Descendants of the Sun Ep 6 Recap (and regretful decisions)

Shijin asks if he should apologize or confess. Moyeon stares at him for a long moment.

Shijin smiles slightly at this but she goes on, saying that she doesn’t like that he leads a dangerous way of life. She thinks back to their first meeting, recalling every time their dates and meetings were interrupted, and Chen Gang’s funeral. Moyeon had hoped there would be more time for her to straighten things out in her head, and decide if she could date someone this “dangerous yet charming” but he’s off again, this time to Korea. She can’t get pissed at him leaving, nor can she ask him to stay, and frankly she feels like an idiot for having tried to sort things out mentally. At the moment, she says…

Ouch. She finally gives her answer to his initial question.

Shijin apologizes and wishes her well before leaving with a salute. Back at camp, Mooyeon burns a candle, lost in thought. Shijin’s broods as well, fingering his dogtags. The camera pans to a mosquito coil (presumably the one Moyeon gave him) almost all burned out.

A new day dawns and Moyeon leaves the dorms to find the soldiers running shirtless as usual but the sight doesn’t cheer her up as it normally does. Private Kim Kibum pops up and she asks him where Shijin is. The answer shocks her. Shijin left the night before. Her face falls.

Shijin meets with his father for their official family portrait. The father and son have a great relationship and are all they’ve got as Shijin’s mother is deceased. His father’s aware of his lost chance for promotion but comments that he did the honorable thing. Daeyoung’s busy training a group of soldiers on zip-lining, and boy is he brutal, even making the soldiers alternate between carrying him on their shoulders. The soldiers are beat but he keeps pushing them on, issuing a challenge that’s clearly a motto of his because all the soldier respond with a loud ‘yes!’.

Just then a shout alerts him to something on the zip-line. It’s Shijin and he happily zooms past everyone without even a safety harness.

Is it a bird? a plane? Nope, it’s Yoo Shijin. Daeyoung makes the other soldiers sit up and take note of Shijin’s form as he successfully zip-lines through a window on a higher floor and rappels down. The two start flirting  chatting amongst themselves while Shijin’s pulling a Spiderman. As you do.

You cuties. They go out for drinks and Daeyoung even smiles at Shijin’s return. He freezes when a group of soldiers enter though, pulling up his shirt collar. Turns out, he was their instructor back when they were recruits, and was brutal as hell on them. Shijin starts looking for an exit, while Daeyoung’s certain the soldier’s won’t recognize in him civilian clothing. Their luck does not hold and the soldiers come over. Looks like Daeyoung issued a standard challenge to everyone he trained (on trying to take him down if they meet outside) because the group of soldiers say they might as well take him up on it. Shijin tries to make excuses while muttering that they should run on the count of three. He’s barely finished ‘one’ when Daeyoung yells ‘three’ and runs for it. HAHA. They both end on the lower floor of the restaurant, also populated by soldiers with a grudge to pick with Daeyoung. A fight of hilarious proportions ensues (with a very romantic ost in the background) while leaves Shijin and Daeyoung hopelessly outnumbered and hilariously running for their lives. Down streets

Down supermarket alleys.

And down side-roads. Shijin finally pulls Daeyoung to the side of the road where they crouch and hide, sighing in relief when the soldiers thunder by in the wrong direction.

HAHA. Shijin mutters that he should pick a fight with Daeyoung, given how strict he was when Shijin was a cadet. Daeyoung’s all ‘come at me’.

But Shijin can’t even remember if Daeyoung was strict and mutters that all he has are happy memories. Daeyoung asks if he got to drink the wine he left for him in Urk.

That’s not what I would call it. Daeyoung catches on and asks if he drank it alone. Upon hearing it that Shijin drank it with Dr. Kang, he asks if ‘it went well’. Shijin mutters that it didn’t, and wonders why he keeps getting dumped every time he goes on vacation. He thinks he’ll be fine soon despite missing Moyeon but Daeyoung wisely says that ‘little strokes fell great oaks’. Shijin argues that he’s just as bad given the state of his relationship with Myeongju but Daeyoung mutters that all his ‘little strokes’ just work against him. He bids Shijin farewell, given that his house is around the corner. Shijin gets huffy that Daeyoung even directed their mad sprint away from the soldiers towards his home for his convenience. He mutters that Daeyoung didn’t even ask him in for ramyun. Haha! Daeyoung’s yards away when his phone buzzes. It’s Myeongju but he picks up this time. She’s elated that he did, but he doesn’t say a word. She smiles sadly and talks to him anyway. She says she’s in good health, but misses him a great deal. She comments that Shijin teased her for coming after Daeyoung but she didn’t care about her pride.

His face falls as he recalls their dates and how happy they were together.

The call ends in silence. Moyeon texts her friend at the hospital, Pyo Jisoo, asking her to find her a good guy to date. Jisoo wonders if Shijin wasn’t her type then.

