D-Day: Episode 6

by odilettante

The quest to “save everyone” is never ending as it’s discovered that Mirae Hospital is running out of resources faster than anticipated. It won’t be long before it will be another useless building instead of the fortress that it’s become, but until then, Hye-sung is still determined to do all he can for his patients, even if it means venturing out into the dangerous streets of the destroyed city. The rest of staff continue to take care of everyone as best they can — including each other — as they make small sacrifices that mean so much more during this time of catastrophe.

EPISODE 6 RECAP

The first 72 hours of a disaster are the “golden time” — the critical time when the action to save lives means the most — and Ja-hyuk passionately reiterates to the members of his committee just how vital it is that everyone focus on saving lives.

After the meeting, he pulls the fire chief aside to tell him that saving lives is the priority — not putting out fires, especially when it looks like the fire workers are concentrating more on the elite and rich homes. He especially asks that the fire chief take good care of Young-gwang district, his district (and, of course, the district where Mirae Hospital is).

Ja-hyuk is concerned that he hasn’t been able to contact Mirae Hospital and get in touch with Chief Kang, but as he looks out at the landscape of destroyed sky scrapers, he vows that he will rebuild the city.

Chief Kang is worried about the parentless boy, and Myung-hyun leaps up from the corner of the bed where he was taking a nap, swearing he was making sure the boy was okay — no major injuries. She apologizes for being so harsh with Myung-hyun earlier, but it’s just because she was a little sensitive due to the trauma of the earthquake. They’re all a little sensitive, though, considering this is the first earthquake any of them have experienced.

Also napping next to her patient is Ddol-mi, and this time it’s Hye-sung who kicks her chair to wake her up. She bolts out of her seat, reciting the patient’s vitals like she’s still back in her Busan teaching hospital until she realizes where she is.

She grumbles about Hye-sung’s attitude, telling him she’s working her ass off despite no sleep or proper food, and storms out of the ER. He chases after her, thinking that she’s (yet again) leaving for good, but she stops in the waiting room to reveal the coffee and candy that Dae-gil gave her.

Aw, she was waiting for Hye-sung to she could share it with him, completely unaware that he was the one who first made sure Dae-gil gave them to her. As they split the coffee and candy, Hye-sung tries to hide his smiles as she proudly tells him that Dae-gil has a crush on her, because why else would he give her these.

Director Park, Chief Kang, Woo-jin, and the hospital manager explore the generator room in the hospital, but it looks like due to budget cuts and not enough charging prior to the earthquake, the generators won’t last as long as originally predicted. They have maybe two days at the most. Governmental assistance should arrive soon, but Director Park says they should prepare to shut down the hospital and transfer their current patients.

The twins’ father is busy trying to track down fuel for the ship, but at the moment there is only one working gas station, and a huge line leading out from it. Because of the emergency demand, the station owner has no qualms about his ridiculously high mark-up (nearly 10x the normal price), and when the twins’ father desperately begs to cut in line to save the life of his wife and children, he nearly incites a riot as the other men beat him up.

Chief Kang tells Hye-sung about the limited power left, warning him not to bring in any more critical condition patients. They won’t be able to care for them, since now there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to keep alive the patients currently on life-support. She despondently says that all the effort they’ve put into saving these patients will be for nothing.

Of course Hye-sung won’t accept that, and when she says that the patients will have to be transferred, he points out that’s ridiculous, since there aren’t any clear roadways and they aren’t able to contact any nearby hospitals to see if there’s space for them. Chief Kang: “What would you rather have us do, then? Hold a mass funeral for the dead patients?”

Dae-gil is busy entertaining the little deaf girl when Ddol-mi walks up, teasing him for being nice to at least someone. She tells him that even though she’s flattered, she will only accept his offer of coffee and candy, and not his heart. He’s bewildered by this, but she continues to point out he’s actually a nicer guy than he looks, since he was so willing to sign as the guardian for his friend’s surgery.

Just then, the twins’ father staggers back to the hospital. As Ddol-mi patches up his wounds, he explains that he was attacked at the only working gas station in the area, and now there’s no more hope to be able to fuel the ship to transfer his wife and children. But when Hye-sung tells him that there’s limited time left on the hospital generators, he has renewed determination. Even if he has to steal the gas, he’ll get enough fuel for the ship.

He calls out to everyone in the hospital waiting room, telling them if they can get enough gas, they’ll be able to escape on his ship. But he needs help, and it won’t be easy. It’s heartwarming to see his smile as a handful of able-bodied men volunteer to join him.

