Ghost Doctor – K-Drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Lost Jacket

Episode 5 of Ghost Doctor begins with a flashback as we see Seung-Tak as a child, at the hospital and able to see ghosts. This partly explains his connection to the hospital, and how he was able to see Young-Min at the end of episode 3.

In the present, Seung-Tak is in charge of the surgery. He’s obviously possessed by Young-Min, who manages to help save the patient. He also berates Tae-Hyun too, telling him not to touch the patient and that he’s lucky they’re in front of a lot of people.

Everyone is shocked, especially the slimy Vice President who sits at the back of the waiting room staring at the monitors. When he learns Seung-Tak’s surgery is some of the best they’ve seen in quite some time, he’s not sure how this is even possible. So naturally, he decides to get the camera footage from the surgery.

After surgery, Young-Min hounds Seung-Tak until they’re alone. Once there, Sung-Tak admits that from the start he’s been able to see ghosts, including the trio of comatose patients too. At one point, they even tried to jump into Seung-Tak’s body.

Apparently, Young-Min is the 250th spirit he’s seen since his childhood, which puts everything we’ve seen into hilarious perspective, given Seung-Tak has been ignoring his superior and keeping a straight face the whole time.

The pair have a hilarious verbal sparring match, trading insults and retorts at one another. In fact, it gets so heated that Young-Min refuses to tell Seung-Tak what the correct prescription is while doing the rounds. That is, until they notice the patient – Suk-Joo – open his eyes. When his family arrive and greet their dad, Seung-Tak smiles warmly but there’s pain behind that expression. And through a flashback we understand why.

Seung-Tak’s birth father died when he was younger, having drowned in the lake. Seung-Tak actually saw this take place, and that could well explain why he’s so dead-set on helping patients.

In the morning, a reporter from Jaemin News shows up at the hospital. They want to know Seung-Tak’s side of the story after his amazing surgery. The thing is, the Vice President actually spread all this news to disrupt him, with articles online detailing Seung-Tak’s heroics. Seung-Tak tries to argue that his privacy has been violated but it falls on deaf ears.

While Seung-Tak heads off, avoiding the gazes of doctors and nurses as they marvel at him, he learns his mother has just showed up at the hospital. However, Young-Min is stuck behind in the Vice President’s office and learns more about this man’s plan. He intends to let Seung-Tak rise up so his fame can hit that much harder when he inevitably falls from grace.

On his way down to see Seung-Tak, the trio of coma patients stop him and decide they should go and talk in private. They ask Young-Min for different gifts, ranging from a DVD to walnut cakes.

Still mulling over this bizarre request, Young-Min finds Seung-Tak stuck in a precarious position. He’s to remove the chest tubes from Suk-Joo but his clumsy hands make that difficult. He needs help, but Young-Min refuses to do so. So naturally, Seung-Tak decides to use Young-Min’s clothes as a bargaining tool, throwing one of his jackets out the window a little later on.

In the midst of all this, a strange shadowy version of Young-Min waits in the shadows. It watches from afar, seeing all of this drama take place. I’m sure we’ll see more of this revealed over time but for now, this remains a mystery unsolved.

Young-Min visits the chairman next and the pair discuss Se-Jin and her affection toward other patients. While they talk, Chae-Hyun appears with syringes and begins injecting the chairman’s body with something. While Chairman Jang believes this is to help him, in reality it’s keeping him sedated. Young-Min remains quiet about that for the time being.

On his way back downstairs, doctors rush around as Suk-Joo, Young-Min’s patient, goes into cardiac arrest. As fate would have it, this man is also the motorcyclist that plowed into the side of Young-Min’s car originally, and his ghost form shows up next to Young-Min, asking if he’s going to die.

We then cut to another scene, this time in an operating theatre as Seung-Tak and Young-Min put aside their differences and decide to team up after all, intent on helping patients.

The Episode Review

Ghost Doctor returns with another solid episode, this time focusing on Seung-Tak’s gift and how he’s able to see ghosts. The little flashback at the start of the episode is certainly welcome, and it’s followed up by a good dose of humour in the present, as Seung-Tak and Young-Min bicker and argue. This is definitely the best part of the whole episode, and their banter is brilliantly written and witty.

There’s also an undercurrent of serious drama here too, given we’re tackling surgery and serious medical issues, and in the middle of this rotten core is the Vice President, who very clearly has his own agenda.

So far, Ghost Doctor has been a really enjoyable watch and it’ll be interesting to see where tomorrow’s episode goes from here.