiet moment to herself. She looks at her hands, and half giggles. She says to herself “God’s hands?”

Jin-hee bumps into Chang-min with a cup of coffee. After she mops herself up, Chang-min asks why she has to make him uncomfortable. “Earlier. All the other kids think that I did the tracheotomy.”

Surprisingly, Jin-hee responds that he did indeed do it. She reasons, “You’re the one who diagnosed the patient when I panicked, and you’re the one who coached me through the procedure when I got confused. On top of that, you got slapped by Chun-soo. Besides, what does it matter who did it? The patient’s alive, that’s what matters.”

Jin-hee asks Chang-min how he felt back in the elevator. She says she herself felt like she had emerged from a tunnel, with her heart burnt to ashes. Chang-min scoffs, “If that’s how you felt, how did you wield the scalpel with such resolve?” Jin-hee says she herself doesn’t know where or how she found her courage, especially in the presence of Chang-min, who had always held her in such low regard. Chang-min feels a twinge of guilt at her words.

Jin-hee is about to get off work, but runs into Chun-soo. She inquires after the esophageal cancer patient and Chun-soo confirms that the surgery went well but that it is a “wait and see” situation given that the patient had refused treatment for so long.

As she turns to leave, Chun-soo drops the bomb. “That tracheotomy. Chang-min didn’t do it, did he?” Jin-hee tries to figure out what to say, but Chun-soo cuts her off. “I heard that you did it. The male nurse who was in the elevator with you told me so.” Haha, did we all forget that there was an actual third-party witness? So much for playing WhoDunnit.

At this point, Chun-soo is looking at Jin-hee with an amused twinkle in his eye (I feel Second Lead Syndrome comin’ on something fierce), and he tells her she did a good job. He tempers his praise with words of warning. “Next time, no matter how dire the situation, don’t step forward and take charge. You’re not experienced enough yet.” Jin-hee walks away, squeeing to herself over those rare words of praise.

Chang-min walks into his apartment building to find himself in the elevator with a woman in a red wig, a postage-stamp-sized skirt, and mile-high heels. The woman recognizes him. “Chang-min-sshi! You live here?” He still doesn’t recognize her and she says, “It’s me! Me!” Chang-min finally realizes that it’s Ah-reum from work.

He takes in the red wig, the makeup, the super skimpy sparkly outfit, and mutters “Daebak!” in disbelief. Ah-reum explains that she likes to relieve her stress by going clubbing, since she’s not much of a drinker. She asks him which apartment he lives in, and he seems a bit taken aback at her forwardness.

But being forward seems to pay off, because she gets invited into Chang-min’s apartment. He asks her to sit and peels off his jacket. Omo. Say hello to Papa Gu’s biceps.

Ah-reum makes small talk, but Chang-min looks sooo uncomfortable, that I’m afraid he might bolt altogether. Non-plussed, Ah-reum bluntly asks him if he has a girlfriend. He says no, and explains that the apartment was decorated by his mother, which seems to satisfy Ah-reum. She helps herself to a beer.

Cut to: a disheveled Jin-hee chugging a beer at her home with her mom. Her mom asks Jin-hee whether she’s heard from her younger sister, Jin-ae. Given the platinum blonde hair that Jin-ae is rocking in the family photo, I’m guessing she’s the rebellious sort. Having left home two years ago, she has largely estranged herself from her family.

Jin-hee effectively distracts her mom by showing off her “God’s hands”, hands that might be able to cure everything and everybody. I love how Jin-hee’s self-confidence has spiked since the successful tracheotomy. She’s particularly endearing because she spins her little fantasy about her divine, curative hands all while sporting birds’ nest-y, uncombed hair.

Back in Chang-min’s apartment, Ah-reum asks Chang-min about his blind date. Still in the dark about who Ah-reum is, Chang-min admits that he got stood up by his date. Trying to gauge Chang-min’s reaction, Ah-reum hints that the woman might still call to follow up. Chang-min says it’s obvious to him that any woman from such a great family background, superior education, and beauty pageant past would be disinterested in him.

Ah-reum asks bluntly what kind of woman Chang-min is interested in. He replies, “Someone I connect with. Have similar tastes with.” Then he emphatically says that he can’t stand anyone who is clumsy or slow, an obvious reference to Jin-hee.

Outside the apartment door, Chang-min’s mom is shocked at the cards featuring photos of scantily clad women stuck on Chang-min’s door. She walks in, sees Ah-reum in her skimpy clubbing get-up, smells the alcohol, and jumps to a sordid conclusion.