Meal time at the hospital is a decidedly lackluster affair — a scoop of plain noodles and tiny spoonful of kimchi. Ddol-mi sighs that it’s a pity they aren’t able to get seaweed soup for the twins’ mama (a dish traditionally given to new and nursing mothers) — she at least needs something of more sustenance so she can breastfeed her babies. Dae-gil overhears this, and surprises Ddol-mi when she enters the twin’s mother’s hospital room to find he’s set up a pot of instant seaweed soup.

He gruffly tells Ddol-mi that it came from his personal stock and it’s the last of it, so don’t bother him for more. After he leaves, the twins’ mother breaks down in sobs, grateful that even in these difficult times, everyone is doing so much for her.

Hye-sung changes out the IV bags for his mother, telling her it’s a good thing she’s unconscious and unable to see the chaos and destruction around her. He gently holds her lifeless hand against his cheek, wishing she could give him strength, adding that Woo-sung is doing well, saving people and bringing them to the hospital.

It’s only 35 hours after the earthquake, and the firefighters arrive at a dark and abandoned apartment building. Captain Choi steels himself as he unlocks the front gate — this is his apartment, and he worries that he’ll find his wife and child inside, dead. He tries to reassure himself that they won’t be home because they fought that day, so his wife should have gone to her family’s with their daughter.

As he explores the darkened apartment, checking to make sure no one is there, he sighs in relief. Never has he been so thankful to have arugued with his wife.

Dae-gil keeps a close watch on his patient “friend,” but when Woo-jin checks on him, he spots something worrisome about the platelet count. He doesn’t mention anything to Dae-gil, and instead tells him that he should ready himself because this patient will most likely die soon despite all the effort Dae-gil and Hye-sung undertook to save his life.

The hospital is running out of supplies and medicine, and there’s little chance the patient will survive until the emergency relief comes. Woo-jin then checks in on the VIP patient, noting the platelet count has dropped dangerously low, and orders the sleepy Myung-hyun to go get more ASAP.

But Ddol-mi spots that Dae-gil’s patient also has a dangerously low platelet count, and she yells at him for not noticing earlier. She and Ji-na rush down to the lab to get more, but they’re too late — Myung-hyun took the last that was left to give to the VIP patient.

Hye-sung demands that Woo-jin give them the blood platelets for their patient, but Woo-jin says that his patient has a higher recovery rate, so it’d be a waste to give them away. Woo-jin even refuses to split what’s left, and he grabs Hye-sung’s collar as he angrily says that in trying to save both patients, Hye-sung will end up killing them both.

Chief Kang steps in to do what seems to be her regular job of breaking them apart, telling Hye-sung that Woo-jin will keep the platelets for his patient since it’s more practical to give it to the patient most likely to survive. Frustrated, Hye-sung says that his patient still has a chance to recover, but he’ll accept her decision if she promises that it’s not just the fact that Woo-jin’s patient is a VIP.

She says his status has nothing to do with it, but Woo-jin even goes so far to say that since they’ll be focusing on his patient, they should stop administering any kind of medicine and treatment to Hye-sung’s, so it won’t go to waste.

Hye-sung broods in the corner as the rest of his team keeps a close watch on the patient. He finally comes to a decision, calling all the medical staff to the ER for a meeting. Their issue is that they need more blood but they have no way of contacting the blood bank, and it’s impossible for a vehicle to get around on the roads.

But Hye-sung has a solution, and he dangles his motorcycle keys. Ha, all the guys find any sort of excuse they can to avoid being the one to drive to the blood bank (even volunteering each other!), preferring the safety of the hospital versus the dangerous unknowns outside. Annoyed, Hye-sung asks if there’s anyone who knows how to ride a motorcycle.

Up shoots Ddol-mi’s hand. She doesn’t know how to ride a motorcycle, but can it really be all the different from a bicycle? Pfft. Even though she doesn’t know where the blood bank is, she can find it on her GPS… but then she realizes that the phones don’t work, so that won’t help. Sighing, Hye-sung says that he’ll just have to do it himself, but he threatens dire punishment if any of his patients die while he’s away, ordering everyone to donate just enough blood to keep them alive.

Ddol-mi asks if she should go with him to help, but Hye-sung says she’d be more useful here, especially since she was able to rally the troops before. The deaf girl rushes up, blowing her whistle. Ddol-mi and Hye-sung may not understand sign language, but they get the idea that she wants him to take the whistle for safety.

As Hye-sung is getting ready to ride away, So-yul runs up, worried for him. They both know how dangerous it is out there. But she also knows how stubborn Hye-sung is when it comes to saving his patients. At the very least, she makes him promise not to stop for anything and to come straight back.

