Dr Romantic – Season 3 Episode 8 Recap & Review

Underdog Effect

Episode 8 of Dr Romantic Season 3 starts with Eun-tak having a chat with the bikers. One of the bikers threatens Eun-tak by claiming to leak the video of him attacking Seok-woo. He asks Eun-tak to meet in private and they go to the hospital basement. At the same time, the hospital staff learn from the news that the military base shooter was a soldier himself and was someone who was armed. Ki-tae and Chief Lee are worried that the shooter could come to the hospital anytime.

Meanwhile, Eun-jae struggles to see the patient almost die on the hospital bed. Teacher Kim takes over the surgery and manages to review the patient somehow by manually getting his heart pumping again. He pushes Eun-jae to pull herself together and save the patient. At Doldam Hospital, Nurse Nom learns that the trekking patient has fled from his hospital bed. Woo-jin also goes looking for Eun-tak and notices that he was still in his scrubs, which meant that he was still in the hospital.

In the basement, the biker beats Eun-tak up and forces him to steal illegal narcotics that were at the hospital. He claims that Eun-tak’s cooperation will ensure that the new life he had built will remain intact. The biker threatens to leak the video which will get Eun-tak suspended. He claims that their friend Won-young died because of Eun-tak leaving him shocked. Woo-jin is still looking for Eun-tak when Nurse Nom tells him and the rest of the team that the trekking patient was missing too.

Woo-jin claims that his leg was still injured so it was certain that the patient was around. They all start looking for the patient and Eun-tak both when Ki-tae spots a group of patients approaching Doldam Hospital. Dong-hwa finds Woo-jin looking around for Eun-tak when Ki-tae tells him about the patient who has come after a road accident. There is chaos at Doldam Hospital and Woo-jin, Dong-hwa and A-reum are the only doctors available. They start checking up on the patients one by one while Nurse Oh assists Dr Cha during gunshot victim surgery.

Dr Cha discovers that the bullet had lodged into the patient’s bone but he manages to finish his part of the surgery before Teacher Kim could take over. Dr Cha finishes up and watches Teacher Kim perform surgery on the patient. He notices something peculiar about Teacher Kim’s hand movement but does not pay much attention to it. On his way out, Dr Cha runs into Eun-jae, asking him about the surgery. She does not tell him anything about the surgery but Do-il runs into him and mentions that they almost lost the patient on the table.

Do-il claims that Eun-jae had forgotten to insert another tube in the right side of the patient’s body before the surgery and it could have cost the patient his life. Dr Cha recalls how he had advised Eun-jae against the procedure. Do-il claims that Teacher Kim was able to bring the patient back to life. Eun-jae meets In-soo and the two share their respective traumas. Eun-jae mentions that she almost cost a patient his life and In-soo claims that he now makes sure all his patients are attached to the monitor. Eun-jae mentions how it was rather calm and just like clockwork the phones start buzzing at the Trauma Centre with new patient admissions.

Meanwhile, Seon-ung takes his time with the surgery on the motorcycle accident patient but is doing a good job. Moon-jung supports him and asks him to hasten the surgery as it was taking quite some time. At Doldam, Ki-tae starts looking for the shooter who could be at the hospital, planning to assault the military officers again. Nurse Nom tells him that the shooter was a patient at Doldam and was missing causing the administrator to be worried.

A-reum and Dong-hwa are treating the patients from the road accident when Eun-tak shows up with bruises on his face. Woo-jin comes in to check on Eun-tak and asks him if everything was alright. Eun-tak claims it was all okay and gets to work. A-reum is worried about him. Just then, Ki-tae and Nurse Nom tell Woo-jin that the shooter was none other than the hiker. Woo-jin is sure that he could not have fled away with his leg injury. Both hospitals are on high alert trying to look for the hiker/shooter.

Just then, the military officer tells Teacher Kim that the hiker/shooter was still armed with a weapon that has 30-60 bullets. The group is further worried ad Teacher Kim asks In-soo to evacuate the observation rooms at the Trauma Centre and be on guard while Teacher Kim takes charge of the Doldam Hospital. The doctors are on guard, but the shooter makes his way into Doldam Hospital’s ICU. He asks the nurses and Dong-hwa to leave the patient alone but Dong-hwa refuses to do so.

In a shaky voice, Dong-hwa claims that if he did leave, the gunman would kill the patient. Dong-hwa tries to convince the patient to stop but he threatens to kill Dong-hwa instead. Woo-jin comes in just in time and divers the shooter’s attention.

At the Trauma Centre, In-soo is getting all the staff and the patients from the observatory area to evacuate from the medical facility into a safe house but Eun-jae tells Dr Cha that she needed to be by the patient and make sure he is stable. Eun-jae tells her father that she needed to take responsibility for the patient and decides to stay there. Woo-jin tries to talk the shooter into leaving Doldam Hospital but the shooter tries to kill Woo-jin.

