Resident Playbook: Episodes 9-10 » Dramabeans
Resident Playbook: Episodes 9-10
by DaebakGrits
Time continues to pass, and as our favorite residents near the end of their first-year, tensions run high as they butt heads with not only each other but with more senior residents and doctors. But have no fear, there’s an uptick in romance and some highly anticipated cameos to soften the edges and service the fans.
EPISODES 9-10
There’s an edge of excitement permeating the walls of Yulje Hospital this week because a variety television film crew (cameos by Hospital Playbook Director Shin Won-ho and famous variety show PD Na Young-seok) is shadowing our favorite doctors (well, sort of). Eun-won becomes the focus of the crew’s cameras after she dramatically arrives at the hospital in the back of an ambulance with an emergency patient — a patient she coincidentally encountered while shopping at the mall when she was supposed to have been working. (Cue: massive side eye from me and the ER nurses.)
Because Eun-won is so proficient at pretending to be a good doctor, she builds a good rapport with the emergency patient and solidifies her position as the protagonist of the variety show. Unfortunately for Yi-young, who’s once again paired with everyone’s least favorite doctor, this means she has to pick up all Eun-won’s slack when the cameras aren’t around, but there’s an added layer of concern for the patient, too, as Eun-won promised the patient she would deliver her baby vaginally, and when Yi-young points out that a vaginal birth will be complex and painful for this particular patient, Eun-won dismisses Yi-young’s concerns because she’d “granted her a natural delivery on camera.” Eun-won is officially a walking malpractice suit in high heels.
Aside from the unjustness in the fact that the film crew is focused on the most villain-like character at Yulje, it’s an a shame that they are so preoccupied with Eun-won because, as we all know, the better story to have followed would have been that of our first-year residents. Not only are there conflicts (more on that later), but there’s also romance! (Yes, that’s right, the Yi-young x Do-won ship has officially set sail, and my high-pitched squeeing startled all the neighborhood dogs.)
After finally identifying and accepting his feelings for Yi-young, Do-won asks her to dinner, and even though he doesn’t specify his intentions or outwardly suggest that there’s anything special about this particular dinner, Yi-young’s eyes grow wide with anticipation as she quickly accepts his invitation. Perhaps she’s just hopeful or merely excited that Do-won seems to be finally following through with his earlier promise to treat her to a crab dinner, but I tend to think she’s figured out the significance of his invite. I mean, how can she not? The way he bashfully looks at her resembles a little boy who’s handed his crush an elaborately handmade Valentine’s Day and can barely contain his excitement while she reads the message.
While Do-won makes plans for his date with Yi-young, tension is brewing among the residents — and not just the first-years. Sa-bi grows increasingly frustrated with Da-hye because she’s a micromanager who’s constantly looking over Sa-bi’s shoulder because a first-year’s mistakes often fall on her, as a second-year resident. Sa-bi perceives Da-hye’s behavior as a sign that she doesn’t trust her, which is a bit insulting to her ego. However, Sa-bi claims it wouldn’t be so bad if Da-hye wasn’t also dismissive — and seemingly lacking answers — when Sa-bi came to her for guidance.
The mutual lack of trust comes to head when Sa-bi grows concerned with a patient’s chart and — after being repeatedly told by Da-hye to wait and reassess in the morning — goes above Da-hye’s head to report the situation to Professor Jo. Da-hye’s assessment of the situation was correct, but because Sa-bi circumvented her and went to their professor, Da-hye’s reprimanded. Sa-bi realizes she should have a little more faith in her senior resident, but at the same time Da-hye admits that it’s hard to be the one who bears the burden of responsibility when she has only a year’s worth of experience more than Sa-bi, whose textbook knowledge surpasses Da-hye’s.
