EMERGENCY COUPLE EPISODE 11
This is an episode more momentous than most. The past is trotted out for us to see at multiple points, and we finally get a more complete picture of the people involved in this drama.
Jin Hee's major subplots are (A) recovering from a broken collarbone, and (B) moving a step forward in her relationship with Chang Min. Dr. Guk says that Chang Min worked tirelessly overnight tending to her. She starts to get the idea, as this episode progresses, that Chang Min might actually care for her. When she hears the snippet about Chang Min from Guk, she's shell-shocked, almost as if the news had literally stunned her. At the end of the night, she's grinning when Chang Min talks about their past to Jin Ae and her family, a marked change from Sang Hyuk's housewarming party in Episode 8. Both of them are smiling, laughter is in the air, and there's no word about the bad times. We also learn from Ji Hye that Dr. Guk cares about her too, which is a change from only caring about patients.
Chang Min's attitude changes for the better in this episode. When a renal patient dies on the table, he ceaselessly does chest compressions on the patient to revive him. At the end of the day, all he wanted to do was to save the patient, which is what Dr. Guk told Jin Hee was the main point of being a doctor.
Chang Min, in a rare moment, teams up with Jin Hee: together they work to contact the patient's ex-wife, whose kidney is needed to save his life. She's in the organ donor program and she is an exact match, but she rebuffs their attempts to contact her. Chang Min also talks with Jin Hee after he performs CPR and she comforts him as he is emotionally strung out. They talk together in that easy way between friends and remembers who they were when they were in love. I think the good memories are the ones that Chang Min clings to now, which is far better than dredging up old memories of bitter battles.
I find Chang Min's caring to be a bit...controlling? He won't let her feed herself, he won't let her drive, he won't let her sleep in a crowded house. Now, I've never broken a bone, but I know the routine: ice, pain meds, and sling wraps to keep you from moving your arm, which would be painful anyway. You'd probably have to sleep on your back in a limited space to keep from screwing up your collarbone even more. While feeding her is charming in some ways, it can also get to be a bit too much.
In spite of myself, I like Jin Ae's husband, Kwang Soo. As much as he's played for laughs, he also has an easy confidence and an outgoing nature, not to mention he's fiercely protective of his child and yet happy-go-lucky. Decidedly not anxious, he sees his whole future in front of him. Heedless of the general feelings of animosity towards Chang Min, Kwang Soo invites him in for soju and conversation. Jin Ae and Kwang Soo seem to have very little problems with him. What I don't understand is that Jin Hee's mother doesn't seem to have a problem with him, either (I believe her exact words to describe him were "handsome and smart"), so why hide him?
And we finally learn Ji Hye's secret. Chief Guk, at last with concrete evidence in hand, confronts her about the blood test results sent to the States. He's very firm here, not taking "no" for an answer. So, over several scenes, we learn that she is the mother of a four-year-old daughter and it was a test to see if her daughter was sick. It's not Guk's, it was another man who sired her and promptly left when she wouldn't abort the child. Why she was hiding it, I'm not sure. Maybe she didn't figure it was anyone's business but hers. However, she admits it rather easily to Jin Hee, who overhears a phone call to the little ankle-biter. Maybe it's because Jin Hee is another woman or maybe it's because Ji Hye already told Dr. Guk and it's become easier to tell someone else after that.
What happens to Yong Gyu is what I was worried about from the start. Ah Reum does not return his affections and "friendzones" him. She offers to be friends and obviously has less knowledge of men than she thinks. When a lovestruck man is told "let's be friends" by the object of his affection, the only thing he thinks is, "I have no chance with her," and that's all he usually fixates on. He's visibly hurt and I wonder if he will go through the stages of grief that usually accompany heartbreak. If so, will there be displays of bitterness and anger uncharacteristic of the usually upbeat Yong Gyu?
I hope we can see the relationship between Jin Hee and Chang Min flourish like it did in the past. Getting back together with the ex is usually touted as a very bad thing, but this show is giving us hints that it might work. Maybe? Hopefully? Thoughts?
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