Kim Ji-won's Doctor X Breaks Its Own Record Again, Just Shy of 20%

Episode 4 of SBS's Doctor X: The Age of the White Mafia peaked at 20.8% nationwide on the 17th, and the final scene explains why. Kim Ji-won's Gye Su-jeong opens a patient's liver and finds the initials "D.N" apparently carved into it, in a spot where Jang Seung-jo's Na Dae-il had operated before.

The number is the fourth straight series high. According to the figures in the report, episode 4 averaged 18.5% nationwide and 18.4% in the Seoul metropolitan area, leaving the drama just under the 20% mark. It ranked first in its time slot and among all Saturday mini-series. In the 2049 demographic it peaked at 6.56% with a 5.9% average, first among everything that aired that Saturday.

A surgeon who is too interested

Gye Su-jeong has been pushed out of surgery and into the emergency room at Guseo University Hospital, and the newly arrived surgeon Na Dae-il is a big reason. He is gentle and well liked on the surface. Jang Hee-suk (Lee Jung-eun) is not buying it, and says on first meeting that he has "dirty hands".

Na Dae-il shows a pointed interest in Gye Su-jeong. She bursts into his operating room and he greets her with an odd smile. He learns through intern Park Tae-kyung (Kim Woo-seok) that she likes snacks and tries to win her over that way. She stays cold. Later he watches her surgery footage with open admiration, which only deepens the question of what he actually wants.

The gallbladder case

The tension peaks over patient Kwon Chung-hyun (Oh Jung-taek), who has gallbladder disease and insists that Na Dae-il, who saved him during military service, operate on him. The earliest slot is a week away. Gye Su-jeong judges he cannot wait that long. After spotting a suspicious mark on the liver in his abdominal CT, she argues for open surgery. Na Dae-il holds to a laparoscopic approach and calls it simple adhesion from earlier surgery.

He also needles her about her footage, saying she looks like "a god, or a monster", and wonders what is in front of her that she keeps pushing forward. Three days before the scheduled date, Kwon collapses. The other doctors are tied up with a traffic-accident emergency and Na Dae-il is at a dinner with the Mongnyeonhoe, so Gye Su-jeong operates. When Na Dae-il hears, he rushes back pale, too late. Her anger at the discovery is plain.

A past in a conflict zone

The episode's intro hints at a shared history between Gye Su-jeong and Jang Hee-suk. During Gye Su-jeong's medical volunteering in a conflict zone, a boy dies. She weeps in front of a burning building while Jang Hee-suk and a small child look on. Later she stops Jang Hee-suk from ordering a drink, telling her they cannot live that way again.

Viewer reaction

Online communities and social media lit up after the broadcast. One commenter wrote that they didn't know how they would wait a week after the ending. Others praised the ER chemistry and the directing, with one saying the show is good at making your heart race along with the characters. A popular line joked that the genre changes whenever Jang Seung-jo's eyes shift. Several asked what Gye Su-jeong's backstory is.

Doctor X: The Age of the White Mafia is a medical noir about a genius surgeon who never fails and never compromises. It airs Fridays and Saturdays at 9:50 p.m. on SBS.