We're almost at the end of The School Nurse Files, and with multiple plot lines left dangling plus yet another brand new element thrown into the mix, episode 5 is sure to get viewers on the edge of their seats. Let's get started.
RECAP (SPOILER ALERT)
Flashback: A teenage Eun-young stares out her high school class window, watching the winter scenery when a female classmate asks to swap seats with her. The class is drawing lots for their assigned seats and Eun-young glances over at her potential deskmate, who's hunched over his table drawing. She agrees to swap seats and as they exchange lots, we see that Eun-young's nails are dyed with balsam, just like in the present day. She makes her way to her new seat and through gossip it's clear that Eun-young and her new deskmate, Kim Kang-sun, are the class outcasts, Eun-young because she can see the supernatural and Kang-sun because his father is rumoured to be a hitman. We then see another female classmate paying Eun-young to see if anything's "haunting" her. Eun-young glances behind to see a huge red humanoid jelly standing over her classmate and whispers to her that her father might be dead. A slap from her triggered classmate sends her crashing into Kang-sun and they both tumble to the ground, while the class erupts into a ruckus.
After this incident, we see Kang-sun with a bruise around his left eye from where Eun-young smashed into him still drawing while they're having a class. A brown hand-like shape reaches in front of Eun-young's face and when she looks up, we see many vaguely humanoid but yet extremely disfigured mud-like jellies emerging from the classroom's walls, floor and ceiling. We hear a male voice calling her name and as she turns to look at Kang-sun, we cut back to the present day, where we see Eun-young walking home while a man in a black suit stands by a streetlight waiting for her. This is a grown-up Kang-sun and she approaches him, surprised to see him after so long. Of course, this isn't all it seems as Kang-sun is in fact dead and his spirit/jelly is lingering in the human world. A shocked Eun-young invites him into her house and from our perspective, Kang-sun is invisible, with our only indication that he's around being lights flickering as he walks past.
Upon entering Eun-young's home, Kang-sun waves his hand over her iPad and it lights up, with Eun-young realising that dead people possess static electricity (also explains the flickering lights from earlier). He starts drawing something on the device and as she watches him, a satisfied smile lights up his face. Flashback to their past and Eun-young questions Kang-sun about his drawing while munching on sweet potatoes for lunch. He picks up that her stepmother, who prepared the food, clearly doesn't care and asks about what happened to her face, which is all scratched up. She reveals that the jellies do that when angry and naturally he thinks "jelly" is just another name for her "abusive" stepmother but she tells him that they're beings that look like what he's drawing. He scoffs at her and calls her a liar but she insists that it's the truth and compliments his drawing, eliciting a smile out of him. Back in the present, Kang-sun sketches out a cartoonish Eun-young and she smiles while watching him.
Cut to Monglyeon High's cafeteria, where A-ra invites Hye-min to join their squad backstage at one of Radi's (in case we've forgotten, she's an idol) music shows. Unfortunately, the broadcasting station is out of Hye-min's district, preventing her from going. Not wanting to see Hye-min so down, Radi suggests a place within Hye-min's district and the gang decides to go there, with Gyeong-hwa scooting over and joining them. We see that they've ended up going to a karaoke bar and they're absolutely losing their minds in there. Radi comes by after her music show and while initially stunned by the mess they're making but ultimately she's just relieved that Hye-min's having fun like a normal high schooler. The next day the six of them have completely crashed from their night of fun and are dead asleep in school. Meanwhile Eun-young is killing jellies in the school corridors with her sword and in the background we hear her phone conversation with her healer friend, who's found someone who can perform surgery on Hye-min and extend her life. Eun-young peeps into Hye-min's class and we see that Kang-sun is following her around, and she warns him from getting too near her sword less he gets injured.
Cut to Eun-young and a sleepy Hye-min walking around the school compound while Kang-sun follows behind. An exasperated Eun-young tries to get Hye-min to put herself first and go ahead with the procedure but the apprehensive mite eater worries about the school falling prey to the mites, telling Eun-young that she'll think about it. Cut to In-pyo in his office and we see that Eun-young texts him to meet after school. Later, she hops into his car and is seated on a fully reclined passenger seat, with a very confused In-pyo asking her to sit up. Eun-young notices a lipstick-stained coffee cup in his car and judges him, with In-pyo revealing that he had given Ga-young a lift prior to this and the seat was reclined to accommodate her bad back. A clearly jealous Eun-young slowly readjusts her seat and "jokingly" laments about not being able to hold In-pyo's hand anymore (to recharge herself), to which he strongly rebuffs her statement, telling her it's fine to take his hand. Without question, Eun-young reaches over and grabs his thumb, with his energy flowing to her and her cheeks turning her recharged rosy shade.
