REVIEW: ‘Doctor Cha,’ Episodes 9-10

With her entire family now knowing about her husband’s affair, Jeong-suk’s birthday party has less than the happy energy one would expect going for it. To get some breathing room, she volunteers to join a medical outreach mission to help people in a small village get some much-needed medical care. But when everything comes along for the trip, revelations happen that will change her life in Doctor Cha Episodes 9-10.

Life really is like a roller coaster. Rarely do we have periods of unfettered success and joy, nor do we generally have unending strings of hardship and misery. Rather, the two are mixed together, creating the turbulent and chaotic existence that is life. This mad mixture of life experiences is captured perfectly in Doctor Cha Episodes 9-10 as Jeong-suk goes from nightmare to joy and back again.

It is how this week’s episodes handle the precarious balance of joy and sorrow that makes it such an incredible watch. From the awkwardness of Jeong-suk’s birthday party that opens the first episode to the closing moments that are filled with happy tears, the show manages to deftly allow all the elements of the series to coexist, without any of them undercutting the others. This is best captured in the hospital’s volunteering trip.

For most of the first episode, the doctors are out on location providing free health care to folks in a small, rural town. The scene change is used wonderfully to bring the strengths of the show to the viewer while changing it enough through the new local and circumstances to make it feel fresh. From kind-hearted house calls and the panicked delivery of a new life to a celebratory dinner filled with food, liquor, and karaoke, the breadth of what makes the show great is on full display. But while it reinforces what has always been in the series, Doctor Cha Episodes 9-10 also use this masterful scene to push the story forward in a huge way.

While many of these moments are centered around Jeong-suk and her struggles, it would be a disservice to the series to not talk about the strength of the supporting cast that the series has built around her. Several key members have great moments throughout both of these episodes, as the series delivers its next big narrative steps. However, there is one I need to talk about the most.

Of all of the supporting cast of characters, perhaps the most interesting one has been Jeon So-ra. So-ra comes across throughout the series as a cold, humorless person with no tolerance for others or their shortcomings. When she first meets Jeong-suk, she feels like the embodiment of the hurdles she will have to overcome in the medical field. Someone whose training is fresher, someone who will be down on her for her advanced age, and have little time for her honest mistakes as she gets her feet back under her.

While this first impression may make her seem cruel to Jeong-suk, it has always felt like her harshness hasn’t come from cruelty, but rather because she expects the best. As a doctor, mistakes can mean lives lost. She understands that and projects that level of seriousness into everything she does. When she learns about who Jeong-suk is, her relationship with So-ra’s boyfriend, and how that connects to the information she learned earlier, namely her seeing In-ho with Seung-hi, her character is forced to reevaluate many of her own notions about Jeong-suk, her reasons for returning to the medical profession, and just how much has been going on in her private life. Mistakes she thought Jeong-suk had made out of carelessness are now shown in a far different light.

What all of this comes to bring to Doctor Cha Episodes 9-10 is a final moment between the two women that is heartfelt in how it allows the two to come together, while also delivering a moment of levity that brings a new dimension to the frequently cold personality of So-ra.

The other character who the show’s handling of is far better than I expected in these episodes is In-ho. With the momentum of the story picking up, it would be easy for the series to drive Jeong-suk’s unfaithful husband deeper and deeper into the mud. Honestly, it’s what I expected to happen. And while the personality deficiencies he has always shown remain on full display, the series allows him to show that he can be a good doctor, making the most of difficult circumstances in order to help a patient. This is important for the character, as it keeps them feeling real. He is a person, not just a villain. Allowing him to be more than just his faults highlights this, while never trying to forgive those same faults.

Doctor Cha Episodes 9-10 hit hard and plays hard. With the narrative bouncing between emotional torture, joyous success, and startling revelations, the series manages to never lose its balance and keeps its roller coaster of a plot securely on its tracks.

Doctor Cha Episodes 9-10 are streaming now on Netflix, with new episodes airing Saturday and Sunday.