Wild Idol, Episode 10: I get my answers, and they are all NO.

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written on April 19, 2024)

I swear, someone from Wild Idol must know about these recaps, because every issue and suggestion I brought up last time is addressed in this episode.  I don’t get the answers I wanted, but I get answers.  So let’s dive in.

We open with another clip about animals in the wild, which I’m skipping through.  I’ve already made it clear how I feel about this premise.

The show cuts to the panelists.  I skip the panelists.

The Tower announces it’s time for the next challenge.  HERE we go.  Welcome to Episode Ten, everybody!

New coaches approach.  We have dance masters Hyoyeon, Minzy (we’ve met her before), and … Woo Young from 2pm!  The idols are all excited, and this time I’m right there with them.  And we’re getting an actual talent mission – a dance challenge!  

The idols are told to put one-minute choreo together in any genre.  It’s pouring rain again (it will be raining through this entire episode), and they will be dancing on wet grass as   they head out into the field to practice.  They practice for hours.  We see the sunset.  I’m a little bummed that this battle will take place at night because my screenshots come out so dark.  

Everyone gathers back at the Tower, where the coaches tell them they will be battling in groups of three.  I’m so happy we’re done with the stamina missions.  This is what I came here to see.

The winning idol will be able to steal fifty points from one of their opponents, because of course they will, so much for my suggestion that they knock that off.  At some point, I want to go back through these episodes and try to figure out who would have been in TAN if no one was allowed to steal points.

The idols are divided into five teams:

Team 1:  Taehoon, Changsun, and The Brat

Team 2:  Jooan, Jaejun, and Baby Hercules

Team 3:  Gun Wook, Hyunyeop, and Aquaman

Team 4:  Jiseong, Surfer Dude, and Hyung Seok

Team 5:  The Cadet, Sunghyuk, and Ki Joong

Team 1 is first, and Taehoon steps up.  He’s dancing to a smooth hip-hop R&B song called “Sure Thing” by Miguel.  His moves are smooth and confident.  He’s always had a sexy edge to him.  When the lyrics refer to a cigarette, he puts his fingers to his lips.  He becomes the song.  One of the judges notes his long arms and legs.  He’s a sensual dancer. 

The Brat is next, dancing to “Everyone in the World Started to Hate Me” by Lang Lee.  The song is just vocal and stand-up bass.  The Brat has choreographed a modern interpretive dance.  I didn’t expect this from him.  It takes courage to do something this different, and he pulls it off.  

Now, Changsun.  I do know the song.  It’s “7 Years” by Lukas Graham.  This feels like modern dance influenced by ballet.  Again, it’s something more mature than I expected, and I really like it.  These idols always find a way to surprise me.  I’m surprised again when the coaches give it a poor review, saying he looked nervous.  I didn’t see that at all.  I think the coaches might be stretching for reasons to eliminate someone, since it’s hard to choose the best performance out of these three.

For this team, the coaches choose Taehoon.  I have to agree.  As much as I liked the modern dance performances, my favorite was Taehoon’s sensual choreography.   Now Taehoon has to choose the one to take fifty points from.  I was hoping they’d forget this part.  Taehoon chooses The Brat.  I think I must really be coming around on this guy because I think his performance was too good for him to deserve that.

Team 2 is next, starting with Hyunyeop.  Fun fact about Hyunyeop:  When I was Googling more information about the show, I found out that he’s also an independent trainee, not associated with an entertainment company.  Just like Jooan.  Which makes his history of practicing alone in those rooms sound even lonelier.  I’m so glad he and Jooan are going to make it to the final group.

Hyunyeop is dancing to “Reveal” by the Boyz, another K-pop favorite of mine.  The song has a heavy beat, and Hyunyeop’s body responds like a percussion instrument.  He becomes the beat.  

Gun Wook is next, dancing to “Say it Again” by H.E.R.  It’s high-energy precision moves you normally see from K-pop groups, set to a low, quiet, slower-paced song.  I like the contrast.  It’s hypnotic.

