Horse Doctor Episode 16
Kwanghyun starts this episode with a sword to his throat and ends locked up in the morgue! It’s all go. And it’s all because of the bullies at the clinic who still have a problem with Kwanghyun’s background. But ironically the bullies are actually helping him because thanks to them, Kwanghyun is thrown into situations where he has to practise his skills in medicine. First his teacher treats him as a servant (since he is only a commoner) which leads Kwanghyun to meet and save a young woman who tried to commit suicide. And then his fellow students lock him up in the morgue where he discovers that one of the ‘dead’ patients is still ALIVE …..
The yangban threatens Kwanghyun by holding a sword to his throat. If he wants to live he must save the man’s sister! Desperately Kwanghyun tries to find the young woman’s pulse. But can’t work out if there is one or not! He tries to think back to his studies with Jinyung on how to treat critical patients after strangulation. He remembers that if the pit of the stomach (solar plexus 명치) is still warm there is a chance that the patient can be saved.
Kwanghyun must save the patient if he wants to live
Then Kwanghyun leaps into action shouting orders at the yangban for 세신 (sei-shin) a medicine to relax the bronchial tubes and get the heart going again. And he wants Jinyung fetched from the clinic. Then he puts cotton in the patient’s nostrils and ears and opens her handbok to prepare to start CPR. But he hesitates. He’s never done this before. (HURRY UP!) Finally he begins CPR and keeps going until the young woman takes a breath. Kwanghyun continues with the CPR but the patient’s brother comes back with the medicine and seeing Kwanghyun on top of his sister with her hanbok undone he leaps on Kwanghyun pulling him away from her. (You are NOT helping, Mr. Yangban)
Kwanghyun tries CPR on the patient
The horse doctor speech has clearly made the yangban lose confidence in Kwanghyun! And his actions are not helping the situation. So Kwanghyun then tries to feed the patient the medicine, but she is not responding. He takes her pulse again but again the brother grabs him demanding to know what’s going on. (Duh! He’s irritating – the actor Yun Hee Suk also played the baddie in the recently aired daily morning drama An Angle’s Choice which I really enjoyed. I recommend this drama if you like a bit of melodrama and shouting at the TV/computer screen 🙂 No English subs but quite easy to follow and good for Korean study)
The yangban attacks Kwanghyun in desperation
At last Jinyung arrives and takes over the situation. She takes the cotton out of the patient’s nose and dabs some medicine under her nostrils and then blows it up her nose. Immediately the patient coughs. Looks like she is going to be all right. (phew! ;)) The Yangban is very grateful and promises to help Kwanghyun if he is ever in trouble – and it’s VERY LIKELY that at some point he WILL be in trouble and need his help!
Meanwhile Inju thinks back to her conversation with Kidae. Kidae thinks he is protecting Kwanghyun by not revealing his past to Inju. He simply repeats that Kwanghyun WAS born on the ranch. But Inju is convinced that Kidae is not telling the truth.
Kwanghyun goes to see Eunso, the patient he saved, only to hear screams coming from her room again! He rushes in to find that she has tried to slash her wrists and her poor maid is trying to stop her again. Eunso is NOT grateful to Kwanghyun for saving her life. In fact she’s angry with him and curses him. She wanted to die and follow her husband – now she must endure gossip from the neighbours. Kwanghyun bandages up her wrist and sends the maid for medicinal herbs to stop the bleeding. He tells her that no one has ever thanked him for saving their life – since animals can’t speak – so he wasn’t expecting her to thank him. But he can see in her eyes that she wants to live despite what she says.
Myunghwan takes a gift to Lord Jung for his son’s marriage. They discuss Sungha and Jinyung who Myunghwan expects will marry soon. Meanwhile at the restaurant Jinyung hears from Daebang’s mother that she is expected to marry Sungha. But this is news to her – although EVERYONE ELSE knows! Myunghwan and Sungha discuss the marriage too. But Sungha doesn’t want to rush things if Jinyung isn’t ready. Ahhh.
Jinyung hears that she is supposed to marry Sungha
Later Jinyung bumps into Sungha at the house and they discuss the rumours of their upcoming marriage. Jinyung says she has never thought of Sungha in a romantic way before – she sees him as a brother. He looks disappointed and admits he has thought about her (romantically) for years. Poor Sungha. But he says he will not force the marriage if she doesn’t feel the same way. After she retires to her room he sits alone in the rain thinking about their time growing up together. Ahh. He wonders how she could not have realised how he felt. (I am wondering the same thing- although the situation is a bit odd)
Sungha assures Jinyung that he won’t force her into marriage
Kidae and the others are waiting for Kwanghyun to come home. They are worried about him as usual. Then Kidae tells him that Inju has been fishing around into his past and knows who he is. They don’t know exactly what his father did but they know it was treasonous so they beg Kwanghyun to quit the hospital and leave before he gets discovered. But he can’t give up. Not after all this.
Myunghwan orders Guard Kang to keep an eye on Kwanghyun and report his every move. Grrr
The princess has decided that she needs an excuse to see her beloved doctor so she comes up with a cunning plan – to go outside without her coat on and catch a cold. Her court ladies have to suffer outside too as she swings trying to get the cold wind to make her sick!
