Recap Korean Drama "Hospital Playlist" Season 1 Episode 9

Back for another great episode, Hospital Playlist carries on showing us some interesting and touching medical cases. They all feel very realistic and quite eye opening too while we follow the development in the lives and different relationships for our five doctors. The show has improved each week as we get to know them a little more.

Episode 9 of Hospital Playlist begins with Ik-Jun speaking with the father of one of his patients, Oh Yu-Min, who needs a new liver. He is angry because he wants to donate his but is not allowed to. Ik-Jun takes him for coffee and explains the situation; he is very old and his liver is not very healthy. However his daughter is high on the transplant list and should hopefully receive one soon.

Meanwhile Seok-Hyeong’s mum is recovering well and all five doctors take turns visiting her. Jeong-Won and Seok-Hyeong have been staying the longest though so when Rosa arrives with food, she sends them away. Jeong-Won then texts the other three to meet for some food. In the restaurant, Seok-Hyeong tells his friends that his mother has finally filed for a divorce. The friends then compare their divorces as Seok-Hyeong tells them he feels sorry for his ex wife and Ik-Jun wasn’t heartbroken at all. After talking about whether he would inherit money if his father dies, Seok-Hyeong reveals that Mr Ju has been showing signs of early depression.

Back in hospital, Rosa and Young-Hye discuss Jong-Su and how he is feeling. Rosa explains that he is feeling lonely and was meant to have dinner with one of his sons but it got cancelled last minute because his child had a bad stomach. She also explains that he doesn’t want to bother his children as he worries they might be busy. As we cut to Jong Su, he decides to call his son. As it turns out, when they took the child to hospital he was absolutely fine and are having dinner now without him.

The next day, the five doctors perform their individual surgeries. The medical students come to watch and while for some operations the temperature of the room has to be cold, for Jeong-Won’s ones the temperature has to be high which causes Hong-Do to faint.

Later on, Ik-Jun speaks to a couple of nurses about Oh Yu-Min. He tells them to call her father as she is getting worse. However, they explain that he hasn’t been coming in the past week and that she hasn’t got any other family members.  He then heads to find Song-Hwa and invites her for dinner.

As they are ordering their food, Song-Hwa receives a call from Chi-Yong regarding a 13 year old patient who has just arrived with a cerebral haemorrhage and needs emergency surgery. At the same time, Jeong-Won sees Gyeo-Wool getting dropped off by the new man she has been seeing.

After the surgery, Song-Hwa returns to the parents and tells them that the surgery went well but it is too soon to tell if their daughter will wake up as it was a serious case. As she gets ready to leave, Ik-Jun offers to take her home as it is pouring down with rain.

During a date, Jun-Wan talks to Ik-Sun about the future. She tells him she applied to be in a doctorate program but she is not sure she will get in. He asks her if she has any wish to ever get married as if she gets accepted, she will be gone for 3 to 5 years. She reminds him that when they first starting dating, she explained that she was not interested in marriage. This then prompts Jun-Wan to ask her if they would break if she got into the program.

Meanwhile, Doctor Jang tries explaining to the mother of a young patient the condition of her child and what the surgery will entail. The mother seems confused so Jeong-Won steps in and breaks it down for her into easier terms.

During lunch, the five doctors meet to talk about the residents and are surprised to hear that Ik-Jun is friends with most of them. Jeong-Won then reveals that Professor Cheon is marrying the CEO of Jinyong credit union. She is very rich and is close to the chairman, who is worried that Cheon is only after her money as he is not a nice person.

As Song-Hwa does her rounds, she heads to PICU to see her young patient is recovering well. Her parents thank her and the mother explains that she is opening her own yoga centre. They call her their lucky charm and offer free classes for life while we see the difference between Cheon and Jun-Wan in how they deal with their patients. While the former is cold and rushes through them, Jun-Wan takes more care and time with them.

Ik-Jun decides to visit his patient Yu-Min as she is doing a lot worse. They still haven’t heard from her father and as he is about to look for his address, he is surprised to see him standing there. The father explains that he has hired a personal trainer and lost a lot of weight. He wants to give his liver to his daughter as he feels he has neglected her over the years and blames himself for her alcoholism. He begs him to let him donate which prompts Ik-Jun to tell him that accepting it would be against the rules because of his age. However, seeing him today he has hope then sends him to get tests to see how things look.

At the same time, Song-Hwa apologises to the parents of an aneurysm patient as her resident misunderstood her instructions and shaved all the hair on his head instead of his groin area. Doctor Jang speaks to Jae-Won’s mother again but this time, after the surgery. She decides to draw a picture to show how the surgery went, which reassures the mother.

In the staff room, Ik-Jun talks to Chi-Yong about Ik-Sun’s love life. He tells him all about her engagement with her ex that turned sour when he broke things off and lied to her. He reveals that it took her a while to get over the break-up but that she is doing much better now.

After a successful day, the five doctors get together for their usual band rehearsal. This time, they have an audience as Song-Hwa has invited Rosa and Jong-Ju to watch.

The episode ends the next day with Song-Hwa bringing flowers to the mother who has opened a yoga centre. She then heads for her date with Chi-Yong while Ik-Jun decides to meet his sister to bring her food, which surprises and touches her greatly.

Hospital Playlist has so far done a decent job at building the characters  and their potential love interests up while still carrying on with the same realistic tone when it comes to the medical side of the story. The show is quite easy and enjoyable to follow and has plenty of main and secondary characters to root for.

In terms of future relationships, it seems that Song-Hwa and Ik-Jun are getting quite close while Jeong-Won is starting to notice Gyeo-Wool a bit more, especially now that she has started seeing someone. If they become an item, it is bound to please his mother as she is desperate for her youngest child not to give his life to god.

The medical stories carry on being very intriguing and emotional too. In this episode, seeing the father of one of the patients doing his best to give his daughter a healthy liver was really touching and these cases give a lot more substance to the show. The cast continue to bring great chemistry on screen and their rehearsal at the end of each episode is always fun to watch. Hospital Playlist has managed to blend the humour, drama and romance skillfully and makes this series one of the better Korean dramas of the year so far.