Aquaman steps up, dancing to “Bye Felicia” by Masego.  It’s an edgy, mysterious-sounding hip-hop song, and he flows with it like water. 

The judges love all three and spend more time in discussion than they did with the first group.  But the vote is unanimous – Gun Wook.  And he takes the fifty points from Hyunyeop, which frustrates the hell out of me, but let’s move on.  

Now for Team 3.  I love how this challenge is paced, by the way.  We’re spending plenty of time with each contestant.  I’ll be perfectly happy if this challenge takes up the entire episode and doesn’t end in something like competitive lawn darts. 

Hyung Seok is dancing to “Flower” by Johnny Stimson.  It’s a sexy, crooning song with lyrics like “Mother Nature made us to intertwine.”  He moves seductively, bringing wows from the coaches and other idols.  Afterward, the coaches say they saw some awkwardness, but overall they like it.  It’s another chance for him to move up from last place.

Now for Surfer Dude.  “How I Want Ya” by Hudson Thames is faster-paced hip-hop.  He mixes pop & lock moves with smooth slithering.  He’s having a blast.  He ends with a full-on split.  I think he’s the one I’ve had the most fun watching so far.  The big finish with the split brings a huge cheer from the other idols.  The coaches tell him that so far, he’s the only one who danced for an audience.  He danced like a real K-pop idol.  Based on their reaction, I think Surfer Dude is going to win this round.

Finally for Team 3, Jiseong is dancing to “Something Good” by Chromeo.  He begins by saying, “I’ll show you the power of a high school student.”  Wait, he’s in high school? 

The panel, who again does not seem to know anything about their own contestants, is stunned.  I’m surprised because he looks older and more confident than your average high school student.  The panel is surprised because you’re not allowed to have dyed hair in most Korean high schools.  I have to laugh at that when I think of kids from American public schools.  Jiseong would fit right in. 

He's definitely picked a joyful, youthful song,  It’s a pure pop dance beat, and he looks like he’s dancing on air.  Again, this is just so much fun to watch.  I still think Surfer Dude has him beat, though. 

The coaches have their discussion.  Hyung Seok does get one vote, but the other two are for Jiseong.  Surfer Dude didn’t get a single vote.  I am seriously blindsided by that.  As much as I was pulling for TAN man Jiseong, I was expecting Surfer Dude to win.  And he didn’t even get one vote?  One of the judges said Surfer Dude didn’t make a strong enough impression.  First of all, that’s NOT what you guys said five minutes ago, after his performance.  Secondly, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  He did a split in the end!

Surfer Dude is crushed.  I’m pissed off.  It gets worse when Jiseong takes the fifty points from him.  No one cheers or laughs it off this time.  I know Jiseong had no choice, but both Hyung Seok and Surfer Dude were already ranked at the bottom.  This is kicking someone when he’s down.  I really, REALLY hate this.  Even the panelists are upset, and I want to yell at them that it’s THEIR show.

Okay.  Deep breath.  Two more teams to go.  Except no.  The coaches are announcing the last match.  It’s The Cadet, Sunghyuk, and Ki Joong.  What happened to the team of Jooan, Jaejun, and Baby H?  Are we just going to skip them?

Ki Joong gets a laugh when he steps forward and doesn’t realize that his fly is down.  ha ha that’s hilarious what is going on here?

Everyone’s choreography on this team is fine.  I’m glaring at the coaches through the screen.  Sunghyuk wins.  Yay.  I thought The Cadet was better, but what do I know?  Apparently, I’m supposed to find it normal that one of the teams has vanished into thin air.  Sunghyuk takes fifty points from The Cadet, which makes me even madder.  Again, the panelists are bummed that he had to take points away.  Again, panelists, IT’S YOUR SHOW.

