Doctor X Episode 7 Reveals the 'Bullet' in Ha Sung-kwang's Skull Was His Brother's Bone

The object surgeons lifted from Oh Sang-beom's skull in episode 7 of Doctor X: The Era of White Mafia was not a bullet. It was a fragment of his brother's bone, and the reveal left the character, played by Ha Sung-kwang, sobbing in the operating aftermath.

The episode aired on the 30th on SBS's Friday-Saturday slot. It centered on Oh Sang-beom, who has lived for 46 years with a head wound from the 1980 May 18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju, and on the hospital conflict swirling around him.

A surgery chosen in order to die

Oh Sang-beom was admitted to Guseo University Hospital to be operated on by Gye Su-jeong (Kim Ji-won). Just before the procedure, he tried to take his own life. Park Tae-kyung (Kim Woo-seok) and Jo Won-jin (Lee Jin-hee) stopped him, and the situation grew more tense when former president Ji Du-seok arrived at the hospital by emergency helicopter.

Oh Sang-beom reacted to Ji Du-seok with fierce anger. Outside, protesters were demanding Ji's punishment, and a drone they flew overhead triggered a seizure in Oh as it brought back his memories of 1980.

Those memories explain the weight he carries. He went to city hall in Gwangju looking for his brother, stayed there with him, and was caught in helicopter fire. His brother died shielding him. Oh survived, and has since been tormented by hallucinations of his brother and by guilt at being the only one left.

Gye Su-jeong refuses to let him walk away

Gye Su-jeong saw through his motives. She asked him directly whether he had chosen the surgery not to live but to die. She did not back down, telling him she understood he could not bear the thought of living on without seeing his brother again, but that she could not accept it. She vowed to make the operation succeed and said she would not let him run from the possibility of staying alive.

The surgery was a success. As staff examined what had been removed, they murmured, "Is that a bullet?" Doctors gathered outside the operating room to see it for themselves, and Gye tossed the object to Park Tae-kyung, leaving the others scrambling after him in confusion.

Only hospital director Bu Seung-kwon (Son Hyun-joo) stayed behind with Gye. He asked whether what he suspected was right, and when she asked what he meant, he answered: "A bone fragment." The material taken from Oh's head was not a bullet at all.

Gye later handed the fragment to Oh and told him that what had been in his head all along was his brother. Oh wept and said, "Brother, let's go home now."

The scene gives the long-running hallucinations of his brother a physical, painful explanation, and it's easy to see why it landed as the emotional peak of the episode.