Hospital Playlist: Episode 6

by lovepark

Half a year has passed by since all five friends have started working under the same roof. As daily life at the hospital continues, the show takes a step back from the patients and focuses on the relationships between our doctors and their hospital staff. With some old memories resurfacing, we learn more about our five doctors and how they’ve become the friends they are now.

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

As Song-hwa comes in to work, Ik-joon rides up to her on his bicycle and asks the “parking master” to put away his bicycle since he needs to use the restroom. While he scurries away, he shouts at her to buy him coffee, and they agree to meet in the lobby.

At the café, Song-hwa finds two of her residents sleeping at a table and sits next to them. Ik-joon joins them and teases Seok-min by pretending to be a grim reaper that’s here to take his soul. Still drowsy, Seok-min takes the joke seriously, and the others jump in to correct the misunderstanding.

The conversation turns to summer break, so Seon-bin asks the group about their ideal one-year vacation. Song-hwa’s dream year would be moving to a coastal city that’s not too big or too small… and work at a hospital. Even in her dreams, she still wants to be a doctor who gives her patients her undivided attention. As for Ik-joon, he would go clubbing and shopping every day if he was single. Unlike Song-hwa, he proclaims his love for Seoul (neon lights over stars).

Ik-soon texts Joon-wan, promising to respond in 72 hours, but when he tells her that there’s no rush, she changes the wait to a week. While he laughs to himself as he texts her, Jung-won enters the office, talking to Rosa over the phone.

He apologizes for not accompanying her during her medical exam, but Rosa yells at him about the hospital policy requiring her to have a guardian present. In the hospital lobby, Rosa switches over to her polite voice to ask for directions, but to Jung-won, she returns to her annoyed tone.

Before Jung-won leaves the office, he asks Joon-wan if he’s dating and chuckles at his friend’s obvious behavior. Clearly unaware of his actions, Joon-wan stares at him flabbergasted and wonders if his friend is a physic. Heh.

Ik-joon checks up on a patient during his rounds, and the patient asks if he can eat food. Ik-joon allows it and plays along with the man, saying that he can smell the food already—except that he really does. Turning around, Ik-joon catches his elderly patient about to eat before his surgery and stops the act just in time.

The elderly patient’s wife chases after Ik-joon in the hall and hands him a canned drink as an apology for the ruckus. The nurse intervenes on Ik-joon’s behalf and explains to the wife that they aren’t allowed to receive gifts from patients. However, since the drink is a token of her apology, Ik-joon accepts it just this once.

Ik-joon heads to the VIP ward with Nurse Song and the GS intern—who wanted to tag along—and in the room, they’re surprised to find Go Ara reading a script (aptly titled “Patrasche” which was her character’s nickname in Answer Me 1994). After Ik-joon gives her a brief overview of her father’s condition, Go Ara offers to buy him a meal, so he suggests that they have lunch today.

In the PICU, Jung-won examines a baby who needs a liver transplant, but chances seem slim with no word from the coordinating center. Gyu-wool tells him that she informed the parents, emphasizing her improved bedside manners, and Jung-won tells her that she did well. Since the situation looks bleak, he decides to talk with the mother, and in the hall, she looks distraught with only one slipper on her foot.

Ik-joon takes Go Ara to the cafeteria where he watches her take big bites of her food. He comments on how much she’s changed, which makes her wonder if he broke up with her because she didn’t eat. He corrects her since she broke up with him, but she mentions the multiple times she tried contacting him after their breakup.

While they talk, a few doctors drop by their table, gawking at the celebrity in their midst, and by the third time, Ik-joon mutters under his breath about the annoying jerks who keep bothering her. However, once he sees that the admirer is none other than Jong-soo, Ik-joon jumps from his seat and changes his tune.

Jong-soo and Rosa ask the actress for a picture, and Jong-soo insists on taking the selfie himself. After multiple failed attempts—and many cute poses from our ladies—an annoyed Rosa tosses the phone over to Ik-joon.

Afterwards, Jong-soo escorts Rosa to the parking garage to drive her home, and she berates him for acting stubbornly back in the cafeteria. While Jong-soo searches for her car, Rosa remembers that she took a taxi and falls to the ground in a fit of giggles. Jong-soo joins her on the floor, and the two of them laugh over the silly mistake.

Seok-hyung hesitates before calling his mom, but when she answers, he doesn’t mention his father’s mistress or the pregnancy. Once he hangs up, he finds Jung-won sitting next to him and sighing over his baby patient. Jung-won laments his inability to give up despite everyone else preparing for the worst, but Seok-hyung encourages him to keep trying.

