Hospital Playlist: Episode 7

by lovepark

Bad things happen in life from illness to family troubles, and it can feel like the world is crumbling around you. However, a simple reminder that we’re all flawed humans can be enough to show someone with no hope that beauty still exists. Whether it comes from a close-knit friend group or a random, kind stranger, small acts of kindness can have profound effects on a weary soul.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

Jung-won paces back and forth as he waits for an update on the liver for his patient, but when Gyu-wool calls, she tells him that the liver is too big. After contemplating what to do, he decides to proceed with their plans, anyways.

Ik-joon drops by the GS residences’ office and finds Yoon-bok sleeping at a table by herself. He asks if she wants to see a liver transplant, so she follows him to the operating room. On the way, Ik-joon explains the complications concerning Jung-won’s surgery, and Yoon-bok slips into informal speech to express her shock.

While Jung-won operates on the baby, Gyu-wool arrives with the liver. Clearly out of breath, she explains to Jung-won that the elevators were broken, so she ran walked briskly up the stairs. She waits for Jung-won’s response, but since he remains quiet, Ik-joon praises her instead.

Song-hwa stretches before her surgery, and Chi-hong notifies her that the operating room is ready. While he’s here, she suggests that he lead his first surgery next time, and Chi-hong can barely suppress his smile as he thanks her for the opportunity.

Despite some difficulties, Jung-won successfully completes the transplant and passes along the good news to the patient’s parents. They burst into tears and thank Jung-won for saving their baby. However, when they mention how lucky they are that a brain-dead donor appeared, Jung-won reminds them to be thankful towards the donor because she was the one who saved the patient.

In the OB/GYN department, Min-ha scurries around to check on patients while Eun-won sits and talks with a guardian. When Min-ha catches Eun-won chatting about her personal life, she tells her colleague that they’re busy right now. From the sidelines, Nurse Han comments on the impending showdown between the fox and the bear, though she doesn’t specify who is who. Meanwhile, Eun-won calls Seok-hyung and verifies some orders with him.

Gyu-wool and the medical students wait for Ik-joon to bring their food—he wanted to pick it up so he could chat with the delivery person, hence his tardiness. When he arrives with bags of sandwiches, he tells the others that he invited someone to join them. Gyu-wool tidies her hair, expecting Jung-won to come, but her face falls when Joon-wan enters the room. The lackluster response makes Joon-wan pause at the door, heh.

Joon-wan greets the twins, calling them by the wrong name again, so Yoon-bok corrects him. She mentions how one of his guesses (“Ma-ne and Mo-ne”) are actually their cousins’ names, and Ik-joon asks if they’re twins. It’s Woo-joo’s girlfriend!

The chief residents along with Chi-hong join Dr. Bong in the cafeteria for another session of Bong Salon. Before they begin, Jae-hak asks Chi-hong why he quit the army, and Chi-hong promises to tell them another time.

Gyu-wool and Min-ha join the group—the latter looking a couple of shades darker than usual—and the two friends bicker about Min-ha’s makeup. Seok-min asks how they became friends, so Gyu-wool explains that they’re both ARMY. Old-man Jae-hak interprets them literally: “They’re your juniors, Dr. Ahn Chi-hong!”

Suggesting a change of pace, Dr. Bong offers to talk about his residency, but the entire group gets up to leave. He quickly takes it back, and as soon as he mentions the friends’ love lives, the residents return to their seats eagerly… except Jae-hak who mutters under his breath that he’s not interested. Hahahaha!

According to Dr. Bong, Ik-joon and Joon-wan were popular in college while Seok-hyung barely dated anyone. Even his marriage was arranged and didn’t even last a year, though currently, Seok-hyung is dating…his tv.

As for Song-hwa, she was a CC (campus couple) and has dated a couple of guys but has never wanted to get married. Chi-hong asks if she dated Ik-joon, and Dr. Bong swears that those two are just friends. As for Jung-won, any girl interested in him has to defeat God first. Gyu-wool frowns at that, and Jae-hak misunderstands the situation, assuming that Gyu-wool looks glum because she’s a Buddhist.

Chi-hong studies for his upcoming, lead surgeon operation, so Seok-min offers him some advice. While Song-hwa allows her residents to make one mistake, she will kick you out after the second.

