Letter #157: The Devil's Plan 2 (...with an asterisk)
Good morning, Erin.
I know you know this, but good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes. And, in a similar vein, people sometimes make bad decisions—for any number of reasons.
Is that my way of saying that watching The Devil’s Plan 2 was a bad decision? No. No, this is my way of saying that I finally caved and joined Instagram. Which…is sad.
It’s also entirely about my affection for my k-pop darling Yoojung—which is a much more relevant piece of information to these letters OVERALL than you probably think. In what way? Well, you’ll have to wait just a little bit before I let you in on that secret—a secret which (and I’m more than a little proud of this segue) connects directly to the foreshadowing I mentioned in the last letter.
Did you figure it out? Did you deduce from my words about Chuu that we would be talking about The Devil’s Plan 2? Because, of course, she is one of the participants—or…did I mean something else?
…spoiler: yes and no! That is, I absolutely brought her up because she’s one of the participants in The Devil’s Plan 2…but there’s more to her significance than that. And, yes, you’re going to have to wait to see exactly why.
In the meantime, let’s jump into the strategic brain game that—brace yourself—inevitably turns into a social experiment about hierarchy, tyranny, and class warfare.
…meaning the bloc-theme shtick is still going! Woo-hoo! Five in a row, baby!
1. This season was great, and a big improvement over the first season—until it was much, much worse.
1A. No need to bury the lede on this one, since I’m sure you clocked the “asterisk” parenthetical attached to the title of this letter (which you undoubtedly remember from the only other time I used it: my letter about Welcome to Samdal-ri—which was, of course, a show I didn’t technically watch all the way through). No, I did not technically finish The Devil’s Plan 2: by the time we got to the end of the penultimate episode, I was AAAAAAAALLLLLL the way out on the season, so I just fast-forwarded through the finale to see who won, saw we got the bad ending, and then shut it off. In disgust.
1B. Which really sucks, because the season had, overall, been FANTASTIC up to that point. The cast is great, filled to the brim with likeable folks who are not only very smart but all actively participate in the games. Everyone is all-in for the competition—which is, of course, a MAJOR improvement over S1’s debacle. And the tweaks to the format are clever…albeit ultimately part of the problem—which, in fairness, only becomes truly obvious once everything starts to come unglued. But, for the first 9 episodes, it’s probably everything I would have wanted from a show like this: various types of clever competitors with different strategies for outmaneuvering their opponents as they play through tense and entertaining games.
1C. But then we get to Episode 10, and…well. We’ll get there. (And, just in case: FULL SPOILERS.)
2. Before we get too deep into things, I knew three members of the cast—and was happy to see all three!
Chuu (of course), adorable spark plug and #bestgirl from Loona (...until she wasn’t from Loona)
Kyuhyun, member of Super Junior and (to me) host of Single’s Inferno
Hyun-gyu, the prince that sweeps Crying Girl off her feet at the end of Transit Love 2
3. I mentioned how good the cast is and (broadly) why I think the cast is so good…but there are two members of the 14-person cast who I’m pretty sure were picked for not-at-all intellect-based reasons: Chuu, because she is incredibly popular and would bring eyes to the show, and Justin, the American actor who I have to assume was picked because he was American and, as such, was assumed to be a conduit for a wider American audience. And I didn’t feel great about either of their chances.
3A. …and so much the fool was I, because Justin turned out to be one of my favorite members of the cast and a TOTAL BADASS when his “life” was on the line—which it was many times. We’ll get into him a little more, later on, but suffice it to say, having him in the mix paid off.
3B. And Chuu…y’know, she seems as nice as she does cute. So, she’s got that going for her!
3C. No, but seriously: Netflix made her a central part of the marketing, and I just knew she wasn’t going to last very long. Which she didn’t, as she was eliminated on the first day of the show. I have no idea what her capabilities were, though I can say she didn’t seem like she was entirely overmatched by the brainy aspects of the two games we saw her play or anything like that. But I don’t think I’m any kind of genius for immediately worrying that she wasn’t going to be around much.