Song-hwa and Joon-wan eat lunch in her office, where both of them talk with their parents. While Joon-wan has to convince his mom that he can’t afford her expensive bathtub, Song-hwa persuades her parent to get hearing aids by claiming to have gotten cheap ones. Still on the phone, Joon-wan massages his temple as he hears about his younger sister, an aspiring actress, who recently changed her name from Jung-yeon to Yeon-jung. Heh.

Ik-joon drops by the office with some boiled eggs, and a few seconds later, Chi-hong enters as well. Ik-joon invites Chi-hong to stay for a while, calling him “brother-in-law,” and gives him a brief history of Ik-soon. According to Ik-joon, his sister has only ever received love and has never loved someone first until now.

As Ik-joon asks Chi-hong to accept his sister’s feelings, Joon-wan smashes eggs into his friend’s head… twice. A silence falls upon the room until both Ik-joon and Joon-wan grab each other’s hair and fight like toddlers on Song-hwa’s couch.

Looking disheveled, Joon-wan munches on an egg while Song-hwa laughs at him for acting like a child. Joon-wan explains that the description of Ik-soon was actually Ik-joon’s biography since he’s the one who has never loved someone first. He mumbles about the siblings causing him trouble and shuffles out of the room to look for “instinct.”

Joon-wan pops his head in the neurosurgeon residents’ office to look for “instinct” (aka, Jae-hak), but his resident isn’t there. He grumbles about Jae-hak’s misfortune since he always misses the moments when he’s trying to be nice. Heh.

Instead of his usual hangout spot, Jae-hak is in the cafeteria to join Bong Salon. Looking over at Chi-hong, Jae-hak expresses his envy since the neurosurgeons have a nice mentor, which leads the group to discuss Chi-hong’s background. They debate over why he quit the military, and when Chi-hong points out that he’s right there, Min-ha tells him that they only gossip in front of people, not behind them.

Today’s session with Dr. Bong is about the five friend’s hobbies. First up is Joon-wan who loves golf so much that he would even play a round with his mortal enemy, but while Joon-wan practices putting in his office, he’s more interested in his phone and the lack of text messages. Then there’s Jung-won, who has a sport for every season, and on the other side is Seok-hyung: a complete homebody.

As for Song-hwa, she enjoys camping, and in her office, she jumps up in glee while unpacking her new camping gear. Last on the list is Ik-joon who does everything well, from sports to cooking. Over the weekend, Ik-joon makes ketchup from scratch at home, but in the end, he adds store bought ketchup to his homemade one. He brags to Woo-joo about the food he prepared for his son’s girlfriend, but Woo-joo tells his dad that he wants jajangmyun, instead.

Jong-soo hangs out at Rosa’s house and photographs her flowers to look up their meanings. When Rosa suggests that he take her picture, he complies, and then tells her that a meaning came up for her: “youth is gone.” They burst out laughing, and Jong-soo teases her as he retreats into the house.

Min-ha meets Gyu-wool at the elevators and sighs over her friend’s summer outfit—the same plain t-shirt every day. She wonders why Gyu-wool looks especially tired today, so Gyu-wool explains that she has menstrual cramps. She then checks her “reflection” on Min-ha’s shiny skin. Pfft.

Min-ha retorts, “My mom said that fashion people can’t recognize isn’t fashion,” to which Gyu-wool responds, “My mom said to tell friends if they’re going down the wrong path.” Hahaha, no wonder these two are friends.

Jae-hak’s first, lead surgery goes well with the occasional advice from Joon-wan, and when they reach the end, Joon-wan acts as the “polite” assistant and asks for permission to leave. Jae-hak replies informally, but switches back to formal speech to thank his mentor. Joon-wan admits that Jae-hak did better than he expected, and his resident smiles—well aware of Joon-wan’s style of praise.

In the general surgery residents’ office, twin medical students Hong-do and Yoon-bok sit alone at the table as different doctors go in and out of the room. Meanwhile, Jung-won prepares for a surgery when a nurse notifies him of his baby patient’s worsening condition.

After successfully completing his first surgery, Jae-hak calls his wife to brag, but cuts their conversation short when he spots Joon-wan. He follows Joon-wan through the halls, telling him about his new lease, and Joon-wan warns him to be cautious of scams.

Jae-hak advises Joon-wan to be cautious of Dr. Chun, instead, but Joon-wan dismisses his concerns since he’s uninterested in gossip. He tells his resident to scram, but Jae-hak adds one last comment: Joon-wan is dating, right? He noticed Joon-wan staring at his phone and pokes fun at him for not reading between the lines—if she hasn’t texted back yet, then she rejected him.

