That stunt made the episode great. :D. Love how the two of them are such natural partners, working together so smoothly.
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This show would be lot better if they stopped having so many supposedly adult characters acting like 5th graders. The show keeps having the residents act brain damaged, I guess for 'comedy' but none of it is very funny. The main romance and larger drama plot lines are all solid and they should stick to those instead of trying be a 'comedy' in between the serious stuff.
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This episode had some clear lines of opposition drawn. First by Jin Seo U, telling everyone explicitly that she was going to be a bad bitch because the world doesn't go her way. Then when ML's father, Director Hong Du Sin, outright slaps her grandfather, Jin Seong Jong when it becomes clear that he is part of the cabal plotting to take over the hospital. In addition, Dr. Eyebrows continues to be just bizarre and unlike normal humans and lets ML know he is going to pursue Hye Jeong, formally setting them up as rivals for her affection. Finally, scattered throughout the episode and especially near the end, the surrounding cast of 'doctors' continue to act like 12 year old idiots in various ways that aren't really funny. Leading up to one of the idiots crashing FL's new car. I guess the writers consider this to be 'humor'?
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Thus show just goes way up and way down, both in terms of emotions for the story ... and in story quality. This episode kicks off with the tragic ending of the last episode, with Kim Su Cheol having wiped out in a really bad motorcycle accident (_totally_ his fault) and needs immediate surgery. At first FL is reluctant to do it for her friend but he insists that he only trusts her so she directly assists Hong and they both successfully save him, though it's clear he will have a long, long recovery. The whole incident, of course, feels very contrived by the show for cheap dramatic purposes. In fact there are LOTs of moments in this show that feel just like the laziest of plot writing. And that's getting disappointing. On the good side, I like that the relationship between the FL & ML seems to be progressing at a realistic and mature pace independent of all the noise around them. That part of the writing is solid. Ever since the ML messed up when he was dismissive of her request for Granny's records, he has really turned it around and consistently respected her choices. He is letting her set the pace of their relationship. He has not tried to make life decisions for her and he clearly respects her as a doctor. All that is very refreshing and mature. Surrounding that, there is all kinds of disappointing junk. The continued bizarre, clownish mis-behavior of all the hospital staff is more frightening than humorous. I don't know what the writers are trying to achieve with all that. That reaches a low-point with frat-house-level heavy drinking at the welcome party near the end of the episode. It was, frankly, disgusting to watch. This show seems full of characters who are either just plain bad, awful humans or at best broken adults who act with the immaturity of children. It's hard to take a lot of this seriously, but if it's meant to be comedy, it's not really working either.
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This episode was all over the place with multiple story tracks riding roller coasters. For the FL & ML, the latter starts off the episode making a HUGE mistake by reverting to his stupid arrogant, "I know what's best for you and I am dismissive of your concerns and choices", mode that he rolled with way back as a teacher - you know, the attitude that lead to a huge trauma-fest for 3 of his students. This failure rightfully disappoints and infuriates Yoo Hey Jeong. Then later, when she reaches out to him for help dealing with her step-mom's case, he's simply not available (innocently, but nevertheless) and so she ends up turning to Dr. Eyebrows for help. The FL and Dr Eyebrows end up just being in the same room a few times. This seems like the show is building up the latter's case to be a romantic 3rd leg of a triangle, though he's so weird and bizarre it's hard to take that serious. So this is the main Lead relationship heading towards a low-point ... but then the ML redeems himself by going ahead and searching for and eventually finding Granny's case files. He finally is able to bring it to her in a romantic fashion and after some dancing in the rain silliness they kiss and their relationship is back on an upward trajectory. At the same time, Jin Seo U is growing in frustration because from her viewpoint, she keeps seeing Dr Eyebrows interacting with Hye Jeong and being attentive to the latter and less and less available to Seo U. She turns emotionally to the patient who she's become friendly to, in search of some sort of emotional connection because she has none with anybody else ... and then all of a sudden that patient dies from cardiac arrest right in Seo U's hands, despite everything she tries to save her. The scene is extremely emotional for her and closes with Dr. Eyebrows rushing in to hug her. Oh - and then there it the re-introduction of Yoo Hye Jeong's father and step-family to her life! Her step-mom still seems like a witch and YHJ is reluctant to do surgery on her. But she brings a new half-sister into the show - who seems nice. I hope they can be good sisters to each other, despite all the family history.
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So many things about the fight scene just irritated me, but none more so Than the amount of stupid standing and staring while someone is bleeding out. These are doctors used to dealing with trauma. Come on. And all the stupid 'coincidences' used by the writers to create the scene were just so painfully contrived. I also hate that the show seems to want to have every freaking man all lusting after the FL. In addition to the ML, we now have Dr. Jung, his nephew (ML's friend) and they've even brought stupid boy-band refuge Ji Soo character back into the story. Do we really need that many flies hovering and buzzing around the picnic? The writing quality just feels like it took a nose-dive in this episode.
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In this drama so far, the number of actually likable people is so tiny. Basically we have the FL and the ML (though with qualifiers given his misbehavior in the backstory), Grammy, and Sun Hui (FL's best friend), ML's dad and Dr. Kim Tae Ho (ML's friend). Pretty much _every_ other character is either objectively evil or at best an incompetent idiot. Most of the time, the FL seems to be surrounded by truly awful, awful people. What a horrible world to live in.