4. For purposes of comparison as we near the end, here’s my Ep 1 vibe check—and, yes, I know I haven’t told you who any of these people are, but I will as we go:
🙂: Chuu, Kyuhyun, Hyun-gyu, News Lady, So-hui, Justin
😐: Mr. Model, Lawyer, Miss Korea, Tinno
🙁: Mr. Go Master, Smart Kid, Plastic Surgeon, 7High
5. None of the participants has any idea who else is going to be in the cast with them, so it’s kinda fun seeing them react to each other as they come in one by one. (Or, well, it’s fun seeing them react to people they recognize. When no one knows who, for example, the Lawyer is, everyone’s just very polite.) But, though his reaction is a non-reaction when he enters, my favorite of these is Mr. Go Master’s, when he explains in his first confessional interview that he was elated to see Chuu, because he’s a huge fan of hers.
5A. He does not say this, but I think this is why, when the first round ends and people are being sent to the prison, he elects to go in place of News Lady: because Chuu was going to be in the prison. Again, he claims that he volunteered because he assumed there would be a puzzle to solve in the prison (like in Season 1), but…like, if I were on the show and Yoojung was being sent to the prison, you can bet I’d be volunteering to take News Lady’s place. Even if I were currently in first place. So.
5B. …not that I wouldn’t do the same because of Chuu; I’m just saying that…y’know, analogously…
5C. Oh—or or or you! Heh, I mean…of course, I’d do the same for y—heck, I’d ask that they take me instead of you. Of course. Like, ha ha ha, I wouldn’t just sit by and let you…let you go to the prison. Eww, prison—yuck. No, I’d totally…totally—for you? Pfft. Not even a choice. Obviously I’d—and not because that’s where Yoojung would b—I mean, who’s…Yoo-who? I don’t even know who that is! I was just thinking about my seonbae and how my first loyalty is to…to…
5D. …
5E. Point is: I think Mr. Go Master just wanted to hang out with Chuu.
5F. I mean, sure, he literally never speaks to her once they get down there. And he’s the one who knowingly cuts off her chance to be safe from elimination during the first prison game. But…I mean, he could just be a tsundere.
6. The games are better explained, this time, but they’re also mostly still impossible to understand until you see the contestants playing them. (And, again, the instructions go on FOREVER.) We see the cast walking around with little copies of the rules for each game, though, so that’s nice.
7. A lot of the cast seems to speak English—and mostly pretty fluently. Which has to be deliberate, I think, because there’s a surprising amount of English in the games.
7A. Which also works out well for Justin, because it allows him to slip into speaking 75% in English without it being too much of a problem. It doesn’t stop Kyuhyun from making fun of his American accent when he speaks Korean, though. Which I thought was funny.
7B. That said…accessing the secret game in the prison requires solving one of the most common beginner riddles in English, and Justin—THE AMERICAN—isn’t the one who figures it out.
7C. …that being: Q. “What is always on its way but never arrives?” (A. “Tomorrow.”)
8. Speaking of English, though: the secret game in the prison is COMPLETELY BONKERS and is entirely reliant on the player knowing English really, really well. Which, given the circumstances of the game (that you are trapped in a well that is slowly filling with water), seems a little unfair on a Korean television show.
9. Oh, also: the show has a prison, which you may or may not remember me talking about in Season 1. (Or maybe you saw this season. In which case…a lot of what I’m going to say is going to be things you already know. Sorry.) This time, though, rather than the bottom two people being sent down there, it’s the bottom half of the remaining competitors—and that bottom half has to play another game, in which the loser is eliminated from the show. Which was a great decision, since it guaranteed at least one elimination every day, counteracting any further Orbit-esque “let’s keep everyone in the game!” shenanigans from happening.
9A. There’s a really, really big issue with this, it turns out, but we’ll get to that later. I still think it was a good decision on the part of the production.
9B. I also love that A) they’re given prison jumpsuits to wear, once they’re down there, and B) dinner is always just stale bread and a glass of milk. It’s hilarious—especially when you consider how many days everyone spends in prison, once they get down there. (Which we will get into.)
10. One last thing about the secret game in the prison: the first group to go into the prison almost immediately finds the puzzle they have to solve so that they can access the prison’s secret game. And, once found, they solve it pretty quickly, prompting Mr. Go Master to note: “My teammates are doing quite well with this. How did they all end up in the prison?” Which is a much more prescient comment than I think any of us realized at the time.
11. There’s an amusing amount of quick flashes forward to tease the audience that something super-duper dramatic is going to erupt during the game that’s about to start. It’s totally unnecessary and frequently overemphasizes the “drama” that’s about to play out, but…I was still amused by how much the show wanted these segments to hook us.
