The eighth episode of the TV drama "The Travel Nurse" (TV Asahi, Thursdays 9pm), starring actor Okada Masaki, aired on December 12th, and the "true nature" of hospital director Yakushimaru (Yamazaki Ikusaburo) became a hot topic.
◇The following contains spoilers.
The drama is a sequel to the same-titled series that aired in October 2022. The eccentric duo of Ayumu Nasuda (Okada), who has a nursing qualification "nurse practitioner" that allows him to perform certain medical procedures, and "super nurse" Shizuka Kuki (Takaichi Nakai) will reform the medical field by putting patients first.
Yakushimaru was appointed as the new director after the previous director was found guilty of fraud, and has been pushing for clean reforms within the hospital, focusing on work style reform. However, he has also shown a ruthless side, such as quickly cutting off those who go against his will, and in episode 8, his "true nature" is finally revealed.
Yakushimaru, who had caused the death of a patient in the past due to medical malpractice, was trying to protect himself and even shifted the blame to the nurse Yagi Megumi (Wakamura Mayumi). Megumi expected Yakushimaru to reform the hospital so that "no one will abandon patients, doctors, or nurses," and so she protected Yakushimaru to avoid damaging her career.
And Yakushimaru has become the new director of Nishitokyo General Hospital, but his current appearance is contrary to Megumi's expectations, as he gives preferential treatment to the politician Haibara (Owada Shinya), who is involved in secret deals, over other patients. Megumi, who has been hospitalized at Nishitokyo General Hospital with pancreatic cancer, sees the reality of the situation and confronts Yakushimaru.
Then, Yakushimaru laughed fearlessly and spat out, "Do you have evidence? If you don't, it's just the ramblings of a miserable nurse who got fired. Look at the reality. It's only natural that the patient's life takes priority. The same goes for the employer. There's no need to think about who is more valuable, a mere nurse or me, a doctor!" After that, Yakushimaru fired all the current nurses who were bothering her... and so on. The final episode will air on December 19th next week.
As Yakushimaru began to "go out of control," viewers took to social media to say things like, "She's the worst!", "This guy's no good," "The only thing that matters is his own life. He doesn't care what happens to other people's lives," "He's simply a scumbag wearing a guise of a good person," "The director who always wore the mask of a good person has finally shown his true colors. That's the kind of person I thought he was," and "I hope that in the final episode, he will have a change of heart and reform the hospital to be more considerate of the patients and nurses."
