Descendants of the Sun Ep 11 Recap (and what it means to love)

Moyeon and Myeongju sigh at the number of diamonds they dug out of Jin Youngsu’s stomach. Moyeon humourously debates on taking one given that only the two of them know the exact number and Myeongju grins at that. Moyeon asks if she’s afraid of being diagnosed with the M3 illness and Myeongju reminds her that her only fear was being separated from Daeyoung. That’s precisely when the man himself comes storming into the operating room and pulls Myeongju into a hug.

She wonders if he’s insane for an instant before realizing the truth. Shijin exchanges glances with Moyeon.

Myeongju mutters that this is a tad scarier than she thought it would be before closing her eyes and asking Shijin to take Daeyoung away. Daeyoung refuses to leave but she remains firm. They need to be isolated. This is her judgement as a doctor, and her orders to him as a soldier. Daeyoung looks utterly devastated.

Myeong dons hospital pajamas and settles into bed looking eerily calm.

Moyeon takes Daeyoung into the room Shijin was confined to after disobeying his superior’s orders, and draws blood for testing. Daeyoung’s mind is only on Myeongju though. He asks Moyeon what her chances are, given that M3 and Ebola are highly similar. Moyeon assures him that someone as healthy as Myeongju has a lower chance of dying. However, she tells Shijin the rest of the details. Myeongju’s health could work against her, as her immune system could turn in on itself. Nevertheless, she assures Shijin that she will do her utmost in the fight to save Myeongju. Fighting viruses, she smiles, is a war for doctors. Shijin’s proud as hell of his girl and smiles. The Medicube is designated as the base medical facility for treating the M3 virus. All the soldiers are tested for the virus with Moyeon and the other staff assuring them that there’s nothing to panic over and they only need to take special precautions with hygiene. Regardless, there’s one thing they all have to do.

Ja Ae takes Sanghyun’s temperate and worriedly notes his fever. He’s more interested in playing games on his notebook during the duration of his confinement. He compliments how well she draws blood and she recalls that she wasn’t that good at first, having had to practice on a fellow student’s arm for a while. Sanghyun smiles that she remembers, and Ja Ae tears up, fearful that he’s ill. She asks him to call her if he’s in pain. He wonders what he should do if he just wants to see her then and she tearfully mumbles that she’ll be there before then. Aw. Meanwhile, Shijin goes to pay a visit to Daeyoung, talking to him through the door. Daeyoung apologizes for being out of commission at a time like this. He inquires after Myeongju and Shijin assures him that she’s still a doctor, not a patient. He passes Daeyoung a walkie-talkie in return for how he’d made Shijin’s confinement brighter by bringing in Moyeon. Daeyoung switches it to channel 3 and Myeongju’s voice comes on immediately. She must have been repeating his name in hope that he’d turn it on and hear her.

He asks her how she’s feeling and she responds simply with an ‘I miss you’. He asks if she’s eaten and she repeats that she misses him. Daeyoung fights back tears while Myeongju grins that she’s technically answered both his questions. He quietly says that he misses her two. It’s Myeongju’s turn to grow teary-eyed as she asks him if he’s eaten. He repeats that he misses her. She tearfully smiles.

She asks instead if he remembers the white dress she wore when they met for the second time and how he’d asked if she’d meant to look like a virgin ghost. In a bit of dark humour, she wonders if that was foreshadowing

Wait. Hold up. You’re telling me that Mr. Sexy here, and you haven’t gone at it yet? What? Yoon Myeongju, what have you been doing, go jump that man’s bones.
Myeongju tries to joke about the unfairness of it all but Daeyoung’s as serious as ever and vows that she’s an angel.

Swoon. She mutters that he’s sweet now that she’s sick and ends the call, sighing that virgin ghost or angel, they’re both dead people anyway. Daeyoung bows his head in the room, while Myeongju cries into her knees at the Medicube.