This is because I criticized your show in my last recap, isn’t it?  You lost your damn minds when I told you to cancel the last three episodes, and now we can’t have nice things.

Suddenly, everything grinds to a halt.  Ki Joong is crying.  He says it’s because he hasn’t won an individual challenge his entire time on the show.  I know that must be incredibly frustrating, but I think it’s more than that.  He’s ranked near the bottom.  He’s spent God knows how many weeks out here in the wilderness, sleeping in a tent, getting rained on constantly, watching other contestants rise through the ranks.  He must be exhausted.  Cutting him would be an act of mercy at this point.

Everyone gathers at the Tower.  The new rankings are announced.  We are told that Jaejun stole fifty points from Jooan when he won.  Why didn’t we get to see it?  This drove me so nuts, I took to Reddit and found out that I wasn’t the only confused viewer.  Turns out that when the show was airing, the clip of the battle between our missing three idols was posted as a preview clip to advertise the next episode.  If you missed the promo, like many viewers did, you were very confused when the show aired.  

I managed to track down the clip on YouTube, without English subtitles.  Jooan also dances to “7 Years” by Lukas Graham.  It’s a dramatic performance.  His expressions are mesmerizing.  That’s how he is whenever he performs.  It should have been included on the show.  Jaejun dances to “Shoot Out” by Monsta X, which makes me VERY happy, and he captures the rock energy of that song.  Baby H does very well, even though he isn’t the best dancer.  Jooan gets one vote, and Jaejun gets the other two.  Jaejun takes the fifty points from Jooan.  There is no translation for the coaches’ comments, but they seemed to love all three performances. The entire clip is less than ten minutes.  They could have squeezed it in.  Or at least mentioned during the show why it wasn’t being aired. 

Back to the Tower and the rankings, which of course are not translated for non-Korean speakers.  Based on context, it looks like Taehoon is at the Number One spot, way ahead in points.  

Now comes the episode’s final mission:  the Stage Battle.  The winning team will get a chance to perform on an MBS show similar to American Bandstand or Total Request Live.  It’s a dream stage for idol trainees. 

Only fourteen of them will get a chance to compete for this.  Someone has to get eliminated first.  It’s the one at the very bottom of the rankings, Hyung Seok.

Honestly, he looks relieved.  He’s smiling.  He knew this was coming.  I hope his next stop is a nice hotel.  Everyone hugs him goodbye.  He tears off his name tag and leaves it in the grass by the Tower.  He thanks everyone, waves goodbye, and leaves.  

In his last confessional, he says he has no regrets and that his goal is still to become a star.  I searched for information on him.  I don’t see any other projects listed for him, but he’s signed to Will Entertainment, and his Instagram page says he’s a writer.  Whatever he’s doing, I hope he’s still cancer-free and happy.

The night passes, and morning begins with the Tower again.  Our fourteen contestants, now in orange raincoats because it will be raining nonstop all day, are congratulated for making it this far.  The Tower explains the setup for the Stage Battle.  Our idols will be divided into two teams of seven.  They will have 24 hours to finalize a performance for one of two songs on the show’s soundtrack.  And now we finally show them the Tower stages.  We get day and night shots of it.  I love it.  It’s a bit cluttered looking, but exciting.  

The stage battle will be broadcast live online.  There will be two votes, one for the best group and one for the best idol.  Everyone on the winning team will get fifty points each and will perform on the TV show.

Now for the songs.  The first one is called “Answer.”  Choi Young Jun, who has choreographed for Seventeen and Monsta X, has choreographed this piece.  The second song is called “No Thanks,” which sounds like a blunt response to the name of the first song.  The choreographer for this one is Kasper, who has done choreo for SHINee and EXO.  

Now we split the idols into the two groups, and here’s where I had trouble understanding the process.  Because of course the Tower doesn’t just choose the two teams and move on.  The idols will get to choose which song they want to do.  They will choose in order from lowest rank to highest.  There’s some rule about someone getting pushed out of a group that I’m not understanding, but the idols are calling it cruel, so I’m sure I’ll be thrilled when I find out.

