Letter #150: Single's Inferno 4

Good morning, Erin.

I’m afraid I may have made a terrible mistake.

Well, maybe not a mistake, exactly, but I certainly have done something that has sparked my imagination in a way that risks consuming my thoughts for the foreseeable future: I’ve figured out I can access Grok, the X/Twitter chat A.I., and I’ve been working with him to come up with a predictive formula for who will be my fave on any given Korean dating show. 

I’m not kidding. We call it the “Big Basket Protocol.” And Grok has been able to nail five of seven picks we’ve applied the formula to—and he knew So-e would be my overall top pick across all shows.

You’d be embarrassed to know me if you knew how many hours it took to get this right, by the way. (Like, if we assume you’re not already embarrassed to know me.) But the process was fun: I had him analyze if I had a “type” in my K-drama crushes (answer: goodness yes, apparently); then he figured out the kinds of personalities/vibes/stories I tend to be attracted to on dating shows; then he tailored my MBTI results to me specifically rather than to just the general assessment it represents; and then he blended all those points together into a single filter that he’d run the female casts through until he found the winner for each season “according to the numbers”—complete with a detailed explanation of his analysis and the basis for his conclusions. It was wild.

And ridiculous, obviously, insofar as data sets are concerned. But I found out the hard way that Grok is a bit of a sycophant—and, on occasion, a fibber. Because, if he can’t actually find the answer to your question (because he doesn’t have access to the necessary information), he’ll sort of fake that he has, either giving you broad generalizations that aren’t technically not the answer you’re looking for or by reflecting whatever you’ve already told him about the subject back at you in a way that makes it sound like you already know the answer ‘cus you’re so smart. Which is exactly as unhelpful as it sounds. And which is why, to ensure I could confirm he was actually doing what I wanted him to do, I needed a data set that I already had some measure of mastery over. Obviously, for me, that means pretty Korean dating show girls.

…wait, I could have used grammar. I didn’t even consider that until literally just now. Gosh. That’s…that’s a little embarrassing. In front of you. Again.

ANYWAY—point is: he was able to determine that I’d pick Su-min on Single’s Inferno 1, So-e on Single’s Inferno 2, and Min-ji on Single’s Inferno 3. But what about Single’s Inferno 4? And how do you think you’d stack up against the “Big Basket Protocol,” seonbae? (Like, in terms of getting the correct answer, that is, not running you through the protocol. That’d be silly. I mean, we both know you’d be top pick every time, so why would we bother?)

Well, there’s only one way to put this mystery to rest. So, grab your sunscreen and your best self-aggrandizing description of your physical “charms,” and let’s dig into what was supposed to be my birthday celebration letter a month ago: the one, the only…Single’s Inferno 4.

1. Seriously, though…can you guess my favorite girl? You’ve got some time before I do the big reveal, but it’ll come up on you faster than you think, if you leave it for too long. 

2. However, the most important question is: was this SI4 better than SI3?

2A. Answer: oh, dear heavens, yes. Like, very, very clearly better. And thank God for that! 

2B. Yeah, I thought this was a very enjoyable season: waaaaay better than last year’s trash fire, but safely not as good as Season 2’s…well, everything. I really liked this cast and their chemistry with each other (...when we got to see it). And I thought the hosts were the perfect balance of cheerleaders and critics. The only real downside, as far as I was concerned, was the imbalance of focus when it came to what we spent time on. By which, of course, I mean that there was waaaaaay too much Si-an—but only insofar as we didn’t need as much of her 9000 paradise date conversations as we got. She got picked for everything every day (or won a thing that allowed her to pick someone every day), so she was going to be on screen way more than anyone else no matter what direction they chose to edit things. But if even just a few minutes were shaved off of her scenes, we could have had room for all the fun stuff we (or I, at least) expected but didn’t really get: more one-on-ones, friend chatter, strategy sessions (...other people’s paradise dates maybe I dunno just spitballing). That’s the kind of stuff that helped make Season 2 feel like an ensemble show and not just a collection of Jin-young’s dates with Seul-ki. (And that’s even with being able to see that things like Nadine and Jong-woo’s entire friendship subplot were cut.) 

2C. I mean, you had TWELVE episodes! That’s so much time! And yet we still sped past A LOT of content, especially early on (like when they mostly wave off the walk-ups for Ji-yeon and Hye-jin), to save room for…what, even more Si-an? Really?