Teacher Kim comes to Doldam Hospital’s Emergency Room just in time as they hear a gunshot in the distance. Min-guk who had been resting in his cabin the whole time cannot hear the gunshot through his headphones. After another gunshot, the doctor and his staff rush to the ICU and find that the bullet had grazed the arm of one of the bikers. Teacher Kim is glad that Dong-hwa was safe but worries about Woo-jin. Dong-hwa claims that the shooter had taken Woo-jin hostage and was headed to the Trauma Centre.

On their way there, Woo-jin tries to talk the gunman out of shooting but he would not listen to Woo-jin. Woo-jin pushes the man and they both fight it off. The man somehow manages to pick up the gun again but is exhausted due to the injury on his leg. Both Woo-jin and the shooter sit outside the entrance of the Trauma Centre and chat. The shooter claims that Woo-jin is a doctor who comes from a privileged family and did not know what he had to go through.

Woo-jin tells the shooter that he had everything but privilege all his life. He adds that his family was murdered and that he was trying to make a difference by working hard on himself. The shooter does not empathise with Woo-jin’s story and pulls the gun on him nevertheless. Just then, Eun-jae starts calling Woo-jin. He is about to answer the call when the gunman threatens to shoot him again.

Woo-jin gets up and walks towards Doldam Hospital claiming that he was going to live some more. Just then, there is a gunshot at a distance. Woo-jin makes it back to Doldam safe and sound and Teacher Kim welcomes him with open arms. The soldiers run to the entrance to arrest the soldier. Meanwhile, all the staff and patients are released. Eun-jae runs to Doldam to look for Woo-jin when she finds him talking to Teacher Kim. Woo-jin tells Teacher Kim that he was not afraid of braving the shooter because he was sure Teacher Kim would fix him up.

Eun-jae yells at Woo-jin for making her worry so much and Teacher Kim asks her to yell at Woo-jin some more. He gives the two some privacy after which Eun-jae breaks down, yelling at him. Woo-jin shuts her up when he tells her he loved her and she is left confused. Woo-jin goes back inside Doldam and wonders what his life would have turned out to be had he not met Eun-jae or a mentor like Teacher Kim.

Dong-hwa finds Woo-jin by the vending machine and hugs him stating that he was worried sick about Woo-jin. Woo-jin is shocked but concerned and wonders if he also was a mentor to Dong-hwa. At Doldam, Eun-tak stops A-reum from administering drugs to the biker who was injured. The biker threatens to Eun-tak again but he claims that he was not going to be weighed down by anything anymore. Eun-tak states that he ran to the hospital with his friend, Won-young on his back but could not make it there in time.

The doctors call the cops to arrest the biker and take him away. Ha-joon finishes writing his apology letter while Teacher Kim praises Seon-ung for finishing up the surgery well. Moon-jung tells Seon-ung that the thing he mentioned before the surgery could be a secret between the two of them. Teacher Kim checks up on Dong-hwa who is looking to be praised for his bravery during the shooting incident. Teacher Kim does not offer him praise but offers to tell him a story from his time instead.

Before going home, Nurse Oh has a chat with Teacher Kim and asks him about the severity of the condition of his hand. On his way home, Dr Cha tells Eun-jae that he had missed the fracture on the patient and accepts his mistake. Eun-jae claims that it was her fault and she needed to be prepared for something like that since this was the Trauma Centre. Dr Cha recalls that Teacher Kim had said something similar to him. Eun-jae leaves to get back to work while Dr Cha beams at her, proud of Eun-jae.

Later that night, Eun-tak tells A-reum about Won-young and his past. He tells her that he was guilty and remorseful for his friend’s death but adds that it is what started off his journey to be a nurse.

The entire group of doctors from Doldam and the Trauma Centre get together for fried chicken that night. Woo-jin is glad about the friends he has made at Doldam while Teacher Kim is happy to hear the noise his staff are making as they bond.

The next morning, Ki-tae finds a copy of Assemblywoman Ko’s complaint against the Trauma Centre and hands it over to Teacher Kim. At the same time, Chief Lee delivers the package to Seon-ung which turns out to be a cooler blindness correction lens.

The Episode Review

I will never understand what the makers of this show have against Ahn Hyo-seop. This season seems like a roller-coaster ride for his character because one episode after the other, there is something he is up against. Him escaping the shooter by using his emotional story was a little over the top but this is a K-drama after all and some melodrama can be expected.

Dr Cha is surely a good doctor but to see Eun-jae finally learn that her mentor and hero are also capable of making mistakes must be an eye-opening experience. The episode ends with a shocking revelation about Seon-ung’s colour blindness. While this does not actually hinder many surgeons from working on their patients, I wonder what this plot twist has in store for his character in the next half of this season.