Mysterious 'D.N' initials found in a patient's liver as 'Doctor X' hits a series-high 18.5% nationwide

While surgeon Gye Su-jeong (Kim Ji-won) operated on a patient in the fourth episode of SBS's "Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia," she found initials, "D.N," in his liver, apparently carved there by someone. The episode, which aired on the 17th, drew 18.5% nationwide, and the series again set its own best figure.

A surgical dispute that ended in the operating room

The conflict took shape around gallbladder inflammation surgery for the patient Kwon Chung-hyun (Oh Jung-taek). Kwon insisted on being operated on by Na Dae-il (Jang Seung-jo), who had saved his life during military service. But the earliest slot with Na was a week away, and Gye judged that the patient would struggle to last that long. Examining Kwon's abdominal CT, she spotted a suspicious mark on the liver and told Na that open surgery was needed to check it.

Na explained that the mark was simple adhesion at the site of a past operation and held to laparoscopic surgery. After he said he had watched Gye's surgery videos and shared his impressions of them, the two kept sparring, and Gye did not drop her demand to examine the liver. Kwon trusted Na and wanted him to operate, while Gye believed his condition could worsen before the scheduled date.

Three days before the planned operation, Kwon suddenly collapsed. Every doctor except Gye had been mobilised for emergency surgery on another traffic-accident patient, and Na, Kwon's attending physician, was away from the hospital at a dinner with the Magnolia Society. Gye stayed behind and performed the operation. Na heard the news late and rushed back, but the surgery was already under way. The mark Gye found in the liver tied into the very point the two doctors had argued over.

The hidden side of Na Dae-il

Gye saw the "D.N" initials at the site Na had previously operated on, and she was shocked and angry. The broadcast used the discovery to reveal Na's concealed side. On the surface he had won people over with a kind impression and shown interest in Gye, but Jang Hee-sook had doubted him from the start. The episode ended with a confrontation between Gye and Na still to come.

Earlier in the episode, part of the past shared by Gye and Jang Hee-sook (Lee Jung-eun) was shown. While Gye was doing medical volunteer work in a conflict zone, a boy died. Viewers saw Gye sobbing before a burning building at the boy's body, with Jang and a small child watching sorrowfully. Gye then told Jang, who was about to order alcohol, "No. We can't live like that again." The broadcast gave no further detail on what the two went through together.

Wary of Gye, drawn to her

After Na joined Guseodae Hospital as a new surgery professor, Gye was on guard against him. Jang disliked him, believing his presence was behind Gye being pushed to an emergency room without surgeries. Na charmed hospital staff with a gentle, kind manner, but when Jang first met him she said: "Where did you drag in this guy whose hands stink?"

Na showed unusual interest in Gye. When she burst into his operating room mid-surgery, he showed no displeasure and greeted her with an odd smile. Members of the labor-agency circle took the pair's relationship as romantic attraction, but Jang did not see it that way and kept doubting Na. The broadcast also showed him admiring Gye's surgery videos. "It looked like a god, or a monster. They say she only looks ahead, and I'm curious what's out there that makes her do that," he said. Tension persisted between the two after their first encounter at the hospital.

Moved from surgery to the emergency room, Gye was called a "godsend" there for her quick hands. The broadcast also showed her pulling off a surgery that people had predicted would fail.

Ratings: first in its slots, top among Saturday programmes in the 2049 demographic

According to Nielsen Korea, the episode scored 18.5% among households nationwide and 18.4% in the Seoul metropolitan area. The peak per-minute rating was 20.8%. Both the average and the peak set new personal bests. The original report said the figures ranked first in its time slot and among Saturday miniseries and weekly miniseries. The 2049 rating peaked at 6.56% and averaged 5.9%, described as the highest among all programmes aired on Saturday.

The series has beaten its own best figure in successive episodes, and this one came after earlier ones that did the same. The drama is a medical noir about Gye, a surgeon who knows neither failure nor compromise, standing up against vast injustice. The episode centred on the relationship between the newly arrived Na and Gye and the conflict over Kwon's surgery.

After the broadcast, viewer reactions quoted included "Insane," "Jang Seung-jo is really a nutcase" and "No wonder the ratings are good, it's really fun." The episode covered Kwon's operation, the initials found in the liver and scenes from the past of Gye and Jang.

Broadcast information

"Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia" airs on SBS every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 p.m.

Read the original (Korean)