12. Something that caused an issue pretty much right away in this season (and was similarly a problem in S1) was that the first game involved people playing the part of saboteur to their teammates. In Season 1, it was a big game of Mafia, and in Season 2 it was…something even more complicated, but the point is that in both of these first games there were a couple of people whose role—assigned at random—was to undermine the rest of the folks playing the game. In both of these cases, the saboteurs (the mafia folks, if you will) are the ones who won the game. And, in both cases, people got really mad at the saboteurs for betraying their trust. (It was less of an issue this season, at first, than last season. Last time, I’m pretty sure it was what kicked off the Collectivists vs. Individualists fight that defined the season.) Which is ridiculous, really, in that the game is specifically about betraying people’s trust—and it’s only something that the saboteurs did because they were required to do so. Placing a game with that kind of element in it up front is probably the smartest move, insofar as not forcing people to betray each other once they are more actively dependent on wheeling and dealing to survive. But apparently it marks those people as bad guys if they win—when, really, they have no choice but to try because that’s their role. I dunno. It kinda bugged me both times.
12A. THAT SAID…in S1, the winners were a little cheeky in celebrating their victory, I admit; and, in S2, it was mostly just that News Lady felt so betrayed by Kyuhyun (who was one of the saboteurs) because they had promised to be allied during the game (and, in fact, were assigned to the same team during the game). Which is not to say Plastic Surgeon and Lawyer were not also very bitter about what happened (since they were betrayed by Hyun-gyu and Kyuhyun respectively), but the big deal was News Lady.
12B. …which sounds a lot more like nothing than it really was because what Kyuhyun actually did was team up with other people before the roles were assigned to make a deal to help make it easier for the “bad guys” to win, if any of them got assigned as such. Which is exactly what happened. So, not only did he “betray” News Lady because that was what he was literally supposed to do in the game, he betrayed her outright by immediately ditching her for other members of the cast who made him a better offer. (Kyuhyun also had made up with News Lady overnight that first night, then immediately betrayed her at the start of the next game. So…)
12C. To be clear, this was a stroke of genius by the ringleader of this plan, 7High, which required him to get his team of “civilians” on board to help Kyuhyun and the other bad guys win so that, come time for the “who’s going to prison” segment, he and most of his team would be saved from being sent to prison—because most of the competitors would be tied for points by the end of the game, making much of the “bottom half” an arbitrary assignment made by the winners. It was cheaty-pants as all hell, but it was incredibly clever.
12D. His plan also almost came entirely undone after it succeeded, when Hyun-gyu, who was the other saboteur but who had not been made aware of this plan, decided he wasn’t just going to let 7High’s team be entirely safe. It was a fair protest he made, but it also put one heck of a chink in the impromptu alliance that started this whole thing off—and boy oh boy was it gonna come back later.
13. One of the first things I made note of was how weirdly important it seemed to the show that we know Hyun-gyu wanted to form an alliance with So-hui. Of course, by the end, it becomes incredibly clear why the show wanted us to know this.
14. When I talk to people about this show, I make a point of calling So-hui “the girl with the supercomputer for a brain”—because she is f***ing SMART, dude. Whatever else I might have to say about her, she was probably the smartest member of the cast, in terms of raw intelligence. Hyun-gyu was almost as smart as she was (again, in terms of raw intelligence), but there wasn’t a game she couldn’t crack the algorithm to, so good was she at math. Which is really, really impressive—and also frustrating as hell, because the games cease to be games after that point. It’s just playing until So-hui works out the code to break the game. Which sucks.
15. Speaking of: there’s a secret game hidden in the main living area (that is, the area where the “we didn’t go to prison” folks get to stay), which Hyun-gyu attempts and is able to solve. And by “able to solve,” I mean that So-hui cracked the code to find the secret game room, solved the puzzle to get into the secret game room, and figured out the mathematical pattern that would defeat the most likely game that would be used for the secret game. All of which she gave to Hyun-gyu for him to then go and defeat the secret game.
16. And still speaking of So-hui: she is the biggest advocate for making sure the folks who went to prison on the first night and the folks who got to stay in the main living area don’t just turn into classist teams (“haves” and “have-nots”). Which is hilarious, given how she will spend the rest of the season.