Ddol-mi uses Chief Kang’s office sofa as a bed for the deaf girl, which is fine by Chief Kang since she knows the girl doesn’t have any family here except her patient guardian. As the women watch over the sleeping girl, Chief Kang admits that what’s keeping her at the hospital is the hope that someone will be helping her son as much as she is helping others.

Once alone, she picks up a photograph of her and her son, and holds it tightly to her chest as she whispers a prayer of protection over him.

The streets are as dangerous as So-yul predicted, and as Hye-sung slows down to make his way through the wreckage, he stops to take in the image of the destroyed buildings lit by random fires and the people sitting on what’s left of the streets. There are the bodies of the dead covered in sheets as what’s left of their family weeps next to them. But the promise he made to So-yul to not stop for anything rings in his ears and he quickly speeds away.

The firefighters are helping to evacuate people from a burning building, but they don’t have the resources to stop the fire. The residents of the building beg for them to put out the fire before they lose everything, but HQ reiterates that they’re to focus on the victims and not the fire.

One of the residents furiously demands they put it out, wondering what it is his tax dollars are going to if the firefighters aren’t able to do their job. But Captain Choi has no choice, and he orders his men to retreat.

The twins’ father and his band of men are surreptitiously siphoning fuel out of parked cars. However, at one parking garage, they are spotted by another group of men who chase after them, and they have to run for their lives — spilling most of the fuel they stole in the first place.

Still worried about Hye-sung’s patient, Ddol-mi offers to get her blood tested to see if it’s a match. But Ji-na points out that he isn’t the only patient who needs a blood transfusion. Chief Kang gets on the intercom to ask for volunteers to donate blood and Ji-na sets up an impromptu blood donation station.

Woo-jin sees Ddol-mi in the middle of her blood transfusion, and teasingly remarks that her sense of duty in saving a patient’s life is even in her blood. She says that she actually doesn’t have that sense of duty — she just wanted to do this one thing to help.

He asks her how many people she thinks died or were injured in the earthquake: 5,000? 10,000? Or even 100,000? Yet she’s giving up her blood in the hopes of saving just one of those lives. She should respect her life a little more, considering all he did to save it when she was younger.

Does that mean he thinks of her as one of 7,000? Because that’s how many people die on average in a car accident per year. So, to him, is she just a statistic, and it would be fine if he wasn’t able to save her? But for her, it’s her only life, so it means everything — it’s not just a number. Which is why she can’t give up on a life if there’s still a chance.

She’s pretty sure he must have felt the same way back then, when he was saving her life. Even though she doesn’t know what happened in the meantime to change him so much, she hopes he can return to the caring doctor he once used to be.

Woo-jin tells her that he just matured and learned that it’s best to be a cold doctor who works with hard facts. It’s better to focus on the thousands of lives he’ll save on the future than the one life in front of him just now. Ddol-mi: “But can a doctor who can’t even save one life now, save thousands of lives later?”

A flashback to teenage Ddol-mi in the hospital, happily calling out for the younger (and more caring) Busan doctor Woo-jin. She’s delighted that she’s nearly ready to be released, and demands a picture of them together, since he’s now become her mentor and reason for becoming a doctor. As she takes the picture, she leans in for a surprise kiss on the cheek. In the present day, Ddol-mi wonders how a person can change so much.

As the firefighters stop to rest a moment, a few of them wonder why they couldn’t put out the fire even if it went against HQ orders. Captain Choi reminds them that they don’t have the equipment, so how would they do it? With their hands? Without their equipment, they’re not firefighters or EMTs — they’re just normal helpless people.

At HQ, the head fire chief tells Ja-hyuk the rumor is that Minister Suk, the head of the Health and Welfare committee, is injured. Yes, indeed he is, since he’s currently Woo-jin’s VIP patient. All the fire chief knows is that he was being cared for by a female doctor, a doctor “Kang” something.

He’s interrupted by Captain Choi shouting obscenities into his radio as he calls into HQ, demanding to know when his team will get their equipment cleared or, at the very least, food and water for his exhausted and starving team who are also worried about their own families.

Hye-Sung’s still on his way to the blood bank, but he squeals to a halt as he realizes the bridge is missing a middle section. Those flashy tricks in the beginning of the first episode weren’t just for a show, and he backs up, revs the engine, and then sends him and his motorbike flying across the chasm. The landing could use some work, as he crashes into an abandoned truck, badly injuring his chest.

He finally makes it to the blood bank, which is only staffed by one person (amazed that Hye-sung was able to make it there despite the roads being blocked and the bridges collapsed). As the man fills up a container with packs of blood, Hye-sung attaches a makeshift bandage for his bleeding chest by using Kleenex and scotch tape.

