Dr Romantic – Season 3 Episode 10 Recap & Review

The Abuse of Justice

Episode 10 of Dr Romantic Season 3 starts with A-reum taking care of some of the students from the building collapse incident, consoling them over the loss of their friends. There is chaos at both medical institutions when news reports that there was a second collapse in the building. Dong-hwa is scared and calls In-soo claiming that Eun-tak and Woo-jin are both trapped in the building during the crash.

Nurse Joo asks for the information to be kept from Eun-jae who’s performing surgery, while A-reum rushes to see Teacher Kim at the Trauma Centre. Teacher Kim tells In-soo that he’s going to the site to help both of them while he consoles A-reum, promising to bring Eun-tak back to the hospital safe and sound.

Eun-jae manages to finish her surgery with Min-guk while Moon-jung and Nurse Oh are working on the other patient in the operating room. Teacher Kim calls Dr Cha seeking help with the situation but he keeps cancelling his calls due to being occupied in court. Min-guk arranges for Teacher Kim to be transported to the building collapse site, asking him to bring the two boys back safely.

In the collapsed building, Eun-tak tries to wake Woo-jin up and learns that the doctor was trapped under debris, with two rebars passing through his left hand.

Eun-jae is out of surgery when she learns about Woo-jin while A-reum breaks down in front of Nurse Oh after learning about the situation. Teacher Kim shows up on site and tries to talk to the doctors who are trapped inside. Eun-tak answers the call and Teacher Kim is relieved to see he’s safe. He asks about Woo-jin and learns from Eun-tak that Woo-jin has been injured. Teacher Kim asks the paramedics to take him down to the bottom in order to rescue the two boys.

Woo-jin is in danger of losing the mobility of his hand if any mistake is made during his evacuation. Teacher Kim believes that he needs to be there to rescue Woo-jin and the teacher who were both injured due to the rebar and asks Dong-hwa to join him. Eun-tak also tells Teacher Kim that they had an asthmatic student as well as who was in critical condition. At the same time, a bunch of politicians show up on site and demand that Assemblywoman Ko’s rescue be prioritised.

The paramedics threaten the politician by stating that the news reporters were also on site and were covering their politics and would report their selfish behaviour. The politician, afraid of his public reputation backs off and asks his team to let the frontline workers do their job. Teacher Kim and Dong-hwa end up at the bottom of the building to rescue Eun-tak and Woo-jin. He is relieved to see that both his staff members were conscious but is shocked when he sees that a rebar had passed through Woo-jin’s wrist and entered and pierced the teacher’s chest while a second rebar has passed through Woo-jin’s palm.

Teacher Kim asks Woo-jin to bear the pain as Teacher Kim saws off the rebar that had passed his wrist and into the teacher’s chest. Woo-jin, despite his immense pain, allows Teacher Kim to do his job. Once the rebar is sawed off, Woo-jin is separated from the teacher and all patients are safely evacuated from the building and transported to Doldam Hospital. The woman running the restaurant that Woo-jin frequents is also shocked by the news reports of his accident. She prepares food for him because she is sure he would make it out alive from the scene.

When Eun-jae leaves the operation room, she is shocked to learn what had happened to Woo-jin. She breaks down while the doctors rush Woo-jin and the asthmatic patient to Doldam Hospital and the teacher is transported to the Trauma Centre for treatment. Eun-tak ignores his own injuries and sticks around the teacher because of the promise Woo-jin had made to his students. Eun-tak tells Eun-jae that Woo-jin was under Teacher Kim’s care and tells her that the teacher was the patient that Woo-jin tried to save with all his might.

Eun-jae promises to take care of the teacher herself since it was someone Woo-jin had risked his own safety for. Min-guk, In-soo and Eun-jae start operating on the teacher. Teacher Kim is worried about Woo-jin’s hand and wonders if his teachings were the reason Woo-jin had put himself in such grave danger. Since Woo-jin also was a surgeon, Teacher Kim worries that he will lose movement in his hand which will eventually result in him having to give up his profession.

Moon-jung finds Teacher Kim in his cabin and learns that Teacher Kim was running a fever. Teacher Kim claims that he needed to brave through his condition because Woo-jin had his trust in Teacher Kim and he was the only person who could save Woo-jin. The staff at Doldam Hospital prepare Woo-jin for the surgery by administering anaesthesia on him as Teacher Kim starts operating on his wrist to close up the hole the rebar had left.

Teacher Kim struggles to join the nerve in Woo-jin’s wrist but eventually manages to get his nerve to pump blood before moving on to remove the rebar on his palm. Teacher Kim’s hands start spasming from overworking on the surgery but braves it and starts pulling out the rebar from Woo-jin’s wrist in a way to damage the least amount of nerves in the process. Meanwhile, Eun-jae works with Seon-ung on the CT surgery alongside Eun-tak. Min-guk waits to take over the second half of the surgery on the teacher.

