Episode 3 increased the stakes for The School Nurse Files, with our menacing antagonist starting his battle against our heroine. With episode 4, we get yet another important character introduced to us and she holds a far deeper relationship with Monglyeon High than we know. What crazy wonders will we uncover with this episode? Keep reading to find out.
RECAP (SPOILER ALERT)
The episode opens in In-pyo's house and we find out that he was once a basketballer before his leg injury, with him becoming a Monglyeon High teacher instead. A lady enters his room after knocking and introduces herself as In-pyo's super close childhood friend Hwang Ga-young. In-pyo seems really smitten for her and they're both really happy to see each other again. Meanwhile, both their mothers are talking downstairs but that's not vital. They reminisce about their past and Ga-young notices the crutch In-pyo uses to get around, revealing in conversation that his injury was caused by an accident (we'll find out more later). He rapidly changes subject to her and we find out she's a social worker, with In-pyo noticing a gold ring (that we see has "HSP" engraved on it as well) on her finger. Of course, he asks if she's married and she deflects the question, hiding the ring. Before the conversation can continue, we hear glass shattering downstairs and insane cackling from one of the mothers, which causes the pair upstairs to burst into laughter over the absurd situation. Something's clearly off here and I'm pretty sure Ga-young won't be just some throwaway character.
Cut to Monglyeon High, where A-reum is shown standing at the top of the staircase leading to the basement and she's staring wide-eyed below. We also see that she's wearing a ring with HSP engraved on it (and upon looking back she did actually have the ring on in previous episodes but I never noticed), meaning that she might have been trying to get closer to Eun-young on purpose, and right now I can only assume she's stunned by what's below. Cut to the nurse's office, where Ji-hyung has been summoned by Eun-young. We see something like shrubbery growing out of his face and eventually his whole head is shrouded in a round bush. Most likely a result of his involvement with Mackenzie, a worried Eun-young destroys the bush with her sword and Ji-hyung emerges, completely drenched in sweat. She interrogates him about his sneakers (which housed jellies, a gift from Mackenzie) and questions him about his relationship with Mackenzie. An irked Ji-hyung storms out of the office without a word and A-ra (who was chilling in the office again) follows him out, while an exasperated Eun-young is left behind.
Cut to In-pyo driving out of school before he's stopped by the security guard, who tells him that Mackenzie is looking for the basement key, under the pretense of getting gardening tools. Of course, we know that he's just trying to get the jellies and In-pyo reminds the guard that no one is to enter the basement. Cut to Eun-young and In-pyo discussing Mackenzie and his motives, and they split their investigation, with her looking into Mackenzie while he'll try to contact Ilgwang Sterilisation (the company formerly in charge of the basement's maintenance) again. We see that Eun-young and Mackenzie are pretending to have a cordial relationship in school but that couldn't be further from the truth. She gets his address from her healer friend and she finds herself attempting to sneak into his serviced apartment when the housekeeper is busy. Cut to In-pyo having found Ilgwang's address, strangely in a building with the words "HSP" in big bold letters on the front and he heads in to investigate, taking an elevator up while listening to a recording of HSP's values (which strangely corresponds to Monglyeon's motto).
Meanwhile Eun-young is rummaging through Mackenzie's stuff in his bedroom when she hears the housekeeper getting nearer. With no time to hide, she lies on his bed and wraps herself in his sheets, tricking the housekeeper into leaving the room to avoid disturbing her. Resuming her search, Eun-young finds that Mackenzie is growing the grass-like jellies he used to aid Ji-hyung in his bathtub (and also the same kind that was growing out from his face earlier). Cut to In-pyo stepping out of an elevator and heading towards Ilgwang Sterilisation. In the background, we hear indistinct screaming and shouting but he seems to be unaware of this. Upon reaching the door, he sees all kinds of advertisements pasted on the door and strewn at the bottom, indicating that no one's been there in a while. He looks down the corridor for any signs of people but of course, the hallway is empty. Cut back to Eun-young staring at Mackenzie's jellies and as she touches them, a strange red spot forms itself at her nape. In-pyo on the other hand calls Ilgwang's hotline again but gets sent to voicemail. As he listens through the door, he realises that no one's picking up the phone inside and decides to leave.