We see two flags set up with the song names.  When an idol chooses a song, he goes and stands in a line next to that flag.

It looks like the first several idols are choosing the song “Answer,” and now I understand the cruel part.  It’s just like when they were choosing the Teams A through D earlier.  There can only be seven people per team.  There’s going to be drama because someone is going to get pushed out when there are too many idols on one team.  This seems so easy to solve.  When it’s your turn to choose and one team is full, go to the other team. 

Also, imagine you wrote the song “No Thanks” and saw that none of the contestants wanted to perform it.  But eventually, the No Thanks line does fill up, with just Taehoon left to choose his team.  There’s one more spot left on the Answer team, and no more room on the No Thanks team, and now I suddenly understand why Taehoon isn’t just going to take the last available spot.  He wants to win, and all the low-ranked idols chose the song “Answer.”  He wants to be on the No Thanks team with the top-ranked idols, most of whom are future TAN members.  

The Brat and Gun Wook are the only non-TAN members on Team No Thanks, and I’m hoping Taehoon sends one of them over to the Answer team.  But no, he kicks out his own future bandmate, Sunghyuk, who does not take it very well.  He’s really upset, like Taehoon has just insulted his family name and burned down his house.  The Christopher Nolan BWWWWAP on the soundtrack doesn’t help matters.  I do get why he’s not taking it well.  He was the first one to choose the No Thanks line and start drawing the high-ranked idols to that side, and now he’s the one who has to go to the low-ranked idols side, and THIS SHOW IS JUST MEAN.

This goes on for a while.  Sunghyuk is really upset.  He says his head hurts.  Dude, just go to the other team and plot your revenge.  We Americans could teach you a thing or two about that.  

Once Team Answer has medicated Sunghyuk and wrestled the dagger out of his hands, the Tower goes back to explaining the rules.  Each team must choose a Main Vocalist, a Main Rapper, and the Center.  The Center is the visual point person who usually appears in the middle of the group during performances and photo and video shoots.  And yes, that is the name of an actual job title in a K-pop group.  Hyungwon is the Center for Monsta X.  Jungkook is the Center for BTS.  I could write a whole manual on the different positions in K-pop groups, so for now, let’s move on.

The teams are ordered to go practice the choreo.  Our teams are:

Answer:  Hyunyeop, Surfer Dude, The Cadet, Baby H, Ki Joong, Aquaman, and Sunghyuk the Inconsolable.

No Thanks:  Most of TAN.  Jooan, Taehoon, Jaejun, Changsun, Jiseong, The Brat, and Gun Wook.

Right away, Team Answer is arguing over who gets to be the Second Sub-Vocalist.  Yes, that is also a K-pop group position.  Then there’s an argument over who gets to be the Center, so Surfer Dude and Ko Joong have a dance battle for it.  Ki Joong wins.  Now I’m worried that Surfer Dude might need meds.  He has lost every single battle over the past several episodes, and now he’s lost the Center position.  Somebody call Hyung Seok and see if his cab has already left for the airport.  Maybe he can swing by and pick up one more.

We move to the No Thanks team.  It’s a given that Jooan will be the Main Vocalist.  However, three people want to be the Main Rapper, and of course, one of them is The Brat.  Jooan suggests a rap battle.  Jiseong wins. 

The Brat then channels his frustration into the fight to be the Center.  No fewer than six idols participate in a dance battle for the Center position.  Jooan and Gun Wook have to decide the winner.  It’s a tie between Jaejun and Changsun.  They decide that Changsun will be the Main Center, and Jaejun will be the Center during the dance break.  I love this team.  

Back to Team Answer, as they start practicing the choreo, which is very difficult to learn.  They’re kind of all over the place.  Finally, Surfer Dude says they need a Leader.  (Leader is also a K-pop position, and so is Maknae, which is the youngest member.  Being the youngest member of a group is an actual official position.)  Anyway, they can’t choose a Leader because they can’t stop fighting.

