The episode starts with professor Cha speaking to An Tae Hyun. Dr. An is utterly shocked that Professor Cha is exposing himself and asking him to operate on him. Professor Cha tells him, “Doctor’s hands are always stained with blood. By letting us operate on them, patients are putting their lives in our hands. They are asking us to save them because they want to live. The blood, flesh, and bone that we touch every day embody the lives that the patient has had. All their lives matter and are precious. That’s why you can wash off the blood after surgery. And there is the blood that you cannot wash off in this world”.
Professor Cha tells that he will give him the chance to wash off the blood and finish what he started.
On the other side, Seung-tak informs Se-jin that Professor Cha wants Dr. An to operate on him. Se-Jin rebels against it and explains what he is capable of. Seung-tak asks her to trust professor Cha on this and reminds her how Dr. An is the one who saved Professor Cha or he might have been dead because of him.
Professor Cha meets up with Tes the day before the surgery. Tes tells Cha, “When we come into this world, physically we are naked. But we still have one thing that belongs to us. Only the lucky ones get to leave this world after making a name for themselves. And not everyone gets lucky.”
Cha asks what kind of a doctor Cha is as Tes had watched him from the start. Tes replies that of all the doctors he possessed Cha stood out. But one thing he should remember is to be focused on the patient as a doctor and not only on his skills and hand. He asks Cha to try to remember just this one thing if at all he forgets everything after he wakes up.
Tes leaves hoping that they never get to meet again and confessing that he is named Tes, not after Socrates but Hippocrates.
On the day of surgery, Gook-Chan is transferred to another hospital and Professor Cha sends him off. We get to know from Gook-Chan that Chief Ban was the one who operated on him initially and due to his daughter’s accident, he left his surgery midway. On that day Chief Ban cried his eyes out and pleaded with management to keep Gook-Chan in the hospital even at the risk of getting on bad terms with the management.
Hoon-Gil doesn’t come to send off Gook-Chan. Gook-Chan wishes Professor Cha to wake up soon and bids bye to both of them and leaves.
Before some time of surgery, Nervous Seung-tak gathers all his courage and meets up with Professor Cha. Professor Cha tells that hope he won’t remember Seung-tak and would torcher him. And Seung-tak retorts that he hopes Professor Cha won’t be a nasty person again. Cha promises that he would only torcher Seung-tak and not others.
Se-Jin gets started with Hoon-Gil’s surgery – “VP shunt surgery”, at one side, and Hoon-Gil waits outside full of nervousness. Tes sits beside him and taps on his should giving him some strength.
On the other side, Professor Cha’s surgery starts. Both Dr. An and Seung-tak swap position as the surgery starts and we are showing a flashback of Cha telling Dr. An that Dr.An will be assisting him and he would be performing the surgery.
We are also shown Cha telling Seung-tak that he trusts Dr. An in case Cha loses control and is thrown out of Seung-tak’s body. Cha also tells him that as a patient it is not only important to save him but also the patient’s life after surgery so he decides to do innominate artery surgery instead of bypass surgery.
At the OR, as Professor Cha announces that “The stenosis of the right innominate artery will be treated with replacement via a median sternotomy.”, there is clear confusion and fear in the people observing the surgery as it was decided earlier a bypass surgery would be done.
Cha tells Dr. An that his body is fully infected and tissue will be friable so they should be careful. The surgery starts and everything goes well until the most feared moment comes when Cha slowly loses control of Seung-tak’s body and can be thrown out of the body at any time. And the most crucial part of the surgery- “When connecting the innominate artery. While stitching up the native and the graft” is been done at that time.
Se-Jin finishes up the surgery and Hoon-Gil’s Spirit disappears. Tes smiles with relief seeing that Hoon-Gil’s spirit is no more present..