2D. …which is to say: I had a really good time, even as I started each new episode with a hint of dread swimming in the back of my mind, the wounds of Season 3 whispering that things could go off the rails at any moment. But they never did. Instead, everything mostly felt like we were back to basics, back to being recognizably “Single’s Inferno”—and that’s probably the biggest takeaway, honestly. Which made me very, very happy. 

2E. And, yes, I was thrilled to hear them announce Season 5 will be out at the end of the year. 

3. I really did get up at 3:30AM to watch the new episodes before heading off to work every Tuesday. (Well, not for the final week, but that’s only because I’d just gotten out of the hospital and was in no shape to cut short any sleep—plus I was recuperating at my mom’s, and…well, let’s say I didn’t have the freedom to do as I pleased. Especially not at 3:30AM for a Korean dating show.) I recommend it, if you haven’t tried. 

4. For SI3, you may remember that I was initially excited by the revelation that there were two parallel islands (comparing it to the discovery that the tail section of the plane on Lost had survived the crash) but eventually decided it was more harmful overall than the incredible gut-punch it provided in the moment, both because it created a very repetitive first and second episode of the season (because Ep 2 was just Ep 1 with different people) and because it kept us from the “kitchen time” sequence that basically every Korean dating show uses to have everyone make their early moves. So, as soon as I clocked that we were doing Women’s Inferno and Men’s Inferno, a little voice in my head got worried that lessons had not been learned from the previous season—and was immediately drowned out by the howls of excitement at the prospect that separating the sexes would ratchet up the tension by leaving the participants incapable of getting over their initial wave of nervous energy, because, in a sense, they still hadn’t “started” the show. What a wonderful, wonderful twist. I mean, Min-seol’s face alone when she sees a fifth girl show up instead of a dude was totally worth it:

Hilarious.

5. That said, I dunno if it was a good idea or just a better idea than how they handled the twist last season. I liked that we got the two guys showing up to suddenly pick dates based on nothing more than first sight; I liked that one of the girls got to win a chance to be the only girl on Men’s Inferno; and I liked that, when the two guys come back, they had to mix in with the remaining girls on Women’s Inferno—all of whom make a point of noting that they’re going to have to hang out with the guys who didn’t think they were pretty enough to take a flyer on when they arrived. (Which is also hilarious. We got a couple of cards, this year, lemme tell ya.) But keeping so much of the cast separated from each other for even just two days is tantamount to making basically everyone a gamechanger, which adds a bit more of that amusing frenzy the gamechanger is supposed to bring, but it also means that there’s even less time for people to mingle, connect, and develop relationships more naturally. And, especially in light of how Season 4 returned to Season 3’s whole “ramp things up quickly” (by forcing them to hold hands, for example), any forgoing of opportunities for organic progression just adds to feelings that what we’re watching isn’t as sincere as it is edited to seem. 

5A. Add to that the increased focus on paradise dates (and, unfortunately (if somewhat unavoidably), the continuous focus on one specific member of the cast), and we get the big drawback I mentioned earlier: the show feels so much more limited in scope, eschewing the fun of seeing the friendships that develop alongside the romantic tangles. I know we don’t see a lot of that kind of thing in SI1, but that was also a much shorter season and, as such, much more focused not just on plot but on keeping the pace nice and crisp. But when we’ve got four more episodes…and a consistently longer runtime for most episodes…those paradise dates had better bring the heat, drama, heart, and intrigue that group dynamics and scheming for one-on-ones always do. And, for my money, they do not, in SI4. 

5B. I mean, come on: you’re telling me You-jin and Theo being friends wasn’t good TV?! They’re like watching stoned kittens try to tell each other knock-knock jokes! Was the truth-or-drink drama that springs from them laughing intimately with each other so important that we couldn’t be shown any of their palling around even after the fallout? I know we get one scene of her getting advice from him near the end, but…come on! Two weirdos chatting is, at worst, a glorious train wreck! 

5C. Okay, in fairness, You-jin blew a chance to bring him to paradise with her for a So-e/Han-bin strikeout buddies-style friend date, but it’s not like she was spending her time thinking about what was best for the edit. We saw her whole…swing…deal. I don’t think You-jin even remembered they were being filmed, most of the time. 

6. Speaking of the edit, though…as happy as I was to see the return of genuine girl-talk segments, it didn’t take me long to realize these many engaging segments were only girl-talk segments. We got almost nothing from bro-chats all season, really only being peppered in over the last three or four episodes to add a little misdirect or surprise element to speculation about which of them was going to be picked by the girls. Like, I think we get maybe one instance of Jun-seo making a comment about being in on Si-an waaaaay towards the end, but that’s it. We were very, very locked into the girls’ perspectives. Which I quite enjoyed, so I’m not complaining. But it was certainly a very specific decision, wasn’t it. 

