Letter #92: Love Catcher in Bali (or, Love Catcher 4)

Good morning, Erin.

In my Nineteen to Twenty letter, I told you the “you make me melt” story about the girl I had a crush on in college, but I didn’t mention how I developed a crush on her (because it was relevant to that particular story): I was sitting near her in class, reached down to pull something out of my schoolbag, and, as I sat back up, I happened to glance over at her…and, as though struck by lightning, I just suddenly liked her. 

Had she in some way changed her appearance? Said or done something charming? Was she giving me a flirty, knowing grin? No. She was sitting in her seat, casually listening to another classmate talk about some other class we were taking. I’d seen her dozens of times in multiple classes, rolled my eyes at some of her ridiculous analysis of Paradise Lost, sighed deeply as she regaled us with stories at odds with my sentiments about life, beauty, and the nature of the universe—she’d been dressed up, dressed down, witty, grating, thoughtful, despairingly naive…and not so much as flutter from my heart. Until I happened to look over at her and was ensnared. By nothing.

The most profound changes happen suddenly, unexpectedly.

So…yeah—turns out I like Gen 2, Erin. I innocently clicked on a dance cover for what turned out to be a song by After School, and that was it: hours of voraciously clicking through to the next recommended video, doubling my K-pop playlist, watching an anthology web series starring T-ara, throwing down over how TWICE is just SNSD for plebs—like I was a totally different person.

…or was I? Did any of this actually happen, or is it all an elaborate ruse to get you to think I’m a Gen 2 stan so that I can earn a large cash prize?

Because that’s the idea behind Love Catcher in Bali, if you didn’t know: a dating show where participants secretly choose to be either “love catchers” (someone who is sincerely trying to find someone to date) or “money catchers” (someone who is trying to win money by tricking someone into falling for him or her). Love catchers win if they pick another love catcher, in the end; money catchers win and love catchers lose if the love catcher picks a money catcher; and money catchers lose if they pick another money catcher. (Of course, you can also lose if no one picks you at all.) So, it’s both a dating show and a social strategy game! Which is exactly why my favorite podcast decided to give it a go—and, of course, them giving it a go meant I was going to give it a go.

And, as we sit here at three episodes left in the new season of Single’s Inferno, what better time to chew over this other beach vacation-themed Korean dating show than right now, hm? (Yes, I’ve been keeping up. And I’ve got things to say, don’t you worry.)

So…shall we, dear seonbae?

1. Wait—I think we need to clear this up, first: I really did fall into a tunnel of Gen 2 videos and really did find myself very much enamored with the music, which I found to be reminiscent of the dance pop that was popular in the ‘90s. It was like stumbling across forgotten photos from my childhood. So…if you’re a Gen 2 fan, too, we can leave together and win.

2. But what do I think of the show? I…am…kind of neutral on it, overall: I don't think there's enough dating for me to enjoy the romance part, and I don't think the game aspect of it played nearly enough of a role for me to enjoy the strategy part—though when it does kick in is the most fun. It's...fine. But I’d give it a pass, unless you’re really in the mood for a new Korean dating show. (...in which case you should be watching Heart Signal 4, Erin. We’ve been through this.)

2A. The edit is pretty frikkin’ manipulative, though. I know there’s a need to keep who may be one thing or another a secret from the audience, but they do an awful lot of needless storytelling, as well. So we spend a lot of time following what appears to be the show setting up something that looks like it will come back to be quite significant…and it’s just not. Or we’ll spend a lot of time watching someone who ultimately doesn’t match up with anyone—but, because of the way the finale is structured (and I’ll bring that up later), that means we’re not getting a big payoff or Single’s Inferno-style dramatic choice at the end. Their stories just sort of end. Which is anti-climatic as all get-out. 

3. The cast is pretty good, all in all. A decent variety of personalities and looks, with maybe one dud apiece (in my opinion) from the men and women, which is a pretty good percentage for one of these shows. (Or, well, I guess it depends on how you would define dud. For me, I just mean it as someone I wish wasn’t on the show. Like, there is a dude who is kind of boring, but he’s not irritating or a jerk, so I’d say he was a good add, particularly since he’s also a move-maker.) And, importantly, I was kind of in love with a couple of the girls, which you know is all I really needed. (Which ones? Well, that would give something away—as I’ll explain below.)

4. Of course, I’m sure you’re curious how I, the world’s greatest detective, would do on such a show. Well, whatever my skills at deduction may be…at the end of the day, I think we know I have one huge advantage: my inability to make good romantic choices would almost guarantee that the girl I'd fall for would be a money catcher. 

4A. Which is ABSOLUTELY what happened: the girl I was most into was 100% a money catcher. (My #2 was not, but I never thought she could be.) Her identity was hidden pretty much the whole length of the show, and the hosts never suspected her—but I knew. 