Ik-joon stops by the residents’ office where the medical students are, and he introduces himself as the cafeteria worker who gave them a lot of sausages. He asks about their musical taste, and while Hong-do likes IU, Yoon-bok enjoys older music like the band Zoo. Ik-joon marvels at their shared interest, but before he can talk some more, he’s called away.

As he leaves, Ik-joon tells the students to hang out in the café since they’ll be bothered by all the doctors coming in and out if they stay here. Experiencing the whirlwind that is Ik-joon, Hong-do wonders if he’s a comedian, but Yoon-bok appears to admire our chatty doctor, calling him “Dr. Romantic” (as in Romantic Doctor Kim).

In the lobby, Nurse Song grabs drinks with Gyu-wool and gasps at the resident’s swollen face. Even Ik-joon, who happened to pass by, stops in his tracks and orders her to go to the ER. Gyu-wool insists that she’s fine despite her face doubling in size, but she suddenly can’t breathe and faints.

Seok-hyung meets with a couple in his office and explains to the wife that she has a condition where her blood doesn’t flow well. This would explain her previous miscarriages, and Seok-hyung prescribes some shots to help her through her current pregnancy. Through her tears, the wife asks if Seok-hyung is used to these kinds of diseases—interpreting his calmness as indifference—but he corrects her, “Miscarriage isn’t a disease.”

He tells her that a lot of his patients ask him what they did wrong but, just like the patient here today, it’s not their fault. The patient thanks him for his kind words, and in the back, Min-ha also looks touched by Seok-hyung’s response. Once the meetings are over, Min-ha offers to buy lunch, and leads the way to the cafeteria.

Joon-wan buys two cake slices to eat by himself, but hearing a code blue over the intercom, he grabs the buzzer and runs to the room. By the time he arrives, the doctors at the scene have already taken care of the patient.

As he leaves, Joon-wan meets Dr. Chun for the first time, and the other doctor calls him the “big shot” in their department since he’s part of the VIP ward team. Joon-wan keeps a straight face as he listens to his comments, and Dr. Chun acts chummy as he asks Joon-wan if he likes golf.

Since the cafeteria is packed, the OB/GYN team splits up, and Min-ha sits with Seok-hyung. She broaches the topic of the lady he met in the garden, and Seok-hyung wracks his brain trying to remember what she means. When it finally dawns on him, he answers, “Chairman Yang Tae-yang’s mistress.”

He tells her that the whole hospital probably knows, but he isn’t bothered by it because this has been happening since his school days. Min-ha hides her smile and reaches out to help Seok-hyung grab a side dish. At that moment, a spot appears next to them, and Ik-joon swoops in for the seats with Jung-won.

Ik-joon notices Seok-hyung’s clean tray and comments on how he shouldn’t be picky with people either. Seok-hyung reminds him that they’re in front of his resident, and Jung-won asks Min-ha if she’s friends with Gyu-wool. At the mention of her name, Ik-joon tells the others that Gyu-wool is in the ER right now, which sends Min-ha rushing out the door.

Gyu-wool wakes up in the ER and finds Min-ha sleeping by her bed. Feeling much better, Gyu-wool checks her phone, and is stunned by a text message from Jung-won… with a smiley face. She asks Min-ha if this means that he might like her, but Min-ha bursts her bubble: if he liked her, then he would have come. Min-ha asks if Gyu-wool likes Jung-won, and Gyu-wool holds back her tears as she says that she does.

In their office, Jung-won and Joon-wan get ready to leave when Song-hwa calls Jung-won. She asks if they can meet tonight, and both of them agree since they have time. After hanging up, Jung-won wonders if something happened since Song-hwa sounded like she was trying to be brave.

At the restaurant, Song-hwa tells her friends about her biopsy and that she’ll get the results tomorrow. They offer to call friends and family to hear the results sooner, but Song-hwa stops their meddling, explaining that this was the reason why she kept it a secret until now.

Her doctor agreed to meet with her an hour early since she has meetings with her patients in the morning, and Joon-wan scolds her for considering missing her own meeting in order to work. He offers to come with her, but Song-hwa shoots down his idea.

Ik-joon leaves the restaurant early because of an emergency operation, and on his way to the hospital, he talks with Go Ara over the phone. She invites him to her filming site, and he agrees to come if he has time in the morning. After finishing the surgery, Ik-joon walks to a convenience and buys some canned drinks before hailing a taxi.