Back in Mackenzie's apartment, Eun-young pockets some of his jelly seeds while looking at some papers on his coffee table. There's a map of the district and we see a highlighted area that corresponds to Monglyeon High's location, with Eun-young pocketing that map as well. Just then, Mackenzie comes home and stops for a while before opening the door to an empty living room. Will Eun-young get caught? As he inspects his apartment, he enters the bathroom and sees a message that Eun-young wrote for him. Mackenzie quickly opens his bathtub cover only to find that Eun-young has completely destroyed the jelly breeding ground, having long left the apartment, and he curses in frustration. Cut to In-pyo looking at some old family photos and we see that he was quite close to his late grandfather, the school's founder. One photo is a bit more important than the rest as it shows the founder at a ceremony with Eun-young's healer friend and some of her female patients. The camera focuses on that photo before cutting to In-pyo's 11th-grade class, where the students are again going through the morning routine. This is interspersed by shots of Eun-young's table at home, which is strewn with her investigation notes (she's even left her sword at home). As the students get to the creepy laughing portion of the routine, the camera briefly focuses on a portrait of the founder and we see that In-pyo doesn't join in the laughter, disillusioned by what he's seen before.
Cut to A-ra heading towards the nurse's office only to find it locked, with Eun-young nowhere in sight. Where is our titular heroine? Turns out, she's gone to see a doctor for a full body rash, which he diagnoses as a poison ivy rash but of course, is probably a side effect of messing with Mackenzie's jellies. That night, Eun-young and In-pyo are strolling along North Seoul Tower's roof terrace, with the former recharging herself using the love locks that are all over the terrace, her jelly-induced rash disappearing in the process. An abnormally talkative In-pyo talks about his grandfather's will, which had the school motto written on it (laughter will bring good fortune), and mentions that he died as a result of complications in surgery due to high blood pressure. Eun-young, who's been ignoring his droning, asks if he was able to get into contact with Ilgwang and after telling her that it was closed, a mildly tilted In-pyo passive-aggressively asks if she's finally interested in what he's saying. The following exchange gets out of hand as In-pyo becomes a bit too chummy with Eun-young and whacks her arm, leaving the two super awkward. Seeing how hyper he is, a stark change from his usual subdued self, she wonders if he's been hanging with someone else (of course we know it's Ga-young).
Cut to the pair going to In-pyo's home and entering his grandfather's study, with Eun-young fascinated by the energy coming off of the books in the study. While he gives some exposition about his past with his grandfather, Eun-young picks out the books giving off the most energy, correctly guessing that those were the ones his grandfather read the most. They focus on one titled Feng Shui (explained as "a religious term related to the systematic study of the earth") and In-pyo draws Eun-young's attention to a specific sentence in the book, which states "if you can control the breathing hole, you can turn great luck to your favour and control the nation as you wish". Naturally, the "breathing hole" is the hole under the Apji Stone. We see that In-pyo's mother has brought up refreshments for the pair but stops outside the door, suspiciously listening in to their conversation. While they pore over texts, we find out that through conversation that In-pyo's leg was injured in a freak motorcycle accident, where he fell and got sucked under a moving bus. In-pyo looks over Eun-young's shoulder and sees her writing down Hanja characters. She doesn't actually know Hanja though, only knowing the characters for her name and an exasperated In-pyo states he's not compatible with the character for "young" as she side-eyes him. Funny how his logic means he's incompatible with both Eun-young and Ga-young.
Cut to the TCM clinic, where Eun-young confides in her friend about how the events happening in Monglyeon High all link back to HSP. Their talk takes a seemingly emotional turn as Eun-young reveals that she's failed to save patients in her old hospital and worries that if she fails to save someone at Monglyeon High, it would mean a youth's death. Midway through their tearful conversation, Eun-young's friend suddenly tells Eun-young that her destiny has been intertwined with another person and that she has tough competition again but she knows little more than that. It seems they weren't actually being emotional, instead there was just smoke in the room that was burning both her and her friend's eyes. Guess they can't just give us a proper emotional moment huh. Meanwhile, we see Eun-young leaving school as In-pyo walks up the ramp and attempts to high five her but she ignores him, leaving him standing there awkwardly. Eun-young suddenly curses and stops in her tracks, having almost stepped on a mite-like insect. As she looks down the ramp, her eyes widen in surprise at a huge swarm of these mites crawling up towards the school and let me tell you, my skin crawled when I saw these insects.
