Drama: Bull Doctor ep03

Official Site: NTV - Bull Doctor

The ratings for this episode jumped significantly high.  I'm not sure if there was something that week like a baseball game or what, but the viewership went back up to around 13%

The story starts with Tamami teaching her class about how people can die from unbelievable reasons.  Tamami asks Mia to laugh as hard as she can, which resulted in the first case she showed.  Someone had choked on their false teeth.

 The scene cuts to Chika trying to reach the branches of a tree by jumping.  Tamami sees her and wonders what she's doing, so Tamami jumps and smacks the tree branch letting all the rain droplets fall all over Chika.  Chika gets angry because she's wet and she's off to go to a middle school reunion (they really have those?).  As Chika explains why she wanted to go to her reunion, Tamami runs off in a hurry to get to a parent-teacher meeting.

 At the parents meeting, the mothers around the room smell something strange, Tamami takes a quick sniff at herself and realizes its her.  She gets up and tells all the mothers its her and she's sorry because it's because of the job she does.  At the reunion, Chika and her friends are gathered at some lounge/restaurant.  She asks them where her best friend, Chiaki, from middle school is, but she hadn't shown up.  She takes a drink with an old friend who appears to be getting married sometime.

 The scene changes to a crime scene in the park with Chika investigating.  A women is seen lying face down near a tree.  It appears that she may have been robbed as her belongings are missing, although there aren't any externals wounds apparent, so an autopsy is to be reported.  Once cut open, it appears the woman had undergone cosmetic surgery (plastic surgery).  In order for identification, a tooth examination will be order.  The cause of death was ruled as drowning, but Chika can't believe it because it was in the public park.

 (Left: After, Right: Before)

 Matsuoka-sensei notices that the nails from the body are from a magazine and shows it to Chika.  Chika heads over to the nail salon that was advertised with Tamami tagging along.  At the nail salon, the lady recognizes the nails and shows them the reservation booklet of who had it last.  The woman's name was Satonaka Chika, spelling her first name exactly the way Chika spells her name.  The next day, they head over to the plastic surgeons office to get information about the woman.  The doctor shows them a before and after picture of Satonaka.  Chika looks stunned when she saw the before picture.  After talking to the doctor, it appears the woman had no confidence in her looks.  She wanted the change because of various reasons, one being her middle school reunion was coming up and she wanted to be just like her best friend.  It also turned out that Satonaka Chika was an alias of hers and her real name was Mizushima Chiaki.

 Chika heads to Okayama to talk to Chiaki's father about the death of his daughter.  When they bring him back to the medical center, he sees the face of a different girl and doesn't believe his daughter is dead.  Mizushima-san leaves the hospital distraught and frustrated.  That night, Chika set off to Chiaki's apartment to look for clues as to what might have happened.  They get a chance to talk to her neighbor but get no helpful information.  Inside a drawer, Chika finds a stack of coasters from the same cafe and opt to go there the next morning.  At the cafe, it appears she had been seen there multiple times meeting the same guy for lunch, who happens to be the same classmate Chika was speaking to at the reunion.

Chika goes and speaks to the guy (THIS guy man, I swear.... ) and talks to him about how he met Chiaki/Chika and what they talked about.  He mentions that Chiaki had told him that she felt like her neighbor is stalking her.  Chika brings the neighbor for questioning at the station.  It appears he had been taking her things without permission, even taking her bag at the park the day of her death.  At the University, Narumi-sensei had finished his analysis on the liquid in the lungs of Chiaki. it turns out to be fresh water.  Tamami realizes that the rain from before had been the reason for Chiaki's death.

At the crime scene, Mia watered the trees in the area with a hose, reenacting what had happened the day of the incident.  Tamami tells Chika that Chiaki had hit her head, causing a paralysis.  Not being able to move, Chiaki had drowned in a small puddle on the ground.  They explain once again to Mizushima-san about his daughter and show him messages she had written on her twitter before she passed away.  He finally realizes the emotions that Chiaki had been feeling and accepts the fact his daughter had passed away.  The end of the story, Chika and Tamami have a heartfelt conversation, ending with Tamami laughing away at a serious point.

Comments:
This story was so much better than the last episode, while the surgery transformation isnt possibly realistic, you can feel the emotion that Chika had felt about her friend.  Ishihara Satomi really did a great job at conveying her anger in the interrogation room and her depression when talking to Tamami and Nakura-sensei.  The only problem I have with her character is the way she talks to Tamami when she's trying to rub something in her face.  It's really irritating.  One problem I had with this episode is how they incorporated the suspects.  They were only questioned for maybe a minute or 2, which seemed unnecessary.  Might as well not even have included it in the story.  They could have easily made the story just about the stalker neighbor or just the old classmate, instead of using both of them.