The princess swings in the cold weather trying to catch a cold
Eunso thinks back to what Kwanghyun said to her about life. She decides to go and see him. But great minds think alike and the princess is also on her way and arrives at the clinic in a palanquin pleased that she has caught a cold and needs to be seen by Dr Baek. But she is told that Kwanghyun is unavailable today. Then Eunso arrives and is told the same thing. The princess eyes the yangban lady suspiciously – it seems she doesn’t like having a rival (The princess calls Kwanghyun 우리 백 의생 uri Baek ui-seng, Our Doctor Baek, how cute. 🙂 )
But while Kwanghyun is winning over the ladies, inside the clinic the other male students are not so impressed and enjoy teasing him again saying he smells of horse manure. The doctors are told of the important test coming up which will decide who will be selected to stay as doctors! But Kwanghyun knows nothing about this test and doesn’t even have the right books to study! Duh!
The elegant Eunso arrives at the clinic looking for Kwanghyun
Kwanghyun is back trying to diagnose patients. (Oh dear) He still has no confidence but tries his best. His patient seems spaced out and can’t explain his symptoms. Kwanghyun looks at a loss when Taeju who overhears the conversation, rushes over pushing Kwanghyun out of the way and hurriedly checking the patient’s pulse. He knows what questions to ask and calls a nurse over insisting that the patient be hospitalised IMMEDIATELY. He doesn’t even look at Kwanghyun clearly convinced that he is incompetent.
A senior doctor is called to the patient and he confirms Taeju’s diagnosis – the patient is having a brain haemorrhage and right on cue the patient passes out. Kwanghyun can’t believe this because the patient didn’t seem that sick. He rushes after Taeju wanting to know what will happen. He will die, he says without emotion. There is treatment for this but it’s too late. He can’t resist adding what he thinks about Kwanghyun – that he is a liability and he is proving that a horse doctor can never have the skills to become a doctor.
The ‘dead’ patient is carried away to the morgue
The body is carried away on a stretcher to the morgue and Kwanghyun is upset about his shortcomings – he can do acupuncture, but there is so much else he can’t do. What if the patient had come earlier but he had not been able to diagnose him properly? Jinyung tries to comfort him telling him of her own experiences of making a mis-diagnosis. She tells him that the answer is simple- study hard and don’t make mistakes. She tries to cheer him up and they play fight. But just at that moment Sungha happens to walk by and see them. He looks sad. Oh. 🙁
Poor Sungha watches Jinyung play fighting with Kwanghyun.
It’s late at the clinic but Kwanghyun is still there studying herbs for the test. One of the other students comes in and tells him that his friend Daebang is looking for him in one of the other rooms, so Kwanghyun goes to find him. (Don’t go Kwanghyun, it’s a trap) But after he enters the room, the door is locked behind him. Outside the door, the two nasty bully students giggle to each other and hurry away sure that Kwanghyun will fail the test tomorrow since he won’t even be able to get there …When Daebang comes looking for Kwanghyun he is nowhere to be found.
Two fellow students lock Kwanghyun in the morgue
Kwanghyun realises that he is in the morgue. (Yikes) And dead bodies covered in sheets are lying all around the room. He freaks out and starts banging on the door and then pulling at the wooden window bars. But it’s no use; he’s locked in. Desperate to get out of there, he climbs up to try to break open the window but falls back grabbing onto the hand of a corpse. Ahhh. The hand flops out from under the sheet and then the body groans. It’s creepy and at first Kwanghyun leaps back in horror, but then he realises that the patient who had the brain haemorrhage is still alive!
Kwanghyun shouts for help but nobody comes
Kwanghyun remembers what Taeju told him about the treatment for a brain haemorrhage and nervously he gets his needles out. He tries to remember what to do…
Kwanghyun discovers that one of the dead bodies is NOT dead …
Morning comes and the students get ready for their test. The baddies laugh as they notice Kwanghyun’s empty seat. Daebang points out that Kwanghyun is missing but of course the teacher doesn’t care. Afterwards Jinyung hears that Kwanghun wasn’t at the test and goes to find him. Catching the two baddies laughing to themselves she demands that they tell her where he is. At first one of them is rude to her speaking down to her in 반말 (pan-mal – familiar speech form). But when the other whispers that she is Myunghwan’s daughter he suddenly becomes very polite and hurries to show her where Kwanghun is! (I thought Jinyung didn’t want anyone knowing her background! It’s useful at times like this though :))
They open the door to the morgue and find Kwanghyun slumped over the body asleep. But when they wake him up, he announces to everyone’s surprise that the patient is still alive!
***
It’s funny that there are more and more upper class women falling over themselves to see Kwanghyun and they can’t do enough to help him. He gets help from Jinyung and the princess and now another yangban lady has entered the picture. So are we going to see a rivalry building between Eunso and the princess? Hope so.
I started off the episode feeling frustrated with the yangban – STEP AWAY from the patient FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! And what a cheeky man. First he asks for Kwanghyun’s help because he wants to keep the situation a secret, then he doesn’t want Kwanghyun’s help because he doesn’t like the idea that he is ONLY a horse doctor – this seems to disgust him. And then he threatens to KILL Kwanghyun if he doesn’t save his sister. GRRRRRR. He’s got a nerve.
I feel sorry for Sungha because he obviously cares deeply for Jinyung. But am I the only one who thinks that the idea of him marrying Jinyung is a bit odd? They have grown up together since they were children and so surely she is more like a sister to him. And she has not noticed that he has romantic feelings towards her? That’s odd too.
I think Sungha needs to get out more. He needs to get out and meet some more women. But I suppose Myunghwan is keen for him to marry Jinyung so that he can get his hands on her fortune. Myunghwan is in charge of looking after her assets right now but I suppose that will change when she gets married. Will he be as keen for her to marry Sungha when he realises that SHE is the one who is a peasant, NOT Kwanghyun? OH how I’m looking forward to the scene when all is revealed. But poor old Sungha would marry her anyway. Bless.