The next day, Moyeon coordinates with Daniel for preventative vaccines to arrive soon. Everyone Youngsoo associated with since leaving the Medicube for the flight to Korea has been apprehended and tested. Meanwhile, Shijin argues with Lt. Park, who wants to send Myeongju over to the US military’s hospital so she can get better care. Shijin refuses knowing the risks of getting the soldiers there infected too but Lt. Park is more focused on saving Myeongju’s skin and thereby earning the commander’s favour. Shijin has to recite the field manual to him in order for him to cease pushing the issue. Back in Korea, news of the M3 virus and the two Korean doctors infected has gotten out. Dr. Jang, Chihoon’s wife is beside herself, and calls in Chihoon’s mother to give the hospital director a resound yelling. The chairman is beyond irritated at the problem after problem his crew is involved in (tell that to the scriptwriter xD) but is forced to promise that he’ll bring Chihoon back on the next day if he has to, when Chihoon’s mother starts threatening to sell the land the hospital is on to someone else. In what I hope isn’t foreshadowing, Chihoon’s wife sadly says that she feels like a widow already.

Sanghyun contacts Jisoo asking her to scan some pages from textbooks and medical journals for him. She sends picture after picture, and he engrossedly makes notes on them, setting up a workspace of sorts.

Kibum and Minaje (who appears to be helping out with medicine delivery) are surprised to see him hard at work despite being sick. He’s as jovial as ever and impresses both of them. Both hope he’ll success in finding a cause or a cure. They go to Myeongju next. Her bed’s next to Youngso and Minjae asks after the diamonds that were in him and how much they were worth. His eyes bug out of his head when Myeongju casually says 20 billion won. Meanwhile, Moyeon massaging her ankles after a long hectic day when Shijin shows up. He asks how her day went before cutely asking what her bloodtype is. This is the beginning to a whole set of Korean pick-up lines, so Moyeon has some fun with him.

Shijin laughs that he’s lost. Moyeon says she’s doing for him what he did for her when she was harried: making jokes. She asks him not to worry and he asks her to hurry up and win this battle because he wants to touch her.

As she leaves for more work at the Medicube, he asks her what her bloodtype actually is and her reply is a pretty bad joke this time, prompting him to tell her to hurry up and go inside.

Moyeon’s testing children of a nearby village with Fatima’s help when the lights go off. Myeongju’s voice crackles over the walkie-talkie reporting similar power outage in the Medicube, which is when Moyeon realizes that Youngsoo’s ventilator is going to stop. Back at the cube, Youngsoo spasms. Chihoon runs over and sits on top of him, trying to keep him down until Myeongju can inject something to stabilize him. Minjae and Kibum cower in a corner, terrified. Myeongju gets the medicine over but Youngsoo, foaming at the mouth, bites Chihoon hard enough to draw blood. Chihoon grits his teeth and forges ahead though, checking Youngsoo’s vitals after the medicine is administered instead of looking after his own wellbeing, which surprises even Myeongju. Moyeong bursts in right then and is just as shocked at the risk Chihoon has just taken, but he’s more focused on Youngsoo than himself.

Afterwards, Moyeon treats his arm. She asks if he understands that he just increased his chances of contracting the disease. He nods mutely, but she praises his quick action, noting that Youngsoo survived because of him. She says he’s become a doctor, but Chihoon can’t bring himself to agree. Minjae and Kibum slowly approach, with Minjae asking if this means that Chihoon’s going to contract the virus. Upon hearing that he increased his chances of doing so, he grudgingly talks to Chihoon.

Chihoon starts sobbing out loud, startling Moyeon who asks where he’s hurting. But Chihoon just keeps crying, saying that it’s because he’s finally okay that he’s crying. Myeongju and Moyeon can’t make head or tail of it. But Chihoon’s finally okay.

Awww! He’s back to his cheery self. He ever seems happier than usual, calling his wife and informing her of the situation. She lets loose all her worries at being divorced but he just giggles that the alimony would make her a chaebol before yelling that he loves her over and over. Dr. Jang smiles that he’s back to normal.

Yehwa and Moyeon are loading children into Daniel’s truck to be taken to a UN camp when Minji runs over with the test results, everyone else, save Myeongju is uninfected. Moyeong asks if Shijin knows of this. Minji smiles, saying that Shijin gave her the list before heading off to release Daeyoung. Seo Daeyoung’s first stop is Myeongju.

He stares blankly at her while Shijin rambles on about how his quick response led to there being no secondary victims, and how the UN wants to award him. He gets hilariously miffed when Daeyoung doesn’t listen to a word he says. They’re interrupted the walkie-talkie crackling. There’s trouble within camp. It’s right when Daeyoung leaves that Myeongju awakens. She reaches for her phone and pauses upon only seen fuzzy number. Oh crap.

