RELEASED
FEBRUARY 23RD, 2014
LABEL
SINGLES
EMERGENCY COUPLE EPISODE 8
I have to admit when I first hear the theme song I get anxious. I love to groove along to it and am impatient to see what this installment holds.
Last episode ended with Jin Hee and Dr. Guk travelling home by bus. Dr. Guk rests his head on her shoulder as he sleeps, and something amazing happens.
They keep throwing these two together in close proximity, usually in a slapstick way. Jin Hee will rush, trip, and end up in Chief Guk's arms--and usually at a time when Chang Min can see them. I can tell that Chief Guk likes her as a friend, but do the feelings stop there? IsChang Min way off base or is there something to his jealousy? And why should he care? It's not like he and Jin Hee were able to make it work when they were together.
In addition, Jin Hee's mother has turned into another annoying mother. Even though she's far from Sung Sook's social circles, she still nonetheless seems to make Jin Hee's home life less than ideal. She and Sung Sook need to go bowling together sometime -- maybe they can plot new ways to give their progeny hell. She takes in her wayward daughter's husband, and starts to bond with her grandson. Meanwhile this guy has Jin Hee's room to himself, given to him by Jin Hee's mom. He does seem to be a caring and devoted father, in contrast to Jin Ae who can't be bothered most of the time. She leaves him home to care for their son, and, when little Guk (no relation to Dr. Guk), needs to be rushed to the hospital, she doesn't even answer her phone. She blows off her husband with disturbing regularity. She gives us free spirits a bad name.
We see precious little of Chief Guk, but what we do see intrigues me. Sleeping while leaning on someone else is a move born of familiarity. While hardly appropriate in a working relationship, I think he sees a lot of potential in Jin Hee and has sort of taken her under his wing. He certainly comes running when she plays the damsel in distress card.
His power struggle with Ji Hye is surprising. Jin Hee makes a diagnosis of appendicitis and questions the specialist. Dr. Guk comes to Jin Hee's defense, which offends Ji Hye and was clearly against protocol -- residents do not challenge specialists, apparently. We find out that, years ago, those two were in the exact same situation as Chang Min and Jin Hee: interns forced to operate and it was something more serious than appendicitis. It sounds like the patient also died. This does a lot to explain Dr. Guk's quirks, why he was adamant about keeping Jin Hee on and hard on both her and Chang Min for operating without guidance. On the other hand, when Dr. Guk finds Ji Hye slept in his office, he chides her, which she doesn't take lying down. The struggle could have been born out of frustration.
Chang Min sees Dr.Guk and Jin Hee as a couple. He accuses her of trying to spend time with someone when she takes the night shift. Even during CPR practice, he creates a fantasy image of her and Dr. Guk in some kind of sensual sync and tackles the Chief. When her dismissal notice is taken care of, Jin Hee even thanks Chief Guk rather than Chang Minwhile crying tears of joy. To be fair, Changmin stumbled over the news, and he told her in a rather offhand way. When he sees Jin Hee and Dr. Guk returning, walking together, and laughing, looking for all the world like a couple, he confronts Dr. Guk about what they were doing together, but Dr. Guk blows him off. It appears Chang Min still genuinely cares for her, or at least, have reawakened feelings that had been long dormant. Wouldn't it be better for him to simply swallow his pride, and make an offer to start over as friends? Then, at least, he can be involved in her life without looking like a crazy stalker.
During a housewarming party for Sang Hyuk and his new wife, Chang Min and Jin Heebitch about how new love turns to hatred soon enough. Hardly the kind of words we'd expect at a celebration. Jin Hee gets completely wasted, so Chang Min has to carry her up several flights of stairs into the hospital and into an exam room to lie down. Tenderness and regard is again seen here on Chang Min's part, despite some of the barbed remarks thrown out carelessly by both of them at the party. This show keeps teasing us with hints of romance between Jin Hee and both Dr. Guk and Chang Min. After a disastrous marriage, though, is a relationship much of a possibility between two exes? My problem is that the show doesn't go far enough, and so it feels like a tease, leaving me thinking, "Yeah, right," instead of "Maybe."
Sung Sook seems like much less of a menace in this episode, but she's no less annoying. She harangues her estranged husband over not visiting her in the hospital, and then serves him with divorce papers. Later, she learns about the secret conversation between Chang Min and his uncle, Sung Gil. Her soon-to-be-ex-hubby is really an odd character. While he definitely showed fatherly feelings toward Jin Hee, he did not show much of the same forChang Min, his own flesh and blood, and he had nothing but cold disregard for Sung Sook. I understand that Sung Sook is a manipulative cow, but you can at least be cordial. He appears to be her weakness, as she just wants him to validate her existence, but he has no time for her at all. Of course, now the scary thing is she has a secret that she has to suss out, and could potentially use it to gain the upper hand in her family.
Ah Reum is one person we see even less of than anyone else here. She finally finds the flowers that Yong Gyu placed on her desk in the last episode. He enters the room in time to see her smell and water them and his vision alters it to slow motion; he is totally in love with her, complete with goofy grin. While the scene is played for laughs, I have to wonder what happens when she finds out. She doesn't know who placed them, doesn't know his feelings, and doesn't seem to much care about him other than as a colleague, though we know she wants to be closer to Chang Min. And what happens when Chang Min finds out aboutYong Gyu? Will he go as ballistic as he does over Jin Hee?
I've laid out my theories and questions to ponder. What do you guys think? I would love to hear your thoughts on all this.
