Turning Your Brain To Jelly
Episode 6 of The School Nurse Files serves as a mid-season finale for this very confusing fantasy series. Hye-Min’s surgery is a success but the surgeons comment how strange it is that she hasn’t got a belly button. In her stomach though they find a strange creature with a Chinese scripture on it reading “Guje”. This means saving others in trouble. Only, Eun-Young can’t actually see this as she’s lost her power. Hye-Jun awakens and comments how she now has a belly button. In the car on the way back, she asks to travel outside her usual 5.38km radius to see more of the world. With her seatbelt firmly strapped on, the duo drive past that invisible area as Hye-Jun is seemingly okay. Back at school. Min-U speaks to Wan-Su and contemplates whether the basement would be a good spot for their hideout. As they stand at the top of the stairs, their bond strengthens more than ever before. With the key in hand, they manage to break in. Sweating profusely, the pair sit in class and grin goofily while Hye-Jun fills in Eun-Young on what’s really going on. It turns out the school was built specifically for Safe Happiness and students would jump in the pool constantly. Hye-Jun saw this occur numerous times during her lifetimes. This feeds back into In-Pyo’s grandfather who believed in laughter being the best medicine. Writing a letter of resignation, Eun-Young heads back to school as a flood of jellies start flushing through the rooms. Eun-Young can’t see this of course, on account of her losing her powers, and heads home. The jellies seem to be feeding on negative energy and with nobody there to stop them, they run riot. Radi and Hye-Jun are surrounded by a flood of laughter in the canteen. This slowly descends into chaos as the students fight. It’s not just the students either, as In-Pyo heads to the school office and notices all the teachers starting to laugh maniacally too. With the whole school on the brink of insanity, In-Pyo goes in search of Eun-Young, who seems to have been the only one to stop the infestation from spreading. Eun-Young sees news online about numerous students being taken to hospital and tries to make sense of what’s happening. In0-Pyo heads to the fishing site in the pictures featuring Ilgwant but finds it abandoned. Ilgwang are not there but it turns out Safe Happiness are fully involved in what’s happening. They’re a rival group and Mackenzie is a member of their organization. They’re responsible for the watering hole drying up too. But what about the school? Well, it turns out Ga-Young is also part of this group which explains her sudden arrival and interest in In-Pyo. Ilgwang Sterilization abandoned the school after Hong Jin-Beom died. In-Pyo holds the key to all of this given his familial past which is where Safe Happiness’ interest falls. They need him because of his forcefield and both Ilgwang and Safe Happiness are locked in a bitter feud. It turns out Ilgwang are actually the lovely ladies she’s been frequenting for therapy sessions. At least, that’s my interpretation of this, it’s not really that clear. Eun-Young confronts them and tells the leader she’s not going to fight for them anymore. However, she tells the girl that she’s needed as Eun-Young heads back to the school. Sitting in the office alone, she calls In-Pyo in to talk. With her abilities gone, Eun-Young decides to destroy the school by opening up the Apji stone and letting the jellies flow forth. Descending down together, Eun-Young admits that she loves being normal and how she can’t see the jellies anymore. In-Pyo however, dislikes being ordinary. As they open up the stone, Eun-Young suddenly gets her powers back and sees all the jellies floating around. As the ground starts shaking, Eun-Young heads upstairs and grabs her sword from the office. It bursts into life as Eun-Young starts weeping; she’s not free from seeing the jellies after all. The school rumbles and shakes, leading to a massive jelly heart plunging down to the ground outside. As it melts away, In-Pyo and Eun-Young walk hand in hand out the building. The threat is seemingly quelled for now. We then skip forward to find the school seemingly healed now and the students back to full health. Radi heads in and speaks to Eun-Young in her office. She reveals that her Mum can see ghosts and asks for help. As Eun-Young smiles awkwardly, she realizes she may not be alone in seeing these jellies after all.
The Episode Review
The School Nurse Files has been confusing, to say the least. After 6 episodes it’s still not initially clear surrounding what’s going on. I’m not sure if it’s just me or also stumping other people too but I’m left with so many questions at the end here. So it appears like the school is hallowed ground and the scene for both Safe Happiness and Ilgwang fighting over control of the basement. While it’s brushed off that the jellies can change someone’s fortune, it’s not initially clear how or why. It’s also a little inconsistent that some people can see the jellies and others can’t. Unless I’m missing something, the surgeons seemed to have noticed the creature inside the jar but no one else could thanks to Eun-Young losing her power. That’s to say nothing of the relationship between Eun-Young and In-Pyo which was given little time to flesh out and grow despite some hints at playful romance earlier on in the season. With a second half to come, I’m not sure whether The School Nurse Files has done enough to keep people sticking around. I’ll be sure to update these recaps though if other people can figure out what’s happening but this fantasy series has been both obfuscated and unnecessarily contrived. Whether the second half can improve or not, remains to be seen.