Jae-hak washes up before entering Joon-wan’s operating room, and Dr. Chun appears next to him. He comments on how close Jae-hak is with Joon-wan, and the chief resident brags about how fond Joon-wan is of him. Dr. Chun agrees, saying that Joon-wan talks very highly of him, and Jae-hak blurts out his disbelief.

Seon-bin and Nurse Hwang peek into Chi-hong’s operating room, too nervous to watch from inside. As he performs his first lead surgery, Song-hwa monitors from the side and gives him pointers along the way. In the middle of the surgery, Chi-hong stops operating and grimaces, which Song-hwa notices. The surgery continues, and Chi-hong makes a couple of more mistakes before Song-hwa stops him. She demonstrates what he should have done and takes over for the rest of the surgery.

In Joon-wan’s operating room, he cuts through the vein again and sighs as he looks up at the clock. Though the surgery was predicted to last five hours, already nine hours have passed, leaving the guardians worried.

After the operation is over, Joon-wan meets with the guardians and recounts the surgery from the very beginning. Jae-hak interjects to tell the parents that the surgery was a success, and when Joon-wan gives another long-winded answer, Jae-hak jumps in a second time to reassure the parents.

While snacking in the changing room, Jae-hak nags Joon-wan for being insensitive and urges him to put the guardians at ease first. Overhearing the scolding, Jung-won laughs and agrees with Jae-hak that his friend could be nicer.

Jae-hak compliments Jung-won’s personality, mentioning how he lives up to his nickname “Buddha,” while Joon-wan lives up to his nickname… Before he can say it, Joon-wan glares at him, so he simply says “Buddha’s friend.”

Jung-won asks them about Dr. Chun since they received an anonymous letter implicating Dr. Chun in a bribery scandal. Jung-won says that a lot of the doctors in the cardiothoracic surgery department are linked with this case and asks if Joon-wan is involved as well.

In the hospital director’s office, Dr. Chun denies the accusations, explaining the corporate credit card payments as a mistake by the golf course. The director mentions the expensive membership (200 million won, which is roughly $160,000), but Dr. Chun tells him that his brother owns the course. He casually mentions how Joon-wan spun an outrageous tale, but the director just stares at the rambling doctor with a knowing look.

Seok-min finds Chi-hong in the office, sighing over his failed surgery, and lets him know that Seon-bin didn’t finish her first lead surgery as well. He invites the resident to drinks, but Chi-hong has the night shift and can’t go out even if he wants to join him.

Jung-won asks Joon-wan again if he went golfing with Dr. Chun, and Joon-wan says that he went once. However, he paid for himself since he noticed something odd when the other doctor was paying. Waving asides Jung-won’s worries, Joon-wan mentions how he has other things on his mind at the moment.

As soon as Joon-wan steps out of the office, Jae-hak pesters him about what he did over the weekend, worried that Joon-wan might be involved in the scandal. Joon-wan finally blows up and tells his chief resident to stay out of his business. Jae-hak refuses to relent—though he sounds terrified—and Joon-wan finally tells him that he ate jajangmyun.

Joon-wan meets with Ik-soon to eat jajangmyun again and jokes about the Korean army using the spicy noodles as a secret weapon. Ik-soon warns him not to joke around since people from her base might hear, but Joon-wan doesn’t see the issue since his girlfriend is a high-ranking officer.

He guesses that only the lieutenant general and general are higher than her, and Ik-soon smirks, deducing from his naïve comment that he was exempt from military service. He admits that he was and offers to share his life story, but she declines.

Ik-soon looks down at her bowl and is touched by Joon-wan mixing her noodles for her. He acts as if it’s not a big deal but confesses to only doing it for her. Returning the favor, Ik-soon places a yellow radish in Joon-wan’s bowl. They’re so cute!

Gyu-wool hurries to the hospital because she’s late for breakfast, and once Jae-hak sees her, he comments on how fall has already arrived. Nurse Seonwoo explains to Gyu-wool that the hospital staff determine the season from her clothing: white t-shirt means summer while denim shirt means falls. Jae-hak offers to buy breakfast as a thank you to Gyu-wool for acting as a human calendar and brandishes Joon-wan’s card. Hehehe.

Song-hwa and Chi-hong meet with a patient who has an upcoming, awake surgery. Due to the nature of the operation and the potential for trauma, Song-hwa makes sure that the patient is prepared, but the patient shows apathy towards his situation. He believes his career as a police officer is now over, but Song-hwa tells him not to give up.

