Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist 2: Episodes 7-8

by Unit

It’s a typical week in the life of our Joseon psychiatrist, and having — all but — run out of plot points, we recycle the usual: noble idiocy leading to forced separation, the clinic family stepping up to turn the tides around, and some much needed honesty between our psychiatrist and the love of his life.

 
EPISODES 7-8 WEECAP

With the morally damning charges levied by the district governor against Poong, the king discreetly sends a letter to Gyesu clinic informing them about the situation. All the officials have rallied against Poong, and there are grave consequences attached if the charges against him are proven to be true: losing his medical license, deletion of his official records, and a permanent ban from the palace.

On his part, the king promises to take charge of the situation in Hanyang and protect Poong as much as he can. He charges Ji-han to do the same in Sorak, and sounds a note of warning for them to avoid doing anything that can give the baddies probable cause to heighten the situation — which, sadly, means that Poong and Eun-woo have to start avoiding each other.

Unfortunately, the clinic family is so fixated on the district governor that they have no idea that Kang-il — who still works at the clinic — is behind the whole thing. Well, almost everything. You see, Kang-il’s sole target was Poong, but the district governor went ahead to spice up the petition with details about Poong and Eun-woo’s “immoral” relationship. Yunno, the more scandalous, the better. Tsk.

At this point, I have to applaud this drama for its consistency. They killed off the cartoonish Commander Im in Season 1 only to replace him with an even bigger clown in the person of the district governor. And they went off with the head of the second state councilor, and then replaced him with Kang-il and the meddling medics. But at least, the late second councilor was a more interesting villain. Sigh.

In the meantime, noble idiocy calls out to Eun-woo, and she begins to blame herself for putting Poong into his current situation. The last straw is when Poong gets hurt in the process of fending off some ruffians from harassing her during an impromptu house call, and when he wakes up the next morning, Eun-woo is gone. She’s off to her parent’s house on Heuksan Island, and accompanying her is Kang-il — who claims to have a sick patient on the island. How convenient.

Poong refuses to let go of Eun-woo, so he heads off to Heuksan — and bumps into Kang-il the stalker, outside Eun-woo’s house. They get into a brawl, and if this and their subsequent attempts to one-up each other in front of Eun-woo’s mom were supposed to be humorous moments, I’m not laughing. Not with Kang-il offering to send Eun-woo abroad to brush up her medical skills if she so wishes. She doesn’t. But Poong starts to think it might be a good opportunity for her, and he ends up working himself up into a fever. See? This is what happens when you think useless thoughts.

Anyway, with two of their physicians away on the Island of Noble Idiocy, Gyesu clinic temporarily shuts down. Ji-han and Man-bok head to Hanyang to run background checks on the meddling medics, while the rest of the family gather petitions against the district governor to counter the one he sent to the king. The villagers are more than willing to join the petition thanks to the district governor’s irrational policies in the village, and may the best petitioner win!

As expected, all the Hanyang medics — who parade themselves as the morality police — fall short of said morals. Thus, Ji-han and Man-bok cut a nice deal with them: don’t fuel the fire against Poong, and your dirty (not so little) secrets are safe with us. Lol. And with the petitions from the villagers, Ji-han is confident that the king can stop the malicious investigation against Poong. See? Wasn’t this a more practical solution than noble idiocy?

Back in Heuksan, Poong and Eun-woo help a couple in a slightly similar situation get back with each other, and this serves to make them reflect on their own situation. They decide that being happy together is a much better alternative to being miserable apart, and they cement their decision with a sweet first kiss — the kind that makes you wonder how they managed to stay away from each other all the while. Heh.

Kang-il is going to have to work extra hard to break these two up now. But in the meantime, I don’t buy whatever interest the drama is trying to make him have in Eun-woo, because for someone who was initially cross with the district governor for including Eun-woo in the petition, he didn’t seem to have a problem with asking the governor to ramp up the scandal between her and Poong. Kang-il will always remain a one-dimensional user, and it’s too late for the drama to try to make him into anything else.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist 2
• Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist teases Season 2 coming this January
• Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist: Episodes 11-12 (Final)
• Premiere Watch: Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist, Wild Boar Hunting
• Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist is now accepting patients in new promos
• Finding healing with Kim Min-jae in tvN’s Joseon Psychiatrist Yoo Se-poong
• Joseon Psychiatrist Yoo Se-poong is open for business in new promos