Emergency Couple: Episode 7

by Slappyunni

In this episode, Jin-hee and Chun-soo continue to fight the good fight by saving the world–one patient at a time. On the other hand, Chang-min’s world starts to tilt on its axis; he starts to question his own self-view, and finally starts to see Jin-hee in a new light. Compared to the overt heroics of Jin-hee and Chun-soo, Chang-min’s self-discovery may be a quiet journey, but it is one that should have significant ripples in the futures of many of our players.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

Sprawled on the floor after her fall, Jin-hee looks up, only to find everyone staring down at her. Chang-min makes a move to help her up, but Chun-soo beats him to it. When the bar manager starts to chew her out for the disruption, again it’s Chun-soo who takes him aside to smooth things over.

Facing a circle of inquiring stares, Jin-hee lies that the lead singer of the band is an acquaintance, someone who borrowed money and has yet to pay her back. It’s enough to deflect the attention off of her such that Chun-soo then turns to Ah-reum and Yong-gyu to ask why they’re here. Yong-gyu says they were just having a drink, but then Chang-min chimes in to ask why Chun-soo and Ji-hye are here together.

Ji-hye replies cheerfully, “Us? We’re on a date.” Yong-gyu, our resident gossip-monger, expresses surprise over the nature of their relationship while a defensive Chun-soo tells him to stop imagining things.

Ji-hye and Chun-soo take their leave, but not before Yong-gyu cheekily asks Chun-soo to pick up their tab. Jin-hee also gets up to leave, but Chang-min motions for her to stay with a whole lot of very unsubtle blinking and facial twitching that’s fooling no one.

Ji-hye drops Chun-soo off at the hospital and hands him a bag of his favorite snacks, saying that she knows he practically lives at the hospital and must be sick of cafeteria food. Grumpy-pants Chun-soo asks, “What are you doing these useless things for? You have that much spare time?”

Completely unfazed, Ji-hye teasingly asks him over for a home-cooked dinner, leading Chun-soo to sputter, “Do I look easy to you?” Ji-hye laughs and says casually, “Whenever you’re tired, you can sleep over. Anytime. Should I give you a spare key?” Indignant, Chun-soo grumps his good-bye, and I can’t help but think that he secretly enjoys Ji-hye’s teasing. The man doth protest too much, no?

Over another round of drinks, Ah-reum admits that she thought Chang-min was taking his revenge on her by sending Yong-gyu as a stand-in for their date. Processing this tidbit of information, Jin-hee gives Chang-min the hairy eyeball while Ah-reum continues to flirt with Chang-min.

Her flirting has little effect, because Chang-min suddenly notices that Jin-hee has scratches on the underside of her arm from the fall. Jin-hee turns her hand over to look, only to spill her glass of beer all over Chang-min.

He briefly chides her for her carelessness, only to flip back immediately to concern. He wraps a handkerchief around Jin-hee’s wrist, and fusses over her so much and with such familiarity, that Yong-gyu stares with suspicion while Ah-reum looks on with jealousy.

Jin-hee informs the bar manager that Jin-ae is her sister. Still annoyed with the concert’s disruption, he refuses to give Jin-hee any information about her. As Jin-hee gets ready to leave, Chang-min pulls her aside to ask if she’s all right.

When she assures him she is, Chang-min asks why she tendered her resignation, and that the tracheotomy patient’s death was not any fault of their own. Jin-hee notes that she has no say in the matter, but that Chang-min at least comes from a good family with connections. She unwraps the handkerchief despite Chang-min’s protests, and apologizes for disrupting his date. He mutters, “What date…”

Yong-gyu lays out his suspicions on Chang-min’s and Jin-hee’s relationship, as Ah-reum begins to look more distressed. She follows Jin-hee out, while Yong-gyu convinces Chang-min to stay for another round of drinks.

Outside, Ah-reum and Jin-hee wait for a cab. Noting that Jin-hee and Chang-min speak to each other in banmal, Ah-reum bluntly asks Jin-hee about her relationship with Chang-min outside of the hospital. Jin-hee counters by asking Ah-reum whether she’s interested in Chang-min.

“Yes,” replies Ah-reum unequivocally. Jin-hee assures Ah-reum that she has no reason to meet Chang-min outside of the hospital and waves for a cab, only to have the cab pass her by to pick up Ah-reum. Taxi ahjusshi, that’s just…cold, man.

