Horse Doctor Episode 42

Kwanghyun performs another successful operation, this time on the princess. But he’s fired from his position straight afterwards! Before Kwanghyun leaves the hospital he faces up to Myunghwan and warns him that he’ll be back. And then it will be Myunghwan’s turn to leave …

Kwanghyun rushes into the the princess quarters and drags Choi away from her. He knows that Choi made the princess sick on purpose so that he could use her as a guinea pig to practise a dangerous operation. Choi looks shocked that Kwanghyun has figured all this out – after Kayong found the musk on the floor. And he’s even more shocked that Kwanghyun announces that HE HAS done this operation before – Choi has only read about it in his book.

Choi is removed and guards are put in place around the princess’ quarters. Not even a disgruntled Myunghwan is allowed in to see her. (He acts innocent as though he has NO IDEA what is going on. Yeah, right!) The other doctors realise that Choi (and so surely Myunghwan too) made the princess sicker on purpose.

Choi ponders over the reality that Kwanghun has more knowledge that he does!

Meanwhile Kwanghyun explains the situation to the king. The princess is in a critical situation because her throat is swollen and she can’t breathe properly. They have to do something to remove the swelling or she is going to die. Kwanghyun timidly admits that there IS an operation he has carried out before which will reduce the swelling.

Why didn’t you mention this before? Lord Oh asks with surprise.

Of course the reason is that he knows the king is NOT GOING TO LIKE what he has to say! And he’s right. Kwanghyun has only done the operation before on HORSES.

So he will have to use needles for horses (which are much thicker and longer than needles for people). The king is HORRIFIED. Kwanghyun wants to do an operation on the Princess of Joseon using instruments for HORSES? 🙂 In other words, Kwanghyun is comparing the princess to an animal 😉 (but hasn’t he been in this predicament before?)

Kwanghyun begs the king to allow him to operate on the princess

Kwanghyun begs the king to consider this idea as it is the only option that they have at the moment and time is running out. But the king is FUMING and he has Kwanghyun thrown out of his chamber. Lord Oh is left to support Kwanghyun pointing out that Kwanghyun did save his life too by amputating his leg (although it was hard for Lord Oh to accept at first).

While Kwanghyun kneels outside calling out to the king and begging him to change his mind, the queen mother turns up outraged at Kwanghun’s suggestion to operate on the princess as though she were an ANIMAL. She demands that the guards take him away and that he be punished. But the king has been told that the princess is getting worse. So just in time the king comes out and to the queen mother’s shock, he tells Kwanghyun to go ahead and operate.

Now we have a moving scene as Kwangyun calmly comforts the princess promising her that everything will be all right. He shows her the instruments that he is going to use. She looks worried but she trusts him and he calmly begins the operation. We see the inside of her throat as the needle prods around trying to find the swollen areas. He needs to pierce these areas and drain the blood.

The princess struggles to breathe as Kwanghyun prepares to operate

The operation is a success but afterwards the princess starts to choke. The king arrives and hears everyone calling her name and he rushes in to see her. But it doesn’t look good. Kwanghyun encourages her to spit out the blood. Finally she spits and she can breathe again. Phew! Everyone is relieved and the king apologises to Kwanghyun for not listening to him in the first place.

But Choi and Myunghwan are annoyed.  Choi can’t believe that Kwanghyun is using a veterinary procedure to cure the princess. (This is something he couldn’t do himself and so he must be annoyed that Kwanghyun DOES have more medical skills than he does after all.)

Myunghwan seems more worried about saving himself and getting rid of Kwanghyun. (now that Kwanghyun has successfully healed the princess he will be up for promotion). He has to think quick and hurries off to see Lord Jung with a plan – although the operation was successful he suggests they complain that Kwanghyun still insulted the royal family by treating the princess like an animal. 🙁

Myunghwan thinks of another way to get rid of Kwanghyun

Dr Saam visits Choi. (I don’t know why Choi is still not arrested. Didn’t Kwanghyun explain to the king that he had made her sickness worse on purpose? And surely Myunghwan should be arrested too my now?) Dr Saam tries to persuade Choi to change his life and be a better man. But Choi just tells him to get out!

Everyone else is celebrating the success of the operation. But not so fast. Suddenly, Jabong announces that Kwanghyun may be fired! Lord Jung and Lord Oh argue in a meeting with the king – Lord Jung is adamant that Kwanghyun insulted the royal family. And to back him up, yangban gather outside the palace gates to beg the king to sack the man who operated on the princess and so treated her like an animal!

Kwanghyun and Jinyung watch the officials begging the king to fire Kwanghyun

But Kwanghyun doesn’t seem too concerned that he’s going to be fired. He faces up to Myunghwan who looks very smug. But Kwanghyun merely warns Myunghwan that he will be back. And when he comes back, it will be MYUNGHWAN who will be out. 😉 These words haunt Myunghwan after Kwanghun goes. Then Kwanghyun asks Dusik for a favour – to allow him to have a look at the records from three years ago when Kwanghyun had to leave Joseon. He checks back to make sure that Lord Jung was aware of Myunghwan’s involvement in that episode.

Kwanghyun checks the records of three years ago

The king is under pressure to fire Kwanghyun since the queen mother is also pushing this by refusing to eat until he is gone. So quickly a notice is put up to confirm that Kwanghyun has been fired.

The teacher is the most worried about this situation as he has left Team Myunghwan and now thinks that he made the wrong decision.  He tries to butter up Myunghwan’s head doctor. But he has more important things to worry about – he remembers that Myunghwan made him get the musk. And so he realises that maybe Myunghwan DID know that Choi was going to harm the princess. But HE was the one who got the musk so could he be blamed for hurting the princess? He shares his concern with Lord Jung who tells him to watch Myunghwan carefully. Lord Jung knows what Myunghwan is capable of, but they have no choice but to stick together now.

A notice is put up to confirm that Kwanghyun has been fired

No one seems to know where Kwanghyun is. The king tells Lord Oh that Kwanghyun wanted to be fired because he has something to do.

Later Sungha meets him in secret. Kwanghyun explains that Myunghwan murdered his biological father, the father who adopted him, and his mentor Doctor Ko. And for that, he intends to make him pay …

 Sungha is becoming more aware of Myunghwan’s crimes

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The queen mother is very annoying. What has she got against Kwanghyun? Is it merely because she thinks he comes from the peasant class? So he did a veterinary procedure on the princess? So what? He still saved her life, didn’t he? 

I don’t know why she keeps siding with Myunghwan when we can see that his days are numbered. He is putting up a fight though calling on all his contacts to help him: Lord Jung, the queen mother, and lots of other officials. But gradually everyone is starting to have their suspicions about him – that he DID have something to do with the princess’ sickness. Even his own children suspect his actions since he hired the dodgy doctor, Choi. 

Kwanghyun is in a bit of a predicament though, because when he takes down Myunghwan he will also hurt Jinyung since Myunghwan is still a father figure to her. (Even though she knows he has done a lot of bad stuff.) Kwanghyun respects Sungha too. So is Kwanghun going to try to help Sungha here? Because when he brings down Myunghwan, Myunghwan’s whole family with be tainted with his crimes and that includes Sungha. Perhaps if Sungha is involved in revealing Myunghwan’s crimes, then that will help to save Sungha’s reputation? Poor Sungha 🙁