The Trauma Code – K-drama Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Patient: Baek Kang-hyuk

Episode 8 of The Trauma Code begins this finale with Kang-hyuk outside the base. He makes a bold decision and decides to drive toward the medical center, despite being fired upon. The boss eventually decides to let them pass eventually, clearing Malak and letting him go to the med unit. In fact, the boss tells the workers there to give him everything he needs given they owe their lives to him.

Is Captain Lee saved?

Apparently “Malak” has a knack for just showing up like this with patients and trying to save their lives, so obviously nothing has really changed!

With time a precarious and fickle mistress that continues to slip away, the group start surgery on Captain Lee. Jae-won finds the bullet outside the body, while Kang-hyuk sorts out an artificial bone for Captain Lee. After, the patient is stable and certainly needs a lot of time to recover but he’s not dead, which is the most important thing.

What happens with Gyeong-won being a spy?

Kang-hyuk eventually sits with his old Black Wings boss and tells him he needs to “repay his debt”. This stems from him leaving South Sudan and joining the team over in South Korea. They also secure a trip home through the Black Wings Air Ambulance too.

Before they board, Jang-mi confronts Gyeong-won who admits outright that yes, he has been a spy for Director Choi all this time. She agrees not to say anything if Gyeong-won deals with all emergency surgeries from now on. Well, he doesn’t even bat an eyelid to this and is happy to be part of the team. It turns out he actually agreed to be a spy because he wouldn’t tattle on Kang-hyuk and didn’t want anybody else to have this responsibility.

The media are there ready for the group’s arrival, where they welcome Kang-hyuk and the others back to home soil. Their priority right now is Captain Lee, so while Kang-hyuk deals with the press, Minister Kim agrees to hold up her side of the bargain and allow them the air transport they need so badly.

How does Kang-hyuk get hurt?

With Captain Lee set to make a full recovery, Kang-hyuk leaves to catch up with Yu-rim who has gone full-on adrenaline mode and arrived on-duty to a nearby emergency. He’s assisting the fire department with a building fire, although multiple explosions are continuing to burst from the complex. Kang-hyuk shows not long after, and tells him he’s done a good job and gives him his safety gear, ready for them to work on the bodies coming out of the building. However, there’s a problem.

Up on the second floor, one of the firemen reveals that there’s a whole bunch of oxygen cannisters which, if blown, could cause a huge explosion to hurt a lot of people outside. 

Kang-hyuk and the others immediately set to work moving the worst patients but one is left behind. Kang-hyuk charges forward to try and save him, but as the building blows, he ends up caught in the crossfire and flies backward. Although the patient is grabbed and taken aboard the air ambulance, Kang-hyuk ends up with internal organ burning and starts to lose consciousness in the helicopter.

Does Kang-hyuk survive?

After the rest of the group bring Captain Lee in to work on him, working their way through a sea of journalists in the process, they eventually turn their attention to Kang-hyuk who talks Yu-rim through his symptoms while taking in oxygen when he can.

When they land, Kang-hyuk entrusts Jae-won with taking on his surgery himself. But only if he’s up for it of course. One wrong move could kill him and although Gyeong-won isn’t sure if this is the right course of action, Jae-won decides to work with Yu-rim to try and save the man’s life. There’s definitely tensions here, especially as Jae-won is still a rookie and this is a serious wound.

The whole surgery is absolutely wracked with tension… at least for a bit. We don’t actually see the outcome of this, nor any of the turmoil in the surgery room. Instead, we cut to Kang-hyuk after the surgery. He awakens and has Jae-won talk him through his thought process. Turns out he made a big call and cut nearly a third of his liver to save the man’s life.

Although Kang-hyuk is quick to point out he could have killed him, he does have newfound respect for his protégé. In fact, he even calls him by his real name too!

What convinces Director Choi to work with Kang-hyuk? 

Kang-hyuk continues his crusade afterwards, determined to try and secure helicopters no matter what. The public are very much on their side, leading the government to decide to enact new policies to make this a reality. Director Choi isn’t happy and takes this personally.

Choi is determined to get him out the hospital, scoffing at the idea of a heliport and medical helicopter. Kang-hyuk calmly tells him that if he’s fired then the hospital is going to face national backlash and it’s not going to look good on him.

Here, Kang-hyuk opens up and explains why he decided to come work at the hospital. He explains about his father, and it’s a story we’ve heard before, but this time we actually see it with flashbacks from the guy who tried to save his dad’s life, no matter what. And that man? None other than Director Choi. He inspired Kang-hyuk to try and become a doctor like him, working tirelessly to help patients. Of course, somewhere along the line money changed him into this selfish director who only cares about the bottom line.

How does The Trauma Code end?

With an Emergency Board Meeting coming up, Choi thinks over everything and eventually decides to approve the Emergency Meeting, leading to their brand new helicopter, which can now be used 24/7.

In the middle of a conference, the group actually need to use the helicopter and fly off to their next accident.

The Episode Review

So The Trauma Code brings an end to Netflix’s latest K-drama and while its been an enjoyable ride, its hard not to shake the feeling that in the end, this is very much a cookie-cutter medical drama without much in the way to differentiate it from the masses.

All the usual K-drama tropes are here, including the amazing doctor returning from overseas with a tragic background and an anti-authority stance.

He takes a rookie under his wing and trains them up to be amazing, and in the end the mentor surpasses (or at least proves him/herself) to gain newfound respect.

Looking at the story as a whole, there’s a lot of this going on and unfortunately the show doesn’t have a strong enough ensemble of supporting characters alongside this to do something different in the genre.

However, what it does it does pretty well and there’s definitely a good mix of dramatic and comedic moments that help make this a compelling watch. In all honesty, this finale could have been a lot better but the ending is conclusive enough to at least wrap everything up in a satisfying way.