'Doctor X: Mafia In White' Episode 1 Recap: What Is Gye Su-Jeong?

The highly anticipated Korean remake of the Japanese drama Doctor X, which ran for many seasons, is finally here with its first episode. I myself have not watched the original, so I can’t judge the show in comparison to the Japanese version, but I can judge it as a standalone K-drama. The first episode of Doctor X: Mafia In White brings to the forefront the plight of doctors in South Korea after COVID. When the general population is annoyed with doctors, you can really tell how hard society has fallen. From my understanding, everything about Doctor X defies convention. Not only is she a freelance doctor, something that is seemingly unusual in South Korea even in 2026, but she also doesn’t conform to the hierarchical system of hospitals. Plus, she’s a woman, so that’s already something that makes her “less” in the eyes of everyone else at work. But how does Gye Su-Jeong navigate this world, and what is her role in the first case of the show? Let us find out in episode one.

Spoiler Alert

The first episode of Doctor X: Mafia In White begins with a scene of a fire at a medical care facility in what seems to be a remote place. This scene does look like AI, though I’m really hoping it’s not, but anyway, we see a woman with longish hair holding the hand of a child and standing outside the burning facility. Seems like she was only able to save this one kid before the whole thing burnt down. I suppose we should see this as something that sets the tone for what kind of person Gye Su-Jeong is. Yes, she’s cold and non-conforming, but she’s also an excellent doctor because she genuinely wants to help her patients. She’s not there trying to show off her amazing skills; we watch her do things like touch the patient’s chest to see if his heart is beating, which flashes us back to yet another scene from the fire, indicating PTSD of some sort. But it doesn’t stop her from being an excellent doctor, because that’s what she is.

In the present day, Su-Jeong and her manager/boss are playing pool at what looks like an underground place. I don’t think it’s illegal; it’s just unusual for a doctor to be doing that, I suppose. In the middle of the game, a man at the table next to them ends up falling to the floor, clutching his abdomen. A young man asks him where it hurts and presses down, as a doctor would do. This is Tae-Gyeong, an intern, and this is his first encounter with Su-Jeong. Su-Jeong asks if he’s a doctor too, pointing her cue stick straight in his face. He says no; he’s just an intern. So, she gives him instructions on what to do, checking on the man, despite it being a bit weird for her to take his pants off in the middle of a pool game. That’s just the kind of person she is, though. This is in direct contrast with what is happening with the big doctors at the hospital she’s soon joining. They’re all enjoying fresh cuts of expensive sashimi, while young doctors try to introduce themselves to the chairman, who is too busy enjoying his food. Su-Jeong would never even attend such an event, and it is clear as day that there are only men in the room. Before she leaves, Tae-Gyeong asks for her name; she just gestures an X mark in the air and walks away as the ambulance door is shut.

The next time Tae-Gyeong sees Su-Jeong, it’s at Guseo University Medical Centre. Now, if you’ve ever seen a Korean medical drama, you know the hierarchy with which the hospitals work. Everything is about respecting your seniors, and even in life-and-death scenarios, following instructions from a senior doctor is important. Dr. Bu is the director of the hospital, and at the Magnolia meeting we saw earlier, he got really annoyed by how self-centered the doctors are. It is also revealed that many people are quitting their jobs; the market is looking pretty bad. This is when Su-Jeong comes in as a new employee, or rather a trial employee, at Guseo the next day. On her first visit, she insults Director Kim at his conference where they’re talking about a gallbladder cancer patient. The director wants to do an open surgery which, according to Su-Jeong, is unnecessary and might even be dangerous. She basically insults the senior doctor for being geriatric and selfish while not doing what’s best for the patient. He gets mad, she’s thrown out, and he decides to do the surgery himself, just as planned before. In the meantime, Su-Jeong continues to be hated by everybody, because she’s a specialist GP and can’t be fired because the hospital is short-staffed, but nobody likes how blunt she is. She even has an argument with one of the resident doctors about who should do the surgery on the patient, bringing up the fact that he has a child. So she asks him what he would do if it were his own parent going into surgery, but the resident firmly believes he would choose director.

Turns out he and several other doctors were wrong right from the start. Now, in the meantime, Director Kim has taken a gift from the patient and his wife, and discarded what looks like fermented soybean paste, because of the strong smell. Still, he’s taken the gift. He’s also been given fresh fruit on the occasion Su-Jeong and her boss make a visit to him, giving him yet another gift just to accept her into the hospital and to make up for her insulting him that first time they met. It’s always a bribe, isn’t it?

When the surgery begins, things don’t go as smoothly as planned, but it gets worse when the director makes a mistake and then also ends up going unconscious at the same time. Su-Jeong swoops in to rescue the patient, who gets left behind while the entire team rushes out with Director Kim. She already knows what the problem is, because she’s seen the fresh fruit and the symptoms on the Director. But of course, had she said something, she’d have been in trouble. She doesn’t just save the patient; she also saves the director. The first thing she does is remove the latex gloves and switch them out for non-rubber ones for everyone helping with the patient. Turns out, both the patient and the doctor had a reaction to latex, because the patient worked at a rubber factory, and the doctor ate fresh fruit and also wore the latex gloves, which sent the patient into anaphylaxis. Despite having saved his life, when Su-Jeong tells Director Kim yet again that the open MS surgery was a mistake, he gets furious and fires her from his hospital bed. As expected, she doesn’t even flinch and leaves, but everyone is talking about how fast she performed the surgery.

At the end of episode 1, Su-Jeong gets her job back, because it seems to me like Hui-Suk told him about the latex allergy fiasco, proving that Director Kim isn’t meant to be doing surgery anymore. She might’ve been hiding some other important and confidential information too, which she says she will bring up later with him in private. Su-Jeong gets a contract to sign, and Bu has no issues with all her massive demands, because she’s just that good, plus the blackmail, I guess. But ultimately, we see him crumple up her resume, as if he’s ready to get rid of her any time as well. He’s going to do everything in his power to make her look bad. But I don’t get it, I thought he wanted a good doctor? I don’t know if he’s good or bad just yet, but we’ll have to wait and watch.