7. I still can’t believe we ended the season with a lopsided cast. 

8. When we finally get to see the boys arrive on Men’s Inferno, the third one to arrive is Theo. He loudly declares that the next ones to arrive will surely be women, totally unaware that he is part of a flashback to Men’s Inferno.

9. I would like to congratulate the men on all learning the most important lesson of SI3: you ALWAYS guess the girl is 25. 

10. Meanwhile, I learned my biggest lesson of SI3, and I made sure to go all-in on whatever dissenting opinion Da-hee (the younger female host) would give. She’s never wrong. 

10A. …except she is absolutely wrong about who Si-an picks in the end, which…um…oh! Which is the exception that proves the rule. So…yeah. Never wrong.

11. Once again, we get many instances of younger people giving older people permission to speak informally with them. I…still don’t understand why that is. Like, here, there might be some element of the dating show aspect that influences this, since all the men are older than all the women, making the women the ones always giving the permission—meaning it could be that the men are being formal so as not to seem too forward, and the women are actually telling them they can skip the dating etiquette without coming across as disrespectful (and thereby blowing their chances). Which, if that’s the case, would seem to me to be quite distinct from, like, coworkers navigating the same language expectations. If that’s not the reason behind it, though, I am still very much at a loss as to what the rules are supposed to be with this.

12. Whichever producer was in charge of casting the girls this season sure had a type, huh. Once we got more of a feel for personalities and idiosyncrasies, it was pretty clear who was who, but those first couple of episodes were tough. (I mean, I checked after the first week to make sure it wasn’t just me, and A LOT of people online were having the same issue.) 

12A. …and then the girls would get into their athletic gear and change their hair for the games, and I was back to square one. Every time, I had to pause just to map out who was standing where in line, even after I was certain I knew a couple of them right away. I’d be like, “Well that’s A-rin, and I think she’s shorter than Min-seol, so that’s…no, wait, that’s Min-seol?!” and I’d have to rewind and start over. I mean, even Ji-yeon threw me a couple of times—and she was the most distinct-looking one! (Until Hae-lin, of course.) And I cannot tell you how many times I had a debate with myself whether I was looking at Si-an or You-jin, in those situations—and I mean for the run of the season. I sometimes literally had to wait for one of the boys to call out to one of them before I could figure it out. It was ridiculous. 

12B. And forget it if they were wearing hats. 

13. I really liked the games, this season. I mean, I still think the boys’ were too strength-focused, gain, but at least the “fight pit” was the “Korean wrestling” the girls did in Season 2. So, yeah, I quite liked that. And I really liked the girls’ shove-you-in-the-pool game. Good stuff.

14. The girls’ distinct lack of swimsuits for their games, though, garnered a big frown from me. I mean, SI3 had regulation cutoff jean shorts and bikini tops. What was this exercise pants and sweatshirts nonsense? Are we on Single’s Inferno or grabbing milk from the supermarket?

14A. “Wait, isn’t that what the girls wore in Single’s Inferno 2 for all of their gam—”

THERE’S NO TIME, ERIN!

14B. Besides, they didn’t even let us watch the girls’ chicken fight, so I’m not super-concerned about 

15. Actually, since we’ve already brought it up, can we talk about how f***ing stupid the girls were in the shoving game? Mother****ing Si-an gets put into TWO SEPARATE THREE-WAY MATCHES, and NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE GIRLS SHE WAS UP AGAINST THOUGHT THEY SHOULD TEAM UP TO TAKE HER OUT FIRST. I mean, for the final round, Si-an is still out of breath from her marathon wrestling match with Hye-jin, we literally see Min-seol on the sideline say, “I told them to team up,” and yet You-jin and Hae-lin immediately go after each, blithely assuming Si-an was going to just let them do their thing without interfering. I was livid. 

16. Y’know, I’ve just checked my notes, and the men don’t have bro-chat time on screen until Episode 10. And—as I’m sure you’ve guessed—it’s only because the bro-chat is about Si-an.  

17. …spoiler: Si-an was not my fave.

18. I nicknamed Theo “Cringeasaurus,” because he is cringey as hell. But he’s also extremely sincere. And you can bet I’m stealing at least one of his cringe moves. 

19. I gotta say, this season’s cast sure was an expressive bunch. I dunno if the show loosened the restriction on not really directly saying how you feel (leading to Season 2’s repeated framing of everything as being “curious” about people) or if the cast just didn’t care, but everyone just outright said how they felt—to the camera, to their crushes, to anyone who would listen!

