Dr. Romantic Season 3 Episode 11 Recap & Review

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Dr. Romantic 3 is a Korean drama series broadcasted by SBS starting from April 28, 2023. It is directed by Liu Renzhi, who also directed “Doctor Romanctic”, “Dr. Romantic S2”, and written by Kang Yin-kyung, who wrote for “Dr. Romantic 3”, “Doctor Romantic S2”, and “Fox Bride Star”. The story revolves around Kim Sabu, a genius doctor working at Doldham Hospital in a local city, and his interactions with passionate young doctors. In the Asia-Pacific region, it will be exclusively available on Disney+ every Friday and Saturday at 22:30 starting from April 28th. ( Source: Wikipedia)

Most of the cast members in Dr. Romantic Season 3 are returning from Season 2, and the storyline continues where Season 2 left off. If you haven’t watched previous seasons yet but don’t have enough time to catch up on everything before watching this season, we recommend at least starting with Season 2 so that you can follow along more coherently~ However, there may be some connections between certain characters in Episode Four of Dr. Romantic Season Three and an incident in Season One; therefore if possible it would be better to watch all three seasons!

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Dr. Romantic Season 3 Episode 11 Recap

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🩸Cha Jin-Man spoke in court about the shortage of medical personnel in recent years. Despite having students applying to medical schools every year, there is still a lack of manpower due to the lack of respect for healthcare workers nowadays.

He also emphasized that the regrettable situation at the trauma center on that day was caused by a sudden influx of severely injured patients and insufficient staff. Although the hospital won this case, Kim Sabu remained calm. Ko Kyung-Sook stated that she would continue to appeal and asked Cha Jin-Man not to be too happy too soon.

🩸During Ko Kyung-Sook’s hospitalization, she asked Kim Sabu why he brought Cha Jin-Man to the trauma center. Kim Sabu replied that it is not good for a group if everyone has only one opinion; different opinions are needed for healthy thinking. However, Ko Kyung-Sook claimed that three years ago, Cha Jin-Man caused a doctor so much pressure that they committed suicide – she believed this rumor must be true.

🩸Therefore, Ko Kyung-Sook proposed a condition exchange: if the trauma center dismisses Cha Jin-Man from his position, she will withdraw her lawsuit and provide government funding. Yoon A-Reum is currently in cold war with Nurse Eun-Tak but still pays attention to his reactions. Jang Dong-Hwa noticed Yoon A-Reum’s plan pretending to be angry and suggested Nurse Eun-Tak cares about her feelings.

🩸Cha Eun-Jae’s mother found out about him living with Seo Woo-Jin secretly and scolded him for ruining their family’s image as well as the hospital’s reputation. While working at the hospital, Cha Eun-Jae overheard Bae Moon-Jung saying Seo Woo-Jin might have permanent damage on his hand even after surgery – he may never regain full mobility again!

However, Seo Woo-Jin did not know this bad news and encouraged Cha Eun-Jae not to worry. Unexpectedly, Cha Eun-Jae proposed to Seo Woo-Jin suddenly but was rejected because he could tell that it wasn’t a genuine proposal.

🩸In the emergency room, an elderly woman who had dementia fell from a building and was brought in for treatment. She shouted that she did not want to go to jail and even thought Yoon A-Reum wanted to steal her money instead of treating her.

Meanwhile, a kidney patient with sudden breathing difficulties arrived at the same time. Jang Dong-Hwa immediately helped Yoon A-Reum save both patients’ lives – Nurse Eun-Tak witnessed their joy when they succeeded.

Cha Jin-Man returned to the hospital and found a box on his desk containing Woo Sang-Min’s pen stained with blood – this reminded him of Woo Sang-Min’s case, causing him great shock. On the other hand, Kim Sabu said Ko Kyung-Sook’s condition exchange was not a suggestion but rather a threat; if they accept it, she will only make more unreasonable demands.