16A. Also: the cast is pretty much IMMEDIATELY cemented into “haves” and “have-nots.” But we’ll come back to this.
16B. Though, in fairness, it’s the Prison Team that is most set on cementing things, initially. (Like, apart from refusing to take off their prison jumpsuits once they’re sent back up to play the next big game, which was kinda great.) But, again, we’ll come back to this.
16C. …y’know, I say that, but the first thing that happened when the Prison Team got sent back to prison on the second day was stab each other in the back: Justin comes up with a way for them to stick together and win the prison elimination game for that night and oust Smart Kid (who had been on the Elites side but was now in the prison with them), but when he shares his idea with the other members of the Prison Team, they shrug it off—only to then meet behind Justin’s back and agree to use that exact strategy against him and Smart Kid (and Mr. Go Master, technically, but they assumed he’d make it out okay on his own). It was a cold move and clearly because they felt like Justin was the weakest player and should be swapped for Smart Kid, in a sense—and it doesn’t work, because Justin outwits their maneuver and, in the end, eliminates Smart Kid and saves himself. And, when he returns from the elimination match, he is sure they know he holds a grudge. (Not really. But also definitely. In that he gets why they did it, but he also then refuses to help them in the games that follow.)
16D. …which leads to one of the two funniest lines in the show, in my opinion, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
16E. Again, DO NOT bet against Justin. He’s not the most useful when it comes to the main games, but he will battle you to the death in the elimination games. He’s patient and knows when to make moves that will have maximal effect. If it was down to you and Justin, you were going home—literally: for as long as he was on the show, he was the one to end the run of every eliminated player in the prison game.
17. I clocked pretty early on who would be a “problem” for the other players…and literally no one else seemed to figure this out until it was too later: first you go for Hyun-gyu, who was extremely smart and also potentially a sociopath with how inhumanly he acted and impersonally he treated those around him; then you go for Plastic Surgeon, who was smart as a whip and gleefully expressed her desire to take people out; then you’d go for Kyuhyun, who was a very skilled player but also—repeatedly—an absolute snake you could not trust; and then you’d go for So-hui, because she’s got a supercomputer in her brain but is a total squish if you apply any pressure to her at all, so she’s safe to keep around for a bit. And when I say no one figured this out until it was too late, I mean the Plastic Surgeon, Hyun-gyu, and So-hui came thiiiiiiis close to being able to permanently team up—which would have been unstoppable.
18. One of the prison elimination games is essentially Texas Hold’em, which worked out well for 7High, the professional poker player, when he was sent to the prison for the first time. But I immediately groaned because I knew that a poker game was going to last FOREVER, as it had in the first season. And, yes, the elimination match lasted, in real life, over four hours. Which is just absurd.
18A. For the record: there are THREE SEPARATE POKER GAMES in this season.
19. Whenever anyone swears, they always do so in English. Which is hilarious.
20. Fun fact: Kyuhyun and So-hui were in a short series together in 2016.
21. Oh, remember how I said Kyuhyun screwed over News Lady in the first game, then made up with her, then immediately screwed her over in the second game? I forgot to mention that he allies with her in the third game, then screws her over almost immediately.
21A. Now, in fairness (...if that’s the right word for it), Kyuhyun doesn’t instigate the screwing over, and he genuinely wants to team up with her because he feels bad because of how he’s screwed her over twice already. But then Hyun-gyu tells him that the math for winning works better if News Lady and Lawyer and 7High—all of whom they deliberately wanted to bring into the fold to help and potentially get out of prison—are cut loose from the alliance proposed at the start of the game. At which point Kyuhyun, in fairness, tosses News Lady (et al) aside like a dirty napkin. Again.
21B. Yes, he will also betray her in the fourth game. Kyuhyun does not come out of The Devil’s Plan 2 looking very good, FYI.
22. Fun fact: the folks who went to prison in S1 never came out filled with a lust for vengeance. I mean, yes, it was a totally different setup for the prison system, last time, but…still.
23. The Lawyer spends the entire show in the prison. At one point, she wonders why she bothered so carefully picking which outfits she wanted to bring when she was just spending every day in her denim prison coveralls.
23A. Also, I may or may not have had a crush on the Lawyer, by the end of the show. Who’s to say.
