'Hospital Playlist' Season 2: Does Rosa have Alzheimer's? Episode 8 sees a vulnerable Song-hwa

While Song-hwa is able to help Jeong-won and Rosa, she also has problems of her own

PUBLISHED AUG 12, 2021

Rosa, as played by Kim Hae-sook on 'Hospital Playlist' (Instagram/ hospitalplaylist_official)

Clocking in at 111 minutes, 'Hospital Playlist' Season 2, Episode 8 was easily the longest one this season. It featured everyone's favourite doctor Jeong-won and gave fans an update about his mother, Rosa's growing health issues.

Episode 8 saw Lee Ik-jun (Cho Jung-seok), Ahn Jeong-won (Yoo Yeon-seok), Kim Jun-wan (Jung Kyoung-ho), Yang Seok-hyeon (Kim Dae-myung), and Chae Song-hwa (Jeon Mi-do) go about their cases, a lot of which centred around parents and their relationships with their adult children.

'Hospital Playlist' Season 2: Episode 7 teases Ik-jun Song-hwa romance, fans gush over relationship

Episode 7 left some unresolved tension for Jeong-won and Gyeo-ul (Shin Hyun-bin). With Jeong-won planning to propose to her, it seems as though he is more than ready to go public with their relationship and tie the knot. However, in the previous episode, while Gyeo-ul was on her way to the cathedral where Jeong-won asked her to meet him, she got an unexpected call from a hospital, saying that her mother is gravely injured. She rushed to her mother's side, leaving Jeong-won.

While he understood completely, he did feel bad about being able to be there for her. Episode 8 saw the couple maintain their relationship through texts and phone calls, but it was clear that Jeong-won missed Gyeo-ul terribly. While he was dealing with these emotions, something far more major was brewing under the surface. His mother, Rosa (Kim Hae-sook) had been routinely forgetting things and was worried that she had Alzheimer's.

Although Jong-su (Kim Kap-soo) told her that she needs to go to the hospital, she did not want to go to Yul-je and worry Jeong-won. Jong-su kept telling her that she needs to get treated, but the thought of forgetting things and even her children left Rosa terrified. Her memory seemed to get even worse, until one night, she fell out of bed and injured herself. When Jong-su found out, he rushed her to the hospital against her wishes. Jeong-won was torn over the entire situation and immediately turned to Song-hwa to look at the case. Song-haw told him that Rosa has Hydrocephalus, which is fluid buildup in the brain.

Jeong-won was quick to beat himself up over the situation, seeing that he noticed she'd been forgetting things but assumed it was age. She assures him that it is treatable and she will be the one to oversee the situation. When the two turned to tell Rosa what the case was, Rosa demanded that her doctor be the one to tell her and not her son, seeing that she knew he'd sugarcoat it out of concern.

Song-hwa explained that her situation is treatable, and seeing that she is young and has just begun displaying symptoms, they can cure her. Rosa is thrilled at the fact that it is not Alzheimer's and is happy at the idea of being able to be her usual self. The rest of the episode sees the mother and son spend some quality time together as Rosa undergoes treatment and gradually gets better. When Gyeo-ul returns, she quickly sees Rosa who gets up to her antics as she is excited to see her son's girlfriend. Jeong-won and Gyeo-ul also talk about their relationship, seeing that she wishes he had told her about the situation, but he didn't want to add to her stress.

They reconcile soon enough and are happy to be reunited. But while Rosa recovered smoothly, Song-hwa received some devastating news -- her mother has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. It was hard to watch her cope with the news, seeing that as a brilliant neurosurgeon, she felt helpless at the thought of being unable to help her own mother. Song-hwa truly has a human moment in this episode, as she is unable to help all those that she usually does.

Seeing that Ik-jun is the only person who is aware of her situation, he begins to intertwine with all her appointments and even takes off some responsibilities and work commitments off her shoulders, without her knowing. He does this so she can get some well-deserved rest, seeing that he deeply cares about her. It's clear as day that Ik-jun is madly in love with her -- he even surprises her with a stone grill, as he knew she wanted one to use while camping. Song-hwa is so excited to receive the gift that for a moment, she actually smiles and laughs, forgetting her worries. Seon-bin (Ha Yoon-Kyung) and Seon-min (Moon Tae-Yoo) notice this and realise that as long as Ik-jun is by her side, Song-hwa will be okay.

The episode ends on quite an exciting note -- during the gang's performance, Seok-hyeon leaves the jam session when he finds out that Min-ha (Ahn Eun-jin) collapsed in the hospital due to cramps. Seeing that the song the gang were going to perform needed a skilled keyboardist, Rosa steps in to play. It turns out she is a phenomenal musician who loved music when she was younger. Speaking of Seok-hyeon, it turns out Hong-Do (Bae Hyun-sung) accidentally mentioned on the Yul-je professor's chat that Min-ha had collapsed.

While all the senior doctors sent 'get well soon' texts, Seok-hyeon rushed over immediately to be by her side. When she woke up, she was so startled to see him that she thought she was hallucinating due to the pain. After Gyeo-ul pointed out that Seok-hyeon was in fact there, Min-ha began to cry loudly, seeing that she was just so happy to see him. Seok-hyeon is both worried and amused by her behaviour, but by the looks of it, he might be starting to fall for her too.

Catch new episodes of 'Hospital Playlist' Season 2 on Netflix on Thursdays.