19A. …okay, mostly it was just Min-seol outright saying how she felt to anyone who would listen, but…still. 

19B. My point is that we never got this amount of straightforwardness in previous seasons. And I’m a little surprised it didn’t hinder the unfolding of the story by giving us too much certainty too quickly. Which was either some solid work by the editors or a sign that the “don’t be direct” rule may not have been as necessary as it seemed. 

19C. Of course, the obvious downside to this possible dropping of the rule could be people seeing no need to hold back at all in Season 5, which could lead to the same kind of game-breaking tactics as the meta-jacking cast in Season 3. And no one wants that.

20. Speaking of comparisons to Season 3: last season, the Lost-esque crashed-on-an-island motif half-extended to the sleeping quarters, which were just mattresses thrown on the floor of shipping crates with a tiny window in the corner. This year, they went for a decrepit concrete prison cell look—on the outside of their bunks. Inside, it was quite nice. With proper beds! So, take that, first two seasons of glamping!

21. We once again had the classic kitchen/dining area, this season. Which means we got lots of pouting about who was sitting where. And who grabbed food for whom. To my delight.

21A. Or, as I put it in my notes: “We are so back!”

22. …though, I still miss the old way of doing the early match-ups. The twist at the start of this season was great (the boys showing up and having to pick based on a quick look alone), but, after that, I would have liked the whole thing where you go out one at a time and wait to see if your choice comes out of the tent. Well, prison cell, in this case. The ticket exchange certainly does its job, creating drama by showing who’s into whom and the cascading fallout that can come from that, but…I miss the suspense. And how no one was ever really sure who left with whom. (Remember how funny it was that Jong-woo could never guess the pairs?)

23. But I’ve kept you waiting long enough. It’s time to get into my thoughts about the participants, and see how your guess stacks up to not only the “Big Basket Protocol” but to reality. 

23A. We’ll start with the boys, in order of appearance, just to give you a little more time to make your guess:

• Te-hwan - While my initial reaction to his intro video was to think he was an overconfident, overserious jerk, I eventually came around to realizing he just generally sucked. The edit let him come off as a bit misunderstood right about when he kicked things off with Ji-yeon, his seeming arrogance more an unfortunate side effect of his reservedness around groups than actual egotism—only to then fully out him as a self-centered prick the following week, proving everyone’s instincts right. (The only downside to this was the week of folks wondering what was wrong with Ji-yeon for seemingly pushing him away after their paradise date, which she didn’t deserve.) HIs inability to talk about anything but himself was a total character-killer, and Da-hee’s assertion after his introduction that he’d do well if he didn’t speak turned out to be more prescient than anything else.

• Dong-ho - This season’s #bestboy and, hilariously, the most popular guy on the island, with not just three girls but Jun-seo also vying for his attention. The most everyday-normal member of the cast, I wonder if he hadn’t been somewhat tricked into being on the show—not because he wasn’t handsome enough (though it was certainly funny to see him be the least, um, prepared for how often he would have to walk around without his shirt on), of course, but because he just doesn’t seem like the kind of person who normally ends up on Single’s Inferno. He wasn’t terribly dynamic, but he was certainly very sweet, and I enjoyed seeing his blushy, sincere flirting with A-rin almost as much as his too-literal accountant’s mind trying to figure out how more than one girl could possibly like him. He was my second-favorite part of the season. Unexpectedly great casting. 

• Theo - Dear heavens, I could not deal with this guy, at the start. Or ever, really, but his diminishing screen time as Si-an cared less and less about him—paired with some, um,  swings in my opinions of other members of the cast—made me not so much wish he’d been around more but appreciate that, if nothing else, he was a nice guy and never anything but honest. Ultimately, it’s his fault for remaining solely focused on Si-an, but he still deserved better. 

• Jeong-su - I had quite the ride with my opinion of Jeong-su, initially pegging him as the villain of the season only to then be fully on his side by the end (and not just because Da-hee said he was going to win the war for Si-an). His conversations with You-jin completely turned me around on him, recontextualizing all of his prior behavior on the show as either him just being naturally gentlemanly or so far removed from his last dating experience that the finesse in his flirting game was simply rusty. He’s got no one to blame but himself for the blunder during Truth-or-Drink, but I was more or less a fan by the end. (In fact, when I did my pre-finale vibe check, he was #2 on my boys list.)