Chang-min tries to introduce Ah-reum as his hospital colleague, but his mom refuses to buy it. She tells Ah-reum to leave, and shoves the cards in Ah-reum’s hand. Aha, they’re adverts for massage parlors. You know, those types of massage parlors. Chang-min and Ah-reum are mortified that his mom has completely misunderstood the situation but his mom physically throws Ah-reum out of the apartment.

Stunned at his mom’s rudeness, Chang-min again insists that Ah-reum is a fellow intern. His mom looks at him in disgust, and tells him he needs to hurry up and get married. When Chang-min finally mentions Ah-reum by her name, his mother stops dead in her tracks. She searches on her phone for the name of the Cabinet Minister’s daughter.

Her name is Jessica…but her Korean name is…Han Ah-reum. Chang-min’s mother explains that Han Ah-reum is the name of his blind date no-show. She digs up a photo of Ah-reum and asks Chang-min whether this is his colleague. He confirms it, and finally pieces together that Ah-reum is also the mythical Cabinet Minister’s daughter.

Ji-hye drops in on Chun-soo, who is sipping a martini at a bar. She notes his taste in booze is the same as ever, as well as his habit of coming to this bar whenever feeling off. She tells him that he hasn’t changed at all and asks him “Do you still blame yourself? You know it wasn’t your fault.” Chun-soo does not respond.

Ji-hye plows on, “Serving 8 years as a resident is enough. How long are you going to live hanging onto this?” Chun-soo finally says, “It’s not that I’m blaming myself. It’s in fact the reason that I came back as a resident. It’s my burden to bear.”

Jin-hee gets ready to leave and plans to visit a mysterious someone in the morning. It’s the person who tutored her through medical school, and she feels obliged to pay a visit since she has passed her exams. Her mom doesn’t like the idea that Jin-hee is still in touch with her tutor and Jin-hee says this will be the last visit. She also seems to feel uncomfortable with the relationship.

Meanwhile, Chang-min’s mom joins her siblings. She brings a bribe of herbal medicine in tow, her attempt to kiss up to her brother. Everyone in the family knows that she’s angling for her brother to leave his hospital to Chang-min.

The brother asks after Chang-min’s father, and Chang-min’s mom says that he could drown while fishing for all she cares. However, when her brother explains that a position ideal for re-launching her husband’s career has opened up at Wusu Hospital, Chang-min’s mom perks up in interest.

Jin-hee shares tea with her tutor/mentor and hands over a wrapped gift. She tells him that this might be the last time that she comes to visit. He asks, “Why? Do you finally have a boyfriend? Why can’t everyone see you for the jewel that you are?” Ah. Is this her ex-father-in-law?

He asks her whether she’s having a hard time finding someone because of her divorced status, but Jin-hee says that she’s simply not interested in getting married again. He tells her that she’s still young, and that life is long.

But he also has come to the conclusion that it’s no longer appropriate for Jin-hee to come see him. “Don’t come anymore. You’ll get busier, and you’ll need to study some more. Your life is starting anew.” Then he asks where she is doing her internship, and we don’t see how she responds.

At the hospital, Ah-reum asks Chang-min whether he managed to clear up his mom’s misunderstanding from the previous evening. Chang-min apologizes for his mother’s temper and Ah-reum wonders why Chang-min is not using banmal with her as they had agreed. Chang-min walks off, and Ah-reum realizes that he might be angry.

Chang-min curtly asks “Why are you toying with me? You knew all along that I was the blind date. Was it fun? Making fools out of guys by sending a stand-in for your blind dates. Well, now I know you’re the Cabinet Minister’s daughter.” Ah-reum apologizes but before she can offer an explanation, Chang-min is interrupted by a phone call from his mother.

Chang-min’s mom wants to know whether he’s smoothed things over with Ah-reum. She informs Chang-min that she’s on her way to visit his father in hopes of convincing him to take the Vice Director position at the hospital. Chang-min is doubtful of her reception, and asks her again to consider a divorce since she is so unhappy with his dad’s choices.

Jin-hee rounds the corner to catch his side of the conversation. His mom says that she’s going there for Chang-min’s sake, and Chang-min responds that he doesn’t need to have a father in a high position at the hospital—he’s doing quite fine on his own merits, thank you very much.

He says to his mom that he may have faltered in life for a while “because of a woman,” but he is not the Chang-min of old. Oh yes, Jin-hee hears this too. By the time he hangs up, she’s giving him serious laser beam eye.

