Heo Jun episode 45 Rumours
At last we get a moment to breathe as Heo Jun is given time to celebrate and enjoy time with his family after his patient recovers. He is given a house as a gift and a promotion, and everything suddenly looks rosy. On the other hand, Do Ji’s life takes a turn for the worse – he loses his top job as doctor to the princes, and an unsavoury rumour almost gets him thrown out of the palace altogether …
Heo Jun celebrates with his family after curing the royal patient. His family have been given silk from the palace, which they could sell for food, but Heo Jun announces that they have to make clothes from the silk as they have been invited to the palace and Gong Bin wants to meet them. But first, after all the drama Heo Jun can concentrate on his family for a while as he takes a break from work and thinks about the hardships his wife has been through.
Heo Jun’s family celebrate and he apologises to his wife for their hard life
Heo Jun takes his family to meet Gong Bin (Ye Jin gazes after them as they leave the hospital in their fine clothes. 🙁 ) There is more good news waiting for Heo Jun. Gong Bin has given the family a house as a gift for saving her brother. And she wants him to become royal doctor to her sons. (one of them becomes the next king). But Heo Jun wants to stay at the welfare hospital. So they reach a compromise – Heo Jun will stay at the hospital but if the princes get sick he has to come and look after them.
Heo Jun takes his family to meet Gong Bin
And now for another of my favourite scenes …
After the meeting with Gong Bin, Lord Yang calls Heo Jun to his office. First he compliments him on his good work and he accepts that Heo Jun did everything right when he treated the patient. But then Lord Yang brings up that event – the most humiliating experience of his life – when 20 years ago he agreed to compete (but lost) in the nine needle bet with Dr Yoo. He admits that the incident has plagued him all these years but now he IS ready to admit that Dr Yoo is the best doctor in Joseon. There is a calmness about him here as though he has let go of the humiliation and anger. He admits that Dr Yoo must be the best doctor in Joseon because he managed to train a student like Heo Jun. (Oh. It’s a poignant moment. And another reason why I love this drama – there are so many different emotions going on with different characters as they develop at their own pace. It’s taken Lord Yang 20 years to come to terms with what happened. But now he seems to have finally found some peace.)
Lord Yang accepts that Dr Yoo is the best doctor in Joseon
But on the other hand, Do Ji’s life is anything but peaceful. In fact he is very stressed out. He feels that he has lost Gong Bin’s trust since Heo Jun is essentially in charge of looking after her children now. And then when Se Hee (the nurse who tricked him into thinking he slept with her) tries to comfort him he harshly turns her away – not a good idea. Poor old Do Ji seems completely clueless when it comes to women. Se Hee is not ready to be cast aside and so when he refuses her kind words she turns to blackmail reminding him that a doctor who has an affair with a nurse will be in big trouble. 😮
In a panic Do Ji confides in his right hand man who is confident that he can make this problem go away. Next thing we know Se Hee is charged with making a serious mistake with the medicines. But if she promises to stay quiet over what happened with Do Ji they will ‘let her’ stay in the palace. Of course she realises this is a set up and that she is the one being blackmailed now. This angers her even more…. 👿 Soon a rumour spreads around the palace about an inappropriate relationship between nurse Se Hee and Do Ji. And Do Ji notices there is a very strange atmosphere in the medicine room.
Do Ji handles Se Hee roughly and has to pay the price
Over at the welfare hospital Ye Jin and So Hyun are with a critically ill patient. The doctors are all busy and the patient suddenly becomes unconscious. So So Hyun applies emergency acupuncture. But one of the lazy head doctors rushes in and sees this and slaps her face for daring to treat a patient. (I’m not sure what brought him into the ward right at that moment though as he never does any work there!) Even though Heo Jun confirms that she has saved the patient’s life, the unreasonable superior wants the nurses punished because rules are rules -only nurses in the palace are allowed to apply acupuncture without a doctor’s permission.
But our new improved Lord Yang simply congratulates the nurses on a good job and lets them off – much to Team Heo Jun’s surprise and delight. Lord Yang also wonders why the excellent nurses haven’t been sent to the palace already. (He should ask the head female doctor that question, shouldn’t he? grrrr!)
So Hyun gets in trouble for treating a patient with acupuncture
The good news for Heo Jun continues as he is promoted to a 7th rank official – a big promotion. Doesn’t this mean that Heo Jun and Do Ji are now the same level? On the other hand, Do Ji is given a job that is usually done by lower ranks. When he asks why, Lord Yang angrily replies he is lucky to still be in the palace after all the rumours….
Heo Jun gets promoted while Do Ji is demoted!
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I do feel sorry for Do Ji in a way here with his lady problem – since he didn’t actually sleep with Se Hee and had no interest in her or any intention of sleeping with her. However, he does BELIEVE that he slept with her while he was drunk and simply can’t remember what happened, and so he should take responsibility for this or at least try to deal with the situation more sensitively. For a sophisticated and intelligent man, Do Ji is a complete idiot and very naive when it comes to women. He could have tried to deal with this problem himself directly by sitting Se Hee down and trying to gently reason with her. She likes him. Some sensitivity to her feelings might have worked. Or he could have been nice to her and led her on making her believe that she might stand a chance with him some time in the future. Or he could even have started an affair with her. But no. He simply shouts at her and wants to brush the whole situation under the carpet. Part of me finds this endearing – he’s certainly not a womanising charmer. But on the other hand, he is still very selfish and as always he just wants to save his own neck. And if that means ruining another person’s life? Well, so be it.