We are shown a flashback of Cha explaining to Seung-tak how crucial the part of joining native with graft is and if not done correctly they are done. Cha brings up all his energy and tries his best to connect the graft and finish the most sensitive part of the surgery. Everyone in the observation room is standing now seeing Seung-tak stutter and wondering what is wrong with him.
Cha is thrown out of Seung-tak’s body just as he finishes up the crucial part and just needs to be patched up.
Seung-tak left alone and Dr.An is to operate now and Cha asks Seung-tak to do it himself and says after all he practiced very hard so he is capable of doing this much. Seung-tak is not very confident and asks what if he messes up.
Seung-tak finally gets some confidence as Cha asks if he would leave Cha’s life to Dr.An’s hands and stand there like that without doing anything. Cha instructs as Seung-tak stitches him up and warns that he would blame him if he gets any Keloids as he is still a bachelor.
Slowly Cha fades away and he thanks Seung-tak from the start to this moment and that he is honored that he would be the first OR case of Seung-tak. As Seung-tak finishes up and looks behind him Cha is gone and the anesthesian announces that the heart rate is stable and BP is normal.
Seung-tak jumps up in joy and the entire observation room is in joy except for ADD Han and Dr.An. Seung-tak runs outside the OR and asks Se-Jin if he is gone and teases Soo-Jung calling her out as Intern Oh. He then laughs heartily and announces to them that Cha is well now and he is gone.
Tes watches them from a distance and says, “They beat fate. Good for you.”.
We are shown Dr. An remembering Chief Ban telling him that Professor Cha recommended An for the Clinical instructor position twice but ADD Han with partiality rejected him and said he didn’t have enough scores. That is the reason professor Cha pushed An so hard and made him work so hard. Chief Ban tells him that though Cha looks like Viper from the outside he is a softie inside.
ADD Han tracks, Dr. An, down and asks why he betrayed him. Dr. An tells he just did the surgery and a successful surgery doesn’t mean he would wake up and if at all Cha wakes up he wouldn’t remember anything. This puts ADD Han at ease. Dr. An then assures him that he would keep quiet on this matter.
Hoon-Gil is all right now and every girl in the room is adoring him. Se-Jin and Seung-tak visit him and Seung-tak says HI and acts like they know each other for a long time. But poor Seung-tak gets rejected.
Se-Jin then introduces him to Hoon-Gil that he is the one who tracked down a CT scan from 3 years back and found a solution for his condition. Hoon-Gil thanks him. Se-Jin puts him in rehabilitation and they leave.
Se-Jin now becomes sad seeing that this is how it would feel to be rejected and now she would be rejected by Professor Cha. Seung-tak says they are now meeting another person who rejected him- Bo-Mi.
She is healthy now and leaving for a vacation. She is reconsidering her career and engagement with the other man. Seung-tak advises to consider well and breakoff the engagement. While leaving Bo-Mi asks about the man that Se-Jin operated on and Seung-tak excitedly points to the room.
Bo-Mi feels some kind of relationship with Hoon-Gil and watches him in hiding.
In the emergency room, Soo-Jung is treating a rude man who pushes her away and asks for a male doctor who can provide him better treatment. Unexpectedly, Soo-Jung’s mom comes in and beats up the man for his stereotypical insult and drags her daughter to the canteen.
She then gives her a carrier full of food to eat well and be strong. She tells her to be a good cardiothoracic surgeon she needs to be strong and sleep well. She then asks her to be so good that men like the one in ER would line up for her appointment.
Tes in the body of a nanny comes in and makes a noise deliberately so that he could be invited for the lunch with them. The trio sits and eats together and Seung-tak watches them and speaks to himself that again today he missed the chance to eat with Soo-Jung.
He then goes to his room and by chance finds a video of himself. It was taken by professor Cha in his body. Cha shoots this video to remember the things like the values and people he learned in the last three months and how he got saved.
In the video, he tells that he might think Seung-tak is pulling a prank on him so he confesses an embarrassing situation that only he knows. He tells that he bought a burgundy coat and wore it once and returned to the shop thinking that they would not catch him but he was caught because of a coffee stain on the back of the pants.