As he hands over the bag of blood, the blood bank doctor reminds Hye-sung that they’ll only keep for 5-12 hours before needing proper refrigeration. Hye-sung reassures him that he’s directly on his way back to the hospital.

Except this time, in order to avoid the collapsed bridge (or perhaps because of something else compelling him), his route takes him near Han River Mirae Hospital. He skids to a stop in front of the mountain of rubble that was the hospital, imagining (or hallucinating) the faces and the cries of help of the men who were trapped in it.

He hears their accusatory complaints that Hye-sung abandoned them so he could live, and he scrambles to get off the bike and start digging at the rubble. Nooooooo! Remember what So-yul told you! Come straight back with no stopping!

As he’s busy digging away, a man attacks him from behind with a stick, knocking him to the ground. Hye-sung tries to fight him off, but weak from his chest wound, the man gains the upper hand and steals the motorbike, riding away into the night. At least Hye-sung managed to save the bag of blood, and he clutches it as he lies on the ground, gasping for breath, before slipping into unconsciousness.

COMMENTS

I really love that we’re starting to get glimpses of the world outside of the hospital and rescue teams. There’s been this kind of vague “fear of the unknown” since the walls of the hospital have been a safe zone, but now the reality of the death toll, the destruction, and the families that are desperate for safety are beginning to leak past those gleaming white walls of Mirae Hospital. I’m sure everyone knows that the “outside” isn’t safe (because why else would they be clamoring over themselves to find excuses not to venture out), but it’s easy to ignore when you feel protected in one of the few remaining structures in the neighborhood.

It’s barely been a day since the earthquake, and so I’m sure there will be some surprises left as we get closer and closer to the end of the “golden time.” Considering how low on resources everyone is right now (not just medicine, but food and water), plus how exhausted the hospital and rescue workers are as they tirelessly try to help everyone, I can only imagine what they will be like in another day. Tempers will surely become even shorter and stoic façades must crack even more (Woo-jin, I’m looking at you!). Obviously I don’t want my doctors and firefighters totally losing their cool — I want them to continue to stay strong and rescue/save people.

But one of the major attractions of this show for me is watching how these first responders deal with the pressure and this sudden apple-cart upset of everything they’ve known. There are so many “genius doctor who will save the world!” dramas out there who never seem to make mistakes that I want my doctors to actually feel the depth of the catastrophe that surrounds them, and reach a breaking point where they realize that despite all their efforts, they simply cannot save everyone. Yet my idealistic “happily ever after” drama-loving self still wants them to try.

It’s a conundrum that I’m eager to see play out, since I feel that as wild and reckless and “save them all!” as Hye-sung is, he’s clearly not the dream-doctor most medical dramas would paint him out to be (or as he seemed to be in the first couple of episodes). None of the doctors here are, actually. But Hye-sung is especially flawed as he is fueled by his emotion, hurtling from one patient to the next, desperate to save them in order to perhaps save himself. Which is why I may have shouted “noooooooooo!” at my screen when he got off his motorbike to try and save the ghosts of the men that haunt him (because it would be a drama miracle if one of them were still alive), yet I wasn’t really surprised. I knew he’d be getting off that bike, one way or another, to try and save someone. He’s not the type who can easily zoom past someone he thinks might be in need — even if its only the demons in his own soul that are demanding to be saved.

Woo-jin is also growing on me. He’s been incredibly obstinate about trying to avoid legal matters and focusing on the one patient he could save without wasting time and energy on other patients that will surely die, but I can see how that mysterious incident in his past may have jaded him to the rosy vision of being the superhero who saves people’s lives. I find it rather interesting that he’s the type of doctor who does most of his surgeries via a robotic arm — not even getting close enough to touch them with his own hands. I suppose in a way it’s admirable to maintain distance because there’s never a guarantee a patient will live. Better to remain distant and keep everyone a statistic. It’s safer and easier that way.

But if anyone can get through to him, it’s Ddol-mi. She can get through to anyone, I think, with her indomitable spirit. I love that she’s a walking contradiction — she doubts herself until she’s pushed into action, and then she’s the one barking orders and taking command. I’m not going to be surprised if (when?) her hero-worship of Woo-jin turns into affection for Hye-sung, since he’s the one who represents everything about Woo-jin that influenced her decision to become a doctor, and it’s Hye-sung who’s pushed her to be more pro-active and save lives. While I really appreciate that there aren’t any major love-lines (despite some low-key hints — So-yul and Dae-gil, anyone), Hye-sung and Ddol-mi’s chemistry continues to make me happy and I’m all set to root for this “coffee couple.” Provided Hye-sung keeps his wits about him and lives until the end of the show, that is.

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