D-Day: Episode 2

by dramallama

We’re introduced to our characters’ narratives, giving us some context for their eventual adaptation to the forthcoming disaster. The smaller personal moments with our characters gives us an idea of how their priorities may shift and which doctors will remain devoted to their mission to save lives. Ddol-mi steps up her game, showing Hye-sung that she is indeed a doctor — a sassy one but one with the right priorities. With disaster on the horizon, our unlikely pair best believe in their priorities and prepare for the inevitable medical catastrophe.

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

The crane comes crashing down, and Hye-sung pulls Ji-na away from the crash in time to avoid any injuries. A man stumbles out of a crashed car to record and narrate the scene, scattered with injured people.

Hye-sung approaches Ddol-mi and grabs her stethoscope. He orders her to start treating patients, since she’s in orthopedics and shouldn’t be afraid of blood. There’s still an uneasy tension between the two, but the patients come first.

The fire trucks pick up Captain Choi’s crew on the way and arrive on the scene. Hye-sung treats injuries, prioritizing emergencies for the ambulance crew. Captain Choi recognizes Hye-sung as the doctor from Mirae and hurries him to an urgent patient, who has a rod stuck in his chest. Hye-sung carefully checks the man’s condition and promises him that he will be okay.

After sending off the patient in the ambulance, he finds Ddol-mi. Their eyes meet briefly, and Hye-sung smiles at the sight of her splinting a patient’s arm.

Director Lee and Woo-jin ride away in the opposite direction of the blaring ambulance. Director Lee advises Woo-jin to be extra careful with his robot surgery procedures because he presumes that they will soon be the paragon for the world. He speaks in metaphor, saying that his ship will grow larger, since his dreams are much larger than the position he currently holds.

Captain Choi’s minion, Woo-sung (also Hye-sung’s brother), surveys the other side of the fence and finds a car deep within a massive sinkhole. Suddenly, he hears whimpering and finds a woman covered in metal rods. He rushes to her side and immediately calls Captain Choi for assistance.

The rescue team and our medical professionals arrive on the scene. Hye-sung starts to brief Ddol-mi on their plan, but she already knows exactly what to do. Ji-na decides to ride in the ambulance with the woman, and Hye-sung offers to buy her a full meal another time. He yawns in exhaustion as the ambulance takes off.

Captain Choi supports his colleague’s rescue mission into the sinkhole. The man in the car is severely injured, and the firefighters call for medical support. Ddol-mi finds Hye-sung dozing off on the firetruck and roughly kicks him awake. More than the kick, it seems that the word “patient” makes him come to his senses.

He checks the man’s vitals and assesses that his injuries are severe. Hye-sung asks for an ambulance immediately, but the closest one is too far for this patient’s state. Ddol-mi offers to use her ambulance, and her assertiveness surprises Hye-sung. She reminds him that she’s a doctor as well and doesn’t want to watch a patient die in front of her.

As she rides the ambulance, Ddol-mi calls Hye-sung with updates on the patient’s condition. She tells herself that her medical license isn’t just a piece of paper; it exists for her to save lives.

Woo-sung offers to clean up the scene and salutes to his firefighter sunbaes as they ride off. When the truck leaves, he’s faced with his brother, who he’s been ignoring all day. Though Hye-sung tries to be friendly, Woo-sung gives him the cold shoulder and eventually erupts with anger. He blames Hye-sung for their father’s death and their mother’s vegetative state. “You work at a premier hospital to save everyone else but our parents.”

Hye-sung trembles with anger and hits his brother across the face. Unable to respond, Hye-sung walks away. Woo-sung continues with his biting remarks, “You coward, begging to work at a hospital that made Mom that way. You can’t even say anything. What kind of doctor are you? Because of you… Mom became like this.”

Flashback to the fateful day, when Hye-sung arrives at the ER as a patient and watches his parents being wheeled in. Woo-jin races towards an injured Hye-sung, and it seems that Woo-jin used to work in that department. Later, Hye-sung waits by his mother’s bedside, but she doesn’t wake up. Woo-sung deduces that it must be a medical mistake that resulted in her coma and demands that Hye-sung find the reason.

Back in the present, Hye-sung tries to shake off the memory and walks away from his guilt.

At the hospital, Ddol-mi tells Intern Dae-gil to hold the Ambu bag correctly. He misinterprets her satoori and thinks that Busan must use a different medical jargon, which earns him a look of exasperation.

Woo-jin checks on his patient and walks out of the room worried about his fever. His resident tells him that there’s no way that it’s because of his surgery — it was flawless. As he walks away, he overhears his resident forcefully rejecting a request from the ER for extra beds. Woo-jin decides to address the issue himself and heads down to the ER.