With loads of empty beer bottles now on their table, Chang-min is obviously drunk and Yong-gyu admonishes him to stop drinking since they have to show up to work at 6 A.M. the next day.

Chang-min merely chugs more beer and confesses that Jin-hee performed the tracheotomy. “Yeah, Jin-hee did it all. She did it, while I couldn’t. I’m such a moron,” slurs Chang-min as he recalls how he lost his nerve during the tracheotomy.

Disgusted with himself, Chang-min continues, “Do you think that’s everything? When my mom was in that state, I couldn’t do anything! I didn’t know anything as a doctor! Jin-hee did everything. Do you know?”

Trying to console Chang-min, Yong-gyu helps him out to a taxi. Before he sends him off, Yong-gyu asks Chang-min to clear things up with Ah-reum so that he can plan his next move. I doubt anything is registering with Chang-min at this point.

Jin-hee’s phone rings, waking her up. Chang-min drunkenly mumbles, “Thank you for saving my mom.” It’s enough to startle Jin-hee into full alertness, and Chang-min mutters a final, “I’m sorry,” before hanging up.

The next morning at the hospital, Yong-gyu stands uncertainly in front of a cancer charity fundraising table where gifts of potted flowers are being given to cash donors. He can’t decide which pot of flowers he wants, and Chang-min drops in a donation and tells him to hurry along.

After waiting for Ah-reum to leave, Yong-gyu places the pot of flowers on her desk and carefully drapes a yellow ribbon on top.

A concerned Jin-hee asks Chang-min whether he ate a proper breakfast before coming to work. Chang-min shrugs it off, because what he really wants to know is why Jin-hee’s number was on his phone when he woke up this morning. He says, “It seems that we talked for less than a minute.”

In disbelief, Jin-hee asks sarcastically, “You don’t remember?” Genuinely baffled, Chang-min responds, “No. What did I say on the phone?” Jin-hee pauses to look around and snipes, “You said you loved me to death. You wanted to get back together but I asked you if you were crazy and hung up. Why?” Hahaha, good on you, girl.

Chun-soo is busy sending out emails in order to raise funds to cover the pending budget cut. The head of the ER interrupts, saying that the higher-ups are pushing for a speedy processing of Jin-hee’s dismissal.

As Chun-soo gets up to go meet with the hospital director himself, the head of the ER stops him, saying, “But what power do you have? It’s better that I meet with him…” Chun-soo interrupts, “Sir. You need to send tuition to your kids. Keep your head down until the kids graduate and come back home.” Yay! Was there ever any doubt that Chun-soo would go to bat for Jin-hee?

Chang-min struggles to communicate with an elderly patient who is hard of hearing. All of Chang-min’s questions are met with a very loud, “Of course I’ve eaten! Why do you keep asking me that?!” Jin-hee stops to help, inserting a stethoscope into the old man’s ears. Clever!

She speaks into the other end of the stethoscope, and the old man can now hear her asking where he is ill. In response, the old man stands up on the exam table and unzips his pants.

Thinking that grandpa is about to flash his junk, Jin-hee and Chang-min rear back in alarm, but no, grandpa is only showing them a diabetic sore on his thigh. Hehe. Jin-hee orders a round of tests, and Chang-min is left with the realization that Jin-hee is quite competent despite her imminent dismissal.

Jin-hee has another opportunity to shine when Ah-reum’s patient suddenly goes into cardiac arrest. Impressed by Jin-hee’s intelligent questions, Ji-hye asks her to assist in the procedure. Once the patient is stabilized, Ji-hye praises her on a job well done.

Later, Ah-reum admits to Chang-min that she felt envious about Jin-hee being singled out. Chang-min laughs, and abruptly asks Ah-reum why she became a doctor. Ah-reum replies that she spent most of her childhood sick, worrying her family, and that she resolved then that she would become a doctor. Chang-min muses that her motivation is quite different from “someone else’s.” Of course, he’s thinking of Jin-hee.

Glossing over his distraction, Ah-reum bluntly asks about his relationship with Jin-hee, causing Chang-min to choke on his soda. Ah-reum continues, “If nothing is going on between you and Jin-hee, do you want to go out with me?” Damn, she’s like a smiling homing missile locked on target.