Ik-joon furrows his brow as he looks over the charts of a transplant patient. Her numbers suggest that she hasn’t been taking her medication, and when he advises hospitalization, she tells him that she just wants to die. Ik-joon refuses to let her give up on her life and admits her to the hospital for treatment.

After Jung-won examines a patient in the ER, Joon-hee comes up to him and invites him to go to the movies next time as well. Gyu-wool looks alarmed by the news and eavesdrops on Nurse Seonwoo grilling Joon-hee about what happened. Joon-hee brags about eating dinner with Jung-won alone, but when Nurse Seonwoo learns that Joon-hee asked him out, she dismisses any notions of romantic feelings since Jung-won never turns down an invitation.

Joon-wan texts Ik-soon, asking her to send him a photo, and she sends him a picture of her wearing camouflage and screaming. He laughs at the photo, unaware of his surroundings, and freaks out Jung-won flickers the lights to grab his attention.

Avoiding Jung-won’s questions about who he’s texting, Joon-wan asks if he told the others to meet in the parking garage so they can carpool. Jung-won complains about always having to notify the others, but Joon-wan points out that Jung-won probably called everyone already…and he did. Heh.

In the parking garage, someone taps Song-hwa on the shoulder, but she turns the other way and ruins Ik-joon’s joke. She asks if he thinks they’re in Reply 1988, so he points out her old headphones and asks if she’s part of Seoul Claypot. Someone then pulls Ik-joon’s hair, and he immediately stares at the ground and finds Seok-hyung sitting there.

Joon-wan pulls up to the group in his new car (of course, the others mock him for showing off) and drives them to the restaurant. On the ride there, Seok-hyung says that the car smells like perfume, but Ik-joon points out that it also smells like nature which means the new girlfriend probably lives outside the city and works in a job that causes her to sweat. Joon-wan freaks out over Ik-joon’s near-accurate deductions and tries to steer the conversation away from his love life, but the guys keep pestering him for more details

Suddenly, a call from “My Love, Dove (Bidulgi)” pops up on the car’s dashboard, and Joon-wan frantically asks Jung-won to grab his phone and hang up the call. Of course, his friends do the exact opposite, and Ik-joon answers the call.

Luckily for Joon-wan, they arrive at the restaurant, and he manages to pry his phone out of Ik-joon’s hand. While Joon-wan talks with Ik-soon, the friends head inside first, and Ik-joon comments on how he suddenly misses his sister when he never did before. Hah, he totally knows, doesn’t he?

As they eat dinner, the guys advise Seok-hyung to tell his mom about the mistress’s pregnancy, but he still feels conflicted over what to do. While Seok-hyung goes over the options, in the background, Jung-won gets up to grab more water and ends up helping a restaurant worker.

The friends unanimously agree that Seok-hyung’s mom has a right to know, but it isn’t until Song-hwa tells him to inform his mom that he finally relents. The others complain about Seok-hyung never listening to them and wonder why they even bother giving him advice. While they talk, one of the workers approaches their table, asking if anyone would like a freebie, and all five friends raise their hands.

In the morning, Seok-hyung visits Song-hwa’s office and tells her that his mom finally agreed to a divorce after hearing about the pregnancy. As she comforts him, Joon-wan enters the office looking for Seok-hyung—correctly guessing that his friend would be here to inform Song-hwa first. He asks if she saw “him” yet, and tells her that Chairman Yang is in the VIP ward with a fake illness to avoid going to the prosecutor’s office.

Seok-hyung gets up from his seat, and Song-hwa grabs him, assuming that he’s going to confront the chairman. Seok-hyung tells her that he was only leaving to meet his patients, and then turns to Joon-wan, ordering his friend not to treat the chairman.

As Ik-joon makes his rounds, he learns about his noncompliant patient’s story and how she discovered her husband’s infidelity after receiving a liver from him. The nurse is sympathetic to her plight, but Ik-joon says that she’s only hurting herself.

Ik-joon checks up on his patient (cameo by Kim Sun-young) who asks if he’s single since she wants to introduce him to her sister. Ik-joon accepts the compliments but tells her that he’s a married father. The patient calls his wife lucky since he’s her ideal type unlike her husband (cameo by Choi Moo-sung). Before Ik-joon leaves, the husband tries handing him a golden turtle that his son won. Ha!

Seok-hyung’s phone rings during a consultation, and he answers a call from his mom’s worried chauffeur. Elsewhere in the hospital, Seok-hyung’s mom wanders through the halls, peeking into the different restrooms.