We next see a transfer student who we are introduced to as Baek Hye-min staring at a sole mite at the school gate before picking it up and deadass popping it in her mouth like a snack. Absolute WTF moment right there when she chews and swallows. Cut to Eun-young in the school corridor poking a mite with her sword, confused as to why it won't die. Hye-min walks past her and they make eye contact, with Eun-young realising that she can see the mites as well. Of course, she doesn't make much of it yet and captures the mite for further study. In Hye-min's new classroom, we see some mean girls badmouthing her (typical transfer student stuff). She seems unaware of this and instead focuses on a mite that's on Ji-hyung's back, clearly about to stuff it down her throat. Just as she picks it up, A-ra and Radi come by and invite her to have a snack with them, deciding to befriend her and protect her from bullies. As Hye-min follows them out of class, she pops the mite into her mouth for another seemingly tasty treat.
Cut to the nurse's office, where a long queue of students are being treated by Eun-young for itchy bleeding rashes on their arms and legs, all probably caused by the countless mites that are swarming the school corridors. We see Hye-min chilling in the office and she sees the mite that Eun-young trapped earlier crawling around in a glass container. Approaching it and picking up the container, she's probably about to eat it again before Eun-young stops and questions her. We find out that Hye-min is a "mite eater", a strange race of beings that only come into existence when mites start to spread as they can only be destroyed in the stomach acid of mite eaters. To make her point, she eats the captured mite right in front of a very disgusted Eun-young. Exposition tells us that Monglyeon High falls into Hye-min's district (specifically an area of 5.38km from Monglyeon High) and mites are starting to migrate there because of disturbance caused when In-pyo moved the Apji Stone. The mites will start to spread bad luck throughout the school and turns out, Hye-min has gone through many life cycles in this district, with her current form being her most recent reincarnation.
Cut to the teacher's office, where Eun-young is explaining to In-pyo about Hye-min's identity. A very creeped out In-pyo checks himself for mites but of course his aura protects him while an actual mite crawls up another teacher's leg. As she tells him that the mites will eventually make everyone miserable through bad luck, her point is proven when the other teacher trips on something and literally does a 180 degree flip before landing on his back. Just then, In-pyo gets a message from Ga-young and a smile breaks out across his face while a curious (and maybe increasingly jealous) Eun-young tries to catch a glimpse before quickly averting her eyes when he looks up. In-pyo then tells Eun-young to take a seat next to him while showing her one of the old photos with his grandfather, where we see them posing with In-pyo's first caught fish. He draws her attention to a lady in the background wearing a jacket that has "Ilgwang Sterilisation" printed on the back in Hanja but clearly her mind is preoccupied with Ga-young and she questions him about their relationship. As she flips through the basement maintenance records, In-pyo invites Eun-young to go to the fishing spot in the photo with him (which is in Busan) and she rejects him, stating that they're not even dating. She leaves the office and a baffled In-pyo stares after her. The whole time, we see A-reum, who's sitting behind them, constantly stealing glances at their exchange and we can only assume that this has to do with her new connection to HSP.
Cut to Eun-young furiously pounding out her balsam dye at home while once again complaining to her friend about another "tough competition" for In-pyo, in this case, Ga-young. Her friend finds the name familiar and searches up Ga-young on HSP's website, confirming that she's indeed one of them. Not only that, her mother is their head. This only frustrates and confuses Eun-young, who can't figure out why HSP wants to approach In-pyo so badly, first with Mackenzie and now Ga-young. Cut to a school corridor, where we follow Hye-min throughout her day and we see her friend circle is growing to include Seung-kwon and Ji-hyung. Till the end of the day when everyone's going home, Hye-min has been constantly eating a ridiculous amount of food, munching on all kinds of snacks and chowing down mountains of food for lunch. The whole time an increasingly exasperated Eun-young watches her as if she simply can't believe the amount of food this skinny girl is putting down.
All this binge-eating doesn't end well though and we see Hye-min entering the nurse's office the next day to get antacids. She explains that the school has too many mites and since she can't eat them on an empty stomach, she has to keep eating other foods, resulting in her indigestion. Taking pity on her, Eun-young passes Hye-min a bunch of antacids and watches with a worried expression as she leaves. Cut to their classroom, where we see Hye-min slouched over her desk while holding her stomach. As the rest of the students make their way to their next class, she stays put and when Radi goes to check up on her, we find out that it's menstrual cramps causing her pain. Radi and A-ra bring Hye-min to the nurse's office, and we find out that this is the first time she's reincarnated as a female so menstruation is new to her. Exposition time and we find out that mite eaters are genderless beings with no real birth or parents, only materialising into existence in their new incarnation when needed. Radi sympathises with her as she was adopted from an orphanage and understands what it means to have no parents. Simply put, Hye-min likens herself to a video game NPC who just exists in a pre-set area and has done so for over 2 millennia.