At the same time Sa-bi is struggle to see eye-to-eye with her senior resident, Jae-il has some issues with the new intern on ration in the OB-GYN department. Jae-il, who wants to emulate Eun-mi, tries an extremely benevolent approach when handling the intern’s screw-ups. Unfortunately, unlike the previous intern who was just inexperienced and incompetent, this new intern is also lazy and takes advantage of Jae-il’s niceness — a fact that becomes apparent when Jae-il and Do-won overhear the intern boasting about how much of a pushover Jae-il is while skirting his responsibilities to grab lunch in the cafeteria.
Do-won explains that Eun-mi’s niceness was effective at motivating Jae-il to become a better doctor because he’s nice, too. A soft, kind hand doesn’t work on everyone. That said, Do-won doesn’t want Jae-il to be mean for the sake of keeping the interns in check, so he advises him to be nice, except for when there’s a situation that requires stern discipline. So much of Do-won’s screen time lately has been devoted to Yi-young that I was happy to see this particular moment of male bonding and mentorship, as it was a nice reminder that he’s more than a love interest for Yi-young.
Speaking of Yi-young, though, her patient goes into labor and, predictably, Eun-won ignores her calls and messages. When Yi-young finally gets in touch with Eun-won and recommends an emergency C-section, Eun-won tells her to keep proceeding with the natural birth — because that’s what she promised the patient in front of the cameras (ugh). An hour later, Eun-won shows up, and because she can’t let the cameras capture her own negligence, she throws Yi-young under the proverbial bus and blames her for not sensing the urgency of the situation and preparing an operating room. (Double ugh.) Thankfully, the patient survives, but I was sincerely hoping that the camera crew story arc would end with Eun-won’s true nature being exposed, but, alas, the trailer for the variety show paints her as the heroic protagonist and Yi-young as the incompetent resident.
The whole ordeal is enough to make Yi-young type up her resignation letter, citing Eun-won as her one and only reason for quitting. A part of me wishes she’d turned it in so maybe someone would have taken the measures to, at the very least, block Eun-won from getting that professorship she’s gunning for, but as much as I dislike Doctor Narcissist, I don’t want Yi-young to quit. Thankfully, Nam-kyung arrives and rips up the resignation letter and reminds Yi-young that they are about to get a fat bonus in two months. It would be such a shame if she quit before then.
As much as the idea of a bonus cheers Yi-young up, her mood is instantly dampened again by a phone call from Do-won, who cancels on their date because he’s “busy.” Disappointed, she does something unexpected: she agrees to got to a noraebang with Jae-il and the rest of the first-years And it’s during this beautiful moment of bonding that a drunk Sa-bi gets caught up in a trance that is one of HI-BOYZ hits and joins Jae-il during his set. Her dance perfectly matches his HI-BOYZ choreography, and she outs herself as a Hello Girl. Although she claims Jae-il wasn’t her bias, he looks at her differently. Perhaps this is a budding romance, or perhaps he’s simply happy to have found a friend who acknowledges and understands that part of his past.
When Yi-young returns home, she finds Do-won sitting on the swing set outside their apartment, clearly not “busy” like he’d claimed. You see, what had happened was, Do-won planned an elaborate date — the perfect set-up for confessing his feelings — but it systematically fell apart. First, he accidentally booked their dinner reservation for the wrong night, and then the flower delivery guy got in a motorcycle accident outside the hospital. As a result, Do-won canceled on Yi-young. But when he sees her disappointment, he realizes he needs to come clean, so, without any of the planned fanfare, he admits that he likes her. Yi-young’s expression changes instantly. She’s extremely excited, but she’s also her characteristically adorable self in that her response is: “I’ve said how I felt a lot, so I don’t have to tell you, right?” (LOL)
They head up to the apartment together, but at the door, they remember that Joo-young and Seung-won are on vacation for a few days while they try to take their minds off Joo-young’s latest round of IVF. Somehow, being alone together feels inappropriate and excessively intimate to Do-won now that they’re dating, so he decides to spend the night at the hospital. Yi-young understands and offers to ride the elevator down with him, and just before the doors close, Do-won grabs her for a kiss! (Was it a super obvious stage-kiss? Yes, but I’m not going to complain because they are so stinkin’ adorable!)