He finds Ji-na and Ddol-mi with the two urgent patients, who need immediate attention at the hospital. He asks Ddol-mi who she is, and her name sparks a flashback to her as a patient planting a kiss on his cheek for a picture. But he doesn’t show any familiarity toward her.

Woo-jin seems to be the only doctor available to treat the patients, but he quickly rejects them. He suggests that the patients be transferred to the closest available hospital with the right resources. As he walks away, Ji-na catches up to him and calls him out for his cowardice. But he simply replies that his reasons for not conducting surgery are well founded. He’s doing his best in a specific field and does not want to taint his reputation for something that requires a skill beyond his comfort level.

He then turns the attention to Ji-na’s “mistake” of overstepping her role and directly saving a life. “The end doesn’t justify the means. Though you may think you were brave, you were rash. You put the patient’s life at risk.”

Ji-na and Ddol-mi are forced back on the road to look for another hospital. When Ddol-mi’s ambulance driver refuses to comply, the women set him straight and demand that he fulfill his role to save the patient’s life.

Back at Han River Mirae Hospital, Hye-sung treats the rest of the patients and talks to the man who was recording the scene earlier. He’s our reporter, and he notes Hye-sung’s dedication to treating all the injured patients despite not having an emergency facility. He replies, “As long as there’s medicine, doctor, and a nurse, it’s an emergency room.”

A new face enters the hospital, and Hye-sung greets his friend, EUN SO-YUL (Kim Jung-hwa). She’s here with gifts to congratulate his new position, and he exchanges a pair of gloves for the gifts. He tells her to start dressing wounds. She remembers from their intern days, right? She looks at him with disbelief, since it’s been over 10 years since her intern days. Plus, she’s a psychiatrist.

But Hye-sung ignores her protests as he receives a call from Ddol-mi about their patient being rejected from all the nearby hospitals. He orders her to bring the patient to Han River Mirae Hospital. They don’t have the ideal setting, but he’ll make it work.

He orders Sister (aka the only nurse at the hospital) to call the anesthesiologist and prepare the surgery room. She tells Brother that they don’t have the staff to take in a surgery patient, but he yells with urgency that he’ll do it all. As Sister calls in for the surgery essentials, Hye-sung turns to So-yul and tells her that she’ll be in the surgery. She argues that she’s just a psychiatrist, but Hye-sung insists that psychiatrists are doctors too. Touché.

Right before the ambulance arrives at the hospital, the patient undergoes cardiac arrest. Ddol-mi immediately injects epinephrine and conducts CPR as the patient enters the hospital. Busan Ambulance Driver tries to convince Ddol-mi to get off of the stretcher and return to Busan, but Hye-sung won’t allow her to leave because he needs an assistant.

They argue back and forth, and it’s amusing to see Ddol-mi conflicted all while performing CPR. She inevitably ends up with the patient (still performing CPR), and Busan Ambulance Driver decides to take his leave. When he turns around from the closed elevator, he finds the reporter, having recorded the whole scene.

Hye-sung continues CPR in the surgery room, even though the anesthesiologist insists that the heart monitor shows no hope. But just as last time, the patient’s heart starts to beat again, and the rest of the crew enters the surgery room. Before they begin, Hye-sung gives them a pep talk: “I know there are unfamiliar faces, and I know it’s been a while since your intern days. It makes no sense, but it’s embarrassing to let this patient die on the road looking for a hospital when there are doctors here. Let’s return to this man, a father and husband, back to his family.”

Assemblyman Gu Ja-hyuk reads to a sleeping young boy at home, where Chief Kang prepares glasses of wine. After tucking the boy into bed, he joins Chief Kang on the couch for wine. He talks about his desire to be a good father to Dong-ho, since he was never around for his older daughter’s upbringing and ended up divorced.

Chief Kang turns on the TV and watches the news of the crane accident. It grabs their attention, and Chief Kang receives a call from the hospital that they need her assistance because of the accident. She rushes out after a quick peck, leaving the man alone with his wine.

The reporter continues to record footage about the current situation, this time with Sister restoring the shut-down intensive care unit. She refuses to be filmed and continues talking about Hye-sung’s dedication while preparing the room. She reconsiders being on camera if she could put on some make-up, but the reporter has been long gone by the time she makes that decision.

Chief Kang arrives at the hospital but looks underwhelmed by the ER. She asks the intern why there aren’t more patients in the hospital, and he explains that Woo-jin turned away a patient earlier who needed emergency surgery. She silently accepts the situation, but the intern voices her thoughts: “If Hye-sung were here, things would be different.”

