Season 1, Episode 8 (Season Finale)
Date of release: January 24, 2025 (Netflix)
Written by: Choi Tae-kang
Directed by: Lee Do-yoon
“I wanted to become a doctor just like you. Like the one you were 24 years ago. The one who worked tirelessly to save his patients. But where is that doctor now?”
This episode was like two in one. The adventure in South Sudan gets concluded, but because there were still about 30 minutes left, the characters still had to deal with a mass-casualty incident, with only Dr. Baek himself being the final patient of the season, because he stupidly decided to get closer to a burning building that was just waiting to explode and kill innocent lives.
Both halves of the episode were individually fascinating. The first half had me annoyed with the reporters trying to cover the soldier's arrival at the hospital, hindering his quick delivery to the hospital by standing in his way. Besides turning hospital administration into supervillains, this show also made reporters and journalists look bad, as they don't think to step aside and let the doctors and nurses do their job. The second half could have delivered a nice action plot that could have functioned as a first-responder drama as well, with Dr. Baek (and Dr. Han) being on site and running triage, but it was essentially just a cheap plot device to have Baek get wounded, so that Number One can finally be the lead surgeon for once and show what he has learned ever since being Baek's protege.
Plus points for the evil hospital administration not standing in Baek's way too much – how could they, since with two separate premises in this episode, there was basically no time for them to also be villains here. But that makes the hour a bit uneven in the end, as the story just ends with Baek getting what he needs most (a helicopter, so that he, a doctor, can also play a medic in his spare time), with none of the hospital administration continuing to stand in the way. They just give up because one of them happens to learn that Baek's father died under their care. It's not like that a surprising personal connection is going to stop the hospital director from continuing to find ways to stop paying his employees and make himself rich by focusing on profits instead of patient care. That type of corruption doesn't stop when someone asks, “Where is that doctor now?”
I lost some interest in the show as it went along. Too ridiculous the plot at times, too fancy the style, and not interesting enough the characters. There was a moment when the lead characters could have turned into people I was rooting for (when they were all together for dinner), but the writing didn't have any depth for them after eight episodes, with the entire show being a contender for a page-one definition of “style over substance.” But it was still a fun watch because of its ludicrousness.
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| This season needs one final patient for the story, so a building blows up to make one. |
