Doctor Cha (2023) Episode 9

Episode 9 of Doctor Cha begins with the long-awaited confrontation. It’s been coming for a while and Jeong-suk takes her seat next to In-ho and struggles to keep it together. There’s an awkward birthday celebration, which brings back painful memories for Seung-hi, who happens to be watching all of this from the door. She suddenly receives a message from Eun-seo and decides to leave, while Jeong-suk opens her gifts.

Seung-hi weeps in the car on the way home, while In-ho’s gifts are up next. Jeong-suk takes a bouquet of flowers with a faint smile, and breathes heavily. Eventually she grabs her husband’s head and sinks it into the cake. She starts laughing, telling In-ho she’s wanted to do this for a while and it’s cathartic for her.

Everyone is silent in the car on the way home, and when In-jo tries to make small talk with his wife after turning on rhe radio, Jeong-suk brings up how the songs she likes are similar to his ex, Seung-hi. Jeong-suk does well to hold it together this long and in the end she has In-ho pull her over at the side of the road and she decides to walk home.

With Jeong-suk gone from the car, the others are worried and believe she may actually be aware of In-ho’s cheating after all. We know this to be the case and in fact, that night at home Jeong-suk starts researching divorce lawyers.

She takes the next step in the morning and heads to a consultation, where the lawyer tells her she needs to find indisputable evidence of his affair in order to end this quickly and get favourable terms. “There’s no such thing as a clean divorce,” She warns, as Jeong-suk starts to contemplate her options and wonders just how she’s going to do this.

It certainly helps that she’s running, given she’s training for a marathon, but she stops mid-run and looks over the bridge, pointing out to Roy when he heads over to check on her, that she’s struggling and isn’t sure what the purpose of anything is anymore. Roy suggest she becomes a medical volunteer and join him as it could help clear her mind.

However, before this happens Jeong-suk gathers the whole family for a big meeting that night. She’s leaving the house and is going to stay at the resident dorms. She speaks plainly to her kids and also to her mother-in-law too, telling them they’ll all be okay and that she needs some time away.

In-ho heads in while she’s packing and tries to persuade her to stick around but she’s made her mind up, especially as she’s going right away and heading off to be a medical volunteer just like Roy suggested. And guess which room she ends up staying in at the dorms? Yep, it’s the one directly opposite Dr Jeon.

Jeong-suk naturally gets involved, and there’s a hilariously awkward encounter at the cafe when Jeon meets Jung-min… only for Jeong-suk to trail in behind them. Jung-min is flustered and unintentionally shouts at his girlfriend before eventually scampering away.

The medical volunteer session goes ahead and the group prepare to leave the hospital. Naturally, Jeong-suk can’t think of anything worse than sitting next to her husband, and as fate would have it, despite picking a seat on her own, she ends up right next to Roy who arrives late.

The trip then paves way for the group giving out their medical supplies, with Jeong-suk showing off her beautiful human skills shining through. That’s a direct contrast to In-ho, who’s very “professional” to the point of feeling stifling and lacking that same human touch.

In-ho’s mother meets with Seung-hi at the hospital, who’s tellingly not one of the medical volunteers. Ae-sim gives her a peace of her mind, putting the girl in her place. Back with the medical volunteers for now though, and In-ho is encouraged to head off for a road trip way out to where the village head is having issues with his bowel movements, or lack thereof. In-ho works his magic, although his stomach is doing somersaults afterwards and his clothes seem to reek too.

While he’s gone, Jeong-suk ends up burning herself on food that night and Roy arrives to help with her burn. He encourages her not to bottle up her feelings and let them out, but when In-ho comes back and questions what they’re doing, Jeong-suk hurriedly decides she’s fine and leaves. Naturally, Roy tips the bowl of water over In-ho, who heads off to get changed.

As In-ho changes out of his doctor robe, he leaves his phone behind and misses a call from Eun-seo. It’s about Seung-hi. She’s not feeling very well and in fact, she’s taken away in an ambulance.

In-ho is unaware of all of this, as he struggles to keep it together while sitting at a table featuring the two bickering department heads (Tae-sik and Jong-kwon) and Roy Kim. What a table!

While he and Roy end up absolutely smashed off alcohol, Jung-min and Jeon take an opportunity to leave and head over to the bus-stop together so they can talk privately. Whilst there, Jung-min leaves his phone behind and when Dr Jeon picks it up and looks through the videos, she sees the whole family together at the birthday party. The secret is out now!

And if that wasn’t enough, back in the main area, Roy and In-ho end up doing karaoke together but after the song, In-ho calls out to Jeong-suk, calling her “honey” and asking her to come and join him for a song. Uh oh!

The Episode Review

Doctor Cha returns this week and although it isn’t quite the fiery encounter we were initially thinking, there is a distinct shift with Jeong-suk, as she’s close to divorcing In-ho and moving on with her life. Of course, that’s easier said than done although it’s telling that she just wants a clean divorce rather than dragging her husband’s name through the mud. Despite everything he’s done to her, the fact that she doesn’t want to completely destroy what he’s built is actually quite admirable.

Roy Kim is an interesting character here because he’s stuck in the middle of all this and it’ll be interesting to see how Jeong-suk handles the fact that he knows about the affair too. You feel like this is going to come out sooner rather than later and may well collide with Jeong-suk’s divorce.

And how will Jeon react now that she knows Jeong-suk is her boyfriend’s mum? I’d imagine we’ll see a shift with her and she’ll start acting a lot more respectable and sweet with the junior, setting up lots of comedy ahead.