Let's meet the characters.

The first episodes in historical dramas are usually to contextualise the history of the main protagonist This is the case here as well: we meet the lowborn Hwang Jung at his humble beginnings, as a butcher, we see him struggling to help his family, also learning about the idea of western medicine, there is also the hint of future conflicts and Hwang Jung meets his future rival and we see the rivel's interest in medicine. The first episode thus also does a good job of tying in with the background of intrduction of western medicine and some social prejudices against it: we meet Beak Do Yang who wishes to study it, despite the fact it goes against his status and rank- he ends up studying it secretly under the Japanese doctor, Watanabe. We also meet Seok Ran and her parents. The seeds for the basis of the drama are thus planted and theme established as we see Han Jung's background which makes him into as a very sympathetic, struggling character, set to pit his intelligence against social circumstance in which he was brought up and we are led to suspect from the start that he perhaps is meant to achieve great things despite all the setbacks he is likely to encouter. The episode draws together all three main characters, who meet and are presented against their particular backgrounds, foreg5rounding the difficulties they are to face in the course of the story.

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