In the surgery, Hye-sung rapidly ties the rupture and orders Ddol-mi to cut. Unfocused and nervous, she ends up tearing the organ even further. Hye-sung loses his temper and yells at Ddol-mi for messing up, but So-yul breaks the reality to him. He’s trying to make an impossible situation possible, so he better be patient with his team. Realizing his fault, he apologizes and continues with the surgery. Ddol-mi vows to never go into surgery with this jerk again. Then the patient goes into cardiac arrest.

Back at the sinkhole, the firefighter rescue captain searches for any form of identification for the hospital but can’t seem to find anything other than a random wig on the dashboard.

Hye-sung persistently performs CPR on the patient, and he thankfully comes back to normal levels. Before they return to surgery, Hye-sung checks the patient’s creatinine levels to gage kidney function. They’re normal as well, so he decides to cut the ruptured kidney since you can still live with one. So-yul tries to stop him, knowing the risk of another lawsuit. But Hye-sung says he’ll go to court with gratitude if this patient lives.

Sister peeks her head out of the ICU and offers to participate in an interview. But her efforts are interrupted by Hye-sung and his surgery team wheeling the patient into the unit. The reporter and his camera crew approach Hye-sung for details on the patient.

At the fire department dorms, Captain Choi, Woo-sung, and another colleague watch the news, where they see Hye-sung’s interview. Director Lee, Woo-jin, and the Mirae ER all watch the interview as well. Hye-sung presumes that the patient was rejected from Mirae Hospital because the doctors valued their medical career over the patient’s life. Despite the lacking surgical facilities, he performed surgery anyway because he believes that no patient deserves to die on the road.

After watching the interview, Director Lee tries to explain to the Mirae president (they’re related in some way, though it’s not clear how) that he transferred Hye-sung because he caused too many problems at the hospital. The president orders him to reinstate Hye-sung because he wants to create a better hospital. It’s also hinted that the president has an ill son, and the president blames himself for his son’s illness. When Director Lee resists the order, the president threatens his position.

Ji-na and So-yul leave the hospital, commenting on how life gets a crazier with Hye-sung around. So-yul mentions how she’d forgotten after all these years but got a rude awakening today. Ji-na agrees but admits that she likes the satisfaction of saving a life.

In the ICU, Ddol-mi ignores Hye-sung’s friendly gestures and answers a call from her Chief. He yells at her for ditching her duties and says she’s been replaced for tomorrow morning’s surgery. In fact, she should just plan on taking a long break since she’s been fired.

Hye-sung overhears the unfortunate phone call and comments on how inconvenient it is to get fired as a third-year resident with one year left. That doesn’t make her feel any better, and she decides to leave right at that moment for Busan. She makes her big exit, and Hye-sung settles down by the patient for a nap.

Ddol-mi comes right back to ask for transportation money, but she’s flatly rejected by Hye-sung, who asks her to look over the patient as he sleeps. She’s not going to be un-fired anytime soon. Frustrated by her current situation, she throws a kick in the air surely intended for Hye-sung.

After treating patients, Chief Kang returns to her office to rewatch Hye-sung’s interview, which she notes is very much in his character. She receives a call from Director Lee to take responsibility for this fiasco, so she begins her detective work to identify Hye-sung’s patient.

She first approaches the woman in their hospital and recognizes her as the woman she saw embracing the Minister while waiting for Ja-hyuk. She asks for the man’s identification, but the woman refuses to tell her anything.

Chief Kang visits the fire station next, where she retrieves the items found in the sinkhole. She brings them back to the office and discovers an ID for Minister Suk Joong-won. Then, her suspicions are confirmed when she finds cellphones that correspond with each other — one labeled with a code name and the other with “Honey.”

She reports to Director Lee, who seems infuriated that Woo-jin would turn away a dignitary. When Woo-jin arrives at his office, Director Lee scolds him for not recognizing the Minister, especially since they had just met. He orders them to leave, but Chief Kang stays.

She reveals the mistress relationship she’s discovered and suggests that Director Lee manipulate the situation to his favor. He can claim to have sent the Minister to another hospital to protect the Minister’s personal life from disclosure. Director Lee brightens up at this solution and commends Chief Kang. When she leaves his office, she finds Woo-jin standing right outside, having eavesdropped on their whole conversation. He leaves in a huff.

Ddol-mi continues to let off steam by gesturing hits at a sleeping Hye-sung. She’s interrupted by an uninvited guest, Director Lee, who quickly checks the patient’s state. He asks for a private space to talk to Hye-sung, so Ddol-mi leaves and eavesdrops outside.