Sitting in the hospital parking lot, Song-hwa waits until it’s time for her appointment, and the only thing she can do is pray. As the time approaches, she walks into the quiet building and stops for a moment at the sight of Ik-joon outside the office. She asks why he came, and Ik-joon says that he couldn’t sleep.

The nurse comes by to tell them that it’ll be another ten minutes, and Ik-joon hands her some drinks as a thank you. As they wait, Song-hwa asks what would happen if it is cancer, and Ik-joon’s response is definitive: he’ll fix her.

Song-hwa smiles at his comment, realizing how powerful a doctor’s assurance feels to a patient. However, this only confirms her conviction that doctors should never guarantee anything because if something does go wrong, then the patients would feel devastated.

Song-hwa answers a call from Seok-hyung, and Ik-joon is shocked that their friend knows how to make calls. Song-hwa tells him that he calls her quite frequently, which reminds him of the day Seok-hyung confessed to her. He tells her that he had drinks with Seok-hyung that night, and afterwards, the police called him to pick up his friend who they found sleeping on the streets.

She chuckles at his story, but then realizes that Ik-joon knew about Seok-hyung’s confession all along. She asks why he pretended to not know, and he claims to have only known about the crush. Their conversation ends when the nurse comes out, and the two friends nod at each other before entering.

Later that morning, Song-hwa hums at her desk. One-by-one, her friends stop by to ask about the results—the way they open the door reflecting their different personalities—and she tells them that it’s benign. The last one to visit is Ik-joon who brings her a coffee.

At band practice that evening, Joon-wan talks with his mom using an accent, but when he joins the group, he returns to the standard dialect. Song-hwa is amazed by how much Joon-wan and Ik-joon have changed, but Ik-joon argues that Seok-hyung was the worst back then.

Seok-hyung disagrees and demonstrates what the two friends looked like by crumpling up a napkin and stomping on it. They scowl at his performance, but the other two join in on the fun, pointing to different items that their friends resembled.

Back when Ik-joon and Joon-wan came to Seoul for their university entrance interviews, they gawked at the convoluted directions and overpriced bus fare. To get smaller bills for the bus, Ik-joon went to a street vendor (getting caught right away that he was from elsewhere despite his attempts at a Seoul accent) and bought a scrunchie.

At the interview site, Song-hwa sat next to them and overheard Ik-joon tell Joon-wan to cut his side fringe because he heard that neatness was the key factor this year. Though it took them a few tries to understand Ik-joon, once they got it, Joon-wan ran to the bathroom and Song-hwa looked for a hair tie. Seeing her struggling, Ik-joon handed over the scrunchie he bought.

In the present, the band plays “In Front of City Hall at the Subway Station” by Zoo, and everyone sings along during the chorus. Rewinding back to their freshman year orientation, Ik-joon and Joon-wan were the firsts to leave the room, and seeing them exit, Song-hwa followed after them.

Jumping forward in time to Song-hwa’s birthday and the day Seok-hyung confessed to her, Ik-joon accompanied Seok-hyung to a restaurant for drinks. Though he asked Song-hwa to meet with him beforehand, Ik-joon canceled those plans to stay with his brokenhearted friend.

Completely drunk, Seok-hyung parted ways with Ik-joon and made himself at home in the middle of the street. Fortunately, the police found him and brought him to the station where they called his most recent contact. Ik-joon was still drinking at the time of the call, and in a nearby garbage can, there’s a discarded birthday present and card for Song-hwa.

At the hospital, Ik-joon finds Chi-hong and hands him a coffee in another attempt to make him his brother-in-law. Chi-hong drops some hints that he like Song-hwa and tells Ik-joon that he’s just friends with Ik-soon like Ik-joon is with Song-hwa. Ik-joon refuses to accept defeat and admits to seeing Song-hwa as a woman on occasion.

Chi-hong laughs at his comment, and then explains that Ik-soon is still hurt from that incident and doesn’t trust anyone. Ik-joon looks surprised by this news, and sits in his office, lost in thought, when Joon-wan bursts into the room. He offers to pay this month’s utility bill, but Jung-won already paid it. Noticing his friend’s glum expression, Joon-wan asks what’s wrong, but as Ik-joon starts to tell him about his sister, Joon-wan finally gets a reply from Ik-soon.

Escaping to the hall to check, he sees that she texted him, “yes,” and he playfully asks what she means. She tells him that today is their first day as a couple, and Joon-wan skips down the hall. Composing himself, he calls Ik-soon and crouches on the ground laughing as they make plans for their date.

