Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist 2: Episodes 3-4

by Unit

The clinic family have left the problems of the palace behind, but trouble insists on following them back to their village. Just how much grief can the newest additions cause our beloved found family? We’re about to find out.

 
EPISODES 3-4 WEECAP

We resume this week with Seo-yi causing a ruckus on her arrival at Gyesu clinic, and afterwards, Kang-il marches in with a royal order to evaluate the clinic. Apparently, it’s not enough for the king to confer regional medical office status to a clinic, because said clinic must first meet the requirements of the medical headquarters in the palace. Long story short, the fate of Gyesu clinic lies in the hands of Kang-il’s evaluation.

These medics are on their way to becoming even more annoying than the villains in the first season, and they will stop at nothing to bring the Gyesu clinic to ruins. It’s almost like the mere existence of the clinic is a threat to them, and I have no idea why they’re so scared of their position in the palace being taken over by Ji-han and Poong — especially when the duo have repeatedly proven to want nothing to do with the palace.

Kang-il positions himself as the hunting dog to get rid of the Gyesu clinic for good, in return for becoming the head of the medical office in the palace — after the current head has moved up in ranks, of course. And Kang-il must be very naive if he thinks that the hunting dog will be allowed to become the hunter at the end of the hunt. But then, he seems to have many tricks up his sleeve, and I doubt that he’ll willingly accept the shorter end of the stick when all of this is over.

I mean, the evaluation business is in part a result of what Seo-yi thinks is a mutually beneficial alliance between herself and Kang-il. Meanwhile, he just capitalizes on her bruised pride after Poong turned down her marriage proposal, and leads her on to believe that only by destroying what Poong cherishes the most (the Gyesu clinic itself, and the family) will he leave the village and come running into her arms as a last resort. Tsk. Seo-yi is reluctant to participate in the “destruction” of Poong, but infatuation beats out common sense, and she agrees to the plan.

As expected, Kang-il’s assessment of the clinic is heavily biased, and he picks on the littlest of things: like the disparity in payment between rich and poor — as though subsidizing treatment for the poor patients is such a bad thing. Kang-il also has issues with medicinal herbs being handled by a child (Jang-goon), and a sick old lady (Granny) being among the help. It does look bad when you put it like that. But hey, Jang-goon is a prodigy when it comes to herbs and everything else, and Granny isn’t directly involved with treatment of the patients.

For some reason, more than the Gyesu clinic itself, Kang-il has it out for Poong — even prodding him where it hurts most: his acupuncture PTSD. “Prove you’re indeed a physician, administer acupuncture.” Ugh! I hate him so much. It seems like Kang-il was jealous of being second place to the “Divine Needle” all along. Okay, now there’s no competition for first place since Poong can no longer administer acupuncture. So, can Kang-il leave him alone already?!

When the patient of the week (a novel writer dealing with a skin condition) is rescued from the river, Poong is dragged to the office of the new district governor, AHN HAK-SOO (Baek Sung-chul) — who, might just happen to be Ib-bun’s biological uncle — for investigation. Here Kang-il blames Poong for failing to cure the patient, driving her to suicide. “How long will you make your patients suffer for your arrogance?” he asks Poong. But that’s ironic coming from someone who prevented the villagers from receiving treatment at the clinic in the name of evaluation. Tsk.

After spending most of the week being a brat, throwing things, and reading novels in her spare time, Seo-yi finally ends her partnership with Kang-il because how dare they treat her future husband like a criminal? It’s too late, anyway, because Kang-il no longer needs her. But that doesn’t stop Seo-yi from making a blank check deal with Eun-woo in exchange for helping Poong.

On reading the patient’s “suicide note,” Seo-yi — thanks to being a voracious reader — already spotted that it was part of a paragraph from a transcribed novel. And this helps to prove that the note was faked and the patient didn’t attempt suicide. Seo-yi is also instrumental in finding the patient’s diary, from where Poong and Eun-woo learn that the patient was severely bullied by her coworkers who also threw her novels into the river — which is how she almost drowned when she went to retrieve her books.

Suppression of her emotions led to continuous itching which is how the patient developed her skin condition. And after the bullies are brought to justice, the itching stops, putting her on the road to recovery. “I put it to you that acupuncture is not the only way to heal a patient,” Poong says to Kang-il in Joseon lingo, as the clinic family walks away in victory, leaving Kang-il alone to grapple with the cat who’s got his tongue.

The clinic finally gets the official approval to operate as a palace-affiliated medical office, and as it stands, the score line reads: Gyesu clinic 100-0 Medical office. Heh. Kang-il is summoned back to Hanyang by the angry overlords at the headquarters, leaving our found family to have some much needed peace. Or not. Because just when I think that Seo-yi has come to terms with the status quo as regards to Poong’s affections, she comes to cash in her blank check with Eun-woo, and the only thing she wants is Poong’s heart. Just great!

Seo-yi is all bark and no bite, like a typical spoiled child with anger issues, and I’m not even worried because she doesn’t seem like a serious threat to anyone in the show. Her character mostly just makes me roll my eyes when she’s on screen, unlike Kang-il who is actually infuriating. It’s clearly not over for Kang-il’s plans to do away with Poong, and I wonder what hurdles await our found family next — no thanks to the unending schemes of the medical office to bring down the Gyesu clinic.

 
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