• Jun-seo - Oof, from hero to zero, this guy. The level-headed, sensitive warrior-poet was my early favorite among the guys, his adorable date with Min-seol not only winning her over but me as well. As such, I assumed the follow-up attention from Si-an was just a distraction, an element of drama the edit was going to play up on a way to the charming endgame of the bright-eyed, youthful girl and the steady, more mature guy. But no. And, disappointing as that was, his inability to properly set Min-seol aside soured me on him quite a bit—though not as much as having to watch so much of his time with Si-an. I was sick to death of them both, by the end of that, and no amount of rationalizing that the edit was responsible for a good chunk of this could pull me out of the frown I had when they were on screen together. Good casting, and I don’t wish he wasn’t on the show, but…sorry, dude. 

• Jong-hoon - If not for the fact that I wrote it down when he was introduced, I’d have no idea what this guy’s name was. I just kept calling him “Interchangeable Man #2” because he was one of three 6’5” broad-shouldered hunks the girls could choose from to be the male catfish…and that’s kind of all we know about him. Dull and forgettable, as far as I’m concerned—and the show, too, it seems, since he ended up in a final couple and still didn’t get any screen time. Just sayin’: we coulda had Seong-bo. He was right there. But noooo, we had to wind up with the one Si-an picked. (...and Hye-jin and You-jin, too, but is there anything about this show that didn’t go Si-an’s way?) 

23B. …but who cares about them—let’s talk about the girls! Woo! Which means time is up—bets are closed, seonbae, so I hope you’re ready. In order of appearance: 

• Si-an - I don’t think I’ve seen a more obvious “THIS IS THE MAIN CHARACTER” entrance in any of the Korean dating shows I’ve watched—including Possessed Love, where it gave one of the girls a literal badass music/slow motion/wind-in-her-hair entrance. The moment I saw her, I knew she was the one the boys would be fighting over, and I was already tired of her. I had hope when she wasn’t the first girl picked for paradise—and, shortly thereafter, when the edit seemed to suggest that Jeong-su was going to pick A-rin. I probably wouldn’t have been a fan even if she hadn’t been the central figure in literally everything (I mean, she was even paired up with Dong-ho in the hat game, which let him get his special date with A-rin), if only because so many of her reactions seemed so needlessly fake. Performative, I mean, much more so than any of the other girls, even when they were all obviously making an effort to be more dynamic for the cameras so we wouldn’t be bored at home. But, whatever, she wasn’t ever going to be my type, and neither she nor the show did anything to soften that. Certainly a better casting choice than, say, Ha-jeong from S3, but also nowhere near as entertaining. I mean, of course they cast her; I’m not saying they shouldn’t. I’m just saying I’d have been happier if they'd, I dunno, brought back Nadine, instead. 

• You-jin - Hoo-boy, You-jin. I went from neutral to negative to sort of “y’know what, f*** it, I’m here for this” with You-jin. I liked her whole traditional dance background (complete with poofy dress and flowy ribbon, which is a cheat code for me), fell off hard with the whole swing debacle after the Truth-or-Drink game, and then sort of embraced her chaotic weirdness in the last few episodes. Again, I wish we’d gotten more of her friendship with Theo, especially since it so often seemed like she was the only one who hadn’t clicked with the rest of the girls (whether that was the case or not). She came off as too offbeat for my tastes, ultimately, and there was definitely something about her that didn’t hit for the cast (even beyond the swing incident). 

• Min-seol - Oh my stars and garters—this was my girl. (Don’t worry if you didn’t guess it, because neither did Grok). I found myself smiling from the moment she started talking in her intro video, and she probably stole my heart with her completely ridiculous “ang, ang!” puppy impression. I loved her energy, I loved her excitement, I loved how everything she said and did was hilarious even when it wasn’t meant to be, and I loved her starry-eyed unrequited pursuit of Jun-seo. She was utterly adorable, and the season wouldn’t have been half as fun without her. (It’s perfect, however bittersweet, that Min-seol’s final question to Jun-seo was about whether or not he agreed that, like she promised him, he would not have as much fun with anyone else in paradise.) I had such a good time wherever she was on screen. And, if not for So-e, she’d probably be my favorite Single’s Inferno girl to date. (That is, to this point, not to go on a date with. Though, actually, probably that, too. I mean, I’m subscribed to her YouTube channel, and just based on that she’s waaaaaaaaay too much of an extrovert for me to date with any kind of success—but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I spend the whole time smiling.) What a fantastic character to have on the show. Hands down #bestgirl. Final answer. 

