Doctor Cha – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Worst Birthday Present

Episode 8 of Doctor Cha sees everyone in shock as Roy hugs Jeong-suk and is relieved that she’s safe. Jeong-suk is shocked and taken aback, telling everyone that she’s fine. However all the other doctors are in uproar about this and rampant with rumours, including how these three are in a love triangle. Dr Jeon though doesn’t buy it and knows there’s nothing going on between In-ho and Jeong-suk, as she’s seen him with Seung-hi.

After what’s happened, Jeong-suk is more concerned with Hwang than anything else. He’s been taken to the psychiatry unit now but things could have been a lot worse. She blames Jeon’s nonchalance to the whole endeavour last episode, and she even personally moves the patient upstairs, pointing out that the hospital have been cold and not valuing life like they should.

Of all people here, Jeong-suk knows about survival and making the most of every moment in life, and even gives the guy some encouraging words, telling him he has plenty to live for. It seems like he’s going to be okay, given his partner is going to stand by his side no matter what.

Jeong-suk is jealous of what they have and tells In-ho as much, admitting that this sort of bond is something she wishes she had. Jeong-suk suggests they fly over to Jeju Island and spend time together but In-jho shrugs it off, claiming they’ve already been away on vacation. Jeong-suk is incredulous, especially as In-ho realizes the error of his ways and realizes that he mixed up with Seung-hi. Uh oh! He tries to claim it’s just a bad memory and that he was there for a work conference.

Jeong-suk continues to pry though and speaks to I-rang about Eun-seo. According to the latter, her mother is divorced. That’s what she’s told I-rang anyway. Of course, this is in direct contradiction to what Seung-hi told her about being married.

Speaking of contradictions, Seung-hi tells In-ho about her daughter’s intent on getting into art academy and tells In-ho to make more of an effort with her. All of this is about to come tumbling down, and you sense the end is nigh for In-ho’s secrets. In fact, Eun-seo speaks to In-ho and points out she actually approached I-rang intentionally and started to become friends solely to oust all the secrets. And when I-rang shows up and sees her father here with Eun-seo, everything comes out in the most devastating way possible.

I-rang realizes her best friend is actually her half-sister and In-ho is a cheater and liar. She hurries out and can barely control her anger. She warns In-ho and tells him not to say anything to Jeong-suk, otherwise she doesn’t know what she’ll do.

Ae-sim is at home though and she learns the truth too about Seung-hi and Eun-seo. She reprimands her son and tells him to allow I-rang whatever she wants in order to keep everything quiet. And that includes letting her go to art school.

Meanwhile, Jung-min drops something off at In-ho’s desk and sees that his dad has left his phone there. Unfortunately, Jung-min sees messages from Seung-hi asking to meet at the 2nd floor emergency exit at 5pm. Curious, he decides to show up and see what’s going on. He sees the worst; Seung-hi is hugging In-ho and comforting her.

As a result, he can’t focus during surgery. When he confronts In-ho about it, he questions whether I-rang told him and walks right into a minefield. One that blows up in his face as Jung-min walks away, angry and dismayed in his father.

The whole family are in agony over keeping this from Jeong-suk, and try to work out how to move forward. Jung-min gives a timeframe of 3 years to decide what he wants to do and choose which family, which is the timeframe for when Jeong-suk finishes her residency. Everyone is going to cooperate…except for Roy who can’t decide whether he’s going to keep quiet or not, given the conflicting information from Seung-hi and In-ho. He calls them both cowards individually, and leaves things hanging in the balance.

At the same time, Mi-hee and Jeong-suk decide to go and get their psychic reading. There, the psychic tells Jeong-suk that she needs to be careful as men are going to be falling over her in her future.

With Jeong-suk’s birthday coming up, the family decide to throw a big bash for her at the local hotel with a lovely meal. Roy Kim passes her on the way out and tells her he still has something to say. She believes that he’s the man that’s after her, so she tells him to keep quiet about that. Instead, Roy swallows his pride and he wishes her happy birthday.

Jeong-sik is glowing but that glow soon leaves when she notices one of the workers looking through social media. It’s Seung-hi’s profile and Jeong-suk takes a peek through the previous posts. She has a whole load of photos from Paris including a hashtag about couple goals that rings alarm bells. Unfortunately, she lets slip that In-ho went on vacation around that time too and the bracelet is on full display.

Jeong-suk starts to spiral, realizing that all the puzzle pieces are coming together now. All these vacation pictures and on one of them, she notices that In-ho is actually in the reflection of the glass, confirming the absolute worst. How no one else has picked up on this from the hospital or with her friends and family however, is anyone’s guess!

Jeong-suk switches back to family medicine with Dr Moon, losing her temper in the process, and then shows up at the hotel as scheduled for her birthday. However, Seung-hi also turns up too and the murderous look Jeong-suk shoots her father, promises that all of this is about to blow up in the most chaotic way.

The Episode Review

Poor Jeong-suk. The secret was going to come out sooner rather than later and it happens at the worst possible time, right on her birthday. Jeong-suk is such a lovely person and she really doesn’t deserve this. Unfortunately, she’s forced to face the music and now that the whole family are aware, everything is going to cause chaos for the rest of the series now. Will Jeong-suk manage to keep her head for that long?

After the outburst with Dr Moon, she could well get herself in a lot of trouble but hopefully she’ll come out on top and realize that Roy Kim is the one for her.

Jung-min and I-rang both see the reality of who their father really is, and just how hard Jeong-suk has worked to try and keep the family in check. And really, Seung-hi and In-ho deserve each other given how cowardly they both are. They can quite easily sneak around behind Jeong-suk’s back but as soon as things get hard, they run.

The ending to this episode leaves everything hanging in the balance in such a precarious way that next week’s double bill is turning into an absolute must-watch.