To be completely honest, the first episode of Resident Playbook didn’t really hit the spot for me, but the second episode really put me in the groove and it started feeling more like Hospital Playlist. To be fair, the music made Hospital Playlist really unique, apart from the characters being so absolutely fantastic to follow the stories of. A lot of us did have mixed feelings about the second season, which could make you skeptical about this show, but I think if you like medical dramas, it’s pretty fun. Plus, this one is specifically focused on the OB-GYN department and feels like its own thing. Resident Playbook focuses on the first-year residents at the Jongno Yulje Medical Center (a different branch from the HP one). In usual fashion, the show reminds us how hard it is to be a doctor. While in HP, we saw how quickly the doctors ate (man, I miss them stuffing their faces); this one shows us how the first-years don’t even have the time to trash their expired food, expired because they couldn’t even get a bite in. Yi-Young, played by Go Young-Jung, is the main lead of the show, and the first two episodes are all about how she plans on quitting (probably a Gen Z joke hidden in there somewhere) and how senior doctor Ku Do-Won gets her and her friends to stay back. With that, let’s jump straight into the first two episodes.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Yi-Young Deliver A Baby?
Episode 1 of Resident Playbook mainly introduces us to the characters. Yi-Young is one of four first-year residents and the only one who doesn’t want to be at the hospital at all. And then there’s Pyo Nam-Kyung, the fashionable one who cares about material things and her appearance. She was also a classmate of Yi-Young’s, but the latter doesn’t remember. On the other hand, Sa-Bi is a book-smart doctor with zero people skills and a lot to learn in the real world, and finally there’s Jae-Il, who is a former K-pop idol (I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either). Episode 1 begins with Yi-Young having nightmares because her family is bankrupt, and she’s working at a hospital rather than having her own, like her dad promised. She lives with her sister, her brother-in-law, and his brother, Ku Do-Won, who happens to work at the hospital Yi-Young works at, and he’s the one who got her the job.
As it goes, the first-years aren’t the best at their job. They often make mistakes, and their determination slowly recedes until it’s a sliver in the distance. Sa-Bi thinks of getting consent forms signed as a task to complete rather than as something to be kind to the patients about. Jae-Il is eager to do well, but he’s unbelievably bad at the job and doesn’t seem to get any of the stuff right. Meanwhile, Yi-Young has to be in surgery with a doctor who is known as the “witch” amongst other residents. She manages to make a mistake in the OR but then starts to pick up on things by herself. For the most part, the first episode is about how the first-years keep failing at their tasks. Eventually, Yi-Young messed up by not monitoring a heavily pregnant patient enough, which leads to an emergency delivery.
By the time Yi-Young can get the patient to the operating theater, the baby is out and in her hands. All Dr. Ku does is cut the umbilical cord. This is her first delivery, and it’s supposed to be a big deal, making you want to care about the job and all that, but Yi-Young still seems to be a bit cold about it. What will convince her not to run away? On the other hand, there’s a doctor, Myeong Eun-Won (from HP), who is ready to give Yi-Young hell, just because that’s what they do with new residents.
Why Do The First-Years Want To Quit?
Episode 2 begins with a montage of the first-years trying to find time to eat, rest, or even get a sip of coffee in and failing to do any of that. Eun-Won demands a daily report, and if even one of the first-years can’t answer her questions, none of them can go home and have to repeat the task again. She also tells Yi-Young that she stammers too much while talking and lacks empathy. On the other hand, Jae-Il stops getting work at all, possibly because he made so many mistakes earlier. I mean, he did manage to figure things out, but this is part of a bigger plan. Sa-Bi tells a pregnant patient some harsh stuff with zero empathy, and the patient gets angry. She even tells the serious doctor that Sa-Bi should not become a doctor because she doesn’t even know how to talk to patients.
While at first this doesn’t affect Sa-Bi, she gets berated for not apologizing, which is when things escalate for her. She doesn’t know how to handle the situation, but eventually, she decides to monitor the patient because she thinks something might happen to her overnight. Sa-Bi falls asleep outside the patient’s room and starts snoring. This is when the patient comes out and tells her that she accepts her apology because she needs to sleep in peace. Sa-Bi tells her that her senior doctor told her that she should do what she does best and claims she’s just worried about the patient. The patient tries to shoo her away, but the moment it works, she collapses in the room. Sa-Bi is around, so she’s able to help her and get her in an operating room immediately, saving her life. The patient apologizes for telling her not to become a doctor. She says she was meant to have twins, but one of the babies died. She’s already bought all the stuff, and nobody will take it because it belongs to a dead baby, so she tells Sa-Bi that she’s going to have another baby and she wants her to deliver it for her. It’s a sweet moment that gives Sa-Bi the confidence not to quit because she really wants to be a doctor.
