Recap Korean Drama "Hospital Playlist" Season 1 Episode 5

Hospital Playlist returns this week and carries on following the adventures of our five doctors. The show still manages to offer up a decent and realistic medical drama with interesting cases and some good characterisation for our quintet, who carry on having great chemistry on-screen.

Episode 5 of Hospital Playlist picks up where we left off with Jeong-Won noticing the bruises on the boy’s back and coming to the conclusion that his father is abusing him. As the doctors contemplate calling the police, the father starts running away. Doctor Jang runs after him and as she almost catches up, Song-Hwa is the one that stops him. Jeong-Won later congratulates Jang then asks her to join him during surgery.

Ik-Jun later speaks to Jeong-Won about what he found out regarding Congressman Sim and his donor. He has been using a different donor to pass as his son who refused to give his liver. Jeong-Won also finds out that the donor works at Seok-Hyeong’s father’s company. The five doctors later meet in a restaurant where they talk about Seok-Jeong’s father and their failed relationships before leaving to rehearse in their band.

Seok-Hyeong has to leave though to check on a patient. As he arrives in hospital, his colleagues are there with a surprise party while one of Ik-Jun’s patients changes his mind and decides not to have the surgery. Ik-Jun arrives to convince him and promises that his daughter Bin (the donor) will not feel any pain. Ik Jun takes the wife outside and explains the procedure, doing his best to reassure her.

During surgery, Jun-Wan speak to his colleagues and Dr Do about Professor Cheon Myeong-Tae who is new but also harsh to patients while Song-Hwa discusses  a young patient suffering from Moymoya disease with Seok-Min and Chi-Hong. They understand that they must make sure the child doesn’t cry as it could constrict the blood vessel of his brain.

After successfully removing part of Bin’s liver, Ik-Jun goes to check on her father’s surgery. He sees that he is bleeding profusely so he offers to join and help stop the bleeding. Meanwhile, Doctor Do decides to withdraw all his savings from the bank. As he buys lunch for Seok-Min and Sun-Bin, he tells them about his money and that he is about to lease a flat.

Jeong-Won has lunch with his mother and tries talking about his future plans. She ignores him though so he carries on and tells her that he is planning to study to become a priest in Italy. Ju Jong-Su and Ju-Jeon join them too and help with some of food preparation before Seok-Jeong’s mother arrives as well. During dinner, Jeong-Won’s mother berates her son for not having a girlfriend again. He replies jokingly that it is because he loves the lord. His mother gets annoyed but Jong-Su defends him. They then all play a game of mafia, ending with Rosa getting annoyed with Jong-Su. Young-Hye later leaves and rings her son, telling him that she had a lot of fun and wants to hang with them again.

The next day, the doctors deal with all their different patients. Seok-Hyeong delivers a baby. As promised the father starts singing to the mother and child while Jun-Wan is called to operate on someone who had a heart attack. He finds out that he doesn’t have a lot of money and that his dad is going through chemo. Before the surgery, the father arrives and begs Jun-Wan to give him the most expensive valve replacement. In the same time, Ik-Jun visits his transplant patient with his wife and daughter who promises to his worried father that her surgery didn’t hurt.

In the evening, Song-Hwa is hard at work with an assignment. Chi-Hong arrives and finally tells her that he has feelings for her. She seems a little surprised and tells him not to but he replies that he can’t control how he feels, while Ik-Jun and Jun-Wan are driving home. Ik-Jun tells him that his sister is staying with him at the moment. Ik-Jun then gets a call to go look at a patient in hospital so Jun-Wan decides to surprise Ik-Sun. It doesn’t go well though as she kicks him in the face. Ik-Jun later returns to his flat and the three talk about a celebrity Ik-Jun used to date.

Early in the morning, Ik-Jun calls her phone as she left it in the flat after leaving early. Jun-Wan answers and offers to bring it to her. After sharing some chocolate at a street vendor, Jun-Wan admits liking her and asks to go out with him.

Meanwhile, Ik-Jun visits a patient of his whose daughter has paid for a VIP room. She enters the room and he sees that it is the celebrity he dated, Go A-Ra while Seok-Hyeong gets a call from his father’s mistress asking to meet in the hospital garden. She tells him that she understands his mother but not divorcing him is not right.  She also reveals that she is pregnant and asks that he talks to his mother.

At the same time we see that Min-ha followed hoping to spend some time with him. After seeing him with another woman she leaves. The episode ends with Song-Hwa attending a doctor’s appointment as she has found a large lump. The doctor is not happy with it so she suggests a biopsy.

What Hospital Playlist manages to do really well is keeping the right tone and pace with its stories and character development without ever feeling too rushed or over dramatic. Each episode shows us a little more about each of them and as they are all so unique, the drama remains refreshing and interesting.

This latest chapter also sees some of the doctors’ potential love interests coming forward; Jun-Wan makes a move on Ik-Sun, Chi-Hong reveals his feelings for Song-Hwa and Ik-Jun receives a surprise visit from the past while unbeknownst to him, Seok-Hyeong seems to have a secret admirer: Min-Ha. Jeong-Won on the other hand seems to be determined to give his life to God which doesn’t please his mother.

As we know that Doctor Yang likes him, it will be interesting to see if that will eventually change things for him and where the story will go from here. In the meantime though, Hospital Playlist remains quite the decent medical drama worth checking out.