In-pyo struggles to drive while she's being all grabby but she doesn't give in and we see that Kang-sun is just chilling in the backseat vocally judging her taste in men. She tells him to shut it, leaving In-pyo feeling wronged because of his invisible passenger. It's quite cute to see them being like this and even when he has trouble controlling the car because of Eun-young, he just looks over at her looking all happy, and he smiles too. The romance between our leads is finally happening. They finally arrive at their destination, a fish market, and Eun-young stops in front of a stall and picks out a fish for sale. She tells the fishmonger that her healer friend recommended her and as the fishmonger heads in to butcher the fish, she casts her gaze on Kang-sun. There seems to be some romantic tension here as when Eun-young says that she and In-pyo are a couple, a potentially jealous Kang-sun sizes him up. We soon find out that the fishmonger also deals with the supernatural and she asks for 200 million won in order to perform the surgery to extend Hye-min's life (which involves removing her stomach). A hopeful Kang-sun asks if paying the fishmonger that much money can save his own life but his hopes are dashed when she says that he only has a few more days in the living realm. Disappointed, he leaves the fish market alone.
After failing to reach an agreement, Eun-young and In-pyo leave the fish market, with the former deciding against enlisting the fishmonger's overpriced help in favour of finding a professional to operate on Hye-min. As In-pyo drones on in his car, both Eun-young and Kang-sun stare out the window, presumably contemplating about what they've learnt from the fishmonger. Cut to Monglyeon High, where Hye-min's eating an antacid in the nurse's office, telling Eun-young that she's decided not to follow through with the procedure as she's worried about what the mites will do to her newfound friends. While she's talking, Eun-young briefly glances at Kang-sun, who looks unwell and is breathing heavier. She directs her attention back to Hye-min and in exasperation, she dumps a whole stack of antacids on the table. A voiceover from Eun-young shows us how frustrated she is with the current state of affairs, with her being unable to help the two people that need it most (Hye-min and Kang-sun).
We next see Eun-young walking towards her childhood kindergarten and she ends up sitting next to the girl in winter clothing from episode 1, who hasn't changed one bit (I called it, I knew that kid was a jelly). Her name is Jeong-hyeon and she died (before Eun-young was even born) after falling from the tree that the pair are now sitting under, with blood still trickling from her head. Eun-young reaches into her bag for her sword, deliberating on whether to eliminate her childhood friend but ultimately decides against it because Jeong-hyeon's neither in pain nor causing harm to others. Their conversation takes a sad turn, as Jeong-hyeon has lingered in the living world for so long that she's lost track of time, confused as to why Eun-young is so much older now when she thinks that just a few days ago they were the same age. She even questions whether Eun-young's her mother when in actual fact, her mother is an old lady by now. Eun-young tells us that while some souls wreak havoc when leaving this world, some like Jeong-hyeon slowly "melt away". An emotional Eun-young takes her leave, promising to visit the next day, leaving behind some snacks for her jelly friend to "eat". As the camera zooms out of the kindergarten, we hear Jeong-hyeon's munching but all we can see is an empty playground. Damn, this scene was actually pretty depressing.
Cut to Eun-young and Kang-sun walking back home, as she reminisces about a situation from their past, where female ghosts haunted Eun-young for salvation after perishing from a pub fire near their high school. She remembers how helpless and scared she felt over potentially having to live seeing jellies for the rest of her life, and Kang-sun tells her that in life, if something can't be avoided the only thing to do is to live through it. Eun-young denies that fact and tells him that she'll change destiny, linking back to how she wants to help Hye-min get the stomach removal. As they walk, we see that Kang-sun is steadily getting weaker as he clutches his stomach in pain, stopping to catch his breath at the streetlight where he first met Eun-young again.
Cut to In-pyo giving a Hanja class and as he briefly glances outside, he sees Eun-young going along the corridor helping Hye-min to catch mites and putting them into a huge container. In fact, she's going around the whole school hunting for them, much to the amusement and confusion of the school populace, who only see an empty container. Eun-young has decided to get an old doctor colleague of hers to operate on Hye-min (if she so chooses), and the reason why she's going through so much trouble to help Hye-min is because Eun-young sees a reflection of herself and she knows how much Hye-min wants to live a normal life, just like she herself wants to. The next morning, Eun-young dumps multiple huge containers filled with all the mites in the school in front of Hye-min, which she stayed till the previous night to catch. We see that they're fully equipped for this eating operation, as Eun-young's table is piled high with antacids and snacks for Hye-min. Obviously perturbed by the sheer amount she has to eat, Hye-min's starting to consider following through with Eun-young's plan and our heroine assures her that she'll find another way to protect the school, all she has to do is follow her lead. Hye-min spends the whole day eating mites in the nurse's office and by the time they leave, the sun's going down and the pair lament about how no supernatural higher power is there to save them.
Cut to Eun-young's house that night and we see a completely weakened Kang-sun sitting on her balcony, clearly in extreme pain. As she pounds out her balsam dye, he reveals the circumstances of his death to her. After he grew up, he didn't join his father's life of crime, instead going into construction, which led to his untimely death in a freak crane accident. He starts coughing in the middle of his story and his body starts to dissipate but he resists, returning back to normal. Seeing the amount of pain Kang-sun is in, Eun-young picks up her sword and slowly approaches him, planning to eliminate him for his own good. On the verge of disappearing, he tells her to quit the school to prevent herself from getting hurt when more bad things happen and to stop living the way she is now. As he starts to fade away, Kang-sun asks Eun-young to join him and leave this life and right before he completely "shatters", he tells Eun-young to "take him there" but runs out of time to elaborate before she can find out more. As he fades away like ashes in the wind, Eun-young runs after him, desperately trying to prevent him from dissipating.
