'Doctor X: Mafia In White' Episode 8 Recap & Ending Explained: What Does Director Bu Realize?

Episode 8 of Doctor X focuses on a doctor’s strike launched by the medical professionals after the government promised to give 2000 more seats for medical students. The doctors are, for good reason, very upset about this, because it means they will be taken less seriously and their jobs are more at risk than ever before. The show also touches upon the last time there was such a strike, i.e. during COVID, which did leave a lot of patients high and dry at the worst time of their lives. A lot of them even ended up dead. But this episode sees a shift in the other doctors of Guseo. They finally seem to acknowledge that Su-Jeong isn’t there to show off and act up as a freelance doctor. All she really cares about is saving lives. So with that said, let’s jump into episode 8.

Spoiler Alert

At the beginning of episode 8 of Doctor X: Mafia In White, we see all the doctors at Guseo graduate, all the way back to Director Bu. Director Bu is not from a big medical family, which is why he was not given any of the important awards at his graduation. But it appears that many of his teachers believed he deserved way more than he got. More importantly, he gets to give the Hippocratic oath on stage, i.e. getting everyone else to follow him, which in my opinion is the greatest honor. We see the different generations of doctors come and go, and then the stage shifts to the strike in 2020, and finally to what is happening in 2026, with the doctors going on strike in order not to lose their jobs. I fear that, with the previous episodes being considered too left-leaning (in the Korean context), these two episodes might feel more right-leaning. But you tell me if K-netizens are going to reach for their pitchforks again.

When Dr. Bu heads out of the conference hall, he notices Su-Jeong sleeping in the garden with her feet bleeding and blood on her neck, completely unbothered by any of it, though. He then watches her phone buzz, followed by her running past him without bothering to say anything, with Tae-Gyeong following suit. Director Bu simply looks up at the Hippocrates statue above him. Ironically, though, the reason for Su-Jeong running in is not to do a real surgery, but that of a teddy bear for a girl who is suffering from malignant fibroelastoma. Don’t ask me what that means, but all I know is that it’s likely nearly impossible to cure. Su-Jeong doesn’t take the teddy thing seriously enough, but does end up doing it, because the girl has found out that Su-Jeong is the best surgeon at the hospital. I have a feeling Su-Jeong will be taking up this girl’s surgery if it’s possible too. This is all 48 hours before the doctor’s strike. Getting a hug from the girl takes Su-Jeong back to Lagota, where she showed the two kids (the sibling duo) cotton and called it snow. Miss Jang is also there, and even promises to take them to see snow soon. Unfortunately, I don’t think that day ever came.

In the meantime, Miss Jang makes a visit to the hospital to go over a new contract with a new clause stating that Su-Jeong can choose whatever surgery she wants to do. In the meantime, we hear about reports saying that surgeries have been cancelled everywhere, and some are getting postponed because doctors are either quitting or going on strike. The situation is so bad that there are no assistants for surgeries, which is why none of the doctors can perform the procedures that they’re possibly free to do. We also learn that the paediatric system is terrible, because reimbursement rates for paediatric surgeries were so low that hospitals weren’t prioritizing them, but then the government raised the rates, and so hospitals started ordering them done in a rush, prioritizing numbers over patient outcomes. Anyway, this has Su-Jeong considering doing kids’ surgeries, which has Miss Jang worried. Anyway, it makes sense she was worried, because Su-Jeong does end up doing that later in the episode, but we’ll get there in a bit. The girl she’s looking at is being raised by her grandmother, because her parents died during the previous strike, when they met with an accident and Dr. Bae couldn’t see them in time because they had been shifted from hospital to hospital too many times. Su-Jeong decides to do the surgery to treat her ganglioneuroblastoma despite it being a very difficult one. More importantly, she chooses to do it despite not having an assistant, and since Dr. Jo has another surgery, she says she’ll do it in 6 hours so Dr. Jo can make it in time for her next one.

At the same time, it’s revealed that medical licenses are going to be revoked if doctors continue the strike. Dr. Bae tries to make a call to Dr. Ma, who is planning on doing a press conference regarding their strike, but the man doesn’t answer, and the video is received even more poorly than expected. Why would doctors be arguing about money and status when patients are dying in front of them? Fair point, but Dr. Ma, who has been double-boarded, which means he’s certified in two specializations, is fighting for his rights because, despite those two certificates, he might be losing his job to new people. He’s fighting because this is his bread and butter too. Anyway, Dr. Bu agrees to let Su-Jeong do any surgery she wants, and agrees to look at the clause if she succeeds in saving the kid.

Why Does Everyone Hate Tae-Gyeong?

In the middle of all of this, we find out that Tae-Gyeong is a nepo baby who graduated from a fancier school, but decided to intern at Guseo instead. This is why none of the other interns are friends with him. Not only is he an outsider, he’s also someone with a lot of money who can do whatever he likes with his future. Or at least that’s how his fellow interns feel. They do get into a fight with him about it, but Dr. Jo breaks it up. Ironically, they’re all rich kids whose parents are some kind of medical practitioners too. But Tae-Gyeong calls them traitors for wanting to leave work and go on strike, letting so many patients down.

Before Su-Jeong’s surgery, Dr. Do Yun-Sik asks her how she can be so dismissive about failure and tell everyone that she doesn’t fail. The whole reason doctors go on strike is that they fear the consequences of failing, because they’ve all failed at least once. Su-Jeong says that the difference between them is that she doesn’t want to fail, so she makes sure she doesn’t, but they just avoid failure. Dr. Do takes this advice seriously, and decides he won’t be giving up easily in between surgeries. Now, in the middle of prepping for little Ga-Eul’s surgery, Su-Jeong has to suddenly do a new laparoscopy because a fellow doctor named Dr. Hwang collapsed just before performing surgery because the surgery he was meant to get was postponed. He seems to be one of the better doctors at the hospital, and was always very sincere. Su-Jeong decides to take up his surgery too, before doing the little girl’s. This puts more work on Dr. Jo’s head, but she seems to be doing everything Su-Jeong asks of her. Su-Jeong has very little time for this surgery, but she manages to do it with precision as Dr. Bu watches on. He also explains to his other doctors that she is genuinely a genius of a doctor. They finish the surgery, and Dr. Jo and Su-Jeong get some food in, take their energy drinks, and head straight back to another OR for the young girl’s surgery. She doesn’t want her to wait in pain even a minute longer. The male doctors, i.e. Dr. Bae and Do, get talking, and they finally admit that they misjudged Su-Jeong; they believe she’s not doing this just for the money any longer. 

At the end of episode 8, Su-Jeong is heading into the OR for Ga-Eul, 24 hours before the medical staff is about to stop working entirely. But at the same time, Director Bu asks Miss Jang if Su-Jeong is the infamous “Doctor X” that the other doctors brought up. I don’t know what he’ll achieve from finding out if she is, but maybe it’ll bring him some relief. I’m not entirely sure yet what this sentence means, though, so I’ll be waiting for next week to find out more about it.