Good Doctor Episode 1 Summary

Good Doctor first episode started with Park Shi On waking up in the morning, cleaning himself and dressing up. He turned his head once more before leaving his home for what it seemed to be a long time because he dragged along a big suitcase with him.

As he walked across an old railroad, his mind went back to his childhood memory. Shi On has been autistic and he got a tough life. Other kids bullied him and his father was very abusive. But he always had his big brother stood for him and protected him and their mom. His brother always scolded him for playing alone with his pet, a rabbit, instead joining other kids. One day the rabbit was dead as Shi On father threw it to the street while he was in a “tantrum”. Shi On brought the rabbit to a doctor, Dr.Choi, but the doctor said it’s dead. “It’s gone to heaven?” asked Shi On. The doctor nodded. The doctor kind of explained that everyone will eventually go to heaven, but before that we should live well on earth. So little Shi On asked if he became a doctor, could he prevent death? (I think this is more or less the meaning). The doctor said yes.

One day, in order to make an agreement with the other boys to stop bullying his brother and them play with other kids, Shi On’s brother made a deal to do the challenge: get into the old mining with Shi On. But when they were inside the tunnel, accident happened. The tunnel collapsed. The officers and volunteers tried to search for them. And it was the doctor who found the poor kids lying unconsciously among ruins. He gave the oxygen to the little one and did the CPR to the big brother. But only one survived.
Shi On lived alone without his brother anymore and since then he kind of had the obsession of becoming a doctor, or more specifically a surgeon because he’s been carrying the surgery knive along with him until the present time. He’s waiting for a train to come. In the train, he watched a little boy and his mother so lovingly with each other. The boy approached Shi On and gave him an egg.

Meanwhile in the city, a young and pretty doctor, Cha Yoon Seo, is telling a horror story to the kids in the hospital with the help of a male nurse, the chubby male nurse Jo. It’s part of their ways to persuade the kids to drink their meds regularly.

In a cemetery, a young guy put a white flower on a kid’s memorial, his name was Kim Soo something (couldn’t see the last syllable). The guy, looked distress.

Shi On arrived in Seoul, walking among the crowd he’s mumbling something with seemed to be things he needed to remember. But suddenly, something distracted him: a 3D tv demo. With his mind stays as a kid, that kind of thing attracted him. He seemed to be enjoying the animation.

Somewhere in a hospital, the doctor from Shi On’s childhood who apparently took care of him, Dr.Choi, thought of him while looking out the window. He remembered how he was surprised seeing the autistic Shi On sitting on his desk reading a medical book which continued to be piles of them.

Then back to the train station, suddenly an accident happened to a little boy. The boy was the one who gave Shi On an egg in the train. A big ads fell and the shattered glasses fell to him. Some people tried to give the kid first aid. Shi On stepped forward. He quickly checked the situation, stopped the neck bleeding in the proper way, and conduct a complicated procedure to stop the bleeding and the trauma, which all according to the med books he had read. But not only acting according to the books, he’s also able to improvise when the nearby pharmacy didn’t have the item he needed to ventilate the injured body. He just used pens after sterilizing them. When the paramedics came he continued helping the kid until the oxygen pipe is safely installed through the kid’s throat. Shi On left the rest to the paramedics to bring the kid to the hospital quickly. At first he was about to continue his own journey, but the mother begged him to come along in the ambulance.

Meanwhile in the hospital, Dr.Choi was speaking in front of a hospital board which includes senior doctors and hospital highers, with the topic of Park Shi On’s case. He explained how he had observed Shi On’s miracolous gift since he was young. Despite being a savant syndrom, at the age of seven, Shi On managed to remember the detail of human anatomy.

In the ambulance, Shi On said that he needed to go to Songwon Univ. Hospital. The paramedic said this ambulance was about to go there anyway. On the way, the kid’s condition was critical again. But when Shi On tried to recommend something to the ER doctor, he just told him to leave the rest to him.

At another part of the hospital, Dr.Cha was arguing with the senior Dr.Kim Do Han about a girl’s surgery schedule. But their argument was interrupted as another doctor called Dr.Kim to go to the ER quickly because a young boy patient needed to get a surgery soon. And that boy is the boy saved by Shi On. When Dr.Kim and other doctors were ready to perform a surgery, Shi On tried to tell them something, but his mouth was shut by the guard and dragged outside.

As the situation was tense in the surgery section, the same thing was felt in the board room. Dr. Choi tried to defend Shi On, to let him being scouted by the hospital, despite his own medical condition. Some doctors were againts the idea, and almost none agreed with Dr. Choi. And they were asking where this Park Shi On himself while he’s supposed to already arrive at that moment.

Shi On was still standing nervously in front of the surgery room, thinking that he had to tell the important information to them in order to save the kid. Kim Do Han and his team was performing the surgery when something went wrong. But Dr. Kim rememered what Shi On mumbled: “Eco card…the heart…” And somehow, Dr. Kim got what Shi On meant.

He performed the exact procedure as Shi On imagined he would done if he had been the surgeon in there.