Moyeon muses that she shouldn’t have asked for an apology but held onto him and confessed that she liked him. She wonders how he liked someone like her who kept pushing him away. Her thoughts go into voiceover as we see a lonely Shijin board a bus with Moyeon’s ad on it.

Shijin’s playing billiards on his own when Daeyoung enters the same room, wearing the same shirt. HAHA. Shijin pauses and immediately whips out his phone and starts taking pictures, while Daeyoung tries to cover himself up with a jacket. Hee hee.

Shijin sends the pictures to Myeongju, who get so distracted she forgets what part of her patient’s arm she’s disinfecting.

The next day, Moyeon’s washing and treating the children by their camp when the child they saved from lead poisoning hands her a picture he drew of her and Shijin when they came to visit his home. Moyeon smiles, flashing back to when she’d tried to tell the children not to put the metal objects they found in their mouth, and to take their medicine. She used Shijin as her translator, who would basically repeat what she said and add that he’d shoot them if they didn’t comply. The children laugh while Moyeon wonders what he’s doing this time. It’s day in Urk but night in Seoul and Shijin fishes on his own, calling Daeyoung in the end because he’s lonely.

Hee hee. He calls again hurriedly telling Daeyoung that he’s in ‘big trouble’ but Daeyoung hangs up straightaway. Shijin sighs, holding the pebble he’d given Moyeon by the shipwreck, and remembering her telling him to keep it. She has to go back to her original place too. He has a better chance of returning this pebble (as per the legend) than she does. Moyeon stares down at the same shipwreck sadly, imagining sitting on the boat with them on a date.

A familiar car drives by at that point and Moyeon smiles to see Daniel having fixed it all up. He notes that it’s her last day and asks her to return anytime, but Moyeon says this is it for her in terms of volunteer activity. She offers to pay for it anyway but he simply hands her a Peacemaker program for supporting the children in Urk and asks her to donate to it instead. She wishes him and Yehwa all the best. Yehwa, at that moment is collecting flowers, looking gorgeous.

She smiles at the sight of a butterfly and reaches out for it when a noise startles her. She turns to find hundreds of birds and butterflies sweeping across the coast, the birds shrieking discordantly. Well that’s ominous.

Moyeon goes back to camp and takes final inventory before handing the supplies over to the UN when Myeongju barges in saying she’s holding everyone else up. Moyeon keeps working but pauses when Myeongju brings up Shijin.

Moyeon sputters that she didn’t say a thing but Myeongju gets a call right then from Shijin and happily informs him that she’s just asked Moyeon if she likes him. Moyeon waits for the floor to swallow her while Shijin pauses awkwardly on the other end of the line before asking Myeongju to stop harassing civilians. He brings up the fact that he’s currently having coffee with Daeyoung, which makes her smile so she reports what Moyeon’s doing in turn, while Moyeon’s in the room. Haha.

Moyeon’s super embarassed by the time the call is over. Myeongju turns to her.

Moyeon mutters that of course he was flustered. She isn’t that forgettable. Myeongju wonders if this is why Shijin likes her. It’s time for everyone to leave and Moyeon’s called for a final photo. Myeongju gets one more dig at her, saying that she should go do what she’s here for but Moyeon pushes her clipboard onto Myeongju telling her that photo-taking isn’t all she’s there for and to finish up the inventory for her. She adds that Myeongju should take care of herself though, before leaving. Private Kim Kibum takes the picture, which Moyeon does not look happy in.

The soldiers plan to take them to the airport by helicopter instead of by bus, which has the rest of the team super happy, but Moyeon just stands their glumly throughout it all. The group is split into two as they have only one helicopter, and as luck would have it, Moyeon’s in the first group. She sadly looks at Urk, especially when another soldier remarks that Shijin would say that this view made him want to protect this country. The sight of the shipwreck further dampens her mood.

The kid they rescue from lead poisoning (who has more lead in his mouth! Kid, don’t!) sits on top of an old tank and watches the helicopter leave. Ominous music plays as a huge group of butterflies charges towards the land. Meanwhile, Jin Youngsoo retrieves a briefcase from underneath his floorboards where he pours a quantity of diamonds into a pouch and leaves. The action does not go unnoticed by the young worker (whose name we’ve yet to know) we saw yesterday, who pretends he’s sleeping. The waterglass by him shakes ominously. He’s given a good lecture on skipping work and not wearing a safety helmet when he reports back to the work, though the head manager gives him his own when the building starts to shake, mirrors start to crack. Back at camp, Kibum’s getting out plates when the whole cabinet comes crashing on him. Myeong flees the supply room as the whole medicube starts to shake, leading others out. Back at the Haesung solar-power plant, the factory starts to fall apart. The young worker and head manager who’d been arguing flee, but the latter dies upon sudden impact of cement to his head, having given his helmet to the worker. The tower Moyeon admired comes crashing down in a beautifully filmed set of shots, while Jin Youngsoo, pushes people out of the way and hides behind a solar panel.

