Kim Ji-won’s character said the quiet part out loud on the October 10 episode of SBS’s “Doctor X.” Genius surgeon Gye Soo-jung had just heard how Professor Do Yoon-shik (Kim Young-min) became the hospital group’s chairman’s attending physician, and her one-word review was “쓰레기네,” roughly “what trash.”
According to Xports News’ recap of episode 2, the revelation came during an awkward conversation. Bae Heung-gon (Lee Sung-wook) and Ma Seong-gyu (Kwon Seung-woo) were visibly uncomfortable in front of Gye Soo-jung as the subject came up.
Bae Heung-gon explained that Do Yoon-shik had been put in charge of the chairman’s surgery. The absurd part, per the article: he won the role not through surgical skill, but by keeping the chairman happy over drinks (술시중), and was personally designated as the chairman’s doctor.
Gye Soo-jung blurted out “쓰레기네” at the news, then thinking fast, picked up actual trash sitting on the table and tossed it into the bin. The quick cover turned an insult into a joke, defusing the moment and drawing laughter from everyone in the room.
“Doctor X: 하얀 마피아의 시대” premiered October 9 as SBS’s new Friday-Saturday drama, a medical noir following Gye Soo-jung, a dark-hero genius surgeon who shakes up a corrupt university hospital.
The scene doubles as a jab at the show’s own villains. In a drama about power and privilege in medicine, the funniest line of episode 2 was also its most honest.