He then tells himself that he was a coma ghost who might live or die. And goes on to tell the promises he made and the friends he made and the lessons he learned.
At the ICU, Professor Cha slowly wakes up. Se-Jin thanks him for waking up and Seung-tak rushes to the ICU and holds Cha’s hand saying this time he is holding Cha’s hand for real. Poor Seung-tak gets rejected again.
Cha asks him to leave his hand and get out of his sight. Se-Jin asks Seung-tak to stay quiet as he rebels for not remembering him.
The doctors rush and speak in joy that professor cha finally woke up.
Cha is then shifted to a suite and he gets his first update from Seon that Dr. An left the hospital and was a guest surgeon for his surgery. Se-Jin visits him later and Cha speaks so mean to her that why she has not abandoned him yet.
He asks her is it because he is a successful doctor now. He also apologizes for her father and asks her to return to the US now. This breaks Se-Jin’s heart and she leaves sad out of the suite. Seung-tak watches her leave and thinks that he should show him the truth if he doesn’t remember the truth.
Seung tak takes the tablets and dressing for the wound to professor Cha.
Professor Cha asks Seung-tak to bring Jae-won as he doesn’t believe him and calls him Mr. Useless.
Seung-tak protests that now he knows such things and says he will prove that he is not useless. Cha again asks why he is here and asks what is this showing his wound.
ADD Han now rushes to professor Cha’s suite and speaks as if he is very grateful that Cha woke up though his eyes are filled with fear. Cha laughs though his injury hurts and says he should have bought champagne to celebrate. And yes Cha remembers everything and asks ADD Han to reflect on what he did when he goes to jail.
Cha accepts that he can’t prove anything since nobody will believe him as he was in a coma but there is someone who can make that happen and that is Dr. An.
Seung-tak watches fear-filled ADD Han leaving the suite and thinks about how Cha keeps him scaring to death.
Earlier when Cha asks showing his wound it was not stitched up well and Cha asks why he didn’t visit OR that day though he clearly instructed him to visit OR every day either by assisting or to observe.
Seung-tak jumps in joy and hugs Cha making him squeak in pain. Seung-tak then pokes him and laughs that this is all real. As Tes says they have indeed broken the laws of nature. And the laws are meant to be broken by desperate people.
ADD Han as he rushes outside and tries calling someone gets a phone call from the police that Dr.An has turned himself in and has given a statement that ADD Han ordered him to do. Of course, Dr.An has evidence of voice recording where ADD Han is asking him to kill Professor Cha. In the flashback, Cha receives a text from Dr.An just before ADD Han visits professor Cha. Dr.An sends him a text saying he is in front of the police station, he wouldn’t be able to wash off the blood but he will pay for what he did.
The police officer asks ADD Han to visit the police station or else an arrest warrant would be put on him.
Se-Jin is at her stepbrother’s place and she says she is going to donate her share and make sure he doesn’t receive a penny from his share also. The dumb stepbrother confesses that he didn’t kill their father but made his suffering less by making him die sooner. Se-Jin says stealing even a day is murder and on that day she could have called him father instead of announcing his death.
Se-Jin had already prepared for this and a few police were there witnessing what her stepbrother told and he is immediately arrested.
ADD Han is removed from his Assistant Deputy Director position and his grandfather asks him to decide the date on which he would be inquired so that he could accompany him.
Soon after Han’s grandpa leave Seung-tak visits him and Han asks why he is here to add more pain. Seung-tak speaks his heart that he cared for Han and that is why he hoped he would turn himself in when he had time. When they were young Han was a better person that Seung-tak used to like.
Seung-tak leaves saying that he hopes he would turn into the person he was earlier.
Professor Cha is well now that he can walk around the hospital now. He reaches the front of the hospital and tests whether he could cross his limit and he was able to do. As he looks around Seung-tak hugs him from the back and says how glad he is to physically touch him now.