24. News Lady is seriously annoyed at how she got screwed over to end up in the prison, the first time she’s down there. And, when “dinner” is served, she looks down at it, then over to the other people in the prison, and says, “Have you ever eaten bread soaked in tears?” Which is maybe the funniest line of the season.
25. …except Justin might have the best line a few minutes later when News Lady asks about what happened during the previous night’s elimination game (when Justin’s teammates left him out in the cold after he gave them an idea of how to get someone tossed out) and, before the Lawyer or Plastic Surgeon can answer, he cuts in with: “Oh—oh, I will tell you about last night’s game!” It was on the playful side of catty, and I f***ing loved it. Justin was awesome. And I apologize for ever doubting him.
26. When I watched the first season, I more-or-less binged the whole thing over the course of 36 hours, barely sleeping at all in the process. I had a similar experience with Season 2, except I was watching it as it came out every week: 4 episodes the first week, then 5, then 3. I would come home, start the first new episode, then sleep only when I was finished—which, because of how often I have to pause and take notes, meant going to sleep at about 4:30 AM and waking up at 6:30 AM. So, yeah, I was into this season. I even woke up at 3 AM on the day the final three episodes dropped in the hopes that I could cram it all in before going to work, just like I now do with Single’s Inferno. And I want you to keep this in mind—because now we’re going to get into what went so spectacularly wrong.
27. So, there are two separate but not unrelated issues at play, here, when it comes to why I—and A LOT of other viewers—were so angry with the end of the series. The first of which is the prison system.
27A. Now, again, I quite liked the idea of the prison, this time around, because it A) guaranteed eliminations, and B) really incentivized you to do well in the main game to avoid being sent to the prison to fight for your life—EXCEPT…in practice, there wasn’t much you could do to avoid being sent back to prison once you were in. Because of the way the main games we set up, any alliance of those who avoided prison in the first game by winning points were unlikely to ever cede enough ground on the points chart to allow there to be any “social mobility” in the overall scores. That is, no matter how well players from the Prison Team played, they could never amass enough points to avoid being in the bottom half of the group, which meant (loathe as I am to say it this way) the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. And the folks on the Prison Team were really good players—but the Elites Team banded together and froze them out of the main games (see: every time Kyuhyun screwed over News Lady, for example), which meant they could only ever team up with themselves, so even individual members of the Prison Team couldn’t get back into the mix, let alone more than one. Because the points tally was always, always cumulative, which meant you’d have to come in first place in every subsequent game to have a chance at avoiding prison. Which, again, the Elite Team wasn’t going to allow anyone to do. Which was a bummer and felt quite unfair.
27B. …which was exacerbated by the fact that the core of the Elite Team (Hyung-gyu, So-hui, and Kyuhyun) were total dicks about it. I mean, So-hui was very quiet and technically very nice, but she was also a TOTAL SQUISH—and we are going to get into that in a moment, believe me—and didn’t do much to counter the prevailing “haves” vs “have-nots” structure. Which I’m not saying they had to do, of course, because they’re all playing to win. I get that part of it. But there’s a way to play that’s sporting, and these folks were (to different individual degrees) entirely unsporting.
27C. Further, the way the show is structured, you spend A LOT of time with the Prison Team: they play in the main games, then they kibitz in the prison, then they play the elimination games. So, half the games we see played are played exclusively by the folks in the prison—who, as I’ve just said, are ALWAYS THE SAME PEOPLE. So, we get to know the Prison Team really, really well. And a lot of them were really, really likeable—especially once News Lady and 7High are forced down there (who join up with Lawyer to become the hero trio of the season). So, we’ve got the people we like and spend the most time with being subjected to (unintentionally) unfair rules with what turns out to be no narrative payoff because they are repeatedly disassembled by a group of elitist dickheads who regularly seem like sociopaths. Which isn’t really grounds for pleasant viewing.
28. The second big issue was Hyun-gyu, who was the ultimate winner of the season. (I’ve seen the internet refer to him as Light Yagami from Death Note, which is actually an apt comparison: a handsome, egomaniacal psychopath—and he even had his own Misa Amane (the totally devoted fangirl) in So-hui.) Talk about an unlikeable dude. He was a very strong player, don’t get me wrong: he’s extremely intelligent, a strategic thinker, and completely focused on how to win. But he was also utterly inhuman, manipulative, rude, gleefully ruthless, and devoid of empathy. He was a total villain. And he never once got his comeuppance—though there will be more on that later.
