Recap "Ghost Doctor" Ep 9-10

Se-jin’s father just died, and would be in poor taste if we jumped right back into the slapstick comedy. No, we must be subjected to her doe-eyed mopiness for a little bit longer.

Surely I’m not the only one struggling to understand why she’s living in a constant state of — for lack of a better word — blah. Se-jin’s relationship with her father was strained, and she hasn’t seen Young-min in over ten years. I’m not saying she should be skipping down hallways or gyrating to music when it’s just her and Young-min’s body hanging out, but it seems rather extreme that her grief over these two men is so debilitating that she’s incapable of smiling and causing the corners of her eyes to crinkle. After four weeks, I’m just a little disappointed that the only times her character seems to have any semblance of a personality is in the flashbacks of her relationship with Young-min. Why must she be so directly tied to the ups and downs of Young-min?

After losing her father, Se-jin becomes increasingly worried she’s going to lose Young-min in a similar manner. She has a tearful moment to herself where she confesses her fear to Young-min’s body, but coma ghost Young-min is watching the whole exchange and can’t idly stand by. His need to comfort her sends him looking for Seung-tak so he can hijack his body — so much for asking for permission first.

When he returns wearing his new flesh suit, Se-jin has already fallen asleep on the couch, so he tenderly covers her with a blanket and hums a song that’s special to them. Se-jin, who is in that limbo state between wakefulness and sleep, hears him and sleepily hugs him (in Seung-tak’s body). He assures her that it’s all a dream, but when she wakes the next day she struggles to discern what was a dream and what was reality. Although the humming and comforting was very much all Young-min, she also recalls seeing Seung-tak. Needless to say, she’s confused, but she quickly files it away to be overanalyzed later, because — good news, everyone! — Young-min has some brainwave activity. He’s not going to die after all!

Young-min relays the happy news to Seung-tak, who runs to find Se-jin for confirmation. Her confusion about the night before increases when he bursts into the MRI room and demands an update. She hadn’t told anyone about the new brain activity, so how did he know? He plays it cool, claiming he had a dream — pfft! — and she seems to buy it because next we see them she’s showing Seung-tak the new brain scans and providing some explanation. The new brain activity can likely be explained by what doctors in the US call the “happy hormone.”

When they’re alone, Seung-tak suggestively asks what Young-min was up to last night that made him so happy — eyebrow wiggles — but then he horrifyingly remembers that Young-min was possessing his body all night long. Concerned about his purity, Seung-tak sets some new ground rules: no hanky-panky while inside his precious body. Let’s all be adults and keep our passions to ourselves, mmmk?

But Young-min retorts, “If you’re such an adult, is that why you’ve never used your body?” Low blow, Young-min. Low blow. The slight virgin shaming was a bit much, in my opinion, but I did appreciate how this scene highlighted the differences in their age and experience — both sexual and professional. Between all the quibbling, the dropped honorifics, and the fact that Rain doesn’t age, it’s easy to forget that these two are supposed to be a mentor and a mentee, and I liked that subtle reminder.

In addition to being affectionate with Se-jin, the two deduce that Young-min’s coma-curing happiness stemmed from his recent post-surgery highs, so Seung-tak signs up to do all the surgeries he possibly can. He, Young-min, and Se-jin also team up to help solve the medical mystery behind Bo-mi’s coma. But of course, Seung-tak’s increasingly amazing track record in the operating room (and new partnership with Se-jin) triggers Seung-won’s alarm bells.

Tae-hyun’s insistence that Seung-won was possessed by Young-min’s ghost sounded absurd at first, but he can’t ignore Seung-tak’s unexplainable skills. So Seung-won schedules a follow-up appointment with Tae-hyun, who insists he can prove that Seung-tak and the hospital are haunted.

It’s an exchange that leaves me struggling to understand Tae-hyun’s motives. Why is Tae-hyun so obsessed with proving that Seung-tak is possessed in order to get back into Seung-won’s good graces? I don’t know about y’all, but if I was a doctor who attempted to medically murder someone, and my boss was willing to let me go quietly, I’d pack my bags and start fresh. I wouldn’t try to piss off the ghost that could prove my involvement — but I guess the story needs someone to convert Seung-won into a believer.

Tae-hyun and Seung-won pair up for an OR sting operation in order to trick a possessed Seung-tak into revealing he’s really Young-min. The plan flops, but after the surgery, Young-min is so pissed that Seung-won would endanger the patient’s life that he throws caution to the wind and just outright reveals he’s inside Seung-tak’s body. Surprise! And what’s Seung-won going to do about it? Nothing, because Young-min knows from spying on Seung-won’s conversation with Min-ho that Seung-won needs Young-min, his most profitable doctor.

Seung-tak has a mini freak-out session after Young-min bashfully admits he spilled the beans, but it opens the door for Young-min to ask about Seung-tak’s history with ghosts. There’s a depressing little montage of a young Seung-tak coming back to the hospital over the years to try and condition himself to ignore ghosts, but even with all his years of training, his sixth sense has affected his ability to become a doctor. It’s hard to cut open a cadaver when the body’s owner is hovering nearby, and you’re the only one who can hear him worrying if the scalpel will hurt.

Seung-tak is also familiar with Tess, but it’s only after he gives up trying to hide his ability from the ghosts that Tess, who has been respectfully ignoring him for the last twenty years, approaches him. It’s unclear if Seung-tak knows that Tess was his grandfather’s best friend or that he’s Soo-jung’s grandfather, but we do know that Seung-tak has Tess’s approval to date Soo-jung.

I approve of them, too, because their emergency room flirting is the absolute cutest and all anyone in the ER can talk about. Even Se-jin spots the two of them playfully bantering with each other, and we can practically see the flashbacks to her own relationship with Young-min play out on her big, woeful eyes.

Soo-jung hasn’t quite caught wind of Se-jin’s connection to Young-min, so when she spots Se-jin and Seung-tak — with Young-min in the driver’s seat of Seung-tak’s body and car — returning from the cutest K-pop concert date ever, she gets a little jealous. She’s still pouty when she returns home and sees the sugar glider — Mandu! — that Seung-tak has entrusted to her.

Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be any threat of Se-jin transposing her feelings for Young-min onto Seung-tak. Instead, all signs point to Se-jin figuring out the truth, so while there may be a few initial misunderstandings on Soo-jung’s end, I don’t think we’re going to see them fighting over the same man and causing unnecessary drama. Now that she’s revealed that she knows Young-min has been borrowing Seung-tak’s hands, all will be revealed shortly.

After Seung-joo collapses and needs to undergo an additional surgery, Seung-won blocks Seung-tak from taking part. Honestly, Seung-won has a point; a resident shouldn’t be the lead surgeon on all these complex surgeries. Instead of being a murderous villain with a plan to overthrow the hospital dynasty, I find myself wishing that Seung-won was just a pencil-pushing-rule-stickler who keeps undermining our heroes with red tape and his attempts to save the hospital from a lawsuit.

But of course, our heroes rally the other doctors with an emotional speech about the importance of saving patients’ lives, and together the department schemes so that all the residents — except for Seung-tak — have reached the maximum hours they’re allowed to work. With no other option, Seung-won watches Seung-tak to scrub in, but mid-surgery Young-min and Seung-tak begin to glitch.

Cut to Young-min’s hospital room, where his brain waves seem to be growing stronger. Is he waking up mid-surgery? It certainly seems that way, but it’s unlikely to happen just yet. We still have two more lingering coma ghosts who haven’t woken up — or passed on — and now that Young-min has shed his hypocrisy and seems keen on helping his fellow coma ghosts, we must learn more about them before Young-min returns to the living.