Cha says Seung-tak is not the one to touch him first but it should be Se-Jin. Seung-tak tells him that he should not pass the time like that but Cha says that he doesn’t want a mournful romance but a rom-com where they fight at first, have misunderstandings, are forced to work together, and then fall in love. Seung-tak tells that it looks like their story.🤣😂
Cha then gets to know from Seung-tak that Se-Jin has left for the US because Cha told her to. Cha is in shock and yells at him for not stopping her. They both have a cute fight as Cha asks for at least SNS id or her number and Seung-tak teases him around.
Tes watches them from distance and thinks to himself that he has stayed too long here and it is time for him to leave as there are people here who can take care of everything.
Seung-tak then meets up with Soo-Jung and asks her to buy him food. Soo-Hyeon comes with a bunch of books and welcomes her to their department. He then asks her to reach him in case she needs anything. Seung-tak is super jealous now and to add more fuel to the fire, Soo-Jung asks for a book and follows him outside to the department. Jae – won tells that Seo-Hyeon never cared for juniors or seniors and this is different.
As Soo-Jung gets her book on her way, the nanny calls her out and gives her a parcel of cake. Soo-Jung eyes tear up as soon as Tes tells her that it is a chocolate cake. Tes asks sorry for taking too long and tells her that he is grateful that she grew up beautifully and well. He asks her to do things that make her happy and he would be rooting for her wherever he is. He says goodbye to her and meets Seung-tak at ER.
Seung-tak realizes Tes is going to the afterlife seeing him in his doctor coat. Tes remembers the small boy who made him stay and thinks the boy has grown up well. Tes goes as Seung-tak waves his hand at him and bows down.
At Cha’s apartment, he is wondering why Se-Jin left though she promised she would always be at his side and wait however long it takes. We are shown a flashback where Se-Jin puts a ring in Cha’s hand who is in a coma and tells him that she would wait for him however long it takes and then ask for the answer to her proposal in his own body and voice.
As he thinks so hard about what he should be doing and whether he would look powerless and desperate if he goes after her. Se-Jin comes in and starts to speak that his furniture is in good condition. Cha is visibly confused and asks how she is here and not in the US.
Se-Jin says that she left for the US to complete all the left-out formalities and she has left other formalities in the hospital in Korea. She then tells me she is tired and she has not even taken her food.
Cha forgets everything else and chides her for not having food and rushes to make food. She hugs him from behind and tells him that she will still love him even if he doesn’t love her.
Cha stays silent and Se-Jin decides to leave to stay at the hotel. He stops her and hugs her and gives his answer. He tells her that he will tell his answer in his own body and voice.
The next day Seung-tak sees Cha coming to duty and wonders how healthy he is to come this early. Seung-tak feels so happy that he will be pampered in the hospital now that he has Cha by his side. Seung-tak plans for morning coffee or dinner but Cha has other plans.
Cha asks Seung-tak to do 100 squats every day and send it in a video. He asks him to assist in every surgery he does and also Seung-tak is responsible for all the thesis papers and conferences. Professor Cha tells him that it is time for Seung-tak to repay him by being by his side all the time. Seung-tak says Cha is going to regret it.
They both reach the ER and treat each patient. They find a patient who needs surgery and send him to Ar.
Cha speaks in his last words to Seubg-tak that,”Don’t forget. As much as you value your life, every life in this world matters The hands that keep can keep people’s lives in this world a bit longer. And that’s your job for the people who are caught between life and death”.
The episode ends with their usual bickering and then Professor Cha and Seung-tak doing their HI-Fi.
Ghost doctor was such a feel good medical drama filled with loads of emotional moments. I Just loved the drama so much.
I am for sure gonna miss the bromance of Seung-tak and professor Cha more than anything. And the next thing is Tes.
Comment me your favourite character and what you are going to miss from this drama.