Recap Korean Drama "Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist Season 2" Episode 1

Episode 1 of Poong The Joseon Psychiatrist Season 2 begins a year after the events of season 1 with Poong resuming his place as a doctor in Hanyang. However, instead of using acupuncture, he has now become a psychiatrist. He uses his deduction skills to cure his first patient who was fatigued by overstudying. He gets Man-bok to take the patient’s books and sell them to cover his house call charge. Gyesoo clinic moves to Hanyang where they flourish.

In the palace, the King gets a nightmare where he is swarmed by white butterflies as he believes Minister Cho Tae-hak is haunting him. He calls for Poong and Gye Ji-han as he reveals he constantly sees Cho. 

Gye leaves Poong at the palace and goes to look after the slaves. Poong follows him and is impressed. At that moment, he sees the moon and remembers Eun-woo who he cannot forget. He remembers the last time he saw Eun-woo when she told him that her father had been ordered to go to Heuksando. He had given her his mother’s ring and had confessed his love. She in turn had given him her jade pin and promised to never forget him.

At the queen’s pavilion, a court lady takes a letter and is hurrying somewhere but she screams. The Queen and the King come running and she tells them she saw the ghost of Cho. She falls sick and the King calls for a doctor.

The next day at the Gyesoo clinic, Gye scolds Ip-boon for drawing on his consultation papers. She tells him her plan of becoming a tailor and setting up shop in the palace. Poong gets a letter from Eun-woo and imagines that he is with her. Man-bok comes in to call him for lunch and he is flustered. 

At lunch, they plan to hold a feast for Eun-woo. Poong is shocked as they tell him that all of them also received letters from her and that she is coming to Hanyang. They tease him and joke that he is not special.

At the palace, the Royal Physician Jeon Gwang-il looks after the sick court ladies who have the same symptoms after seeing the ghost. At court, the ministers suspect that it is the plague. The King is tired of their suspicions and calls for Poong against the ministers’ wishes. Poong and Gye believe that the royal physicians’ diagnosis of food poisoning or plague is wrong. The royal physicians create a ruckus but the King orders them to work with Poong and Gye to resolve the court ladies’ sickness.

Eun-woo finally reaches Hanyang. She and her father run into a peasant who looks sickly. Her father thinks he is drunk but as the man faints, Eun-woo runs to him. She performs acupuncture and the man wakes up. Her father is not happy as he tells her to be cautious.

While looking after the court ladies, Gye and Poong suspect that they are poisoned but the royal clinic stops them from taking the right medicines. At the queen’s pavilion, another court lady sees a ghost and falls sick. Poong notices that the woman has glaucoma. Gwang-il too notices that another patient has glaucoma but still insists that the royal clinic’s diagnosis is not wrong.

At Gyesoo, Ip-boon makes a dress from her design. Except for Jang-goon, they all make fun of her. She tells them that she is to meet tailor shop owners who want to make clothes from her designs. They warn her that they will take advantage of her and don’t believe her when she tells them that the owners have already paid to buy her designs. Poong and Gye come to take medicine from Gyesoo for the court ladies and the staff are not happy that they are emptying their storage. 

At the palace, the Princess throws a fit and wants to change her residence. Court Lady Jung tries to stop her but she heads to the King. Jung tells her not to bother him but she doesn’t listen. She stops walking abruptly and a court lady accidentally steps on her shoe. She throws a tantrum and flings her shoe. 

At that moment, the Gyesoo staff come to the palace while the royal clinic looks on angrily. They come across the Princess when she throws her shoe in their direction. She sees Poong and remembers seeing him for the first time when she was a child. In the meantime, Lady Jung falls for Gye who cannot take his eyes off her. The Princess asks them to bring the shoe but Nam-hae simply throws it and they run off.

As the Gyesoo staff reach the makeshift clinic for the court ladies, they are told that the royal clinic took away one of the patients. The chief physician plans to frame the lady so that she will falsely admit that she cooked something that caused food poisoning. Poong comes and rescues her. He asks her why she went to the queen’s pavilion which was closed due to the ghost sighting and she hesitates.

Meanwhile, Eun-woo reaches the Gyesoo clinic which is empty. She takes a look around and is happy to be back. 

At the palace, Gwang-il confronts Poong who simply calls him arrogant for not curing the patients because they gave a wrong diagnosis. The Gyesoo staff make the medicines all on their own while Gwang Il looks on. Gye jokes that the royal clinic is like a well and they are all frogs which upset him. Gwang-il runs off and is surprised to see that they don’t recognise him.

The Gyesoo staff return home and Gye is annoyed that Ip-boon is out hanging out with the tailor shop ladies. Ip-boon gives him the money she has earned by selling her designs. She says she is sad to see her father work hard so in typical dad mode, he tells her to become a doctor and help out. She rejects it and promises to become a famous and rich designer.

Poong is resting when Eun-woo appears. He wonders if he is hallucinating and touches her face. She holds his hand and he is surprised to see that she is real. He gets excited and hugs her. He goes in to kiss her and at that moment Man-bok interrupts. 

They create a feast and everyone finds it funny as Poong personally piles on Eun-woo’s plate with food. Only Granny sulks as she asks Eun-woo to do a pinky promise that she will never leave Poong’s side to which she agrees. Man-bok suddenly gets up and they are surprised to see that someone with such a huge appetite leaving. He deflects and runs off.

Poong and Eun-woo take a walk by a lake where he suddenly calls her beautiful. He returns her jade pin and is happy to see that she too kept his ring as he puts it on her finger. She asks why he can’t leave the King and he tells her about Cho’s ghost. Eun-woo promises to solve the case so that Poong can return to her. 

Meanwhile, the King can’t sleep. The candles go off and the door opens where he sees Cho. Poong and Eun-woo go to the queen’s pavilion and she notices that there is a faint smell of lilies. They suddenly hear the Princess screaming. They go to her and she hugs Poong, telling them the ghost ran away. Eun-woo takes off and runs into Gwang-il. Poong goes after her and pulls her away from Gwang-il who is holding her.

The Episode Review

It’s funny to see Poong becoming like Gye as he goes from his righteous self to acting money-minded. But like Gye he too becomes like a Robin Hood who takes money from the nobles and uses it for the poor.

The Princess is already a fan-favourite even though we know she will try and come between Poong and Eun-woo. However, her tantrums and brash personality make her endearing. And while both Poong and Eun-woo have feelings for each other we already see how they get jealous when the Princess hugs Poong or Gwang-il holds Eun-woo.

By the way, do we see the beginnings of a fashion designer with Ip-boon and the classic Asian father-daughter dynamic as Gye disapproves and tries to make her a doctor? 

While Season 1 was more or less episodic in nature with Poong and his cohorts solving a case in each episode, there was the overarching story of the King’s murder and Poong clearing his name. With that being resolved, it will now be interesting to see what goal will be established in season 2 of Poong The Joseon Psychiatrist and how Poong will go about reaching it while also hilariously solving cases now in the royal palace.