Doctor Cha (2023) Episode 13

Episode 13 of Doctor Cha begins with Jeong-suk hurrying to call 911. The thing is, In-ho is actually fine and has just pretended to faint to get the sympathy vote. Honestly! Despite the bleeding hinting otherwise, Jeong-suk notices his eyes rolling around and realizes the same thing.

That night, In-ho drops to his knees and tries apologizing profusely to Jeong-suk, not wanting to get divorced. Well, that ship has sailed and she tells the rest of the family as much after too, telling them this is happening no matter what. Ae-sim is beside herself but Jeong-suk is steadfast in her resolve.

Jeong-suk speaks to the kids and tells them about what’s to come, including a potential decision to make over who they want to live with. She wants them to be open and apologizes for having to do this. Both kids are understanding, and Jung-min promises I-rang that things will work out in the end. As they leave the bedroom, I-rang can hear Jeong-suk sobbing on the other side.

At work, Chief Yoon suggests In-ho go for a drink with Roy and smooth things over. By comparison, In-ho fires back and queries whether he’s made up with Chief Lim. The smile instantly drops and he tells In-ho that th situation is altogether different.

Now, Roy actually smoothed things over with Yoo Ji-Seon’s parents, sitting them down and explaining the situation plainly and sensitively. Ji-seon’s mum actually forgave Jung-min, telling him it’s not his fault. However, that didn’t stop Jung-min from bursting into tears and apologizing profusely.

Outside, Roy tells Jeong-suk that she’s missed her regular check-up, after revealing everything about Jung-min and how he resolved the situation. He also cheekily tells her that she should hurry and come to him. There’s a double entendre here of course, given it’s partly in reference to her check-up and also getting in a relationship with him. Speaking of check-ups, In-ho is struggling to concentrate at work. He calls a customer by the wrong name and even stumbles over in the hallway.

At lunch, Yoon tries to make peace with Lim but it unfortunately all ends in disaster. Despite mentioning the braised tofu, Lim fires back and brings up the issues between their two departments. As they fight it out, Seung-hi demands In-ho head out so they can talk.

Alone, she tells him that Eun-seo is his child too and he needs to remember that going forward. In fact, she’s ready to forgive him but only if he pays for what he’s done. When she learns that Jeong-suk wants a divorce, she incredulously chuckles and tells him to play the role of good husband; she’ll be ready to be there for him, waiting as she always does.

Seung-hi heads over to see Roy and thanks him for helping out. He shrugs it off, claiming just to doing his duties as a doctor. As for Yoon, he speaks to Jung-min inside and claims this whole situation is a learning experience for him. This, coupled with one of his colleagues calling this whole thing a “relief”, prompts him to confide in Jeon. He doesn’t feel okay nor does he think it should be.

When Jeong-suk notices her son wandering down the hallway, she looks to follow but then sees him kissing Jeon pretty passionately. Her eyes grow wide and she decides to shut the door and leave them to it.

Roy heads off in the midst of this to try and learn more about his birth parents. If his parents register their DNA then it could be resolved quickly but the likelihood of finding a match without that though is around 1%, so it seems like a massive longshot. While Roy attempts to try and sort that out, Jeong-suk doubles down on her work, going all-in with her patients.

Another patient who’s having issues is Jeong-suk’s mum. As we know, she’s currently seeing Seung-hi at the hospital for appointments. Interestingly, she learns that she can enroll in health insurance under her daughter’s name, so naturally she rings Jeong-suk and tells her she’s going to quit working as a health care worker. Deok-rye shrugs off her daughter’s questioning as wanting to take up some hobbies, being careful to broach the subject of health insurance without worrying her.

That night, Jeong-suk starts to fill out the divorce papers but she’s distracted by In-ho who messages and acts overly sweet, trying to woo her with baked goods and nice messages. Jeong-suk though decides to head over and see her mum, who’s not in a good way. The acupuncture was a bit too strong and it’s not helped her shoulder. If anything, it’s made her worse.

When Oh Deok-rye (Jeong-suk’s mum) is admitted to hospital, In-ho naturally shows up acting over-the-top flamboyant and trying to win her over. She’s not falling for it, even after he puts in the work to get a top professional to check him out. Oh, and he even gets her flowers and joint-ownership of the house too.

Jeong-suk simply takes all of it and sends it back into his office, telling her husband that it’s too late and any sort of tax benefits they may get is long gone. Ae-sim despairs when she finds out, but equally so when she learns Deok-rye has been admitted to the hospital. She shows up with a whole bunch of macaroons for her and also doubles down on telling her that In-ho is kind hearted and a good person. Ae-sim, upon learning that Seung-hi’s assets could be worth around 100 billion won, is even more desperate on keeping her son and Seung-hi together.

All of this is thrown into turmoil when Jeong-suk and In-ho both learn that Seung-hi is the one in charge of looking after her mum. Of course, Deok-rye is unaware of the cheating and exactly who she is, and discusses how Seung-hi is a good teacher and colleague. Jeong-suk can only weakly smile and agree. She does tell her to switch doctors, revealing that she was In-ho’s girlfriend at college. She laughs it off, claiming all of this happened ages ago.

Jeong-suk is raging though and outside, she tells Seung-hi to assign another doctor to the case immediately. She refuses, smugly believing that she can win this battle and essentially using Jeong-suk’s mum as a bargaining chip. And unfortunately, her fears are confirmed when Seung-hi sneers and tells her that what happens next is up to her.

Outside, Roy lends his support to Deok-rye but In-ho grows jealous and gets involved. If Jeong-suk and Roy’s eyes roll back any harder they’d be in a bowling alley! In-ho sweet talks her, bringing up how he’s going to cook a really nice meal for them. And as she agrees, the whole family end up together in a super awkward meal. In-ho continues, promising to be a great son-in-law. “All I want is for you and Jeong-suk to live a happy life together.”

In-ho then gets out a couple of cash guns and begins firing notes all over the place. However, nobody is particularly enthused by the move, except for Deok-rye, who thanks him for his endeavour. Outside their private room, Ae-sim sees her professor friend out drinking and having fun with another woman and she sees green. It leads to a catfight between the two. When In-ho gets involved, the woman suddenly blurts out that he’s the son who was having an affair and raised a secret love child.

Deok-rye is shocked and as she learns the truth about In-ho, everything comes tumbling down and the entire place is left in utter silence. Unfortunately, that’s only made worse when Eun-seo and Seung-hi show up for dinner.

The Episode Review

Good grief, what an ending! I’m still not sure why Jeong-suk has been keeping this whole affair a secret from her mum as she’s left in a really difficult position at the end and with egg on her face. Everyone knows except for her and you can’t help but feel bad because of that.

In terms of content, there’s not a lot to sink your teeth into this time around, with In-ho trying in vain to win Jeong-suk back, doing all the things he should have been doing as a husband. There’s definitely some irony there, and we also see more of Seung-hi’s pettiness here too.

The fact that Seung-hi is prepared to use a patient (regardless of it being Jeong-suk’s mum) as a weapon is a real scummy move and she doesn’t deserve a redemption after that. Eun-seo though? As annoying as that girl is, you can really understand her plight, especially stuck with a flaky mum like Seung-hi that just doesn’t stand up for herself and be strong, moving on to better things. And then to have an absent father like In-ho who won’t even give her the time of day. No wonder she’s so messed up!