4B. Now, I’d have chosen to be a love catcher. I don’t think I’d be able to lead someone on and feel good about it, even if she were to have gone into the situation knowing that was a possibility. Plus, I know me well enough to know that I’d undoubtedly fall for a girl…and we both know I am utterly powerless against having a crush. Like, at best, I’d avoid her. But then I’d have no mojo to apply to anyone else, because I’m very bad at faking interest if I actually have interest elsewhere. 

4C. So, what would I do, being a love catcher and instinctively knowing I was head over heels for a money catcher? Well, I’d tell her upfront that I knew…and that I didn’t care. 

4D. Risky? Well, here’s the thing: the money catchers have a chance to change their roles over to being love catchers, if they discover that they’ve really connected with someone they think is worth giving a shot. So, there’s every chance my sincerity could lead her to pick love in the end. 

4E. On the other hand, she could just think of it as an easy win, which I’d also be fine with. Because her being a “bad guy” is one of the ethereal things I’d have been drawn to to begin with. (Like, I was telling my friend about the premise of the show, and his first response was to say, “And you liked one of the money catchers, right?”)

4F. I mean, the worst case scenario (outside of no one wanting to deal with me at all, of course) is that she falls for me but also knows that the $50,000 prize for duping me is too big to pass up—because the show actually has a clause in the contract you sign to be on the show that says you’re not allowed to date anyone you don’t match up with love catcher to love catcher once the show ends. So, we’d be open to legal action if she were to say, “I like you, but this is an annual salary we’re talking about—we’ll meet later, okay?” I mean, I don’t know exactly how long the ban would be in effect, but a week of successful flirting doesn’t necessarily make a 6-to-12-month waiting period worth sitting through. (Like, even beyond acknowledging that I am a prize for no one.) I mean, I’d be open to it, but I’m also probably not the best example to point to for any matters of the heart. 

5. From things I’ve read in comments and heard the cast say among themselves, it seems previous seasons allowed participants to be, like, voted off the show, which is not an element that comes into play for this season. Which I can see being a fun wrinkle to the social deduction aspect of the show, kind of like calling a meeting during a game of Among Us. (...people still know that game, right?) 

6. Instead of voting people out, it seems they introduced a new mechanic whereby someone is called out to have a mystery chat with an anonymous member of the cast where they get to ask each other questions. It doesn’t happen often (I think it goes something like 6 episodes between the first and second occurrence of this mechanic, leaving even the cast wondering out loud if it was going to happen more than once), and it really only results in one dramatic turn—and only for the audience, because it leads to us finding out who one of the money catchers is, which does lead to high tensions as he or she comes closer and closer to being discovered later in the show. 

7. Oh! But you know what was a real twist of cruelty? I mentioned that the money catchers are allowed to swap over to being love catchers…but they were not allowed to do so until the very, very end of the show. Like, right before the final decision/choosing thing. Which is quite an issue if you are a money catcher who has fallen for a love catcher—because…okay, the final decision happens in two stages: first, people have to do a Single’s Inferno-style pick-each-other thing, which allows them to make it to the finale of the show, while anyone who is unpaired ends up leaving the show forever, and then those couples spend a day together before the final decision. HOWEVER…during that time, it is possible for one of the members of a couple to find out if the other is a money catcher, which is a BIG problem if you’re a money catcher who wants to switch—because you haven’t had the chance to switch, yet, so it can really screw you over. Why? Because, once the other person sees that you’re a money catcher, he or she HAS THE ABILITY TO SWITCH TO BEING A MONEY CATCHER. Yes, he or she could move to neutralize your ability to win as a money catcher not knowing you were going to switch, then inadvertently end up swiping $50K and leaving you both heartbroken when he or she discovers you had switched to being a love catcher. 

7A. Which isn’t even the cruel part. While I always thought it made sense to be able to switch as a money catcher, I was surprised to see that you could switch as a love catcher, as well. So I assumed it would only be granted as an option if you were able to see that the other person was, in fact, a money catcher. Like, you’d have to decide if you wanted to screw him or her over or to decide if you had faith that the other person was going to swap over to love catcher because what you have is too good to pass on, even for $50,000. Except no, Daryl, it’s worse than that: if you’re both love catchers, one of the two could find out that the other is, in fact, a love catcher—and decide that, nah, $50,000 sounds better than having to maybe date you for a bit, soooooo…sorry lulz.

7B. I’m not going to say whether or not any of these scenarios comes to pass, but the fact that there’s a possibility that they could seemed needlessly harsh.

8. Something fun was that one of the hosts of the show was the main female host from Change Days, and I enjoy her, as I’ve mentioned before. So that was a nice bit of flare. Good to see a familiar face. 

9. Speaking of familiar faces…sort of…two of the ladies looked very much like actresses I recognized, so I was able to make the comparisons on my own before anyone on the show could, and it made me feel very smart: one looked like Song Hye-kyo, and the other looked like Han So-hee—which is funny because I know those two actresses look similar to each other, though these two women did not. 