Eun-young's pity of Hye-min only increases as the latter describes how curious she is to continue existing as a student and hopes that she can live beyond the age of 20, especially since all her previous incarnations died/stopped existing when they hit that age. Hye-min has accepted her cruel fate and Eun-young gets worked up by this, deciding to find a way to save her. She confides in her friend about Hye-min's mite predicament and laments that even if she helps to catch all the mites, Hye-min has to eat all of them by herself. With her friend merely stating that there's pretty much nothing she can do to help Hye-min, a defiant Eun-young attempts to eat a mite in front of her. Of course, this doesn't work and Eun-young's exasperated friend has to extract the uneaten mite from her tongue, chiding her for being silly. Cut to Eun-young back home in her bathtub, intensely watching the mite from earlier, while scratching the back of her neck (we see that the red spot that formed when she touched Mackenzie's jellies is still there). In-pyo on the other hand is at home looking at the old photo of his fishing trip with his grandfather and stares at the multiple sketches on the wall of his grandfather's study of many fishing catches.
Cut to Hye-min, who we see walking alone. She stops dead in her tracks, as if she senses something and turns around to see a car approaching from behind her. As she moves out of the way, we see a family of three inside the car, with the parents laughing happily with their teenage daughter. Hye-min watches them go and the camera cuts to the stone wall right next to her, with the numbers "5.38" written there (she's reached the end of her 5.38km limit from Monglyeon High and can go no further). She continues looking in the direction of where the car went, a longing expression on her face, before turning around and heading back where she came from. Cut to black.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
Part of me finds that episode 4 is a little bit like two steps forward, one step back for The School Nurse Files. Episode 3 had crazy stakes, with Mackenzie's introduction giving us an important villain with many links to our leads. I've mentioned before that this drama has a habit of tying up plot points very fast, however episode 4 leaves Mackenzie's plot point kind of hanging, and we instead delve a little bit more into HSP and their ties with the drama's leads. That's not a bad thing but it got a little boring, especially because more interesting plot points were brought in. With the "bad luck" mites coming into play as well as Hye-min being introduced, I think that this is a really good opportunity to explore the aftereffects of the Apji Stone's disturbance, especially because we didn't get much development on that ever since episode 1. Hye-min also makes for a very good attempt at a pitiful character. She's a functionally immortal being who constantly reincarnates while knowing full well that she'll cease to exist when she turns 20, with the cycle repeating all over again, and she finally reaches an incarnation where she likes her surroundings and likes the friends she's made in school but yet knowing she's going to die soon. She wants so badly to hang on to the good thing she has going on now and I find that the audience will really feel bad for her and I think she shows us a new, more motherly side to Eun-young as well.
That said, I have a complaint about her introduction, specifically because of what happens to Radi's character. Now previously Radi was almost an extra of sorts but now she becomes a little bit more important as Hye-min's friend. The strange thing is, Radi just sort of accepts that Hye-min is a supernatural mite eater instead of a normal schoolgirl. Like, what? This is the same problem as what I had with A-ra in episode 2 because there's no development to her character whatsoever. She just accepts that this mystical world is a thing. If anything, Radi has less reason to be this accepting of the situation than A-ra because while the latter was a sane bystander during the giant monster debacle, Radi was one of the crazed students who had no idea what was going on but yet she just sort of understands everything now. It's so confusing to me how they can put this across to us as natural character development when really it's not.
There's a lot of plot points here and it's weird for them to keep introducing more when we're already past the series' halfway mark. Yes it's a short series but still, we shouldn't have to deal with so many plot elements because it gets confusing and it's possible for the audience to lose interest. We still have to touch on Eun-young and her friend's past with HSP, we still have to see how In-pyo's grandfather is rooted in this whole story, we still have to see what actually happened to Ilgwang Sterilisation and so much more. I daresay that because I have to focus on so much, I'm starting to not care about these characters, like I'm seriously not invested in In-pyo at all, he's almost becoming a background character of sorts. Yes, his interactions with Eun-young are cute and funny but other than that, I'm not feeling anything and their "will they, won't they" romance isn't helping. I can only hope that the remainder of The School Nurse Files is able to answer all these questions so that we're not left wanting for more.
Comments
Post a Comment