On the other hand, Nam-Kyung has to deal with a patient who needs her dressing changed 4 times in a day instead of the usual 2, but the patient, who has cancer and looks pregnant, is especially annoyed because Jae-Il tells her he’ll help her to the OB-GYN department. She’s there to get the fluid in her body drained because she’s got cancer (yikes). Nam-Kyung blames Jae-Il for her misfortune, and then when things get too bad for her and she hasn’t slept or eaten for too long, she explodes and insults the patient just as the patient walks in to overhear her. But later, the same patient asks for her because she’s good at the dressing part. However, Nam-Kyung decides to flee the scene. See, she meets a friend who is about to get married, and the friend tells her that she couldn’t recognize her. This is because Nam-Kyung is a straight-up mess, she’s dropped food on her top, and has something in her hair. Disgusted by herself, Nam-Kyung runs away, telling the nurse to tell the patient to change her dressing herself. But when she learns that a patient has died and immediately assumes it’s the one she was meant to help with the dressing, she freaks out and goes back. Turns out it was someone else who was in her room.
Nam-Kyung and the patient talk it out, and Nam-Kyung breaks down, saying she was worried about the patient, and that she will always change the dressing for her. Finally, the patient says she’s getting discharged the next day, leaving Nam-Kyung thrilled and ready to stay on as a doctor who is great at her job. For Jae-Il, he basically gets ghosted by his senior doctor, who tells him to go home, take a rest, and chill a little bit, which is literally impossible if you’re a first-year resident. This makes him suspicious, and after some time, he flees the scene, but nobody even notices. The girls call him back for one reason, and that is to do the report because they can’t go home without him, but he’s happy even if they need him just for that. Finally, he’s invited to dinner with the doctors in his department, meaning he’s not going anywhere any time soon.
Yi-Young has a lot of trouble in this episode because Myeong Eun-Won can’t stop making it look like Yi-Young is lying to all the other departments for her work to be done first. In truth, Yi-Young is being made to believe that things are urgent when they’re not, which leads to her getting in trouble with everybody, not just her own seniors, and having to deal with a terrible environment. Yi-Young decides to quietly leave, though; that was always her plan. She never thought she’d become an actual doctor, even with a 50 million won debt that she needs to repay. But Do-Won has a plan for her. He decides to send her to tag along with a patient who needs to be sent to another branch of their hospital.
Yi-Young is really nervous because she’s the only doctor with the pregnant patient, and something seems to be off, but eventually, they get to the hospital perfectly okay. Yi-Young stays back until the surgery is done because she feels responsible for the patient. This is when our favorite, Chu Min-Ha, shows up (newlywed, by the way, to Seok-Hyeong, of course). Min-Ha tells Yi-Young that she’s surprised that she already knows a skill that can’t be taught in school or practically, even as a first-year student, which is actually caring about patients rather than just following instructions. She basically motivates Yi-Young, who clearly looks like she wants to run away, with her massive bag. When Yi-Young returns to the hospital, she’s feeling much better about herself and hands over an empty envelope to Do-Won, who is meant to call Min-Ha after looking at it. On call, she tells him Yi-Young is great at her job but that he should look out for her.
At the end of Resident Playbook episode 2, Yi-Young gets yelled at by a senior doctor in anesthesiology, and Do-Won defends her. The ending of the episode shows that if you’re diligent and don’t ever put up a facade while you’re working, then even if people are bringing you down, you’ll be okay. Eun-Won has been making it look like Yi-Young made all the mistakes in the ORs so all the other departments can blame her for random things, but thanks to Jae-Il, everyone knows the truth that it was Eun-Won who painted Yi-Young as the stupid one. Do-Won tells the anesthesiologist that Yi-Young isn’t the kind of person to lie, and if ever such an issue does arise, he’ll be the one yelling at his own department rather than other doctors. Eun-Won also apologizes to Yi-Young because she knows she messed up. Finally, she stops taking the reports, too, because Do-Won pretends he doesn’t know that she was the one who lied, not Yi-Young. Also, it’s payday, which means they’ve been here for a month?
In the end, Yi-Young, who’s been acting super detached so far, looks at Ku Do-Won in a new light. She’s slowly developing a crush, but I wonder if this is a terrible idea, seeing as they’re basically boss and employee and also in-laws?! I have a feeling we’re going to get yet another hospital romance, but I wonder if it’ll be worth it.