🩸Kim Sabu hopes that Park Min-Guk can still stand firm on the waves and gain the trust of his followers. Cha Jin-Man saw a suspicious doctor entering his office through the surveillance camera, and asked Oh Myung-Sim to retrieve information about Korean university doctors for him.

He found out that someone named Lee Sun-Woong seemed to be related to it. So he called him to the office to organize documents, and deliberately mentioned Woo Sang-Min. After confirming that Lee Sun-Woong was color-blind, Cha Jin-Man completely confirmed that he was Lee Sun-Woong who had been kicked out of the team three years ago by him. Therefore, he instinctively believed that it was him who used Woo Sang-Min’s things to threaten him, and wanted to fire Lee Sun-Woong.

🩸However, when Kim Sabu asked if it was done by Lee Sun-Woong himself, he firmly denied it and said he had never entered the office. This made Cha Jin-Man reveal Lee Sun-Woong’s secret of being color-blind.

But Park Min-Guk didn’t understand why this would make him unqualified? There is no rule saying that being color-blind is wrong. Moreover, Lee Sun-Woong has completed difficult surgeries before and even did not hide this fact from everyone else.

In other words, Lee Sun-Woong has never deceived anyone before; therefore Park Min-Guk now suspects why Cha Jin-Man insisted on being threatened by others instead of investigating further whether or not there really is any threat against them.

However, this does not mean that Cha Jin-Man staged everything himself because Park Min-Guk forced him into doing so in order for their hospital budget allocation needs.

Dr. Romantic 3 Reviews Episode 11

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Cha Jin-Man: “Do you know how many people like you I’ve met? At the moment when we apologize based on morality, you will rush at us like a pack of wild dogs and portray us as perpetrators, murderers. We have suffered this kind of injustice before and I don’t intend to let anyone oppress us like this again in the future.”

Ko Kyung-Sook continued to argue with Cha Jin-Man about Kim Ha-Nul’s medical dispute leading up to what Kim Sabu called “Plan B”. From the previous episode, it seems that Kim Sabu wants the elephant (Cha Jin-Man) already placed in the refrigerator to self-destruct. And also bring out why Kim Sabu wanted Cha Jin-Man to come to the trauma center~

Kim Sabu said, “I think that being too one-sided is not good in any group. There must be various different ideas and opinions compatible with each other so that the group can be healthy.”

However, this brings up whether or not Kim Sabu intentionally tried to prove that Cha Jin-Man was unsuitable for his plan. I don’t think so. Kim Sabu is not someone who plays tricks on others. Through his words in this episode, we can feel his love for his team but he doesn’t want everyone in his team to imitate him just because they respect him since he has felt that dedicating all of himself into hospitals and patients throughout his life is actually an unbalanced thing.

So I think this is also why there have been several interactions between Kim Sabu and Seo Woo-Jin presented by the director in past episodes. Kim Sabu told Seo Woo-Jin,”You don’t need even a little bit of me” (meaning including Seo Woo-Jin’s willingness to sacrifice herself without hesitation for saving patients which resulted her own serious injury).

Therefore, deep down inside, Kim Sabu should have felt that such a philosophy of sacrificing oneself for patients may not be suitable for everyone, which is why he brought Cha Jin-Man to the trauma center to give everyone a different spark of thought.

Therefore, in the previous episode, Kim Sabu’s “Plan B” was not meant to undermine Cha Jin-Man’s spirit but rather a warning that if he did not change his ways, he would only become a “Plan B.”

In this episode, Yoon A-Reum said: “Although I am angry, I cannot test someone’s feelings like this.” So how should we deal with uncertainty? This episode also introduced something provocative – Woo Sang-Min’s blood-stained pen.

This pen reminded Cha Jin-Man of what he said to Woo Sang-Min: “Since you made the mistake, you must take responsibility.” Based on Cha Jin-Man’s reaction, is he really the culprit in the case like Ko Kyung-Sook? Kim Sabu said: “Ko Kyung-Sook is not proposing but threatening. Do you think that by pretending to have no choice and compromising with such tempting threats will get us what we want easily? You are wrong. The other party will immediately see us as soft targets and make even more unreasonable demands.”

