Daily Dose of Sunshine (2023) KDrama Episode 11

Episode 11 of Daily Dose of Sunshine begins with Da-eun getting ready to head off to work. It’s her first day back again, and she continues to do the things her doctor instructed her to. She keeps he compliment diary at hand, and at work she’s back to her smiley self. Even Soo-yeon seems to have come around to her demeanour.

When she passes Seo-wan’s old room though, she takes a deep breath and heads in. She slips back into her old caring demeanour. However, there are some who still don’t like seeing Da-eun on the ward, including Sung-sik’s brother who tells her to stop taking the blood pressure for a patient.

Da-eun heads off to get some drinks but Yeo-hwan interjects and decides to pay. He hears her out and encourages Da-eun to do whatever she can to stop her anxiety flare-ups. However, when she heads back onto the ward again, one of the new patients, Byeong-hui, has her mum in attendance.

When she learns about Da-eun being on a psych ward for treatment, she’s forced to confront the truth. Da-eun apologizes to her colleagues for not saying something sooner, and Jung-ran even gives her a big hug. Da-eun is ashamed that they all found out this way and speaks to Hyo-sin about this. She admits that Ae-sin is her sister and now her words hit a lot harder than they did.

Word of Da-eun’s condition spreads across the hospital like wildfire, and the parents even congregate together and wonder whether it’s safe for their loved ones (who are admitted onto the ward) to be treated by her. They eventually all show at the ward together but completely ignore Da-eun compared to the other nurses.

Da-eun doesn’t take it to heart and eventually meets with Yu-chan. He still wants to start work and has a new haircut to boot too! He’s got an interview coming up but he’s pretty scared about it. Da-eun lights up when she hears and congratulates her friend.

The next day, Da-eun meets Go-yun at the bus stop. He’s still standoffish with her but when he learns that she’s working at the hospital again, he encourages her to get on the bus, otherwise she’ll be late. While they’re en-route, a hit piece is written up on the hospital forum about Da-eun’s mental health.

Naturally, everyone in the entire hospital now knows about it, and when Da-eun shows on the ward, everyone is distracted – patients and nurses alike. They whisper behind her back and it gets all the way up to the management. The head of the PR team believes they should address the situation for the good of the hospital, and consider letting her go.

Dr Im does what he can to cover for her, and puts the PR guy on speaker phone to humiliate him in front of the entire room. It works an absolute treat and Da-eun has a whole bunch of people covering her back. It can’t be easy, but she does what she can.

Meanwhile, Deul-re decides she’s going to stay with Yeo-hwan after all, pointing out that this is what she wants and she gets excited to come home and see him.

Da-eun does incredibly well to withstand the onslaught of abuse that comes her way. Not only are the patients having issues with Da-eun, but so too are the parents. After setting up a whole bunch of people with pickets outside to protest, Da-eun goes on the ward and starts tending to the patients. While drawing blood from Byeong-hui, her mother shoes up and pushes her, knocking the tube out her hand and spurting blood evrywhere.

Deul-re takes Da-eun aside and speaks to her about the abuse she’s suffering. She can’t understand why she’d put herself through this, even with her own mental health suffering. Da-eun though, gives a passionate speech about how she’s staying strong because she wants to be the best at her job and how this is her calling.

Out of all the people, to show up at lunch ,it’s her old head of Internal Medicine that drops by at the table. Da-eun and her stare for a long time… before she hands over a drink and tells her to stay strong. It’s really nice moment and something that helps turn things in her favour. However, Da-eun notices that Go-yun has a swollen eye after getting into a fight with one of the protestors.

All these parents, fronted by Sung-sik’s sister and Byeong-hui, gather together and ask Mrs Song to fire Da-eun. When she refuses, they’re brought before the hospital administration to try and come up with a solution. Da-eun points out that she’s got depression and is currently receiving treatment for it. When the guardians tell her that she’s sick and shouldn’t be there, Hyo-sin has heard enough.

She stands up and reaches out to Byeong-hui and the other guardians, turning the tables and telling them all their patients should be kept locked up and not given jobs anymore if that’s how they feel. When they kick off and begin discussing this amongst themselves, Hyo-sin continues. “Did it break your hearts?” She says, before going on to point out that their behaviour is not dissimilar to what their own loved ones who have been sick and discharged have had to deal with.

It does the trick, and half the guardians decide to end this picketing now – including Byeong-hui’s mum. The rest are told the next day that if they don’t like Da-eun then they can find another hospital to move their loved ones over to. And that’s something that’s come all the way from the top. Some of that has actually been helped by Go-yun, who went out of his way to talk to the Director of the hospital personally about how good Da-eun is as a nurse… and how he has feelings for her.

After all this, Da-eun happens to be waiting at he bus stop for Go-yun. Se admits that she’s missed him and they decide to walk together. At the same time, Hyo-sin takes her sister over to her new apartment. Before that though, Ae-sin is introduced to all the different neighbours. Ae-sin holds her sister’s hand hard and tells one neighbour that she’s going to be staying inside and will stay away from the courtyard and other areas. It’s a gut-wrenching moment.

Meanwhile, Yu-chan shows up for his work interview. The water starts bubbling up, as the panic disorder looks set to kick in, given it’s Yu-chan’s old colleague that’s doing the interview. However, he manages to compose himself and steps up to do his interview, even admitting there and then that he has panic disorder.

Elsewhere, Deul-re spends time with her friends and decides that she doesn’t want to be a nurse anymore. This job just does not excite her and she wants something new and different to cling to.

The Episode Review

As we near the end of this season, it would appear that Daily Dose of Sunshine could be up for some big awards next year. It might not win but damn does this show hit hard when it comes to mental health.

While some shows tackle just one aspect of it, Sunshine looks at things through every single lens; patients, victims, family members, loved ones and more. There’s such a nice tone and vibe to this one, which bleeds over to the show’s overarching themes which is clearly to educate and try to help gain understanding about how mental health works and how it can affect each an every one of us at any moment.

The romance has basically petered out now with the kinda-love triangle midway through the series. We now have Go-yun and Da-eun together, which is the obvious pairing if we’re honest!

The ending is a great way to close things out, with the finale looking set to close things out with a bang