The Birth of Protege No. 1
Episode 2 of The Trauma Code begins with Jae-won screaming as Kang-hyuk rappels down onto the mountainside. Jae-won is clearly afraid of heights and struggles to keep it together, but Kang-hyuk manages to talk his comrade down as they focus on the patient at hand.
Thankfully, they manage to secure him before he crashes, and Kang-hyuk is quick to coach him through his fear and focus on the patient instead. The most important thing here is stabilizing the bleeding and after getting him back onboard the helicopter, Kang-hyuk goes to work.
Working in risky areas is nothing new to Kang-hyuk, as we see a bit more of his time in Afghanistan. It’s only a brief interlude but it’s clear that whatever happened there, it has shaped Kang-hyuk into the doctor he is now.
This mountain rescue is even more important than we first thought though, as we find out from Jang-mi that they’re actually quite precarious and every minute is important. In fact, the mortality rate here is quite high.
Kang-hyuk is quick to point out that on-location experience is just as important than what you see in a textbook when Jae-won starts to question all of this. Jae-won stands alongside Kang-hyuk and it’s clear there’s a partnership brewing here. That is, unfortunately, not to the liking of the current Head of Surgery, Han Yu-Rim.
We saw Yu-rim last episode questioning Kang-hyuk at the ceremony, but here we see he’s pretty aloof and a bit of a fool too. He’s not happy with the helicopter being brought in and is jealous of Kang-hyuk’s growing bond with Jae-won, believing the kid should be his protégé only.
Not only him but also the Directors, like Choi, are worried that Kang-hyuk is going to bleed the hospital of money that could be better served elsewhere. I mean, what’s more important than saving lives I wonder?
Anyway, the Director is in the process of trying to get rid of Kang-hyuk, which appears to be his current goal at the hospital. However, all of this is thrown off-course when Kang-hyuk offers Jae-won a position as his surgery assistant in the trauma center. This would mean he’d be working alongside him closely.
This is obviously not to the liking of Yu-rim, who shows up in his office to talking about his protégé, deciding on a 4pm meeting to discuss and let Jae-won choose for himself.
Kang-hyuk is desperate to make this happen and speaks to Jang-mi, asking for her advice in how to win someone over. The pair continue to share good banter together and he scoffs at every idea she has in trying to win Jae-won over. Being more compassionate?! For a guy like him? Absolutely not!
Yuy-rim shows up early and sweet-talks Jae-won into joining him, but Kang-hyuk knows what’s going on and shows at the office too. After a big argument between the two Heads Jae-won eventually decides to join the Trauma Surgery. The turning point is Kang-hyuk talking about the patients he managed to save, and he has pictures of them up in his office to remember the sacrifices he made and the great work he did in saving their lives.
Kang-hyuk remembers Jang-mi’s words and attempts to talk compassionately to him. All of this does the trick and Jae-won joins the trauma surgery. Yu-rim is not happy and sends an email out to the whole hospital, saying that all on-call trauma duties are going to be in Jae-won’s name from now on. This is all a desire to push him off a metaphorical cliff but Kang-hyuk sees this as an opportunity. He agrees to stand by Jae-won’s side and help him out.
So why has Kang-hyuk chosen him? Well, it’s because of his running. We’ve seen Jae-won running around the hospital and this is something Kang-hyuk caught wind of. Given he’s running to different departments trying to save patients, clearly caring, Kang-hyuk sees this as an opportunity to take this kid under his wing.
The Episode Review
So it turns out our arrogant, cold doctor actually has a soft spot and he manages to win over Jae-won in the end with the allure of trauma surgery. However, Yu-rim is not happy and despite his best efforts, clearly doesn’t know his protégé quite as well as he thought.
What’s particularly interesting though is how Kang-hyuk clearly sees some of himself in the young doctor, and we’ve seen him running around a lot so it’s nice to see that come full circle and acknowledged.
Jae-won definitely wants to save patients and in a way, he’s been shielded from the worst of it, despite not being afraid to get his hands dirty.
There’s clearly some respect here between him and Kang-hyuk and the two could well end up with a bromance by the end of the show. For now though we’ll have to wait and see if that materializes but The Trauma Code has been a good watch so far!
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