Flashback to their high school days, where we finally see Kang-sun's completed drawing, a horrific rendition of monsters and ghouls, all looking like the jellies that Eun-young sees. He tells her to live life like an adventure instead of being afraid of it and gifts her a flipbook, which depicts her battling supernatural forces using a sword and a BB gun, exactly like the weapons she uses now. The next scene shows present day Eun-young at a construction site with her weapons, which she throws down in frustration before she collapses to the ground wailing for her lost friend, the first person who believed in the mystical world she saw. She looks up at a crane carrying up a heavy load, when one of its cables snaps under the pressure, causing the whole crane to come collapsing down. While the rest of the workers run to safety, Eun-young sees one solitary worker staring up at the crane in shock. As the debris falls onto him, we see that the worker was Kang-sun and Eun-young is seemingly revisiting his last moments. She unsteadily approaches him, all the while with tears streaming down her face, but when she reaches his corpse, we suddenly see that the body's nails are dyed with balsam and a stunned Eun-young directs her gaze to the face, which has changed into her own.
This turns out to be another nightmare as Eun-young jolts awake in the comforts of her home, having fallen asleep after failing to save Kang-sun. She walks over to her iPad and looks at her friend's last ever drawing, a cutesy sketch of Eun-young with her weapons, just like how he drew it in her flipbook. A numb Eun-young picks up the basins she tried to stop Kang-sun's dissipation with and stares out into the darkness, a somewhat steely determination entering her eyes. Cut to Eun-young dressed in scrubs, wheeling Hye-min on a gurney into an operating theatre, with the mite eater having decided to undergo the procedure conducted by Eun-young's doctor colleague. Eun-young phones her healer friend, telling her that she dreamed of her own death and she feels like all her worries have vanished. We next see Eun-young clipping her nails, removing the part dyed with balsam, and drops the bombshell that after waking up, she can't see the jellies anymore. Cut to black.
REVIEW AND COMMENTS
I can't believe this drama has the AUDACITY to pull the rug out from under us in the second-last episode. Now that our titular heroine supposedly can no longer see the jellies, can she even protect the school from the now invisible evil force? I seriously can't believe they would do this but if we delve a bit into the symbolism of this episode, we can understand why.
I would say that episode 5 isn't very plot-heavy, with the most important part (plot-wise) being Hye-min's operation. This episode was very emotional as it felt more like us following Eun-young's character development and journey of self-reflection, from being afraid of the jellies to accepting her fate to finally deciding to reject her destiny. Kang-sun's introduction was probably the screenwriter's way of Eun-young finally making that decision to change her future and move beyond the jellies. The streetlight where they meet again in the present day represented the crossroads in Eun-young's journey about whether she should continue protecting the school from jellies or just give up and as they walk together to her home the first time, we see that she's still flip-flopping on whether to move on with her life, hence why he's right next to her.
By this point Kang-sun is a jelly lingering in the living realm and as he so desperately clings onto his last sliver of life, that probably represented the last shreds in Eun-young's mind of holding onto her destiny of being able to see jellies and stopping them for the greater good. Eventually, as her conviction to live a normal life gets stronger, in contrast Kang-sun gets weaker as he starts to fade away, and this was clearly shown somewhere in the middle of the episode, when Eun-young continues towards her home while he stops at the streetlight where they met to catch his breath. In that one scene, Kang-sun represented the supernatural world, with Eun-young moving past him and leaving the supernatural behind, not even turning back to worry about him. Ultimately, when Kang-sun fully disappears, we see that Eun-young has come to terms with herself, even removing the balsam-dyed tip of her nails and accepting that she can't see the jellies anymore.
The short scene with Jeong-hyeon was also pretty sad and I think that that really drove home the point of Eun-young wanting to leave her current life behind. She knows that eventually her jelly friend will leave the living world as well and when she leaves, Eun-young will be even more alone than she is now. I really like that we got to see Eun-young's character development but in truth, I do wish that it had been better spaced out across the episodes. This was a problem that was bound to happen in such a short drama, especially with so many other plot lines weaved in as well but hey, at least it happened. However, I will be completely honest, now that we're at the tail end of the drama, I feel that Eun-young is almost carrying this drama. I know In-pyo is meant to be a lead but seriously, he's taken so much of a backseat throughout practically the whole drama that he's pretty much just become a plot device for the writers to call up as and when needed. It's a shame too because this episode showed us a little more development in the leads' relationship but yet, I don't see it going much further because there's only one episode left.
The School Nurse Files has been a wild journey up until now and with our heroine having potentially gone through a super huge change, it remains to be seen what shenanigans will ensue in our final episode, rounding up this crazy drama.
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