Ik-joon visits the noncompliant patient next, and she tells him that she doesn’t want to live with this liver anymore. No matter what Ik-joon or the nurse says, the patient argues that the world may seem kind and beautiful to them but not to her.

After searching multiple restrooms, Seok-hyung’s mom finds a maintenance worker and asks for a favor. Meanwhile, in the VIP ward, Chairman Yang and his mistress eat lobster with gusto. His secretary brings them coffee, and the chairman asks him to tell the “miss” outside to bring him an IV drip (ugh, he’s as terrible as they said).

The secretary motions towards the mistress and explains how “this person” prohibited any hospital staff from entering the room. The mistress scoffs at the secretary’s refusal to properly address her, but the secretary ignores her and leaves. While the mistress whines to the chairman, Seok-hyung’s mom enters the room and pours a bucket of dirty water over the mistress’s head.

Chairman Yang yells at his wife, but she curses him right back for daring to show his face at his son’s hospital. The chairman at least seems surprised by this news, but that doesn’t stop Seok-hyung’s mom from tearing into him. Seok-hyung barges into the room to grab his mom, but she pushes him away to confront the cheating couple.

Just yesterday, she had finally decided to grant them a divorce but seeing their disgusting actions today has made her change her mind. She vows to keep him legally bound to her and tells the mistress to stop dreaming—she’ll always be a cohabitant and nothing more.

During the awake brain surgery, Chi-hong talks with the patient and asks him about his occupation and why he chose it. The patient tells him that he dreamed of being an officer since his childhood but now that dream is dead. Chi-hong assures the patient that he can return to work or find a different career because he did, too.

At twenty-nine, Chi-hong became sick and was forced to quit the military after experiencing paralysis during training. However, he’s living well, now, and tells the patient that he can do the same. For the first time, the patient doesn’t disagree, and before going back to sleep, he tells Chi-hong, “good luck.”

Ik-joon talks with Woo-joo over the phone since he’ll be late tonight, and Woo-joo tells him about the cookies he made—though the last, remaining one is for his girlfriend. Ik-joon stops by his noncompliant patient’s room and persuades her to live once more.

He shares his own story of divorcing a cheating spouse and admits to feeling hurt and embarrassed. Until one day, he realized that he was wasting his time. The patient cries as she hears his words, and Ik-joon tells her to recover because it’s her life. His words finally reach her, and she takes her medicine.

Chi-hong visits Song-hwa in her office and learns that she knew about his illness the day after he messed up his lead surgery. Song-hwa wonders why he kept it a secret, and he tells her that he missed the timing and felt too prideful to confess afterwards when everyone started asking him.

He asks Song-hwa why she didn’t scold him during the surgery when he messed up so many times, and she replies, “I trust you.” She knows how much Chi-hong studies and prepares, so naturally, she assumed that he had his reasons that day.

He wonders why she didn’t buy him drinks, then, but Song-hwa actually went to his office later that day but was too late. Flashing back to that night, Seok-min told Chi-hong that Seon-bin switched shifts with him so he could go out for drinks. She knew that he would need it and was doing him this favor as a friend (making sure to emphasize that she didn’t like Chi-hong).

Gyu-wool waits outside Jung-won’s office, and once he steps out, she asks him to buy her dinner… just the two of them. Jung-won stands there, unable to respond.

In his living room, Seok-hyung listens to music until his phone falls and disconnects his headphones. As he goes to pick it up, he takes off his eye mask and finds his friends making funny faces at him while holding beers and snacks.

The band gets together in the basement and sing “You are Always” by Mono, and the camera zooms in on each friend before changing to another scene. For Song-hwa, we see the police officer patient open his eyes, and Chi-hong informs the patient’s colleagues who are waiting outside the ICU.

For Joon-wan, the scene goes back to his date with Ik-soon, and when he goes in for a hug, she pushes him a little too hard and sends him flying to the ground. Right before he goes, though, he marches up to Ik-soon and pecks her on the lips.

Next is Ik-joon, and the scene changes to Woo-joo who’s sleeping in his bed. On the kitchen table is a cookie for his dad. He’s so adorable! Switching over to the hospital, the Reply 1988 couple share some mango with the noncompliant patient, gesturing at her to stay strong.

As for Seok-hyung, the camera turns to Min-ha who rocks in her bed, wanting to call him but unable to gather the courage. Last is Jung-won, showing Gyu-wool in her bed—hair still wet from her shower—and looking defeated.