Yi-young and Do-won officially enter their secret dating era, but dating another doctor isn’t easier when you live together — not when you agree to keep your romance from your siblings who live under the same roof as you. Joo-young is especially keen-eyed and notices a change in Yi-young’s abnormal phone activity, which prompts her to ask Yi-young if she’s dating anyone — in front of Do-won and Seung-won. When Yi-young confirms she’s dating someone, Do-won immediately reacts, crouching on the sofa next to her like an anxious chihuahua. Will she tell them? She said she was going to wait until Joo-young was past her IVF treatments…
Yi-young keeps the identity of her boyfriend a secret, but Joo-young accurately deduces that Yi-young is dating someone from work, and Seung-won advises her against it because it makes things extra complicated — unless you get married like him and Joo-young. To which Yi-young responds, “We will.” (Cue: Do-won’s spit-take. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say he wasn’t at the point of thinking about marriage yet.)
This whole scene was absolutely hilarious, and I loved the situational irony. However, underneath the humor there was a thread of seriousness as we glean more insight into Joo-young and Seung-won’s courtship and marriage. As coworkers, they were a part of the same project, but at some point after their marriage, Joo-young quit her job to focus on becoming a mother. When confronted both by her inability to have a child and her husband’s present success on a project that was once hers, Joo-young grows despondent. She gave up a promising career because starting a family was more important to her, but on some level her struggles with infertility — as much as she wants a baby — have given her regrets.
Yi-young promises Joo-young that she will be at her next appointment to determine if the latest round of IVF was a success, but she’s late because she and Nam-kyung have been forced to pick sides in the Professor Seo x Professor Kong battle of egos. Although she’s late, Yi-young arrives in time to be there for Joo-young when she receives confirmation that the IVF treatment failed. Joo-young was prepared for the disappointment, after all, if she’d been pregnant, the extra blood work to confirm would have been unnecessary.
She tries to remain positive and remind Yi-young and herself that she still has two more frozen embryos and one final shot at becoming a mother, but when she orders a decaf coffee — a habit she no longer needs — she cracks. The tears flow. Yi-young comforts her in the only way she knows how: by ordering her a coffee loaded with so much caffeine it could propel a rocket to the When the Stars Gossip space station and rescue that space baby for Joo-young to adopt. It’s Yi-young’s way of saying that there are some small positives to her not having gotten pregnant.
Joo-young’s ongoing fertility issues have been extremely painful to watch over the course of this drama, and by this point I share her exhaustion and question if the emotional roller coaster is worth it. Her family is extremely supportive of her, which is wonderful, but each time the IVF fails, I can’t help but wonder why no one gently suggests she should try other alternatives, like adoption or surrogacy. Have these discussions been held off camera and gone poorly because Joo-young was not receptive to them? Or are these alternatives being ignored because the drama wants to end this plot arc on a happy note with her finally getting pregnant?
The feud between Professor Seo and Professor Kong takes a hilarious turn when Professor Seo goes to the ER to check on her friend LEE IK-JOON (cameo by Jo Jung-seok) who has superglued his hands together. Although Ik-joon intentionally went to a different Yulje branch to avoid being teased by his friends, Professor Seo immediately tells his girlfriend CHAE SONG-HWA (cameo by Jeon Mi-do) about his predicament. Professor Kong also arrives in the ER to check on Ik-joon because it’s clear to everyone that she has quite the crush on him. (That eye roll exchange between Ik-joon and Professor Seo was perfection.) Too bad she didn’t get the memo from Professor Seo that he and Song-hwa were an item before she embarrassed herself.