Director Lee shakes Hye-sung awake and orders that this patient be transferred to Mirae Hospital. Hye-sung smirks and comments that his interview must have really affected him. Director Lee tries to be civil in suggesting that the patient be transferred from this awful facility to Mirae, but he can’t go too far without being hypocritical. Hye-sung calls him out for making Han River Mirae into the state that it’s at now and tells him to send more staff his way instead of pretending this never happened.

Enraged by Hye-sung’s boldness, Director Lee stomps out of the hospital while Ddol-mi looks impressed and gives her nod of approval.

Captain Choi fights with his wife over the phone, unhappy with her grumbling and upset that she hung up before he got a chance to talk to his daughter. His audience stares blankly at him, having heard his petty argument.

The reporter consults his scientist reference about the impending earthquake, and the scientist shows him a video sent to him that morning. It shows an unusually case of fish all washed up dead. Anxious about the chances of an earthquake occurring too soon, the reporter persuades his boss to announce precautionary messages in the broadcast.

The next morning, Ddol-mi pushes Hye-sung awake and demands to get her transportation money. He agrees to do so and has Sister watch over their ICU patient. At the bank, he gives Ddol-mi her flight money, meal money, and surgery money. He felt bad about her getting fired, especially as a third year resident.

Ddol-mi sighs that her father was so excited at the prospect of her becoming a doctor. She’s doesn’t know how to reveal such disappointing news. Hye-sung sees her unnecessary dilemma and decides to break the news to her: She won’t get fired.

Hye-sung called her Chief last night and praised Ddol-mi, fabricating her excellent surgery skills into their story. He gives her a smug smile, and Ddol-mi expresses her relief by smacking Hye-sung for not telling her earlier. She continues to blame her distress on him, but Hye-sung notices strange colors of multiple rainbows in the sky.

They had outside to observe the abnormally bright and colorful sky. Suddenly, the world starts shaking — the leaves on the tree trembling, glass breaking, the hospital lights swaying. The manholes start to leak water and eventually shoot water into the air. The ground cracks. The building rumbles, and pieces start to fall. Hye-sung grabs Ddol-mi through the falling pieces and debris. The earthquake has arrived.

 
COMMENTS

It’s here! As much as I’m excited for this earthquake to finally hit, I’m glad we got a precursor to the real disaster to prepare our team to work together. I like the bit of backstory we get in this episode with both Ddol-mi and Hye-sung. The quick flashbacks piqued my curiosity on how our characters’ pasts shaped their current practice. It seems that Hye-sung is taking the blame for something out of his control. Based on the flashback, he seemed physically incapable of saving his father and mother. So why is his brother blaming him? There’s something behind Hye-sung’s intense passion to save lives and something holding him back from getting justice for his mother’s state.

While Ddol-mi’s story appears to be significantly less complex that Hye-sung’s past, I hope that we’re given more than a country bumpkin who aspires to be a doctor. Somehow Woo-jin is a part of her past, and he seemed like a different person then — much less guarded and more approachable. I’m interested to see how Woo-jin fits into the narrative, now that we’ve somewhat established that his current practice hasn’t always been his philosophy. But his philosophy now does seem practical. Too cold and logical when dealing with human lives, but very practical in the sense that he knows his limitations. I don’t think he’s sadistic or intentionally cruel; I just think he’s exceptionally selfish. And as a doctor, selfishness could lead to deaths. The fact that he’s refusing to make that connection makes him the antagonist that he is, unable to connect to patients past his robot skills.

I like that this episode depicts Hye-sung’s intense passion for saving lives as double-edged sword. He doesn’t blink an eye when he decides to treat a patient, and he’s an admirable doctor because of this drive. But he’s also reckless and unrealistic in his mission to save everyone he reaches. He becomes an irritable jerk when dealing with imperfection in surgery, unwilling to tolerate any skill or passion less than his. I appreciated the reality check he was given during surgery. Nothing is ideal, and he’s going to have to work with what he’s got. A valuable lesson to learn before you’re given even less to work with.

I think there’s something quite profound about the concept of disaster. We’re drawn to the myths of apocalypse because there’s something we want to learn about ourselves in the case of such trauma: what matters to us. Of course, I don’t expect this disaster to be the Apocalypse of Seoul, but I do expect some sort of realigning in our characters. Stripping away the hospital, the politics, and the luxuries of life, it will be interesting to see what decisions our characters make and their rationale. Who will look more absurd: the specialized hospital rejecting emergency patients or the broken hospital without an emergency room accepting all the patients? I can already see the latter option becoming reality for our scenario, in which case, Hye-sung better get his beauty sleep now. He’s not going to rest anytime soon.

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