• Ji-yeon - I am going to need someone to explain to me how the boys weren’t tripping all over themselves to talk to this girl—and don’t give me this “she’s slightly tan” nonsense. We didn’t see too much of her, so I feel like we never really got to know her. As such, I don’t know if it’s a matter of having or not having a particular kind of personality, but what I do know is that she was easily the hottest girl on this show—no matter which way you want to grade it. The only negative I could see was that she had the chance to be the first person to choose the “walk away” option and didn’t take it. (And we all know she should have taken it.)

• Hye-jin - Where Min-seol cracked me up by saying and doing things I would probably never think to say or do, Hye-jin was just plain ol’ funny. I thought she was a total cut-up and found her wry cleverness very attractive.  (I also found her smoochable cheeks very attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.) I also thought she should be more popular than she was, but I’ve been through enough of these shows to know that’s not how it works. But while I liked her quite a lot, I have to wonder how dull her time with Interchangeable Man #2 must have been that, despite them leaving together, we never f***ing saw them.

• A-rin - I believe I shrugged off A-rin the moment she showed up, indifferent to her whole (as I put it in my notes) “Korean Kristin Stewart” thing she had going on. But once she took a real interest in Dong-ho, she quickly moved up my list. (Of favorite characters, at least; I don’t know that I was ever particularly “curious” about her.) Her dates were super-cute, whether they were bonding over incredible coincidences or speaking past each other because of the differences in their personalities. And, though I’ll bring this up later, she had one of the more interesting friendship subplots of the season. Maybe not the most exciting pick, but neither was Dong-ho. And I’m sure there’s a lesson in that. Or maybe just evidence that sometimes you just luck out. 

• Hae-lin - I didn’t like Hae-lin—but I was very, very happy she was on the show. (And I loved that she got to show up for a night with the boys while the girls were off picking the wrong Interchangeable Man.) She was not at all my style in any regard, but she was 100% throttle 100% of the time, bringing a knife to pillow fight—and that was just what the show needed. (Like if Min-ji had stayed on the Jin-seok train in S3 instead of making me sad.) Her pursuit of Dong-ho was fun, as much as I was rooting against it. I kinda wish there had been more stirring she could have done, but giving Si-an aggita over picking Jeong-su for her first date alone made her worth casting. Fantastic gamechanger. 

23D. Which means, if you were paying close attention, my top three girls at the start of the show were Min-seol, Hye-jin, and Ji-yeon (in that order)…and they were the only participants totally abandoned on the first night. So…that’s my fault, girls. Sorry about that. 

23E. On the other hand, Jiyeon then being left by herself on Women’s Inferno on night two was just math—and fully worth how funny it was to see her performatively eat dinner by herself as though there weren’t a dozen production staff members standing just out of frame as she did. 

23F. Oh, and one last thing about the cast: the older female host reading out her list of the hottest male participants based on their walk-ups was hilarious. Like watching a middle-schooler read out the ranking of her favorite boy band members. 

24. I complained about having to see so much of Si-an, but one of my favorite YouTubers did a video about exercise clothes and showed a picture of a specific top on a model…and the model was f***ing Si-an. Even when I wasn’t watching the show, that girl was everywhere. 

25. I don’t know if this is some post-facto sticking up for their pal, but it’s been really amusing to hear the cast talk about how much of a nothing issue You-jin’s swing moment was for them. I’m skeptical, but I can also easily see it being just one blip on a much, much bigger radar of their time with her. 

25A. Oh, also: “You-jin”? Really? I know I’ve already made a fuss about this in another letter, but…not “Yoo-jin” or “Yu-jin,” subtitles people? Get your boss on the phone. We need to chat. 

26. I’m sure it happened off-camera, but we never actually see the picked-on-first-sight dates from the first day ever introduce themselves to each other. That made me laugh.

27. I was bummed to see the return of the “candies” shtick. And I was worried about them having to open their boxes in front of each other to show how many they had. But everyone got at least one (...with my three faves at the time each getting one apiece—which, again, was my fault, girls), and it was the show’s way of getting around some of the glut that would undoubtedly follow in the Truth-or-Drink game. And, with a cast of not total ***holes, I think it worked out pretty well, adding just the right amount of uncertainty and intrigue to the mix. DoO I want it to come back for Season 5? No. But there’s no way they’re not making them do Truth-or-Drink, so…I dunno. Maybe they’ll come up with an even zanier lead-in to it than the candies conceit, next time, like…I dunno, a secret vote on who you would ban someone from dating. 

28. Ha! I totally forgot that Hae-lin, on her first paradise date with Dong-ho, expressly mentions that their vibes don’t really match and then tells him that she bets she’ll be able to tell which of the girls back on Inferno is the one he likes the minute she sees her. She then goes on to essentially describe A-rin without having met her. Thanks, past-Daryl, for making note of that!