Jung-won receives news of a donor for his baby patient, and he quickly informs the parents. They burst into tears, asking if their baby will live, and Jung-won says that she will. As he waits for the liver, Gyu-wool calls him and says that the liver is too big. She asks him for guidance, but Jung-won doesn’t hear a word as his arm drops to his side.

 
COMMENTS

It’s amazing how much detail the creators have put into their characters from the main cast of friends to the supporting roles. Even the cameos are filled with little jokes and references to other things! While it isn’t necessary to catch every detail to enjoy the show, it definitely adds to the amusement to see how much care was put into certain lines and actions. Even throwaway comments that were meant to be a joke come back and add relevant information. One example was with Yoon-bok who calls Ik-joon “Dr. Romantic.” Back in episode three, Jae-hak asks the twins who they consider the best doctor, and her response was “Romantic Doctor Kim.” In that moment, it was a humorous scene since the students name fictional characters as their ideal, but this bit of information comes back in episode six, showing just how much Yoon-bok might idolize Ik-joon even though their encounter was short.

We can also see this attention to detail throughout the episode with Ik-joon and his past crush on Song-hwa. One bit of foreshadowing was when Ik-joon says that his sister hides her crushes (letting it fester inside her), but as Joon-wan claimed, this description also fits Ik-joon and his secret crush on Song-hwa back in college. What may seem like one-off scenes actually connect with each other and give insight to these characters in future revelations. For example, before the scene where Ik-joon shows up to Song-hwa’s appointment, the show has a moment between Gyu-wool and Min-ha that mentions being present as a means of affection. With this in mind, it’s possible to take the message from this scene and then apply it to Ik-joon’s behavior, interpreting his actions as a sign that he might still love Song-hwa as more than a friend. However, the show also provides another interpretation by linking his actions to the grandma’s actions (the guardian from earlier in the episode). Though it also serves as a PPL scene, it might not be coincidence that Ik-joon acted in the same manner as the grandma who gave him the coffee, indicating to the audience that Ik-joon is really there as her friend and guardian. Regardless of which camp you might fall in (friends versus potential love line), it’s obvious that Ik-joon and the rest of the gang love Song-hwa and their friendship is genuine.

From the initial phone call where Jung-won noticed that something was wrong just from Song-hwa’s tone to the scene where each of them dropped by her office to hear the results, the show reiterates just how much they all mean to each other, especially Song-hwa to the guys. She isn’t some love interest that the friends battle over for her attention, but a dear friend who’s integral to the group. She’s a friend, first and foremost to them, and their bond isn’t weaker just because there’s the possibility of their feelings blossoming into something more. I loved the way the show depicted her friends’ responses to the news and how varied yet similar they were to one another. Joon-wan is the only one to get mad while Ik-joon is the only one who refuses to even entertain the thought of Song-hwa being sick. But it’s also this “old” friend pair that either offers to show up or actually does show up at the hospital to be with Song-hwa when she hears the results. As for Jung-won and Seok-hyung, Jung-won tells Song-hwa that she should have come to them for the test (which emphasizes how he tries to be of service to his friends), and Seok-hyung tries to lighten the mood (who would have thought!) by talking about how her doctor is considerate and telling the others that everything will be fine. Like the other pair, they also share a similarity by offering to call someone to get her results sooner, which may reflect their wealthy background. I was worried about the show brushing past this incident without much fanfare, but it was the opposite. All her friends deliberately check up on Song-hwa the next day, and I loved watching them all rally around her to put her needs first. Though Dr. Bong called her the emotional pillar of the group, clearly her friends are her emotional pillar as well.

Besides the five friends, I really enjoyed the odd friendship between Gyu-wool and Min-ha as well. Initially, they seemed like opposites, and I questioned the closeness of their bond, assuming that they were more like colleagues than friends. However, this episode showed that they really are good friends who care about each other as evident by Min-ha’s actions when she heard about Gyu-wool’s allergic reaction. They have a cute banter with each other, and surprisingly, both are great at trading barbs. They’re also my favorite part of the Bong Salon, which might be a permanent piece to the show now. It’s interesting to hear Dr. Bong’s insights on the five friends which are usually information the audience already knows, but upon further evaluation, he misinterprets a lot of their character as well. In some ways, he acts as a red herring, reinforcing the initial impressions the audience has of the friend group, but later on, the show dismantles some of these prejudices. Joon-wan seems like a prickly jerk at first but is actually a sweet guy who’s a bit gruff with his expressions. Ik-joon acts like he’s never had any troubles in his life, but is actually the type to keep his emotions tightly guarded and deal with issues by himself. As for Song-hwa, she might seem perfect to the world, but she’s just another flawed human being to her friends who needs their attention and love.

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