Chang-min’s mom is out in the sticks, trying to track down Chang-min’s dad. She picks her way through his lab/office and sees the gift that Jin-hee gave to her mentor. Yep, Chang-min’s dad (Professor Oh) is indeed Jin-hee’s medical school mentor.

A secretary tells Chang-min’s mom that Professor Oh is out fishing after a stressful day: expected grant funding for his research fell through. Chang-min’s mom insists on being taken to where her husband is fishing. She has to navigate down a steep incline of boulders in her high-heeled boots, and I hope cackling gleefully at her awkward fall doesn’t make me a bad person.

She crab-walks over more rocks and when she reaches her husband, he merely says she should have been more careful. Chang-min’s mom gives him a few girly slaps on the arm. “If I fall into the water, would you bother saving me? You wouldn’t, right? You’d just keep fishing, right?” Lady, I’d just keep fishing too.

Professor Oh’s response: “If you knew that, why’d you come?” Ahaha. Chang-min’s mom loses her temper and throws a massive tantrum that mostly involves kicking over his gear and his bucket of fish.

Back at the hospital, Jin-hee and Chang-min are both acting irritably when a pharmaceutical salesman approaches them. Chang-min initially brushes him off, but the salesman is determined to give his pitch. Jin-hee tells him that they are mere interns, which the salesman finds doubtful, given they look too old to be interns.

The salesman realizes his faux pas, and tries to ingratiate himself upon the two. His slight air of desperation is not lost on Jin-hee, who looks up at Chang-min with some newfound empathy for what he might have gone through during their married days. He looks back at her and says, “What? You think I was like this?” He takes the sales literature from the salesman and gives him some friendly words of encouragement.

Chang-min’s mom is seemingly in the middle of kidnapping her husband. She’s got him criss-cross seatbelt-strapped in the back seat. Chang-min’s dad has no plans of returning to a hospital.

She pleads and begs him to take the position temporarily, if only to get Chang-min married off to the Cabinet Minister’s daughter. He tells her that Chang-min and Jin-hee would have stayed happily married had it not been for her interference. “A Cabinet Minister’s daughter? Whatever!” he snorts.

Chang-min’s mom resorts to emotional blackmail (“Just grant me one wish before I die”) to which her husband asks her to use her considerable wealth to help fund his ecological research. She unceremoniously kicks him out of the car.

The interns are paired off again in learning to insert nasogastric tubes – on each other. Yong-gyu offers up taking a night shift to bribe Chang-min into switching partners with him, so Yong-gyu pairs with Ah-reum, and Jin-hee is stuck with Chang-min again. It looks like an uncomfortable procedure, and Jin-hee can’t help laughing as Chang-min rubs his nose in pain and barks at her to do it right. Ah-reum observes their strangely comfortable relationship and seems unhappy.

Later, Ah-reum asks Chang-min if he is still angry with her. She apologizes again, and this time, she explains that she didn’t want to be “the Cabinet Minister’s daughter” at work, but only Han Ah-reum, the intern. She then offers Chang-min tickets to a concert. It’s a pretty thorough apology and explanation.

In Chun-soo’s office, Chang-min gets another dressing down. “I hate people who lie,” says Chun-soo. This must be in regards to who actually performed the tracheotomy. Chang-min confronts Jin-hee in a stairwell, and angrily accuses her of snitching to Chun-soo. I guess he’s also forgotten about the male nurse.

Jin-hee realizes that Chang-min is defensive about how he lost his nerve and ended up handing the scalpel over to her. “Do you think I don’t know you, Chang-min? Do you know why we got divorced?” Chang-min can’t believe she’s bringing their divorce back up. “I bet you still think we got a divorce because you cheated on me with that pediatrician,” she says.

Chang-min fires back, “Who cheated on you? I was entertaining my client…” Jin-hee continues, “Or do you still think it was because of your mother? Why we got divorced, why we stumbled in life, have you even once thought about the real cause?”

Chang-min replies, “I don’t want to know. I don’t need to know. I have no reason to know. Why? Because I’m living so well now. And I’d continue to live well if only you weren’t in this hospital. Get it?” Jin-hee nods, and says, “Keep living that way, then. And you’ll fail again and stumble again in life.”

Jin-hee tries to catch up to Chun-soo in the hall, but a nurse calls out to him and informs him that the esophageal cancer patient just died. She says that the ER may get reprimanded, especially since an intern performed the tracheotomy. Jin-hee is shaken by the news.