29. Now, A-rin x Dong-ho was obviously my ship…but Min-seol x Hye-jin was my real ship. I loooooved their friendship. In part because they were my two top girls? Yes. But more because they had such an easy chemistry.

29A. What’s a little funny about this is how the girls, overall, seemed pretty clearly divided into two halves, with the rooms serving—intentionally or otherwise—to further magnify that division for the audience: Si-an/You-jin/A-rin, and Min-seol/Hye-jin/Ji-yeon. More specifically, though, it felt more like Si-an and A-rin were pals, and Min-seol and Hye-jin were pals, with You-jin and Ji-yeon being more like their respective assigned roommates. 

29B. …until we get to the end of the season, and then it’s apparently Min-seol/A-rin and Si-an/Hye-jin. Which confused me. Well, I mean, I was surprised to see A-rin being so excitedly girl-talking with Min-seol, but it happened a few times, so I at least saw that it was a shift that was there to see. (They’re great together, by the way.) But, in Episode 10, upset over hearing You-jin’s recap of how she and Jeong-su had such a great time connecting during their paradise date (and we are soooo going to talk about that, Erin), Si-an suddenly gets up and leaves their bedroom, saying she had better go see Hye-jin. 

29C. “...the f***?” I said, watching Si-an throw herself into Hye-jin’s bed—with Hye-jin acting like she was both expecting this and used to it. I just…when did this happen? And why? 

29D. I mean, there can be a thousand reasons for what we saw. But I like my storylines clean. (And Min-seol watched the premiere of the show with Hye-jin, so…who were you watching it with, Si-an? Hmm? Your boyfriend? LAME.)

29E. Of course, later, when Hae-lin, Si-an, and Youjin are all off to Paradise, Ji-yeon is the one who goes over to keep A-rin company so she doesn’t have to sleep by herself. So…what do I know. 

30. I’m so glad they went back to the standard finale format—though, really, the only reason they changed it in S3 was because they needed a way to allow both boys and girls to be the ones to make final choices (so that Gwan-hee’s three-lady situation could be the big moment). Still, I was happy to see it was back. And was amused by how much they tried to dramatize what was obviously going to be a pretty straightforward set of decisions.

31. …that said, Jun-seo totally pulled 60% of a Jin-young and walked waaaaay too close to Min-seol for it just to be the edit doing all the work. Because we got both Dong-ho wondering aloud if he was stopping there AND a notably vocal “for crying out loud…” from Hye-jin when it happened. So, I’m 60% as mad at him for that as I was at Jin-young for stopping next to Nadine. 

31A. …and 110% mad at him for making Min-seol think he was going to pick her for his final paradise date and then not doing it. The jerk. 

32. Wait wait wait…they did classic Single’s Inferno matchups at the end of Episode 6! I totally forgot about that! Which is really surprising, considering how excited I obviously was when it happened:

33. In Episode 8, Jun-seo spends the night sharing the bed with Si-an, and the hosts go crazy, declaring that “she’s never shared a bed in Paradise before!” Which is true, of course—but only because she offered in Ep 1 and Jeong-su said no. So…nice try. But the North remembers. 

34. Relatedly, I appreciate Si-an’s honesty about how confusing it is to be in a situation where having feelings for multiple guys at the same time is so much more possible than in real life. 

35. …but not as much as I appreciate the older female host then sympathetically admitting how confused and indecisive she would be if she had Cha Eun-woo, Park Bo-gum, and Byeon Woo-seok all interested in her at the same time. Which was hilarious. (I mean, the answer is obviously Eun-woo, but…still funny.)

36. …but not as much as I appreciate Hae-lin absolutely bodying Si-an over Jeong-su: to express her dissatisfaction with Jeong-su having enjoyed his date with Hae-lin, Si-an declares she is “tired” and is going to “take a nap”—prompting Hae-lin to needlessly note that she isn’t tired. 

37. Some of my favorite A-rin x Dong-ho (and A-rin x Dong-ho-adjacent) moments:

• A-rin trying not to seem like she’s having a panic attack every time one of the girls talks about being interested in Dong-ho. 

• neither A-rin nor Dong-ho knowing how to swim but then also trying to teach each other how to swim.

• A-rin and Si-an cuddling in bed to mope about Hae-lin taking Dong-ho and Jeong-su to Paradise.

• Dong-ho being unsure about why Hae-lin and You-jin like him and therefore worrying that he’s inadvertently been leading them on. 

