Resident Playbook (2025) — Character Map & Story Timeline

AI Narrative Summary

The single-season narrative follows five residents through financial pressure, clinical mistakes, patient care, hierarchy, rivalry, solidarity, and personal secrecy.

Character Network — 5 Characters

• Oh Yi-young (Go Youn-jung) — protagonist
• Pyo Nam-kyung (Shin Sia) — protagonist
• Um Jae-il (Kang You-seok)
• Kim Sa-bi (Han Ye-ji)
• Ku Do-won (Jung Jun-won)

Key Relationships

• Pyo Nam-kyung → Kim Sa-bi (Resident colleagues) — Despite repeated clashes, they remain linked by the demands and hierarchy of resident work.

  "Both are part of the first-year resident group, and Episodes 6, 8, and 10 place them in recurring hospital situations involving patient care, interns...

• Oh Yi-young → Um Jae-il (Resident colleagues) — They share the pressures of resident work while responding differently to praise, patient needs, and workplace demands.

  "Episode 3 contrasts Jae-il's constant compliments with Yi-young, Nam-kyung, and Sa-bi's attempts to support patients. Episode 5 shows Jae-il's overac...

• Um Jae-il → Kim Sa-bi (Resident colleagues) — They face related workplace pressures as residents, though the season highlights their separate responses to hierarchy and exploitation.

  "Episode 3 includes both Jae-il and Sa-bi in the resident group's efforts to support patients and families. Episode 9 states that an intern takes adva...

• Oh Yi-young → Ku Do-won (Hospital colleagues) — Their professional setting complicates their personal bond and requires them to manage appearances at work.

  "Both characters are involved in the hospital's resident environment, and Episode 11 specifically places their relationship under pressure from hospit...

• Oh Yi-young → Kim Sa-bi (Recognition tension) — Professional recognition creates jealousy and temporary emotional distance between them.

  "Episode 4 states that Sa-bi becomes jealous after Yi-young is drawn into a research paper with Professor Seo."

• Oh Yi-young → Pyo Nam-kyung (Patient-care allies) — Their alliance is grounded in shared responsibility for patients and shared vulnerability within the department.

  "In Episode 3, both participate in efforts to bring comfort to patients and their families. In Episode 10, they are jointly caught between competing p...

• Pyo Nam-kyung → Um Jae-il (Resident colleagues) — They are connected through the common workload and hierarchy of the resident team.

  "They belong to the same first-year resident group, and Episode 3 places Nam-kyung in the same patient-support context as the residents surrounding Ja...

Story Structure — 5 Plot Phases

Season 1: Return Under Pressure

Yi-young returns to residency because of financial difficulties and struggles with repeated mistakes. A first patient crisis and the residents' burnout establish the season's central pressure.

Season 1: Care and Competition

The residents try to comfort patients and families despite unequal recognition and workplace friction. Yi-young's research opportunity triggers Sa-bi's jealousy, while Nam-kyung creates tension on the hospital floor.

Season 1: Finding a Collective Voice

Yi-young learns that her bluntness can also comfort vulnerable people. As conflicts between departments grow, the OB-GYN residents decide to push back together.

Season 1: Hospital Strain

Sa-bi's hospitalization reveals the emotional cost of constant availability, while Nam-kyung is tested by a new patient. Filming, abusive supervision, and exploitation further expose the department's instability.

Season 1: Secrets and Crossroads

Yi-young and Nam-kyung become caught between competitive professors, and Yi-young gains demanding hands-on experience. At the end of the residents' first year, Yi-young must confront a personal and professional crossroads.