28A. What made this worse was that half of his success came down to So-hui absolutely simping for him, constantly deferring to him and giving him answers that she could use herself. Which was infuriating to watch. I mean, I have to assume—and I’m being serious here—that she had fallen in love with him. It’s the only way to explain her behavior. (We could also be looking at a Harley Quinn/Joker kind of deal, or the aforementioned Light/Misa situation, where the weak-willed girl falls under the spell of the charming psychopath.)
28B. Which was made even worse—I’ve been told (because I didn’t see it)—because she apparently had the chance to eliminate him in the final game and didn’t, all but “allowing” him to win.
28D. And that’s not just me saying that: at one point, Kyuhyun half-jokingly refers to Hyun-gyu as a “heartless punk” after he interrupts Kyuhyun’s quite sincere “eulogy” for teammate Tinno upon his elimination when he is forced into prison for the first time. He then refuses to let Kyuhyun be alone for a bit (because he was genuinely upset to see Tinno leave), no matter how many times he told him to stop, because Hyun-gyu wanted to talk to him.
28E. And, yes, trailing right behind Hyun-gyu, smiling, was So-hui.
29. Or, to summarize:
Hyun-gyu’s total lack of empathy and general demeanor was a turnoff.
So-hui’s seemingly total subservience to Hyun-gyu and general demeanor was a turnoff.
The Elites Team’s approach to every game (highlighted by Kyuhyun’s repeated turns as an absolute snake) was a turnoff, no matter how “within bounds” their actions were.
The storyline was weighted to favor the much more sympathetic (and sporting) Prison Team, whether it was meant to or not, because we spent so much more time with them.
The Prison Team never had a chance to escape the prison, no matter how well they played in the main matches, which seemed awfully imbalanced.
And, though we spent so much time with the likeable underdogs of the Prison Team, there is no narrative payoff for any of them.
30. “...didn’t you say that you’d have immediately spent the game fawning over Chuu? How is that different than what So-hui did?”
Um…technically I never said that. I implied that I would. But the difference would be that I would be very, very upfront about it. With everyone. And, if she turned out to be a manipulative psychopath who ruined the show for everyone, then I, too, would deserve the flak I’d get from it.
“Why do I feel like you’d be like this for literally any pretty girl who was on the sh—”
THERE’S NO TIME, ERIN!
31. Potentially the lowest point came in Episode 10, after the Prison Team trio of News Lady, Lawyer, and 7High managed to orchestrate a coup against Hyun-gyu in the main game by recruiting Mr. Model, Kyuhyun, and So-hui to their side by emphasizing that the biggest threat to every player was Hyun-gyu and that no one in the Elite Team would have a shot as long as he was around—which then ended with Kyuhyun and So-hui turning tail at the last minute because…and you cannot even imagine the audacity, here, seonbae…because betraying someone feels wrong. Yes, Kyuhyun, who BETRAYED NEWS LADY THREE TIMES ALREADY, said it would be mean to single out Hyun-gyu, who thought he was in an alliance with them.
31A. As a bonus, though, Kyuhyun is eliminated from the game because of this move (or, rather, because of the consequences of his changing how he played that day’s game). Which he more than f***ing deserved. And the Prison Team was able to get Lawyer into the top half and drag Hyun-gyu into down into the prison for the first time, which meant News Lady and 7High had the chance to knife him in the elimination game.
31B. …except no, LOL, Hyun-gyu had a magic but-I-win-anyway card that he earned when he defeated the secret main living area game, which he plays immediately and which sends him back into the main living area for the night, once again condemning the Lawyer to another night in prison. Which was an excellent TV moment, that twist. But it was also infuriating as f***.
31C. AND WORSE THAT THAT is that Kyuhyun and So-hui KNEW THAT HE HAD THIS MAGIC CARD TO PLAY IF HE EVER GOT ELIMINATED FROM A GAME. That is, they knew that, even if he was eliminated like the Prison Team had schemed, he’d just play his card and be totally fine—which means their whole “betrayal bad” thing was pointless! Sure, they were already lying to the Prison Team by not telling them that they technically wouldn’t be able to get rid of Hyun-gyu and so they’d be wasting their time—but, strategically, playing along with the Prison Team would have ensured that the Kyuhyun/So-hui/Hyun-gyu trio would have escaped unscathed from the game! And yet they chickened out and Kyuhyun got eliminated! Just…what the f***, you idiots?!