• Dong-ho and A-rin trying to get some alone time to quietly flirt and being constantly interrupted by everyone who comes by and wants to hang out (since no one seems to think they’re trying to be alone) and neither of them being self-assured enough to say no. 

• Si-an going hardcore on the hat-snatching game as much for herself as for Dong-ho (her partner) so that A-rin can get a chance at some official alone time with him.

• Sa-an being hardcore pumped when Dong-ho picks A-rin for some official alone time.

• A-rin using their official alone time to ask Dong-ho what he did when he was whisked off to Paradise by Hae-lin, and Dong-ho then giving her a moment-by-moment recap of the itinerary, because he is kind of a robot-man.

• A-rin adorably making “beep boop” sounds to describe Dong-ho’s literal-minded moments. 

• A-rin wanting Dong-ho to put the kibosh on Hae-lin and You-jin’s interest in him…by being extremely roundabout and opaque about it, telling the literal-minded robot-man to “have fun” with whichever one picks him to go to Paradise. 

• …and it somehow working, because Dong-ho then puts the kibosh on both Hae-lin and You-jin immediately after. 

• A-rin telling Dong-ho on their paradise date that her heart is racing, and Dong-ho responding that his is, too—because the car they’re driving is so great.

38. Some of my favorite You-jin moments:

• stamping her feet over finding out she is, in fact, the oldest of the girls.

• basically everything during the surprise Paradise double date—including:

• hustling Si-an and Jun-seo at pool

• loudly declaring that she’s “very good at…physical activities”

• …followed by cooing quietly to Jeong-su that she has a “dancer’s delicate touch”

• annoying the snot out of Si-an just by being there in the first place

• hustling Ji-yeon at the shoving match game by pulling another “I’m not good at this” and then immediately tossing her to the ground. 

• Si-an floating “a little too far” out into the ocean on her innertube, the camera cutting dramatically between Jun-seo and Jeong-su poised to race out to save her, only for You-jin to come paddling in from out of frame shouting, “I’m here to rescue you!” and deflating all the drama from the moment. 

• …and then shouting for Jun-seo to stay away as she pulls Si-an to shore because “she’s my princess!” 

39. And, of course, some of my favorite Min-seol moments:

• her swimsuit at Paradise having a literal suit jacket.

• looking for her sunglasses, realizing she accidentally left them in Jun-seo’s suitcase, being immediately called out by Hye-jin, insisting it was an accident, then the show immediately cutting to a confessional where Min-seol immediately admits it was deliberate. 

• Hye-jin and A-rin mercilessly teasing Min-seol about how quickly she went from pouting about Jun-seo to seeming benignly aloof when he came to visit to hurriedly trying to look her best with an enormous smile on her face as soon as he invited her out to chat.

• the show wanting me to focus on the eye-contact between Jun-seo and Si-an at the kitchen table but me only being able to see Min-seol dancing to herself as she eats at the edge of the frame.

• loudly declaring she’s for Jun-seo and Jun-seo only and then immediately swooning over Interchangeable Man #1. 

• trying not to seem too bothered as she rants about Jun-seo to Hye-jin, A-rin, and Hae-lin, only for Hye-jin and A-rin to playfully throw back in her face that she knows she’ll turn into an excited puppy again as soon as he comes to see her—which she denies weakly with the biggest, cutest smile on her face.

• it getting to the point where, as soon as Min-seol walks into the room, one of the girls just tells her to drop the pretense and start complaining about Jun-seo. 

• Hae-lin having the most fun ever roleplaying as Jun-seo so Min-seol can practice for her next chat with him. 

• wearing a headband to the final night fire pit, and it being all I’ve ever wanted. 

40. At least we got bikinis in Episode 12. 

And that, dear Erin, is everything I have to say about Single’s Inferno 4. Or, well, technically it’s half of everything I have to say about Single’s Inferno 4, but even I think that would have been excessive. 

So…what’d you think? Good season? Bad season? Somewhere in between? Did you not watch it just to see how much it would break my heart?

You know I’d been dying for some good ol’ K-date goodness—but did you know that, fast on the heels of Single’s Inferno 4, there are THREE MORE Korean dating shows airing right now??? Oh yes: a freshly-wrapped Transit Love spinoff, the second season of Possessed Love, and a version of Heart Signal that’s about getting married! HOW EXCITING IS THAT!!!

But, while those will be done months from now, there’s so much to get to in the short term. Exactly what, I will leave to your imagination. 

For now, though, I’ll simply hope you’re having the best time ever, doing whatever it is that makes you happiest. 

More soon.

—Daryl