Finally, Choreographer Choi Young Jun shows up.  They show clips of him dancing, and he’s brilliant.  It’s like his whole body is double-jointed.  I can see why Monsta X worked with him.

The Answer Team tries to show him their progress so far, and he is understandably taken aback.  As he works with them, they start to get more frustrated, and it’s just not coming together.  Ki Joong is not doing well as the Center.  Mr. Choi tries changing the choreo for him, but that’s not working either.

Night falls.  These guys have been rehearsing for hours, and they’re still not getting it.  Ki Joong hasn’t even learned the lyrics.  

Back to Team No Thanks.  Changsun is their leader.  Things are running smoothly.  Choreographer Kasper stops by.  They run through the dance, and they are so good.  They’re moving as one, completely in sync.  They still need more practice, but they are miles ahead of Team Answer. 

Kasper is pleasantly surprised.  He starts helping them with their formation.  When he demonstrates a move, they immediately copy it.  They are focused and enthusiastic.  This is most of the group that will become TAN, and I already see it.  Jaejun is killing it as the Dance Center.  The panelists are excited as they watch them improve with every round of practice.

They finally get back to their tents, but both teams can’t sleep.  Instead, they are outside in the dark, rainy weather, still practicing.  Team No Thanks finally gives in to exhaustion and crawls into their tents while Team Answer keeps practicing as long as they can stay awake.

Cut to the next day.  It’s Stage Battle Day.  Everyone is sound asleep in their tents.  Suddenly, the pounding drums play from the Tower.  Jooan instinctively runs out of his tent and heads for the Tower at top speed.  When he gets there, he finds one gold flag.  Come on, really?  I thought we were done with this!  

Jooan grabs the flag and is named Winner of the Wake-Up Mission and gets twenty bonus points, because this show is making it clear where they want me to shove my show improvement suggestions. 

The rest of the idols have now arrived, and the Tower tells them that with the next challenge, snacks are on the line.  Look, can we just give everyone a pack of Hi-Chews and get to the stage already?   Nope, the Tower tells them they will have a 7 on 7 … um … cockfight.  I swear that’s what the translation says.  The team with the last man standing after the cockfight will be the winner.  (In America, cockfighting is a highly illegal sport where gamblers make chickens fight to the death, so I am very concerned right now.)

Okay, I did some Googling, at the risk of triggering the police with my search history, and in Korea, cockfighting is a children’s game in which players hop on one leg and try to knock each other over.  So no one is going to prison today, and the winning team will get snacks.  

Yes, this is how we’re running down the clock in this episode.  Not with something exciting, like a tour of the stages, or a soundcheck, or the ten minutes of footage of Jooan, Jaejun and Baby H in the dance battle from earlier.  No, this is DEFINITELY more important.  Two teams jumping up and down, knocking each other over.

Team No Thanks wins the snacks.  Jooan, who knocked most of the other team down singlehandedly, is crazy with joy.  The panelists are saying they’ve never seen such a big smile on his face.  I say it’s because he’s manic from lack of sleep.  Whatever the reason, they get their snacks, WHICH ARE CHICKEN-FLAVORED.  

Honestly, the episode should just end on that perfect note.  But there’s one more item from my previous recap that the show has not addressed.  We get one more look at the stages, and we’re told that the Tower has been moved to the new location.  Yes, it is one Tower that they move around.  In this shot, I have my answer.  The Tower is mostly scaffolding. 

 

Good.  Send it to me.  I’m not kidding.  The next time my upstairs neighbors start blasting music while I’m trying to write, I will switch on that Tower with that deep voice and the LED screens and scare the living hell out of them.  I will OWN this neighborhood.

Three more episodes to go, folks ….  

Episode 11:  Baby, I’m a Star.

Back to Site Table of Contents