"Doctors" Episode 15 recap

I was caught off guard this episode by the almost complete lack of discussion of Hye-jeong's parental issues. Considering the big cliffhanger last time that seemed like the main obvious direction for "Doctors" to go. But alas, even Namgoong Min doesn't get much of a sendoff. His whole conflict is solved offhandedly with Ji-hong's political powers, there's thanks and farewells, and then it's back to the usual lack of plot that so often characterizes "Doctors".
Let's try looking around to see what the characters in this drama actually do. Hye-jeong and Ji-hong have romance. The lesser supporting doctors are having this weird petty fight. Yoon-do has been reduced to ineffectually complaining about how other people keep invading his house. Seo-woo is the only person who actually challenges hospital administration over anything, further confusing her role as the apparent villain.
None of this is all that bad, really, although it does tend to be a tad dull. For a sense of perspective, the closest I felt to a serious emotional connection this episode was not with any of the actual recurring characters, but the next patient that shows up. Consider the whole flashback with the wedding dress. That scene really packed a punch precisely because it brought to mind all the stakes of the medical emergency and injected a strong human element to the proceedings.
That conflict ends up going an odd direction, though, since apparently the onus for action is on Ji-hong. I was under the impression that in ambiguous situations like this the job of the doctor is to inform family members about the available options. While the doctor can issue a recommendation regarding the best course of action, ultimately, it is not his decision to make. I found myself wondering about the ethics involved were a real world doctor to act the way Ji-hong does here.
This isn't really the kind of stuff I should be wondering about, but that's really just the drama "Doctors" is at this juncture. The progression of the story is so scattershot, and so generally difficult to relate to individual character arcs, that about the only way I have of entertaining myself is by asking these kinds of complicated meta-questions. "Doctors" once again proves itself as being a drama that only really works for a person who wants to see generic doctors doing generic doctor things. The drama's not bad so much as it just kind of pointless.
Review by William Schwartz
"Doctors" is directed by Oh Choong-hwan, written by Ha Myeong-hee and features Kim Rae-won, Park Shin-hye, Yoon Gyoon-sang, Lee Seong-kyeong, Kim Yeong-ae and Jeong Hae-gyoon.

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