9A. …actually, while I think the one looked very much like Song Hye-kyo, I thought the other looked more like Han So-hee had a baby with Kim Kardashian—which sounds weird, but you’d agree if you saw her. (To bolster my point: one of the men describes her as looking “exotic,” so…I think we can extrapolate exactly what that would mean within the context of an all-Korean cast.)

10. The hosts are pretty funny, here, in that they openly root for some characters and not others. This is, I think, the first time I’ve seen the hosts of one of these shows not try to root for everyone. (Which is hilarious, in retrospect, since we’re where we are with the hosts in Single’s Inferno 3, who are—to my great delight—not holding back, this season. But I digress.)

11. One of the women says she wants to be the breadwinner in a relationship, but laments that this may require her to find a lackabout as the only kind of man who would be willing to be any kind of househusband. Which was really funny, but also…I’m happy never to have to go to work again. I can absolutely do laundry and have dinner ready and all that. Really. Having a job sucks. 

11A. Most (if not all) of the women think one particular guy is a money catcher—and he is the absolute least likely boy in the bunch to be a money catcher. I don’t think he’d be physically capable of doing that. And yet they are convinced his talkative nature is less about him being a nervous dork and more about him being too slick for his own good. It is one of the more baffling things in the show. (Though, in one case, it is possible that one of the women didn't really think that and was just trying to dissuade other women from pursuing him. But I don’t think it was that.)

12. One of the men describes one of the women as seeming like a princess…though, amusingly, what he says is that she looks like a hussy—rather, he says she looks like “Hussey,” to which she responds, “Olivia Hussey?” Who was, of course, the lovely star of the very famous 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet. I just found it very strange that they would know her well enough to make a reference to her. Maybe the movie is sort of a standard one to show students when they go over Shakespeare in one of their classes? I dunno, I was just very surprised by the reference. (Like, do you know Olivia Hussey?)

13. I don’t think anyone ever really correctly guessed who the money catchers were. Like, one sort of suspects one of them, but it’s not quite as simple as that. But this group was mostly a bunch of people with an absolute inability to accurately read any of the people around them in any capacity. 

13A. Wait, actually, it happens once: the dorky guy really upsets one of the girls, and, as she vents to one of the other participants, the dorky guy happens to walk into the room where they’re talking—then promptly apologizes for the poor timing, turns around to leave, and says, “See? I read the room, for once,” as he goes. 

14. There are 10 participants altogether, and, at one point, the group has to split into two groups of five, with one group doing snorkeling and the other doing some light kayaking. While this could have theoretically resulted in the guys all doing one thing and all the girls doing the other, the intent is that everyone is going to try to be with someone he or she is interested in, and the groups will have an uneven number of guys and girls—so that, when they eventually have to pair up to snorkel or kayak, one person on each side is going to be left out and watch his or her romantic interest go off with someone else. (Which, fortunately for the show, is exactly how things turn out.) To get to this point, some of the participants pick one side, then switch to the other when they see that’s where their romantic interests decide to go. I mention this because I would absolutely not have budged on my choice, even if my girl asked me to join her on the other side—because, while I love a little paddle boat time, absolutely f*** swimming in the ocean. I’d rather go on a Ferris Wheel than snorkeling, Erin—and I’ve made it very clear what I think of Ferris Wheels. In fact, I’d volunteer to be the one in the kayak by himself and have a great time by my lonesome. 

15. Arguably my favorite moment in the show comes from the girl in the group who never gets any play from the boys, when she laments her status as the unwanted girl by digging into a bag of chips and saying, “I’m only good at eating snacks.” I had to pause it, I was laughing so hard.

15A. Also, the boys are idiots for not flocking to this girl. She was great. 

16. One of the girls wears a t-shirt with a drawing of a teddy bear in a sex harness that says—in English—“FETISH BEAR.” Which…I mean, whether she can read English or not, it still has a picture of a teddy bear in a sex harness on it. That was certainly a choice to wear. On TV. 

17. And I’d like to thank the fansubber who finally realized that it’s way less awkward to translate the idea that something has been true up through the current moment as “so far” than it is to use the somewhat ubiquitous “until now,” with the former indicating that the thing being discussed is still true in the current moment while the latter indicates that the thing being discussed is no longer true in the current moment. Like, no one expresses being attracted to someone the whole time they’ve been on the show together as liking her “until now”—because describing it like that would mean that he no longer liked her because of something very, very recent. 

And let’s leave it there. Because any more details of the show don’t matter, given that you haven’t seen it and I’m guessing won’t ever see it. Again, it functioned well enough, but it wasn’t particularly compelling. 

I’d hoped to have this up before Christmas, but…alas, no. Too much sleep to catch up on, once the break started. 

So, a belated Merry Christmas to you, Erin. I hope you and yours had a wonderful day—and that things will be just as fun as we ramp into New Year’s. 

More soon. And I mean it, too, because I have to get through three more letters in the next two weeks if I want to get to the letter for Single’s Inferno 3 as quickly as possible. And Lord knows I can’t write these things out of order. The world would end. 

—Daryl