Dr Brain – K-Drama Episode 4 Recap & Review

The Butterfly Effect

Episode 4 of Dr Brain begins with Sewon looking at Hee-Jin’s drawing. Sketched in pencil is a picture of a butterfly but the drawing behind that, using the framework of the butterfly as a sort of window, depicts Doyoon standing outside. The fallen leaves seem to imply it’s autumn. Only, as Doyoon actually died in the summer, Sewon sees this as a sign that the boy is still alive. Soo-Seok warns that he’s still a murder suspect but Sewon is a man possessed.

Sewon though is dead-set on finding Dr Namil Hong. However, he’s not alone in this pursuit. Dr Noh (not to be confused with the villain from James Bond) is also after him.

Sewon heads back to see Jae-Yi who’s still in a coma. He admits that he’s losing control of his memories, unsure whether this could be a direct link back to Junki or not. Right on time though, Lee Kang-Mu’s ghost appears, encouraging Sewon to go back to basics and start from the beginning again. And part of that comes from visiting the vacation house for clues.

While the caregiver inside distracts the guards, Sewon slips out from his house and takes off. When the officers do finally catch wind of what’s happening, they begin chasing Sewon through the streets. Soo-Seok also catches wind of this too and takes off.

The vacation house has been completely burned to the ground, but it doesn’t stop Sewon rekindling old memories from the past. Here we see Sewon show up alongside Hee-Jin and Doyoon, who both get along really well. The cracks begin to form for Sewon.

Snapping back to the present, Sewon begins to doubt his own abilities and calls himself useless, unsure how to adjust to life. He does, however, remember how the fire started after looking over the burnt fragments on the ground. A phone in the microwave caught light, ripping flames through the house. The place seems to have been intentionally staged to cause an explosion, as echoes of someone pouring gasoline over the floor bleed through.

Now, flashbacks show what really took place. While Jae-Yi was out the house, looking for Mikasa (the cat) who’s run away, Doyoon is knocked out in bed. His body is replaced with a decoy, while the place is rigged up to explode. Based on this, it’s safe to assume that Doyoon is alive after all, given his body was replaced, but why? And for what reason?

Sewon is determined to find out the truth .He heads to the grave site and begins digging. Kang-Mu warns that he could get charged with grave desecration but he doesn’t care. Once Sewon digs up the body, he begins taking bone samples, which confirms that the child is not Doyoon.

The truth however, is also something Soo-Seok and Sergeant Park are after too. They show up at Namil Hong’s place – but they’re not alone. Hong’s mother has been tortured for information, missing a finger and visibly shook up. The perpetrators manage to slip away.

Soo-Seok continues to investigate, learning that Hong bought a KTX train ticket and he’s on his way to Hapcheon. It seems his destination may actually be a temple, especially if a flyer at his house is anything to go by.

Sewon returns home and realizes the boy who Doyoon was replaced with seems to have a surgical scar across his head. This would mean he could well be one of Sewon’s patients. He hurriedly rings Soo-Seok to let her know, but she’s obviously busy up at the temple.

Sewon gives the incompetent officers outside the runaround, managing to make it to the hospital where Doyoon was being treated. There, he awaits Dr Hyun in the waiting room. Only, he notices the same butterfly shape as before, hanging up on the window. Given Hee-Jin drew Doyoon in the background, it seems he’s on the right track.

Sewon doesn’t bother to wait and heads right in to see Dr. Hyun Soo-Jung. She agrees to hand over Doyoon’s records but she stalls for time, communicating with Dr. M. on her computer. We’ve seen that name before, back in the first episode when Sewon went to the clinic.

When Soo-Jung leaves the room, Sewon begins investigating and finding no record of Doyoon on the computer, he finds a picture of Dr Myung, who happens to be our Dr M. Anyway, he’s standing with Soo-Jung and a whole bunch of other staff together. As he looks in wide-eyed shock, the door suddenly bolts open. Uh oh!

The Episode Review

So Dr Brain returns with an intriguing episode, one that deepness the ties and brings everything back around to the vacation home and what happened there in the past. It seems Doyoon is actually still alive, with a decoy child put in his place. But why? To what end?

With no cat abilities or crazy visions (unless you count ghost Kang-Mu popping up for an appearance) the episode instead focuses more on the investigative side of things.

There’s definitely an air of Polish series “Open our eyes” in this, linking back to the visions and and tying up loose ends, but the show sometimes struggles to stand out tonally.

There have been moments of horror, sci-fi, mystery and drama nestled in this and the drip-fed release of 1 episode a week doesn’t help. I actually think releasing two episodes a week instead – across Fridays and Saturdays perhaps – would have served much better for Dr Brain’s prospects. Either way though, this is still an intriguing episode, leaving many questions over what’s really going on here.