Heo Jun episode 39 Suspicious Deaths at the Palace
There are two deaths in this episode: a suicide and a sudden death brought on by diabetes. But Heo Jun’s investigations suggest that something fishy is going on especially when he discovers that banmyo poison has some connection to the deaths. Meanwhile the nurses have their exam to see who will be transferred to the palace to look after the royal family – Ye Jin comes top of the class, but the female doctor at the palace doesn’t seem to want excellent nurses! Yang Tae goes back to smuggling like he did in the old days with Heo Jun, but things don’t go according to plan …
Heo Jun is told that someone has committed suicide in one of the hospital buildings. He rushes over there but it’s too late. The man, who hanged himself, is already dead. Heo Jun’s superiors are very cold and simply point out that HE will have to take responsibility as HE was on night duty when the suicide happened! But Heo Jun is suspicious: the man had been dead for several hours but the bruises on his neck do not reflect this. Something is not right.
Heo Jun is in trouble when someone commits suicide on his watch
Meanwhile, to make some extra money, Yang Tae gets Koo Ilsu and Oh Gun to join him in some illegal trading – just like he used to do in the old days with Heo Jun. But it turns out that the traders have brought less goods to trade than was originally agreed. (looks like ginseng and material) Yang Tae is troubled but then he remembers back to when the same situation occurred with Heo Jun. (Heo Jun refused to budge from his price and told Yang Tae to set fire to the goods he was going to trade. The traders panicked when they realised he was prepared to burn everything rather than sell at a lower fee, so they quickly agreed to pay.) So Yang Tae orders Oh Geum to set fire to their products. (NOOOOO! Don’t do it, Yang Tae) But of course his plan backfires 😉 and the traders simply laugh as Yang Tae burns his own goods! So in the end Yang Tae is humiliated and has to back down and even offer a lower price now that half his stuff is ruined. Oh Gun and Koo Ilsu are FURIOUS with him. But it’s a reminder that Heo Jun was different from the beginning! 😉
Things go pear-shaped when Yang Tae tries to lead an illegal trading expedition
Over at the nurses classroom, the ladies are getting ready for a medical exam which will determine who will be transferred to the palace to look after the royal family. Everyone wants to go but only the two best nurses will be chosen. Heo Jun is sent to teach the nurses. One of the nurses, So Hyun, is a very hardworking student and wants desperately to be taken seriously as a nurse. A bit of rivalry begins between So Hyun and Ye Jin! It’s no surprise that they come top of the class.
There’s competition for Ye Jin as another ambitious nurse gets Heo Jun’s attention!
It looks like So Hyun and Ye Jin are going to be sent to the palace. The head female doctor from the palace turns up to choose the two nurses, but she has no interest in the test results and simply chooses two ladies with average scores from the class – Se Hee and Chae Sun. The head doctor says she can train the nurses herself. But Hong Choon is furious. She knows that the female doctor chose nurses without skills so that they would not be any competition for her! (She must be the female version of Lord Yang! And BTW I bet this would NEVER have happened when Dae Jang Geum was head female doctor. 🙁 )
The head female doctor comes to choose two nurses for the palace
Da Hee is working hard as usual at the port trying to make a living when someone seems to recognise her and surreptitiously follows her home. (The music is sinister, but I get the feeling that this man is probably a servant from Da Hee’s aristocratic family)
Da Hee is followed home by someone who seems to recognise her
Sir Lee goes to see his friend, Official Tae Hoon. They discuss the political situation – the two government parties are fighting and Sir Lee should take a side. etc. etc. Sir Lee admits that he’s not ambitious. But in the midst of their ‘innocent conversation’ (although it feels like we are being told that something ‘political’ is going to happen) suddenly Sir Lee’s friend collapses – looks like a heart attack.
In a panic Sir Lee rushes out to find a doctor and who should be there but Heo Jun. Heo Jun rushes in to help. The patient is in a critical condition. So Heo Jun is just about to give him ’emergency acupuncture’ when Do Ji storms in and Heo Jun is cast aside (since he is subordinate to Do Ji. But this has to be one of the most annoying scenes so far – the man is DYING and they are wasting precious TIME. Heo Jun has to step aside and Do Ji steps up to check his pulse again. So of course while he’s doing this the patient dies. (Duh! Do Ji. Why didn’t you just let Heo Jun finish?)
Later Do Ji carries out an ‘autopsy’ by checking inside the dead official’s mouth with a silver spoon (if the spoon goes dark he has been poisoned.) The silver comes out clean. Do Ji reports to Sir Lee that the patient died suddenly – probably due to diabetes…
Do Ji takes over the treatment of the official who promptly dies
Heo Jun seems suspicious about this death too. He discovers that the official was given medicine for his diabetes brought to him from the welfare clinic every day. Heo Jun investigates and discovers that the person in charge of his medicine is the man who has just ‘committed suicide’. This can’t be a coincidence. In the dead man’s belongings Heo Jun finds poison. He goes to tell Sir Lee that something fishy is going on …
Do Ji conducts an autopsy while Sir Lee is saddened by the sudden death of his friend
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So it looks like the nursing department is just as bad as the doctors – the head doesn’t want to employ anyone who is better than she is! The scene when the head female doctor chooses the two average nurses was annoying.
Meanwhile I think we can predict that Heo Jun is going to unmask a murder in the palace that Do Ji did not realise in his autopsy and this is going to cause trouble. Sir Lee is of course going to be involved into the whole mess too …
