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Drama Reviews
Posted by eric_r_wirsing Monday, March 17, 2014

[Drama Review] 'Emergency Couple' - Episode 14

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Choi Jin Hyuk

EMERGENCY COUPLE EPISODE 14


It's White Day on Emergency Couple, a day when men pay women back for Valentine's Day. Briefly, on Valentine's Day women get the men sweets. On White Day, it's the other way around. Sang Hyuk has bought Young Ae some candy for White Day. Even Yong Gyu gets into the spirit, and purchases a large basket of goodies for Ah Reum. I've kinda wondered about the Valentine's Day thing for awhile. If you have someone you love, shouldn't you show them you care about them every single day, instead of just one arbitrary day out of the year? I'm not arguing against special days, I'm just saying perhaps we need to make every day with the one you love a little more special.

Chang Min is still acting childish out of jealousy over Jin Hee. He gets frustrated when he sees her and Guk together. He interrupts their date to be a jerk, and then practically drags Jin Hee out of the restaurant. It's almost like he views her as a possession, a prize to be won rather than a human being with thoughts and feelings. At least he finally realizes what he's done by the end of the episode, with counsel provided by Dr. Guk.

Jin Hee is the same as ever. She is surprisingly calm for a woman who has two men fighting over her. It's interesting how she doesn't even like Chang Min as a person, and yet she still remembers the tender times between them. It's almost like her feelings are softening towards him, but she doesn't want to admit it. There was a lot that got in the way of their happiness, and I think that's where her mind goes when she thinks of Chang Min.

Guk is trying to feel more. Much like a character in another drama I've reviewed, 'I Need Romance 3', Guk has shut himself down emotionally. He's been hurt enough where he feels he needs to protect himself, I guess.� But it doesn't seem like he's really been burned in love, though we don't know much about that part of his past. We know he had a rough childhood, and that he's lost a patient, but that doesn't seem like enough to make him become cold like that. I know he's using Jin Hee to sort of test the waters. Maybe she can coax him out of his shell?

I really enjoyed the scene between Guk and Chang Min as they drink together. Guk tells Chang Min that he had a virus once when he left home, and once he learned to live with it, the cold went away. He advises Chang Min that Jin Hee is his cold, that he has a high fever, and that he needs to soldier through it the same way Guk did. Guk likes Jin Hee as the person she is now. That's an interesting way to view heartbreak, as a virus to be overcome. It's a good analogy: no matter how much we treat the symptoms the virus itself has to be driven out, and the problems just come back. You can drink all you want, but by the next morning you sober up and then you're not only just heartbroken, you're also hung over.

As for the other developments, I like how the writers are focusing more on some of the supporting characters and mining them for plot hooks -- we know quite a bit about Sang Hyuk and Young Ae by now, and now they seem to be developing Yong Gyu's character. The thing I don't like about that is that Yong Gyu seems to draw the short straw all the time. His puppy love for Ah Reum that seems doomed from the start, and now he beats himself up over the mishandling of a patient. Even Guk won't let him alone about it, and makes him feel even worse. I'm not sure what kind of statement they're trying to make about Yong Gyu: is he sensitive, or is he lacking backbone? We do see Yong Gyu and Ah Reum close by each other when celebrating, each agonizing over mistakes made with patients, and each bearing a love unfulfilled. Maybe their commiseration will bring them closer together?

Back to the main story, a child is brought into the ER, and we see the return of the priest that married Chang Min and Jin Hee. He does not know that they're divorced, and several times they try to divert his conversation so he won't let the cat out of the bag. The child pretty well raised himself in the wake of divorce, and everyone offers bits of advice to help the child down the right path. Which is funny, because I don't remember him asking for advice. Guk is the most helpful, because we find out he was in a similar situation as a child. I love Yoon Joo Sang as an actor -- he is so good at playing the eccentric-yet-wise old man, and I was glad to see him back, if only for an episode. Chang Min and Jin Hee make an excellent team as they treat the child. Maybe hopefully they'll be a husband-wife team? �

This episode did leave me wondering a few things: what song did Chang Min sing during karaoke that made Jin Hee cry? Why did she cry? What malady does Chang Min's father Tae Seok have that made him collapse? Why did Guk look a bit pale when Jin Hee mentioned that she was divorced? Is that necessarily such a bad thing?

What do you guys think? I look forward to finding out!

SEE ALSO: Questions arise over Min Hee Jin's allegations of HYBE mistreating NewJeans

  1. Choi Jin Hyuk
  2. EMERGENCY COUPLE
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