Jin-hee checks in on Chang-min’s mom, who is sleeping. As she opens the door to leave, she spots Chang-min’s aunts coming down the hall towards the room. Panicking, she dives into the bathroom and shuts the door.

Cursing herself for being cornered, she can’t help but overhear the conversation between the three sisters. She hears Chang-min’s mom mention a “Jessica” as Chang-min’s co-worker and blind date and Jin-hee wonders who Jessica could be. Her stomach starts to growl and squeak, but Jin-hee ignores it when she hears Chang-min’s mom mention Jessica by her Korean name: Han Ah-reum.

As Chang-min’s mom then gloats about Jin-hee’s dismissal notice, Jin-hee lets out a fart that all three women hear. Ahem, toilet humor just never gets old. The three sisters all stare accusingly at each other, trying to suss out the guilty party.

Poor Jin-hee farts a second time, and each of the sisters denies culpability. Chang-min’s mom mouths to one of her sisters to check the bathroom, where Jin-hee is struggling mightily to NOT answer nature’s call. And I’m pretty sure nature is calling on line 2.

The sister finds the door locked, and all three women freak out that there must be someone in the bathroom. Grimacing, Jin-hee finally gives up and flings herself onto the toilet, and the grandiose music (you know, the music they play when the gates to heaven open) builds to a crescendo as she finally goes potty and looks skyward in bliss. Ahahaha, I’m dying over here.

The sound of the toilet flushing sends the three sisters into a fresh conniption, and when Jin-hee steps out, white gown over her head as if she were a ghost, the sisters shriek even louder. Unfortunately for Jin-hee, one of the sisters recognizes her; Jin-hee is forced to uncover her head, and after a quick “Hello,” and “Sorry,” she runs from the room in sheer mortification.

One of the senior residents, Dr. Kim, discovers Yong-gyu’s card to Ah-reum and promptly reads it. He’s mostly amused by Yong-gyu’s earnest cheesiness. The card concludes with the request that Ah-reum tie the yellow ribbon around the flower pot if she is ready to accept Yong-gyu’s heart. Naturally, Dr. Kim ties the ribbon and as he gets up, he unknowingly kicks the card underneath the desk.

Jin-hee gets a frantic phone call from her mom, demanding that she come home right away. And we soon see why her mom is so upset, because a young man with a baby is standing in her living room and greeting her as “Mother-in-law”. Ohmygod.

Jin-hee’s mom demands to know where Jin-ae is, and the young man, presumably Jin-ae’s husband, replies that he wouldn’t be here if he knew where Jin-ae was. He’s hilariously oblivious to the fact that a woman might need a moment or two, and maybe a bottle of whiskey, to digest that she might have instantaneously acquired a son-in-law and grandchild.

Swallowing his pride, Chang-min asks his uncle for help in preventing Jin-hee’s dismissal. He’s prepared to do anything in return, which prompts his uncle to ask him why he’s doing all this for a woman who cut off ties with him. Chang-min replies, “Because I was such a loser, I’ve been unable to do anything all this time. But I want to take care of this, no matter what it takes. At least I have a well-connected family.”

Yong-gyu seems more and more smitten with Ah-reum with each passing day. Summoning up courage, he peeks at her desk to check on the flower pot, and sure enough, the yellow ribbon is tied around the pot. He whoops and raises his arms in celebration, and the two married interns look at him as if he’s gone stark raving mad.

At home, Jin-hee stares at the baby in shock, while the baby’s father introduces himself as Kim Kwang-soo. Giving Kwang-soo the address of the bar where Jin-ae was last sighted, Jin-hee demands that he look for her in every bar, club, or hangout, and bring her home.

Kwang-soo explains that the baby is their 6-month-old son who bears the proud name of Kim Guk. They named the baby “Guk,” as in “soup,” on account of Jin-ae having eaten bucketloads of seaweed soup after the baby’s birth. *slaps forehead* Something to remember when we come to naming our firstborns. Come to Mommy, Potato Chip.

After receiving an emergency phone call informing her that her last patient Emma is sick again, Jin-hee rushes to make the house call. Emma is unresponsive and Jin-hee sees that she may be having a reaction to taking unlabeled pills. Emma’s husband again insists that they can’t go to the hospital because of money, and Jin-hee reassures him that they won’t.