Shijin and Daeyoung run over to find Argus waiting for them. Moyeon protects Fatima, placing herself in front of her, while Ja Ae carefully administers vaccines to townspeople, nervously monitoring the situation. Argus has brought his friends, hence why a large group of Shijin’s men also wait in the room. Argus taunts Shijin as usual with his new career as an arms dealer and how much the US seems to love him, even more so than when he was a Delta Force captain. He asks to see Youngsoo, and Shijin refuses. He asks for his diamonds, and Shijin refuses, saying that this isn’t a lost and found for him to waltz in demanding this and that. Argus reaches into his pocket, prompting every soldier in the room including Shijin and Daeyoung to draw their weapons. But she simply takes out two vials and hands them to Moyeon before leaving. I bet you there’s something wrong with those vials.

Daeyoung notes that Argus appears to have figured out that the US miliary is using him. Shijin asks the soldiers to tighten security around camp. Ja Ae hurries over to Moyeon, wondering who Argus is. She asks after the test results and dashes over to Sanghyun upon hearing that he’s clear. Sanghyun, despite not having seen the results, is fine, certain that he had nothing more than the common cold.

She gets emotional and hugs him, yelling that she was worried before freezing in shock and disentangling herself. He hilariously grabs her wrist and pulls her into a slow-mo hug. He tells her that after all this time, he thinks he’s found the answer…she waits, expectantly for a confession. He hands her a note, she slowly opens it, heart racing, only for it to have the name of a medicine. He was talking about his search for a cure for M3. Ja Ae is disgruntled as hell and pointedly ignores Sanghyun all throughout his explanation of his research (aka absorbing every paper he read) to Moyeon. Moyeon notes their distance and sighs at Sanghyun saying that Ja Ae was really worried, whereas he sees it more as a push-pull sort of thing. Oh you dense man. Meanwhile, Myeongju is not doing well.

She puts a call into her father, who’s been aware of her illness but helpless to do anything about it besides wait for her to call. She asks for two favours, which he readily grants. First, she tearfully apologizes for what she said prior to leaving for Urk, that he would lose her as a soldier and a daughter and asks him to accept her apology. Second…

She sobs saying that she heard everything he said to Daeyoung after she’d left the room. She’d faked a smile when Daeyoung sweetly celebrated being able to date her and only pretended to make a phone call to her father. In reality, she’d hidden and cried at Daeyoung having loved her enough to not mention it. She tells her father that he may worry about her but she worries about Daeyoung. General Yoon tries to joke that she wouldn’t be his daughter without making him worry. Myeongju promises to call later and hangs up in time for Moyeon to give her her shots. But her vision goes blurry and she passes out as Moyeon nears.

Daniel’s driving the vacciness and Sanghyun’s proposed cure to camp when his vehicle is hijacked at gunpoint by Argus’s boys. Back at the Medicube, Daeyoung rushes over, robed and masked, as Myeongju is lowered into an ice bath to stabilize her until the medicine arrives. Right then, Moyeon gets a call from Daniel, informing her of what happened.

Shijin gets a call from Argus who makes his offer deal. The diamonds for the medicine. Myeongju only has a hour left and they’d need four hours to fly in a second batch of medicine. Shijin and Daeyoung have no choice. They race over to make the deal. They’re greeted by Fake UN. Shijin asks where Argus is, and Fake UN shrugs that
he’s busy.

The deal is made surprisingly easily and Daniel drives off with the truck after checking the contents. Fake UN has the gall to smirk at them, thanking them for the diamonds and Daeyoung loses it.

Back at the cube, Myeongju grits her teeth and tries to fight through the pain. Moyeon assures her that the cure is on the way when trouble arrives on the premises. A group of Urk policement have arrived to cart Fatima away for selling medicine on the black market. Her ‘boyfriend’ sold her out to the cops, and sits in the back of the vehicle grinning away. Moyeon tries stop the officers, saying that she gave Fatima permission to take the medicine but they argue that she broke the law either way by selling it on the black market. The boyfriend comes out of the car and points to Moyeon as present during the deal. The officer asks if she was there at the time, and Moyeon must agree to go with them to the station because it’s Ja Ae and Minji who come to take the medicine from Daniel. Yehwa brews some herbs for Myeongju’s fever with Kibum watching and wondering how medicine can be so tight in a world that has developed so much. Yehwa wisely comments on the issue.

