Jellies
The cold winter grips the school as we cut back in time and see more of Eun-Young as a child during episode 5 of The School Nurse Files. She’s forced to switch places as rumours spread that she can see ghosts. Of course, they’re not necessarily ghosts but these strange jellies instead. Sitting in class, she struggles to concentrate as jellies infest the ceiling and distract her from her studies. At school she strikes up a friendship with Kang-Sun who asks her about the food she’s gobbling up. Apparently it helps ward off the jellies. Back in the present, Eun-Young is approached by a old fellow student who happens to be Kang-Sun. Only she can see him though and invites the ghostly apparition along to her house to talk. While they do, at school Hye-Min is invited along to a trip. All of the students sing and dance that evening but it leaves the group completely exhausted for their studies. Eun-Young comes up with a way of potentially helping Hye-Min with her problems. She may be able to live longer than 20 years. During a car ride, Eun-Young holds In-Pyo’s hand in order to channel his energy. Together they drive up to a fish market where their solution may lie in removing Hye-Min’s stomach so she can live longer. Back at school, Hye-Min contemplates whether just to stay as a mite-eater to save the other students. It’s tough for Eun-Young to take given moments in her past involving jellies fading away. She mentions this story to In-Pyo but remains convinced that she can help Hye-Min. Eun-Young heads around school collecting up the mites; Hye-Min decides to go ahead with Eun-Young’s plan after all. After an exhausting day and night, Eun-Young collects up all the mites and watches as Hye-Min gobbles them all down. Back at her apartment, Eun-Young speaks to the ghost of Kang-Sun who ties to convince her to quit school. As he fades away, Eun-Young tries in vain to save him. As we see from a flashback, he was inspiration for her to use a toy sword to thwart the threat of the jellies. When she awakens after the dream, Eun-Young realizes she can no longer see the jellies.
The Episode Review
With a little more backstory around Eun-Young’s motivation, the show continues to slip up with its explanation around these jellies. Where have they come from originally? I understand they’re from the Breathing Hole but why? Why is Eun-Young the one fighting the jellies? How come it’s only this school that’s being invaded? Are there more breathing holes out there? And what’s the deal with Mackenzie? It’s all a bit of a mess and the series is really struggling to back up the various plot events with a decent chunk of exposition. Hopefully the finale can shed some light surrounding exactly what’s going on here.