The surgery went well. Dr.Kim came out and met the mother. He asked if she knew the doctor who helped her boy. The woman just said he’s gone, but he said he’s a doctor from that hospital.

In the board room, Shi On’s acception was denied by most of the quorum. Dr.Choi couldn’t do much. He did came to the board room, but it was too late. Dr.Choi was going to scold him, but quickly he remembered that dealing with Shi On should be a bit different. Shi On explained that an accident happened in the station and he gave a help. Dr.Choi delivered the bad news to Shi On and Shi On looked down. But Dr.Choi managed to cheer him up again with the offer to have kalbitang as lunch.

While the two were enjoying lunch, journalists came to the hospital and asked for an interview with the doctor who impressively conducted a complicated first help procedure to an injured kid in Cheongnyangni Station. The hospital highers were on the way out when they met the journalists. And Dr.Choi saw the news in the restaurant. So they held another meeting. The hospital seemed to have no choice but to accept Shi On as the news was spread not only domestic, but also abroad. But some doctors were still against it. Dr.Choi asked for a six month trial. He said if Shi On failed or any fatal mistake was done on the way, he would resign from his position as the hospital chairman.

Shi On was summoned to the room and asked why he wanted to be a doctor. In a very innocent way, Shi On said it’s because of the rabbit and his brother. He said that both of them died. “They never managed to be adults, that’s why I want to help other kids grow up and become adults. And also, after making money, I want to buy 3D TVs and give them to the children in my hometown and let them see something they’ve never seen before.” Well, with that kind of touching answers, who wouldn’t be touched? Except maybe the sharp look Ms. Yoo. But anyhow, the board were welcoming him.

Dr.Choi may have a full trust on Shi On’s ability, but not the other doctors, especially those who had been waiting for his empty chair.

As he introduced Shi On to his station which was under the supervision of Kim Do Han, that doctor was also against the decision. He came to Dr.Choi and said that he couldn’t let a savant syndrom “doctor” to work there because he was worried about the patients and their parents. Dr.Choi tried to convince Dr.Kim, but the young and talented Dr.Kim said that it’s gonna be the first time he was agaisnt Dr.Choi. But Dr.Kim had no other choice as Dr.Choi said it’s his last personal request.

Dr.Kim summoned Shi On to his room and gave a short but to the point briefing. But the prism rubic on Dr.Kim’s table was a distraction for Shi On and seeing Shi On’s mind was somewhere else, Dr.Kim was upset. “Don’t ever perform two things in front of me: mistake and excuse,” he pointed out. Then he told Shi On to go to see the seniors. But before that, Kim Do Han asked about Hyun Woo’s case, the boy he saved. He asked Shi On if he had ever performed a surgery. Shi On explained how he managed to know what happened inside Hyun Woo’s body by listening and touching his body. He explained well how he did the complicated procedure in a simple way. Then another doctor came to ask Dr.Kim observe an x-ray result of a patient. Shi On stayed in the room, doing something. When Dr.Kim finished and was back to his room, he hushed Shi On out. As soon as he sit, he saw how his complicated prism rubic that he’s been trying to solve, had been perfectly solved in that very short time by Shi On.

Dr.Cha, the only team member in the division, apparently was trying to calm herself down in her favorite bar. It’s obviously her argument with Kim Do Han that upset her so much and it obviously was not the first, nor the last. Kim Do Han was the disaster in her medical career, and he even could right guessed her through phone call that Yoon Seo was drinking. Cha Yoon Seo just get herself so drunk that night.

Dr.Kim came home Yoo Chae Kyeong, the young woman who attended the hospital board meeting, in there just finished shower. So I assume they’re a kind of couple. If Dr. Kim came home and a beautiful-smart woman welcomed him, Shi On came to his new house with no one welcoming him. He stayed in the dark and light a candle on a small chocolate cake. He remembered how his brother used to celebrate his birthday in an abandoned bus. The surgery knive he always had with him was one of the items in the medical box his big brother gave him that time as a birthday gift. “You said you wanted to be a doctor,” he said. “You will be a good doctor because you are my little brother.”

Shi On just started to eat his cake when the drunk Yoon Seo came to the house and started stripping herself and then went into bed. Shi On tried to wake her, but Yoon Seo just said harsh thing without even opening her eyes and went back to sleep.
So Shi On was just standing there and watching Yoon Seo sleeping. In the morning, Yoon Seo woke up screaming as he found the topless (only boxer) Shi On brushing his teeth and just staring at her innocently.

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This drama got the first position on the rating, but despite that, I also have a good hope on it. The general conflict within the hospital life maybe quite the same with other medical drama, such as the doctors competition, very strict and life-disaster senior doctor, nice doctors, sharp ladies, etc, but having a savant syndrome yet genius leading character, this drama may offer a new thing. I’m not gonna criticize strange details here and just focus on the bigger things. So far, Moon Chae Won’s character is quite different from her previous two KBS dramas. She’s not the vicious rebel like in Nice Guy, nor the lovely and weak woman in Princess’ Man. I think she knew exactly what character she wanted to play and that shows her star quality.