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I know a lot of viewers will focus their ire on the Jin Seo U character and certainly she is not a good person for what she did. But let's be very, very clear: The person who should own full responsibility for this disaster affecting these 3 girls is Hong Ji Hong. It was HIS arrogance and irresponsible behavior as a "teacher" that set everything on course for this outcome. He was grossly inappropriate and unprofessional and he kept waiving off and ignoring all the signs of trouble coming. Almost certainly because, well, he enjoys having a bunch of young. teen girls fawning over him. It will be a HUGE disappointment in the script writers if he doesn't at some point acknowledge true remorse over his fault in this. Yes, Jin Seo U is at fault for her own actions. But she is just a minor - an impressionable, emotional young girl. The teacher is supposed to be the responsible adult. Okay, bitching about the ML is over for now. This episode was packed with some big events both in the back story and also introducing the modern version of our girl, looking like a competent neurosurgeon - so clearly she did a LOT over 13 years to remake her life.
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In all other regards, this was a good first episode, but right off the bat, watching the ML, Hong Ji Hong, conduct himself as a "teacher" with a bunch of teenage girl students, I am mortified. His behavior is so unprofessional and almost guaranteed to be a recipe for a disaster. He acts WAY too flirtatious with the students and while he may think it's a joke and not serious, he has to remember that these are minors - young people without fully-formed brains and not emotionally mature. He is being incredibly irresponsible with his behavior, which is certain to lead at least one of the girls to have wrong ideas.
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This drama kicks off with an immediate contest of wits between Li Pei Yi (Bai Lu) and Xiao Huai Jin (Wang Xing Yue). Right off the bat from the moment they meet they both start measuring each other up on the intelligence scale. Huaijin seemingly has a bit of an advantage in that he knows her from something connected to the night her family was killed whereas she apparently does not recognize him. He seems to think this gives him room to maneuver. However, she recognizes one of his tokens and it gives her a flashback to that night so she already knows he's connected in some way. The flashback seems to suggest that the boy version of him led the girl version of her to safety that night, but we don't have a lot more to go on yet. At any rate, while after their initial encounter he tries to distance himself from her, she clearly took steps to get an imperial decree to force him to assist her. This suggests strongly that she already realizes he has some connection to her. rr On the quality of the show, first impressions: Wow, absolute stunning visuals and fantastic cast. The cinematography and costumes are as good as on any drama series I've watched. The camerawork and lighting and effects are being used like an artist's paintbrush to produce some beautiful, mesmerizing imagery. And while it's probably enough to laud the casting of Bai Lu and Wang Xing Yue (glad to see them as allies after being in opposition in One and Only), the rest of the cast is filled out with veteran, talented actors up and down the cast. So far, this all foretells a really excellent drama to come.
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On one hand, the revelations from Wei Yan about what really happened were very moving and added a ton of depth to the story. Really makes you disgusted by the actions of the late former emperor. But otherwise, it felt like the episode short-shifted on the real fates of the various characters in order to provide a weird alternative universe short story. I'm not sure what the point of that was. Some sort of fan service? I would much, MUCH rather they spent more time on the fates of the actual characters in the main story. For example, it would have been cool to see an actual formal wedding for Changyu and Zheng. It would have been cool to see their two kids (and by that time, both Bao and Ning growing up to be a young adults). It would have been nice to see a bit about the fate of Gongsun and Qi Shu. All that would have been far, far more interesting than the weird alternate universe thing. Oh well, I still liked the series overall.
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So all the threads came together with both the revelations about what happened 17 years ago and also Qi Min's attempt to take the throne. Within this we had some exciting moments such as Xie Zheng's duel with Wei Yan and some dramatic moments such as Wei Xuan sacrificing himself to save Zheng from an assassination attempt by Wei Yan's man. But a couple of things just came up a little flat. For one thing, Qi Min's long-planned rebellion felt ... small and feeble and doomed to fail as soon as it started. Feels like the ML & FL barely had to flex to shut this down, esp once the Wei Yan nuisance was dealt with. And really, FL didn't flex at all since we surprisingly got zero combat scenes with her during all this. Finally, it seemed odd that, given her many amazing feats of super-strength, that Changyu would have had any trouble whatsoever pulling both Qian and Qi Min back up the wall. Feels like the writers have forgotten all about Changyu's amazing abilities of late.
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Yu Qianqian asks the question I've always been wondering: Just how on earth can Qi Min retain any staff or followers given the rate that he callously kills even his own people? Next, while Changyu looks lovely when finally dressed up in a noble lady's dress ... sorry, she looks the most awesome when wearing her armor. But I dd love the sisterly interaction between her and the Grand Princess. 'Hope they can always be besties! And man, she is SUCH A BOSS QUEEN the way she dispenses with Song Yan. "Well, you know I won't be using you. You may go." Total, cold bad-ass! And that's just the first of 3 heavy psychological blows that just crush his feeble pathetic mind in short order! Oh, that scene was SO SO SO SO satisfying! Changyu's character is such a delight to watch in every scene in this episode, especially with the deft way she handles the court politics despite being a 'lowly' pig butcher.
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This episode is all about drawing lines. We get Changyu's clear view of how the palace factions are lined up against each other. Her entrance to the capital and the palace is bold and epic and when it comes to the verbal sparring with imperial ministers, the Flower General shows she is just as skilled with words as she is with a butcher knife.Love Changyu's quiet flex of physical power when she breaks Minister Li's jianyu.Now that he's fully healthy and in command of his resources, it is notable how Xie Zheng is sneakily able to be anywhere he needs to be. And once again Li Haui'An continues to show just how pathetic he is, unable to make a convincing argument to his grandfather.
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Okay. I get it. This series has become - intended or not - all about how a family deals with a mother who is mentally ill. And as long as I keep my perspective oriented on that, I have to say it is pretty brilliantly executed. The acting performances are just so good. And the cinematography is beautiful. But ... this is painful and exasperating to watch. It's simply not pleasant to watch someone spiral the way Liu Wanyu has spiraled and the impact that has on her family. Yes, that's a selfish viewer perspective. I can only take so much of watching this sort of stress before it's just, well, too stressful.
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