Chun-soo confronts the surgeon and asks him what happened. The surgeon confirms the surgery went well, but that the patient was delivered to him too late. Chun-soo gets pissed and says that the ER staff did everything they were supposed to do. He seems particularly sensitive as to whether the surgeon is blaming the ER staff for the patient’s death, and he grabs the surgeon by the collar. When he calms down, he turns to see Jin-hee watching.

Jin-hee tries to convince herself that the patient’s death wasn’t her fault. As the news spreads through the hospital staff that the patient has died and that a formal reprimand might be issued, Jin-hee is clearly beating herself up. Chang-min notes her reaction.

An unconscious patient arrives via ambulance. The medic explains that the patient overdosed on anti-anxiety pills. Good grief, the patient turns out to be Chang-min’s mom.

Chang-min finds Jin-hee crying on the steps in yet a different stairwell. For an emotionally weighty scene, I have no idea why they placed a painting of kittens jumping out of the frame to chase butterflies painted on the wall. That aside, Chang-min reminds Jin-hee, “Didn’t I tell to quit before? How are you going to be a doctor, being like this?” Just when I think he needs an empathy chip, he adds, “It’s not your fault. You did a good job.”

Jin-hee insists that she was the one wielding the scalpel and that the patient died. How is that not her fault? Chang-min counters, “So? People die in hospitals. As doctors, we’re going to see that for the rest of our lives. Besides, you told me that I had performed the tracheotomy. Isn’t that what you said? You were right. So if there’s a problem, I’ll take responsibility.” Jin-hee seems unconvinced.

Chang-min adds, “You asked me whether I know why we got divorced. Shall I tell you? The way you’re acting now, without rationality or logic…once you let your emotions take over, you see and hear nothing! You make people around you suffer because of your petty emotions.” He stops her from slapping him. “Get your head on straight. This is a hospital. I’ll take responsibility so stop acting so miserable!”

 
COMMENTS

As expected, the tracheotomy and its repercussions turned out to be the major plot driver of the episode. For Jin-hee, it serves initially as a huge boost to her self-confidence. Instead of the girl who struggled through medical school to show up those who had looked down on her, she’s now an intern starting to see the potential in her own hands, in her own future, measured only against her own yardstick. Which is all very nice to see…until the tracheotomy patient dies, at which point, Jin-hee’s reverts back to self-doubt and despair.

Conversely, for Chang-min, the star student, the tracheotomy plants an unfamiliar seed of self-doubt. It bothers him that he lost his nerve and that he handed the scalpel over to Jin-hee. He views the Jin-hee of old as “ignorant” and “clumsy,” yet someone ignorant and clumsy was able to do something he could not. Hopefully, he’ll resolve this cognitive dissonance by rewriting his opinion of Jin-hee, and by treating her with newfound respect in the future. ‘Cause I dunno, that would be the logical thing to do?

Because of some of Chang-min’s previous over-the-top behavior, I think it’s only been natural to empathize with Jin-hee and largely blame Chang-min (and his shrew of a mother) for their divorce. By the end of this episode, I’m glad we got a glimpse from Chang-min’s perspective on the reasons why their marriage failed. His claims about Jin-hee’s lack of control over her emotions seem valid. He catalogs her reaction to the tracheotomy patient’s death as if he’s seen it countless times before, albeit probably in different contexts.

His argument that Jin-hee is incapable of seeing or hearing reason once she’s in the throes of her emotions also seems valid–because that describes exactly what is happening right now. Despite having two senior residents confirm her good work, despite a terminally ill patient, despite a surgery procedure that followed her tracheotomy, Jin-hee blames herself for the patient’s death. In the face of all the variables, Jin-hee blaming herself for the patient’s death is not only tedious, it’s downright presumptuous.

Speaking of doctors holding themselves accountable for everything, why are the writers so stingy about details on Chun-soo’s past? Please, I beg you, writers! Throw me an extra crumb or two. At this point, I will be severely disappointed if Chun-soo’s back story consists only of: Doctor who blamed himself for Circumstances Beyond his Control.

I was so amused by how Chun-soo so neatly discovers that it was Jin-hee, not Chang-min, who had performed the tracheotomy. Ha, the male nurse who’d been in the elevator told him, mystery solved. Given the third-party witness, I’d been hoping that a I’m Spartacus, No, I’m Spartacus routine regarding who had done the tracheotomy was off the table. It doesn’t look like that’s the case, but for now, I’ll go with it in the hopes that it will bring more growth and change for Chang-min.

 
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