At the hospital, Jae-hak greets Joon-wan as he gets on the elevator and tells him about his date plans with his wife. He flinches when Joon-wan reaches over to grab a pen, so Joon-wan tells him that others might misunderstand. He says that he won’t kill him, but Jae-hak argues that he could with his words. When the doors open, Joon-wan realizes that he got on the wrong elevator, so Jae-hak offers to help and pushes the button for him again.

Jae-hak waves to someone in the lobby (probably his wife) and answers a call from his landlord. She asks about this month’s rent, which confuses him since he signed a deposit-based contract. Now the landlord is confused and tells Jae-hak that he signed a monthly rent contract. Uh-oh…

 
COMMENTS

Having aired half its run, the show continues to be remarkable, and with each episode, I’m falling more in love with these characters. The friendship between the five friends is amazing, and the show never falters when it comes to their relationships. Last week, they rallied around Song-hwa, and this week, they’re at Seok-hyung’s side to help him through his family drama. The restaurant scene was sweet because it was obvious from their dynamic that this wasn’t the first time the three guys gave thoughtful responses to Seok-hyung’s dilemma, only for Seok-hyung to ignore them in favor of Song-hwa’s opinion. Despite knowing that Seok-hyung really only listens to Song-hwa, they still offer him advice even it frustrates them because they care about their friend.

The show also emphasizes how their friendship isn’t one-note. They know how to be serious if the situation calls for it like with Song-hwa’s health issue, but they also know how to have fun and let loose. Each friend is different, and depending on the problem, their approach to helping also differs. In Seok-hyung’s case, rather than words of comfort or intimacy, they bring him beer and rock out. They understand what Seok-hyung needs—maybe even more than he knows himself—and give him that outlet to relieve his stress. It’s also interesting to note how this was one of the rare occasions where all five friends drank together since they mostly stuck to non-alcoholic drinks because of emergency calls. Thus, the fact that they brought beer to Seok-hyung’s house also implied their intentions to be with him that night without any other distractions.

Since most of the characters are adults with well-formed personalities, it’s harder to spot moments of character growth in the show. Most of the time, it’s more about revelation—showing the viewers another side of a character that was always there but hidden. When done well, it adds another dimension to a character’s action and opens up the viewer’s perspective. The creators behind Hospital Playlist have always excelled at this as evident in their previous work (though sometimes it has been their crutch, as well), and this show is no different. Whether it be a supporting character like Chi-hong or a more central character like Joon-wan, we learn more about these characters’ lives throughout the show that both explain and color how we view their actions. The show doesn’t rush to show its viewers every single detail about the characters, and instead, it gives out information in pieces as it fits the narrative.

Though instant gratification has its own charms, the show knows how to build up a story to span episodes, which is what they did with Ik-joon’s divorce. Since the actual process of the divorce happened off-screen, it was left to the viewers to fill in the blanks, and from Ik-joon’s behavior and jokes (e.g., he was a single father before but is now one legally), it seemed like he quickly got over it and was relatively fine with it beyond the initial shock and hurt. However, for the first time, we really hear Ik-joon’s opinion about the divorce and how it affected him, personally. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it took months for the viewers to finally learn anything substantial about his divorce because he probably needed time to process it by himself. The seemingly always confident Ik-joon felt embarrassed and self-conscious because of his cheating spouse, and though he learned his lesson to let go of people who aren’t worth his time, from the tone of his voice when he shared his story, it seems that he’s still healing. Thankfully, he has Woo-joo by his side as well as four awesome friends who constantly remind him that he’s loved.

The two main hospital cases this time were the police officer patient and the noncompliant patient, and in both situations, a doctor shares his story to show support. Both Chi-hong and Ik-joon allow themselves to be vulnerable in front of their patient, and it’s their genuineness in these moments that touches their patient’s closed-off hearts. It’s not just about relating to the patient, but showing them that they are human, too. In contrast, Eun-won shares her personal life with a guardian, but the effect feels different because there’s a lack of sincerity. Her conversation is mostly superficial, which makes it come across as unnecessary, especially when their department was so busy. Nurse Han called the two OB/GYN residents a bear and fox, and it seems safe to say that Eun-won is the fox. What that exactly means going forward in the show, I don’t quite know, but with two bears in the department, hopefully the fox doesn’t run too wild.

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