The fountain pen was obviously not arranged by Kim Sabu. In this episode, the screenwriter clearly contrasted Kim Sabu and Cha Jin-Man’s attitudes towards things.

The audience may find that Cha Jin-Man seems to push blame onto others to bear it himself which is why Ko Kyung-Sook dislikes him; while on the other hand,Kim Sabu says: “We have never had an easy time since we started working together. We always face crises and bottlenecks every time which are very tricky situations but we never choose to escape with a compromise mentality.We always try our best to find solutions so today we can come here.”

Therefore,Kim Sabu believes that “we cannot avoid problems when facing them so as doctors,it is our duty.” We cannot solve problems improperly like Cha Jin-Man nor shirk responsibilities without giving Ko Kyung-Sook a sincere apology.

I think this episode talks about the doctor-patient relationship. Doctors hope that patients or their families can give them the respect they deserve.However, repairing such relationships is not based on one-sided testing but requires genuine efforts to bring mutual respect closer together.I think this also echoes Kim Sabu’s own idea of “romance”: “No matter what threats we face, we must remain steadfast.”

Kim Sabu’s romance is the kind of romanticism that enjoys facing challenges and problems at a high level. Romanticists see things with an “artistic sense.” In one episode of Season 3, Seo Woo-Jin said this about Kim Sabu’s romance: “Sometimes you have to be a little crazy to reach certain heights, and these heights are what Kim Sabu calls romance.”

My interpretation and feelings towards Kim Sabu may differ from others’, but there is no right or wrong because I believe the writer did not intend for Kim Sabu to sculpt anyone into his own image.

Instead, he wanted doctors to be themselves and not stray from their path. He also hoped that viewers would maintain their own perception of Kim Sabu. We are all members of Doldham Hospital who were deeply attracted by his romance, but it is unnecessary to become exactly like him because Kim Sabu would surely want everyone to have their own ideas and dreams rather than just following in his footsteps.

Kim Sabu’s romance represents an “ideal,” a dream that he wants to achieve. In this episode, Jung In-Soo mentioned how he originally wanted an ordinary life but gained a dream after coming to Doldham Hospital.

However, as he pursued his dream, reality seemed further away than ever before. I think Cha Jin-Man represents the “reality” within White Tower; however, when Kim Sabu agreed to bring Cha Jin-Man into the trauma center initially, it was probably because he wanted to bring some “reality” into Doldham Hospital since his brand of romance might not fit well in the medical field where it could be seen as reckless behavior instead of idealism.

Therefore, when Cha Jin-Man arrived at the trauma center later on in the show many people faced harsh realities – this was how the writer designed clashes between “romance (ideals)” and “reality.”

Compared to when Kim Sabu said to Cha Jin-Man at the end “You are Plan B,” it echoes his previous statement: “Your own ideas may not be understood by others. Therefore, no matter what others say, just continue doing what you’re doing silently and keep going forward. Living quietly doesn’t mean disappearing; truly meaningful things will never disappear.”

Therefore, was Cha Jin-Man only used to highlight Kim Sabu’s philosophy? XD Because he has always been someone who works tirelessly behind-the-scenes without recognition.

But he did say “no matter what others say, just continue doing what you’re doing silently and keep going forward” which means that he might have planned for Cha Jin-Man (the elephant) to cause chaos so everyone could see that an emergency center needs both Kim Sabu’s team and their beliefs (and therefore might be waiting for Cha Jin-Man to self-destruct).

Of course, according to this episode where Kim Sabu’s hand frequently relapses during surgery already shows that he isn’t someone who can take on the position of director of an emergency center since his hand won’t suddenly heal itself. So when Kang Dong-Joo called him at the end of the episode it’s likely that Kim Sabu intends for Kang Dong-Joo to take over as director instead~