Daily Dose of Sunshine (2023) KDrama Episode 9

Episode 9 of Daily Dose of Sunshine begins with Da-eun waking up in an ambulance. She’s out of it and doesn’t know what’s going on. That is, until she’s taken to the Closed Unit at another hospital. She’s kept in isolation and when she wakes up, told to take a psychology test too.

Da-eun uses her own knowledge of the medical field to try and get out of this by answering quickly and trying to be the model patient. However, she’s thrown off by how different things are on the other side of the coin. She’s refusing to take her meds too, flushing them down the toilet and refusing to acknowledge that she’s a patient with mental health issues.

Meanwhile, over in the familiar psychiatric ward, Ae-sin, a patient with schizophrenia, is back in the ward again. Apparently she’s not taking her medication and is making life harder for herself as a result. This is something that’s echoed by Da-eun, who stubbornly refuses to admit that she needs help too.

While outside with her mum, she pleads with her to let her come home. She refuses of course, and eventually she sobs and shuffles back inside again. Yu-cham watches this play out, and contemplates just how to get involved. In the end, he doesn’t.

Elsewhere, Deul-re’s mum continues to skulk about. She tries to find cash at home and when that doesn’t work, notices a newspaper heading with Yeo-hwan’s picture on. She realizes what a catch her daughter has and shows up to see Yeo-hwan at the hospital. She asks for ten million won to help Deul-re’s living arrangements. Of course, in reality she actually just wants that money for herself.

Deul-re takes her mum aside and pleads with her to just be a good mother for once. She agrees…but only if she gets the money. Deul-re is livid and in the end, storms off after deciding that she and Yeo-hwan should break up.

Meanwhile, Dea-eun finds herself thinking a lot more , while Go-yun visits a doctor to find out how she’s getting on. He broaches the idea of seeing her but it’s shot down, given it may be detrimental to Da-eun’s recovery and health.

Outside, Go-yun ends up locking eyes with Da-eun. The latter is embarrassed and rushes off into her room. She also starts clutching her side. She eventually speaks to the nurse and reveals that she also works as a nurse before being admitted and doesn’t think of herself as a patient. The thing is, they actually knew about this all along and she’s surprised they’ve still treating her “like everyone else”.

Frustrated at how things are going, and the constant questions from fellow patients, including Ji-seon, Da-eun lashes out in frustration and throws something across the room. Unfortunately, this results in her being taken out and isolated from the others.

Mrs Jung shows up to see Go-yun and thanks him for the advice regarding his daughter. She knows he likes Da-eun but he admits he’s keeping a distance to try and help her healing, even though he’s desperate to see her. 

Go-yun eventually talks to Da-eun’s mum about all of her daughter’s best traits, and encourages her to support everything that Da-eun says. He wants her to refrain from criticizing her too.

Da-eun speaks to the head nurse after the outburst and admits that she’s a little frustrated. She knows how it works on the psychiatric ward and she believes it’s “just a little bit of depression” and the traffic incident was “a mistake”.

However, we didn’t see everything. It turns out, Da-eun went back in the road again after the end of the last episode and walked directly into traffic. It was Go-yun who stopped her and held her back from being hit. There were a whole bunch of witnesses too and that’s why she was sedated and taken away with her mother’s consent to the ward.

Da-eun finally understands what’s happened and she’s shocked. Her recovering memories of the event is a good step, but it’s very clear that she needs to recover. She approaches Ji-seon and apologizes for the earlier outburst, admitting that it’s wrong of her to judge others the way she has.

Deul-re’s mum shows up at the hospital again asking for money. Yeo-hwan meets with her and refuses to hand over any money. He remembers Deul-re’s retort about being like dating trash, and now he understands why. He tells her to have a good trip and leaves. When he does, Deul-re shows up and takes him aside. She wants to break up, shrugging it off as a fling. She can’t look at him when she says it and admits that she’s terrified because her mother will not stop.

Yeo-hwan doesn’t care and tells Deul-re that her mum has been holding her back. He wants to support her and suggests she leave her mother instead. He’ll be there every step of the way to continuously tell her what an amazing woman she is. Deul-re is shocked, given it’s the first time she’s ever met someone who has told her to do such a thing.

Da-eun sits down to eat with her mum and apologizes for her actions. She promises to try and get better, which eventually sees her meet up with Yu-chan afterwards to trade some banter. He also shares the cliff-hangers at the end of a certain TV show they’re both watching, admitting to Mrs Jung that he’s doing so to try and give her something to hold onto.

Within this conversation that we cut back to though, Yu-chan apologizes for his outburst. He didn’t know Da-eun was so sick and regrets his actions. Da-eun smiles warmly and tells him it’s not an issue.

As the episode closes out, we cut across to the other hospital. The staff gather together, intending to take off Song Ae-sin’s hat. However, she starts lashing out and becomes agitated. Thankfully, Mrs Song is there and as she calls out to the patient, everyone stops.

The Episode Review

This episode is much slower compared to the others in this series, but it’s clear that it’s done so deliberately to serve as a bit of a proverbial deep breath before plunging into more drama.

It’s also clear that Da-eun needed help, and seeing things from her perspective, on the other side of the fence, should hopefully help her as a nurse. She now knows what some of her patients have been going through. Ji-seon’s speech about health is so true and although mental health has come a long way in recent years, it’s not anywhere near the level that it should be in terms of understanding and empathy.

Depression can eat you up from the inside out, and that much is especially true when it comes to Da-eun, who looks like all light has left her.

The show has done well to capture that essence of depression, while the subplot involving Deul-re and Yeo-hwan is also developing really well.