Chun-soo is busy writing emails requesting funding when Jin-hee phones him. She asks him to come quickly to Emma’s house and his first reaction is disbelief, “You’re asking me to make a house call?” Jin-hee reminds him of Emma’s situation and asks him to bring naloxone, as she suspects that Emma may have overdosed on painkillers. Chun-soo yells, “How dare you order me to come or go?” Jin-hee tells him that she’ll text him the address, and apologizes.

Chun-soo returns to his email and manages to ignore Jin-hee’s text for a grand total of three seconds before his eyeballs start flickering over to his phone. Picking up his office phone, he orders up an emergency kit complete with a naloxone injection. Yeah! Somebody find a cape for our superhero! Ji-hye is exasperated that he’s really going to go, but not surprised.

Armed with his emergency kit and wearing a cape (did I mention I may be an unreliable narrator), Chun-soo arrives at Emma’s house. Working together, Chun-soo and Jin-hee bring Emma back to consciousness.

As they walk away from Emma’s house, Chun-soo rounds on Jin-hee, ready to scold her, but all he can verbalize is a cranky, “Big Rock! Ugh!” Undeterred, Jin-hee near-tackles him in a side-hug and smiles, saying, “Thank you for coming.” Chun-soo’s face softens for a few seconds…before he lets out a long-suffering sigh.

Sitting next to each other on the bus, Chun-soo falls asleep and his head flops onto Jin-hee’s shoulder. She smiles fondly, and thinks back on the evolution of her relationship with Chun-soo.

When Chun-soo’s head flops in the opposite direction, Jin-hee reaches over and gently places his head back onto her shoulder. Their present sweet moment proceeds uninterrupted, only because Jin-hee’s phone battery is out of juice.

Meanwhile, Chang-min tries to call her twice, with his calls going straight to voicemail.

COMMENTS

Despite an inauspicious beginning, Jin-hee’s relationship with Chun-soo has evolved into one of mutual recognition and respect. When Jin-hee is at Emma’s house, she calls Chun-soo for help with reasonable certainty that Chun-soo will come. Chun-soo does not disappoint her or us. So far, he remains the doctor that only exists in dramas, the pure idealist who merely cloaks himself with a thin veneer of crankiness. But Jin-hee sees past Chun-soo’s crusty exterior, and Chun-soo, in turn, sees past Jin-hee’s insecurities. How can I not root for this couple, when their mutual understanding comes so easily? Is it not a universal human constant that every person wants to be seen and valued for who they are?

Until now, Chang-min’s greatest fault has been his lack of ability to recognize or value Jin-hee’s true self. His previous view of Jin-hee as someone who is “clumsy” or “ignorant” seemed to be mere parroting of his mother’s twisted perceptions. In this episode, Chang-min makes great strides in coming to realizations about the real Jin-hee, the person who probably always existed underneath the surface of emotional volatility and insecurity.

Perhaps more importantly, Chang-min’s revised view of Jin-hee has also affected his own self-view. Having lived his life as a prized only son and a star student, Chang-min seemingly has never doubted that the world is his oyster. Only now that he’s faced with the desire to right the injustice of Jin-hee’s dismissal does he realize that he himself has no power to do so. Further, he realizes that he never had the power to do much of anything for anyone. He sees that even now, the only power that he can wield is not his own, but the power of his family connections. So, swallowing his pride, he asks his uncle for a favor—it’s the first real sacrifice that he’s made for Jin-hee, and one big step towards becoming worthy of our heroine.

Power, or the lack of power, will undoubtedly play a role in Chun-soo’s story arc as well. As Chun-soo goes to see the hospital director about Jin-hee’s dismissal, the head of the ER reminds him, “But what power do you have?” Until now, our idealistic Chun-soo has been perfectly willing to toil in obscurity instead of expending any effort to climb the hospital management ladder. But now, like Chang-min, he wants to fight Jin-hee’s dismissal and realizes that he has little power to do so. What sacrifices might he make to obtain such power in the future?

This show has been hard to categorize in my head. With episode 7, I think it’s finally decided to put the “comedy” in romantic comedy. But who knows? After a few episodes of being a workplace drama, then a comedy, now potentially a family drama with Jin-ae’s storyline, I’m guessing that we’ll eventually end with the romance. I’m enjoying the wild ride so far, but Show, bring me the Good Stuff!

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