Episode 15 of Doctor Cha did not have a lot happening, but it addressed some very poignant moments in its narrative. The exploration of mortality and the ideal life span was especially touching. We have complained a bit about the direction of the series in the recap of the previous few episodes, but if we put that aside, this penultimate episode was rather emotional for us. The recap of Doctor Cha Episode 15 will take you through the narrative of it.
Spoilers Alert
Does Jeong Suk Get Hospitalized?
When Cha Jeong Suk coughed up blood at the end of Episode 14, she knew fear like never before because, right now, her life was at a stage where she finally had good things going for her. She immediately meets Roy Kim, and he asks her to run some tests and prepare to be admitted to the hospital. After giving these instructions, Roy runs some tests on himself since he plans on doing something for Jeong Suk. In Episode 14, Roy met his long-lost family, who had asked him for his bone marrow. He meets his sister again in Episode 15 of Doctor Cha, and she is completely unrepentant for asking this favor of him. That probably propels Roy in a certain direction. He wants Jeong Suk to take his liver. It feels very far-fetched that he is doing this for a woman he is not even sure he likes and who, in return, is clueless about his feelings. We don’t think there is any other reason, though. Roy Kim has led an unattached life so far, and he has undeniable affection for Jeong Suk. Additionally, forgive our ignorance of biology, but we do believe that the liver can grow back? Even if it does not, maybe Roy Kim considers it a worthy sacrifice for a good woman.
While Jeong Suk is getting her affairs in order, she is faced with the idea of her own mortality. Jeong Suk is finally living for herself, and fulfilling her ambitions is not a distant dream anymore. She has a 100-year-old patient who helps her gain a new perspective. While Jeong Suk is envious of her long life and wonders whether she would have that to live the life she missed out on, the children of that woman surprise her. They ask Jeong Suk why she is struggling to help their old mother when the most ideal thing for her would be to pass on from this life. She has lived long, and right now, all of her children are also old with their own lives and commitments. It is not that they do not love their mother or cannot take care of her, but they can’t help but believe that at her advanced age and the ensuing limited abilities, death might be a kinder option for her. This sets Jeong Suk thinking about the risk to her own life and whether there is a positive side to it. She may or may not have the answer yet, but she has work to do. She applies for a leave of absence with the hospital head and has to tell him her reasons for it. Jeong Suk asks him to tell her that she will be able to come back to work there so that she stays motivated. The Chief promises her that, but the truth is that the kind of leave she is asking for calls for a resignation since she is still a resident. But they can’t fire her, considering her connections at the hospital and the fact that the chairman had given them a donation for her sake. Regardless, the Chief informs the other department heads of the new development and asks them to prepare for it while Jeong Suk informs her family members about it, namely her mother and her children. But there is trouble brewing with the villains of her life: her husband and her mother-in-law.
What Has Ae Sim Done?
We feel that Ae Sim is in the middle of a nexus of toxic men. There is her son, to begin with, and the man she is dating also turns out to be a fraud. The woman she had found with him at the restaurant was his date, whom he had been seeing after the death of his wife. The professor had asked Ae Sim to invest in a hospital, and she had done that by borrowing some money from her friends and taking out a loan against a building. But the problem was that the building was in Jeong Suk’s name, without her knowledge. Now that Jeong Suk has filed for divorce, Ae Sim takes In Ho to a lawyer’s office, and they discuss how the assets may be split between the couple. That is when In Ho comes to know the extent of his mother’s scams. Helpless, he turns to Jeong Suk to hand over the building to him so that they may sell it, but she plays a little hard to get and claims to want to keep the assets that she helped build, though In Ho thinks differently. Having no option, he decides to ask Seung Hi for help but is unable to bring himself to do so, considering their history. Nevertheless, he learns from her about Jeong Suk’s bad health, and that changes things for him in a way that he could not have anticipated.
Whose Liver Does Jeong Suk Choose For Her Transplant?
Seung Hi has already apologized to Jeong Suk for what she has done, and the latter is far removed from any feelings of hate, considering her current circumstances. She wonders whether they could have been friends if life hadn’t taken the direction it did. Back with In Ho, Seung Hi says that she feels responsible for Jeong Suk’s condition, as the stress they caused her may have exacerbated it.
In Ho recollects all the times he was hurtful towards Jeong Suk. For the longest time, she was just the wife who existed to take care of his mother and children. He had not been in love with her for years but had continued to rely on her labor and had, in fact, taken it for granted. When she had tried to do one thing for herself, that is, get her residency, he had placed as many roadblocks as he could in her way. He had been a selfish man, and that guilt was weighing down on him. He begs Jeong Suk for a chance to redeem himself, but she doesn’t care for his apologies now. Her life had changed because he had refused to donate his liver to her at the beginning of the series. Currently, Jeong Suk has no use for it. She tells him that her condition is not his fault, but that doesn’t mean that she wants his help.
A dejected In Ho wonders what to do for her when he overhears a conversation in the washroom. He comes to know about the tests that Roy Kim is getting done on himself and the speculative gossip that he is planning on donating his liver to Jeong Suk because he loves her. At the end of Episode 15 of Doctor Cha, In Ho furiously confronts Roy Kim and demands that he withdraw his intention of donating his liver to Jeong Suk, but Roy is adamant. That is when Jeong Suk comes into the picture, in all of her leather glory, ready to do one last thing before she is hospitalized. When the two men ask her whose liver she will take, she points at something. Contrary to what they expect, we don’t think her choice is a man. It must be the motorcycle she wants to ride.
Final Thoughts
Apologies for our constant comparisons of Doctor Cha with Anupamaa, but when the latter needed surgery, it was covered in two TRP-grabbing episodes. In this regard, Jeong Suk’s journey is far more meaningful. We know that Jeong Suk has agreed to sell the building under her name, and she was just messing around with In Ho. The precap of the finale also tells us that In Ho finally gives her the divorce she wants. Now that the end of the series is near, we believe that Seung Hi will also receive some clarity on her next course of action. It is too much to think that So Ra and Jung Min will break up, even though that is what we want with all our hearts. Finally, everyone’s guilt makes them value Jeong Suk a little extra, and though this is the kind of guilt that is the most awkward to watch, we will get through it in the finale of Doctor Cha.
