Heo Jun episode 30 It’s THAT Episode
Who could forget this, the iconic scene from the whole drama – the autopsy.
Dr Yoo has called his doctor friends and Heo Jun to the mountain cave. They wonder what’s going on but when they get there they discover that Dr Yoo is dead. He slashed his wrists and committed suicide and he told them all to come here on a specific day – so that his body would still be warm.
There’s a will addressed to Heo Jun: Dr Yoo has left his own body to him and wants him to dissect him so that Heo Jun can find out what is inside the human body. (this has not been done before). He wants Heo Jun to become a better doctor and cure diseases that so far have been incurable.
The doctors arrive to find Dr Yoo has committed suicide
Heo Jun is in shock and can’t even contemplate cutting his teacher open at first. But this is his teacher’s final lesson and the others instruct Heo Jun that he must go ahead. Otherwise Dr Yoo has killed himself for nothing.
Dr Yoo has even prepared a range of special surgical knives that he bought from the blacksmith especially. Heo Jun has no choice but to go ahead with the procedure and he dissects the body while Min Se says a payer. Heo Jun tells himself that this is the way that Dr Yoo can live on forever. He also draws lots of diagrams as he dissects the body. And it isn’t until the end of the operation that he breaks down and cries.
Heo Jun does as his teacher requested
Heo Jun arrives back in Sanum exhausted. But his family has no idea what he’s been through. After 3 full days of sleep he heads off to Hanyang to tell Do Ji and his mum that Dr Yoo is dead. They take it badly as it was so unexpected – it seems that they had no idea he was sick and simply wanted to punish Dr Yoo and show him later how successful they had become without him. They never thought they wouldn’t see him again.
Heo Jun later tells Do Ji what he did in the cave and tries to give Do Ji the diagrams he drew of Dr Yoo! But Do Ji is disgusted and throws Heo Jun out. He rages at his father too wondering why he let Heo Jun cut him open whilst ignoring his own son.
Dr Yoo’s wife is shocked to hear the news. Do Ji is angry when he hears what Heo Jun did
Back in Sanum Heo Jun takes over the running of Dr Yoo’s hospital but Dr Yoo’s wife soon arrives and tells him to leave. She plans to sell the hospital.
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This has got to be the most intense episode of the drama – perhaps of any sageuk drama I’ve seen. And there are SO MANY EMOTIONS wrapped up in the cave scene. The combination of SADNESS at the death of his teacher mixed with GUILT knowing that this is illegal and pretty GROTESQUE to cut up one’s own teacher! But there must also be a doctor’s professional CURIOSITY mixed in too. They need to see what’s going on inside the human body and Dr Yoo is giving them that opportunity. The doctors are so RESPECTFUL though through the whole procedure. I wonder if anyone watched this scene without crying?
Do Ji is shocked at the news of his father’s death but seems more angry than upset – because his father chose Heo Jun instead of him. Of course later Do Ji doesn’t want the information that Heo Jun tries to share with him. I thought it was a bit too soon for Heo Jun to do that really – give Do Ji diagrams of his father’s internal body! Do Ji has only just heard that his father has died and he needs time to mourn. Especially when he was not expecting this news.
Dr Yoo’s wife is quickly back on form and it seems she has got over her husband’s death. I was surprised that she cried when she heard the news since there was no love lost between them. He never even mentioned her once after she left. But perhaps she was just shocked that she would never get the chance to parade her new success in front of her difficult husband.