Teacher Kim treats the injury on Woo-jin’s wrist and sews his palm up, finishing the surgery. While more patients are being rescued from the building, Dr Cha leaves the courtroom and calls Eun-jae to understand the situation at Doldam. Eun-jae lashes out at her father for not being present when there was such a distressful situation at the two medical centres. Eun-jae then goes to Doldam Hospital to check on Woo-jin and meets Teacher Kim on the way. She thanks him for treating Woo-jin then checks on her boyfriend who was out of surgery and under observation.

Woo-jin wakes up to Eun-jae crying by his hospital bed and thanks her for saving the teacher on his behalf. The couple chats and Woo-jin reassures Eun-jae by saying that he was okay. The student who was worried for his teacher from the building crash is satisfied to see he was out of surgery and safe from danger. Meanwhile, Woo-jin narrates the importance of Teachers   I society and recalls how Teacher Kim had helped him and Eun-jae through their rough patches.

Later that day, Teacher Kim has a chat with Dong-hwa and the two argue that Dong-hwa was going to stay back at Doldam because he was starting to admire Teacher Kim. Dong-hwa rubbishes the claim and states that he was going to leave Doldam when he finishes his residency. The moment is corny but Dong-hwa runs away with his cassette player. Just then, Ki-tae tells Teacher Kim that Assemblywoman Ko was brought into the Trauma Centre after being rescued from the building fall.

Ki-tae believes that this was an awkward situation for them since she’s suing the medical institution. Nurse Oh asks Assemblywoman Ko’s secretaries to keep her in the observation area because her injuries are not a code red or orange that demand immediate attention. Her secretaries are infuriated because the medical staff was not prioritising a political figure, but In-soo observes Assemblywoman Ko’s leg. She asks to be moved to a different hospital and refuses to be treated by In-soo, but he insists to take a look at her leg.

In-soo determines that Assemblywoman Ko needs immediate medical assistance but the woman refuses to be treated at the same institution that was responsible for the death of his son. In-soo earnestly apologises to Assemblywoman Ko, and asks her not to risk her life due to her personal grudge against the institution.

The politician eventually agrees to be treated and is taken into the operating room. Meanwhile, the restaurant owner shows up at Doldam Hospital with food for Woo-jin to eat now that he’s out of surgery and well.

A-reum meets Eun-tak for the first time after the accident. She is upset with him for not leaving a text message about his safe return because she was worried sick about him. Eun-tak apologizes, given it totally slipped his mind but he cannot understand why A-reum was so upset about the situation. Eun-tak believes that the other staff at Doldam had informed A-reum that he was fine which further infuriates her.

The nurse believes that he’s worried about Woo-jin which leads A-reum to think Eun-tak never had her on his mind. She leaves him alone, upset by the conversation and goes back to Doldam Hospital where Dong-hwa overhears details about the fight between Eun-tak and A-reum.

Outside the Trauma Centre, Teacher Kim meets In-soo and tells him that he needed to stop being apologetic about things that were not in his control.

Teacher Kim claims that most people would not understand their situation and asks In-soo to prioritise those people that would understand them. In-soo uses the advice and chats with his daughter over the phone to cheer himself up. Teacher Kim goes inside Doldam Hospital and finds Dr Cha waiting for him there.

The two doctors clash about Dr Cha not being there when the medical institution needed him the most. Teacher Kim claims that Dr Cha was actually his Plan B when his phone starts ringing in his cabin. The episode ends with Teacher Kim’s phone getting a call from Kang Dong-ju.

The Episode Review

Out of all the things expected from this season, having Kang Dong-ju return to run the Trauma Centre was not one of them! I hoped for a cameo from Season 1 characters in this one but it looks like Dong-ju may be coming to stay and lead the doctors at the new instituiton, while Teacher Kim handles the Doldam Hospital.

It is clear that Teacher Kim is worried that Woo-jin is suffering because of his teachings and how the doctor had put his blind trust on Teacher Kim would be a huge responsibility. I worry that Woo-jin will not be able to perform surgery since a surgeon’s hand is their most prized possession.

Knowing that the show is making Woo-jin their best scapegoat, there will likely be some chaos ahead about him not being able to perform, but we’ll have to wait and see.

It is endearing to see Eun-tak and A-reum discuss his past and how he has overcome his struggles and persevered to be a healthcare worker. A-reum and Eun-tak’s romance is the highlight of this show after Eun-jae and Woo-jin, and I hope that Dong-hwa goes back to minding his business, to leave Eun-tak and A-reum alone.