Although Professor Seo and Professor Kong are part-time frenemies and professional revivals, they don’t let their bickering affect their jobs or their professionalism, as shown when an emergency patient arrives at the hospital via helicopter. Yi-young and Nam-kyung are the first to assist because their professors are preoccupied with other patients, and because this particular emergency is reminiscent of another recent case in which their team lost a patient, Yi-young and Nam-kyung are panicked. Yi-young fights through her fear and goes into action a little faster than Nam-kyung, but together they stabilize the patient long enough to get her in the operating room where Professor Seo takes over as the lead surgeon. Professor Kong then shows up to assist while Yi-young and Nam-kyung scrub in. Together, all four doctors save the patient.
Unfortunately, Professor Seo and Professor Kong’s ability to set aside their pettiness for the good of the patient and their residents, the same cannot be said for Professor Jo, who was a big ol’ ass this week because Sa-bi opted to watch another doctor’s surgery — in her free time, mind you — instead if his. He took her interest in the other surgery as a personal slight and began bullying her, and as a first-year resident she was helpless to defend herself. Thankfully, even though this Yulje branch has more crappy doctors than I’d like to see in one hospital, the Gynecology department still has MVP Professor Ryu.
After Professor Jo, once again, yelled at Sa-bi and humiliated her for something that wasn’t her fault, he failed to apologize for his behavior even though it was another department’s resident that forgot to tell their patient to fast before her surgery. Professor Ryu saw the whole exchange and stepped in to call out Professor Jo — a more senior doctor — out for his deplorable behavior. Professor Ryu may suck at remembering names, but he’s definitely one of the good ones. And now I think Sa-bi has found her hospital bias — but don’t tell Jae-il that.
It seems as though Jae-il might be developing a wee crush on Sa-bi, and even Yi-young and Nam-kyung are suspicious that he’s starting to pay her more attention since learning she is a fan of his former idol group. More solid evidence to support this theory comes when he offers to share two churros with Sa-bi. Although Sa-bi worries about Nam-kyung and Yi-young, Jae-il insists they should leave them alone to give them time to make up after all the fighting they’ve been doing. Even better, he suggests they should go somewhere private — without Professor Jo — to eat their dessert.
Cut to: Ik-joon and Song-hwa walking through the dark and deserted outpatient suite, which isn’t in use outside of normal business hours. Ik-joon tells Song-hwa that the place is full of cockroaches — but not literal ones. Instead, he’s describing the interns and residents who come to this wing to secretly date. When professors come back to retrieve items they left behind during the day, the “cockroaches” scatter and hide so they aren’t caught canoodling.
Turns out Ik-joon’s metaphor is quite accurate because, as he and Song-hwa exit, Jae-il and Sa-bi come out of hiding. Of course, Sa-bi points out that they weren’t doing anything inappropriate, so she wonders why Jae-il insisted they hide. Jae-il can’t seem to explain why his instinct was to duck for cover, so one does have to wonder if perhaps he felt like they were on a secret date. As Jae-il and Sa-bi leave the darkened suite, Jae-il realizes he left his lab coat behind, and that, dear Beanies, is when he sees Yi-young and Do-won exiting a room together. And there’s no mistaking their hand holding and flirty behavior — not even in the dark.
Welp, now that Jae-il knows Yi-young and Do-won are secretly dating, it’s only a matter of time before everyone else knows. Something tells me our little puppy-dog resident can’t hold a secret, and really, with only two episodes left to this series, how long could we honestly expect him to withhold that information anyway? And with that, comes the realization that next week is our finale. I honestly can’t believe that there are only two episodes left, and I find myself in this rare — for me at least — position of not wanting this drama to end.
As spoiled as I am by all the Hospital Playlist cameos — this week’s especially — I’ve grown attached to these new characters. I want to see more of them, and — I can’t believe I’m writing this — a large part of me would rather see a second season of Resident Playbook than have a third season of Hospital Playlist. The 99 Crew from Hospital Playlist were older, and once they all found love, it felt like their lives (and stories) were pretty much settled, but our first-year residents still have a lot of room for growth — professionally and personally. If next week’s episodes are truly the end, I feel confident in this writing team to give us a solid ending, but instead of longing for more after the last episode, I’d rather be waiting for more.
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