Poong The Joseon Psychiatrist – K-Drama Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Flower

Episode 2 of Poong The Joseon Psychiatrist season 2 starts where it left off with Poong catching Gwang-il with Eun-woo. They are suspicious of the other hanging out at the palace late at night. But Poong and Eun-woo go to the Princess to check in on her. She holds Poong’s hand and keeps making excuses for him to stay but he leaves with Eun-woo. 

Eun-woo teases Poong about the Princess and he acts jealous as he brings up her hugging Gwang-il. She jokes that he must have dated the Princess. He gets flustered but Eun-woo placates him by telling him that she knows to whom his heart belongs and he is happy.

At Gyesoo clinic, Gye is looking after a sick man who has the same symptoms as the court ladies. Eun-woo is worried that the poison has spread outside the palace. The ministers blame Poong who alerts the King that it must be poison. 

Eun-woo interrogates Court Lady Oh, the first court lady to fall sick and then investigates the closed well in the queen’s pavilion. The Chief Physician approaches her and insults her to which Gwang-il comes to her rescue. He tells Eun-woo that he is not on the royal clinic’s side and that he too is a widower. At that moment Poong spots them. Gwang-il takes advantage by stepping closer to her and asking if she needs any help. Poong looks jealous while Gwang-il smirks and walks away. 

Poong runs to Eun-woo and asks why she was talking to him. She doesn’t want to tell him about the Chief Physician’s insult so she stays quiet. Poong feels jealous that Gwang-il helped her but he can’t. Later, while treating the sick ladies, they are suspicious of Court Lady Oh who is missing and look for her.

At Gyesoo, Gye scolds Ip-boon for disappearing and not helping out anymore. She runs inside and is searching for something when Man-bok spots her. He accurately guesses that she was duped and is looking for money. He brings a worried Nam-hae who also happened to invest in Ip-boon’s business. Ip-boon tells them that she was beaten up by Sogyeok-dong Burning Firewood’s gang and that they would burn the clinic. Man-bok is angry and decides to help her.

In an epic slow-motion fight, Man-bok goes to their turf and beats them up. One of the henchmen stops when he realises that Man-bok is the infamous Palpan-dong Castor Bean. The leader tries to fight him but Man-bok easily beats him. The gang get on their knees and he scolds them. He orders the tailor shop owners to return Ip-boon’s money. Sogyeok-dong tells him that they only took Ip-boon’s money cause he lost his own while getting free liquor from the palace.

Man-bok’s ears perk up and he and the rest of Gyesoo go to the palace to investigate. They see Court Lady Oh taking out a cart of liquor. They approach her and she tells them she got a letter from Cho’s ghost. It told her to drink the water from the queen’s well, make liquor out of it and give it out.

She tells them that there was also a rumour that if they drank from the well, they would be able to cheat death which is why the court ladies drank from it. Eun-woo realises that the smell near the well was not lilies but fairy daisies, a poisonous plant inside the well. Another symptom was that it would cause hallucinations. 

The next day, they have the well emptied and find a basket full of fairy daisies. They tell the King that he only saw Cho because of the hallucinations caused by the poisoned liquor he was drinking. However, someone puts up a notice in the village claiming that the plague was caused by the King’s incompetence. He is furious and at night he is unable to sleep as he again sees Cho. He slashes with his sword in the dark and calls for Poong when he comes to his senses.

In the morning, the royal physicians are worried after hearing Poong was brought in. Poong tells Eun-woo about Cho’s continuous appearance and she decides to investigate the King’s chamber. She finds incense remains that smell like fairy daisies.

The Princess decides to visit the King at that moment. She is stopped by the Head Eunuch who tells her that Eun-woo told the King not to let anyone enter the chamber.

She sees Eun-woo and Poong coming out and orders them to stay away from each other. She blames Eun-woo for the King’s condition and tries to scold her but Poong stops her. She asks her to get on her knees. Poong stops Eun-woo and instead gets down on his knees. The Princess is stumped as he apologizes and leaves with Eun-woo. 

Eun-woo is worried about Poong’s knees and the Princess. He is happy that she is worried about him and they flirt. That night, someone wearing a mask enters the King’s chamber to place incense cones. However, the King’s guards are ready and stop him. He is unmasked and it turns out to be the Head Eunuch who would burn fairy daisy incense every night to cause the hallucinations. As the Eunuch is taken away, he claims that there are people still loyal to Cho.

Poong asks Eun-woo how she knew about the Head Eunuch. She tells him that the Eunuch was present when the Princess had moved her chambers and had gone there to burn the fairy daisies for her to hallucinate as well and further solidify the rumour about Cho’s ghost.

The King recalls his conversation with Poong who had told him to act like his condition was worsening to catch the culprit. The King asks him why he saw Cho and Poong tells him that it was what he was scared of the most. 

At court, the King calls Poong in to formally thank him. But the royal clinic interrupts and claims that Gyesoo is selling fake treatments and that if the King doesn’t listen they will resign. Poong calls out the royal clinic for not admitting their error and hoarding the right medicines.

He asks the King to let Gyesoo leave and go to Sorak. The King agrees but to reward them he makes Gyesoo a regional medical department, gives a plaque and provides private funding. The King tells the furious ministers if they reject this too they will all be fired. In private, the King then apologizes for sending Poong away and orders him to come to Hanyang whenever he needs him.

As Poong turns to leave, the Princess approaches him. She claims that he is not married because he likes her. He tells her that he is leaving Hanyang. She tries to stop him by saying she wants to marry him. He simply tells her that Sorak is his home and leaves. 

He goes to Gyesoo where Gye begs him to break his friendship with the King as he cannot keep up with his demands. Poong is not worried and instead looks for Eun-woo. He finds her and is relieved that she did not leave without saying goodbye. They get teary-eyed as he asks her to leave with him but she declines.

Meanwhile, the tailor shop owners come to Gyesoo and Nam-hae and Jang-goon scold them. They don’t look apologetic but the moment they see Man-bok they give Ip-boon her money and apologize. Nam-hae and Jang-goon are impressed and think they scared off the ladies. 

At the palace, the Princess asks the King to bring back Poong. He looks amused and asks his sister what can she do.

As Gyesoo leave Hanyang, Sogyeok-dong’s people get on their knees and wish Man-bok. He tries to stop them before Gyesoo get suspicious. Granny teases him and he wonders if everyone knows about his alter ego. As they are walking through a field of flowers, a morose Poong is surprised to see Eun-woo running after him. She goes up to him and tells him that she chose him and even got her father’s permission. As they walk together, both have similar thoughts as they are happy to be together.

Gyesoo is back in Sorak and are busy treating the patients when a colourful but mysterious lady arrives. It turns out to be the Princess and she announces everything is to be thrown away. Poong looks angry while Eun-woo looks at him.

The Episode Review

It’s truly refreshing to see a K-drama couple who don’t get easily jealous but instead tease the other when someone shows them attention. It’s cute to see Poong act like a little schoolboy as he can’t stop smiling when Eun-woo assures him that she is not jealous. We also get a mature version of the couple as they easily put their little squabbles away to treat patients and solve the case.

It’s also heartwarming to see Man-bok, Nam-hae and Ip-boon get their own storyline as they act like protective older siblings to Ip-boon and help her instead of scolding her for her foolishness. And who knew that our silly little Man-bok was actually a trained fighter who commanded the respect of even the scariest gangs in Hanyang?