No wonder Daniel loves you. Sanghyun hurriedly administers the cure to a dazed, tired Myeongju. Daeyoung races back to camp and runs straight to her. Kneeling beside her, he takes her hand. She clutches it tightly.

He stays until morning when her fever is finally gone, and gently lifts her from the ice bath to a bed. Shijin heads out for the medicube in search of Moyeon and it’s only then that he realizes that she’s missing. Minji mentions her heading to the police station with Fatima and that’s enough to send alarm bells tripping in Shijin’s head, given the loyalty of the police there. He heads straight for Argus’s hideout only to find a bound and gagged Fatima halfway through his trip, in the middle of the road. A shot fires and Fatima crumples, clutching her bleeding knee in pain. Argus’s men appear out of the woodwork. Shijin tries to protect the girl but is outnumbered and outgunned, especially when a car pulls up and Moyeon is brought out.

He surrenders just as Argus arrives. He ties up Fatima’s shot leg, going on about what a shame it was that she had to get hurt. Shijin growls at him to get his hands off and Argus reminds him that he does not have any power at the moment. One false movement and Moyeon’s dead. Shijin asks him what he wants and Argus confirms that he knows what the US military is up to and he wants out of Urk after a weapons delivery that takes place at nidnight (he wants the money prior to escaping). Shijin has until 2AM to prepare an escape route for him or Moyeon goes bye-bye, or is sold.

Shijin’s furious but has no choice besides letting him go. Moyeon is bundled into Argus’s car and watches Shijin fade in the distance. Argus nastily comments on how he’s looking forward to spending his last night in Urk with Moyeon when her walkie-talkie crackles. Shijin calls to Moyeon vowing that he’ll rescue her and to not be afraid. He’ll be there soon. Argus takes the device and responds to Shijin, saying he’s looking forward to seeing him, before throwing the talkie out of the window where it’s run over into smithereens in front of Moyeon’s eyes.

Shijin returns to base and promptly has a row with Lt. Park who refuses to let him leave. To complicate matters, the Blue House calls, wanting a status update on whether this was a kidnapping. Lt. Park tries to lie that it wasn’t but Shijin cuts in. The Blue House rep has no interest in saving the hostage, and more in watching the situation and consulting with the US military base on the issue. Shijin knows Argus and knows that they’re running out of time, but the Blue House rep yammers on how this is not merely a kidnapping but a matter of national politics. (Bleagh, I hate politics for this very reason. It’s always about sacrificing the little people for the rich. Clearly Shijin agrees with me.)

He growls that he doesn’t serve a nation that’s insensible to one person’s death.

With that, he storms out and prepares to drive through the base’s gate if he has to, when a call comes in from General Yoon. He tells Shijin that for the next three hours, he’ll have no idea as to Shijin’s whereabouts. For the next three hours, he’s no longer a solider and can do as he wishes. Shijin grimly takes this in and heads to the camp. Daeyoung’s still with Myeongju when Shijin comes in on the talkie and tells him that he’ll be going out for a bit.

Daeyoung’s about to ask where he’s going when Myeongju awakens and he promptly diverts his attention to her. Shijin slowly ends the connection, outfits himself in black and leaves for the pub where the bartender offers him his choice of gun and wishes him luck. Meanwhile, Moyeon’s brought into Argus’s lair. He asks her to tell him if there’s anything she needs, prompting her to inform him (in Korean) that she has no intention of giving him her body or anything else. He slaps her hard, despite not having understood what she said and orders her to speak in English. The thing about being around a guy with a gun, he says, is that you’re more likely to get shot. He refers to both himself and Shijin, commenting on how Shijin has a lot of secrets and might go someday and never come back. Little does he know that Moyeon already went through those worries a while ago and still resolved to date Shijin. Argus tells her that she should really break up with him. Moyeon retorts that stuff like this should be said while treating a hostage like a person and convincing her to join the other side. Here, she has zero incentive to join his side.

Argus notes that she’s certainly not an easy one. Back at camp, Daeyoung’s noticed that Shijin’s missing. He calls him repeatedly to no response. Officer Grumpypants dashes in, reporting when Shijin left camp and that Moyeon never returned after having gone to the local police station.

He turns to Shijin’s bed where his military uniform is laid out, complete with dogtags. Shijin drives to Argus’s lair. He calls someone, looking determined. Mubarat’s aide/bodyguard takes the call. Shijin says he’s cashing in his favour.