31D. Or, as I opined right after this big “twist” was revealed at the start of Episode 10:
32. Which means my Ep 11 vibe check looked like this:
🙂: 7High, the Lawyer, the News Lady, Justin, Chuu
😐: Miss Korea, Tinno, the Smart Kid, Mr. Go Master
🙁: Hyun-gyu, So-hui, the Plastic Surgeon, Kyuhyun, Mr. Model
33. To my great surprise, 7High wound up being probably my favorite player. (The Lawyer is pretty damn close, which is why I say “probably.”) He seemed too much like he’d be an over-aggressive, over-macho jerk, at the start, which is why I didn’t think I’d like him at all. But, though he was easily the most outwardly aggressive of the cast, it was much more an intense competitiveness than jerkishness. And despite this—or perhaps because of it—he was also the most concerned about good sportsmanship and fair play. He kept his promises and was loyal to those he allied with. And, yeah, I thought he was absolutely great.
33A. …which is why we’re going to end on a description of arguably the most badass moment of the season for me: when 7High is eliminated from the game.
33B. The final main game before the finale was essentially a poker game, featuring the remaining five players: 7High, Lawyer, Mr. Model, Hyun-gyu, and So-hui. The plan is for 7High, Lawyer, and Mr. Model to team up against the obvious Hyun-gyu/So-hui pair—and the plan falls apart IMMEDIATELY, with what looks like it has to be the biggest rig job of the season as literally every hand breaks in Hyun-gyu and/or So-hui’s direction. So, 7High tells the other two that nothing is going to happen to the Elites Team, at this point, so the three of them are going to have to play for themselves, unfortunately. This leads pretty quickly to the Lawyer being eliminated and Mr. Model sitting on the bubble.
33C. Hyun-gyu then decides to go over to 7High and propose a deal: he can team up with their duo and get rid of Mr. Model. 7High, who could have easily taken out Mr. Model, gives Hyun-gyu the biggest “F*** you” look, then throws the round so that Mr. Model can stick around—because A) f*** Hyun-gyu for thinking he could tell 7High what to do, and B) 7High knows that Hyun-gyu is just worried that Mr. Model poses a bigger threat intellectually to either of Hyun-gyu or So-hui when they will have to face off with him in the final prison elimination game. Which was awesome to watch.
33D. …except for how Mr. Model then went immediately to Hyun-gyu and begged to be let into the club, promising to do whatever he wanted as long as they eliminated 7High instead of him. The little b****.
33E. Which is when 7High, rather than playing just to get to the next round, gets in So-hui’s face and makes the most baller move of the season. He has a hand that allows him to do one of two things, depending on how So-hui wants to play, because he’s worked out that Hyun-gyu has convinced So-hui that she should be the player who ends up in prison to face Mr. Model if they eliminate 7High, leaving Hyun-gyu totally safe. So, he’s going to make a play that will either allow So-hui to win, eliminate 7High, and send Hyun-gyu to prison where he might be eliminated…or she can eliminate herself and send 7High into first place. So he can either win because she’s too weak to stand up for herself, or he can go out forcing the one person who might be able to beat Hyun-gyu to grow a pair and play for herself. And she takes the deal—eliminating 7High and sending Hyun-gyu to prison. The perfect middle finger to the whole game. And I loved it.
33F. I mean, So-hui then immediately went back to simping for Hyun-gyu, but…hey—we take our victories where we can find them.
And THAT, dear Erin, was The Devil’s Plan 2. Or, like, most of it. Because I’ll be damned if I go back and actually finish the season. F*** that noise.
…which is not to say I’m not going to watch Season 3, if there is one. Because this season was really, really good…for, like, 80% of it. I just hope they work out the kinks. Because…hoo-boy.
Anyway. There’s one last bit of housekeeping before we go, seonbae: what was the Chuu foreshadowing all about, apart from hinting at this show?
Well, of course, I’m introducing the next thematic bloc! That’s right, we’re moving into a bloc of shows starring K-pop idols! Woo!
But which ones? And which shows? And are they any good? Well, I’m not going to give it away. You’ll just have to come back to see.
And I hope you do. Very much so.
More soon.
—Daryl
Comments
Post a Comment