The half of the medical team on the helicopter watch in shock as parts of Urk collapse. Back in Korea, Shijin’s in traffic when a nearby screen flashes that there’s a 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Urk.

He hurriedly calls his commanding officer and demands to speak to someone who can tell him what’s happening. At Haesung hospital, Pyo Jisoo and Chihoon’s wife watch events unfold in horror, with the latter crying in fear about her husband. Lt. General Yoon is informed of the situation. The soldier reporting to him says they’ll concentrate efforts on finding Myeongju but Yoon surprisingly stops him.

Myeongju knew what she was doing when she went on doing. He asks the soldier to find Daeyoung, and is informed that Daeyoung already volunteered and is on standby. In Urk, Moyeon faces off with the officer-in-charge, refusing to return without the rest of her team. Medical disasters require doctors like them and she’s in charge of her team and will take full responsibility, he just needs to take her back.

The officer retorts that he really doesn’t like her, but Moyeon just brushes him off, saying they can discuss it later. Meanwhile, a whole council convenes in Korea, wondering whether to send troops in. They’re hampered by the fact that Urk is a ‘problem country’ in general. The sleazy director of Haesung Group who tried to get Moyeon in bed, is on the council too and yells that his team is trapped back there, though his concern is likely more for Moyeon than anything. Lt. General Yoon asks that their fastest air carrier leaves in 30 minutes, with the most experienced among the special forces on body. Naturally, this includes Shijin and Daeyoung, who quips that Shijin’s given up his vacation. Shijin says he just did what he had to.

Sanghyun bursts into the medicube calling for Ja Ae, and relieved to find that she’s find and assisting the injured. Myeongju’s taken care of Kibum’s broken arm, but receives a call from help on her walkie talkie. The power plant as completely collapsed. They race over there immediately. Moyeon leads her team in with the soldiers. They’re horrified by the levels of death and destruction they see.

Moyeon takes charge of the situation immediately, telling them to adopt triage protocol (tying wristbands around the people they find. Green = safe, yellow = minor injury, red = in need of help, black = can’t be saved/lack time and equipment to same). Surprisingly Chihoon steps in, looking just as serious. They are to make decisions on whom they can and can’t save. Moyeon breaks off her high heels, converting her shoes into flats and soldiers on. Jin Youngsoo, nasty little insect that he is, has no idea how many people were inside the building and doesn’t care about saving them. He asks the soldier (the same who hadn’t wanted to bring Moyeon back) to come with him so he can retrieve ‘something very important’ from his office. The soldier doesn’t give a shit, and leaves when he gets a call for supported needed in a particular area. A patient goes into arrest and Chihoon takes over. Moyeon goes to take care of another patient, when Myeongju tells her to go to Chihoon’s patient. Moyeon’s certain that Chihoon can take care of it, but Myeongju insists.

Chihoon frantically does chest compressions on the patient. Moyeon takes one look at him and switches the band on his wrist from yellow to black. She asks Chihoon to stop but he refuses. He tied a yellow band about the patient. That means he can be saved, or he’s no good as a doctor. Sanghyun arrives and slaps him to knock him out of it, saying that there are more who need to be saved, and that Chihoon’s needed right now, so he can’t break down. Chihoon sobs but pronounces his first time of death. Even Moyeon starts to cry.

Back in Korea, Pyo Jisoo worriedly calls Moyeon, leaving messages and hoping she’s safe. The clamor dims into as the doctors run from one area to another, focused on nothing but their patient’s life. In voiceover, Moyeon recites the Hippocratic oath. One of the patients, she treated places a hand on her arm when she’s done, having noticed the state of her shoes, and gives her his.

The death count slowly rises, and in the dead of night, a helicopter rushes in. It hovers in the air, while a group of soldiers rappel down.

Moyeon stares in shock at Shijin leading the group. He looks at her in relief before another patient commands her attention. He meets with the other soldiers, all of whom are unhurt, save Kibum. Shijin says they’ll be officially beginning the rescue of the those inside the power plant. He orders them to stay safe, else they can’t help anyone. The soldiers vow to do so and leave. Daeyoung and Shijin look at them with pride. Daeyoung’s about to leave on a search himself when Myeongju runs over, having heard that he was there.

He turns to leave but she calls after him.

She says its an order, he has to kept it with his life. He wordlessly salutes her. She does the same. And then they part.

Meanwhile Moyeon’s new shoe’s laces have come undone. She drops her gear to tie them when a pair of hands gently take the laces from her and knot them. She wordlessly watches Shijin as he straightens and expresses his relief that she’s alright.

He admits regretting not saying goodbye the day he left and asks her to be careful, because he can’t be with her during the searches. Moyeon looks like she’s about to cry but asks him to be careful as well. He manages a smile. And then they part.

Was it too much to hope that each couple didn’t decide to form a soldier-doctor team?