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(Written on April 5, 2024)
I was looking over my Episode 2 recap, and if it seems a bit choppy, it’s because that’s how this show feels right now. It’s just a series of competitions and the winners. It’s been a little difficult to follow because of the large number of trainees, but starting with the next episode, that should change.
In this episode, we are finally eliminating people, and I know that sounds coldhearted, but these episodes are going to be so much easier to follow once we send the majority of these contestants home. These episodes are over 90 minutes long, and because there are so many people to keep track of, it’s hard to get to know or care about any of them. No Mercy had no more than twelve trainees competing at a time, so we had time to get invested in their personal stories, starting with Shownu in the very first episode. Here, there’s been no time. But this appears to be the pivotal episode that will change that. So let’s dive in.
Back to the Talent
competitions. We’ve done vocals, rap,
and dance, so what’s left? It’s fashion
and visuals! We’re greeted by two new
coaches, one a fashion designer and the other a photographer. The designer announces proudly that she’s the
one who designed the trainees’ uniforms for the show.
This is a modeling challenge. The trainees are nervous. They claim they haven’t been able to wash their hair, and their only showers have been provided by doing the ocean shuttle runs. (I have my doubts.) But Jaejun (#31), one of the visual stunners of TAN, is in this group, so it’s time for him to shine. And he does not disappoint. He says he’s trying to look like Tarzan, and his pictures turn out stunning
I feel sorry for the trainee who has to follow Jaejun. Of course, it’s Changsun. But he’s game. He finds a rope and ties his wrists with it, telling the photographer he’s playing the part of a fugitive who has escaped and is running through the wilderness, which is brilliant. He’s a little self-conscious in front of the camera, but I like the results.
The others are also self-conscious, and as someone who hates getting her picture taken, I can relate. Still, they try. Trainee #25 does well, lounging on the rocks, looking bored, like he’s waiting for someone. When the coach asks him who he’s waiting for, he says, “My mom,” which made me laugh.
Other trainees know how to use the wild surroundings to their advantage. One of them gets a gust of wind that ruffles his hair and makes his shirt billow out slightly at just the right moment. I’m starting to get nervous. This is serious competition for Jaejun and Changsun. My fears are confirmed when the coaches announce that the winner is … Trainee #25, the one who was waiting for his mom. Okay, TAN members, time to play dirty. You’re standing on rocks. Push someone already.
I think the show realizes that it still has a lot of trainees who have other challenges to do, so we need to pick up the pace. And as we move along, two great things happen. First, our TAN guys are starting to stand out and win their challenges. Secondly, we’re starting to spend a little more time with some of them, helping us get to know them. Highlights of the next thirty minutes or so include:
Jaejun winning his group’s rap challenge. He raps in a mix of Korean and English and beats out some strong competition. He’s the fourth TAN member to get a name badge.
Changsun winning his
group’s dance challenge. He’s really racking up those awards. His energetic, expressive, exciting dance
moves are a preview of what’s we’ll see from him in TAN.
Taehoon winning his group’s dance challenge with a Monsta X crossover. The contestants have to introduce themselves through freestyle dancing, and Taehoon steps forward to “Dramarama” by Monsta X. His moves match the song’s aggression and attitude. (I’m also reminded that TAN will go on to do an amazing dance/lip sync cover of Monsta X’s “Shoot Out,” the video for which has to be seen to be believed.) “He’s good at everything,” says one of the other trainees. Oh, just you wait.
Later, while watching the
other dancers, Taehoon sits with his future bandmates Jooan and Jiseong. They’re already bonding.
Jooan. Everything Jooan. I’ve always found him the most interesting member of TAN, so it’s gratifying to see the show focusing on him a bit more as he starts winning categories and becomes the fifth TAN member with a name badge. He starts by winning the modeling challenge, but that’s no surprise. Yes, he’s handsome, but there’s also a lot going on behind those eyes, and the photographer knows how to capture it.
But the most
revealing Jooan moment comes from the vocal challenge. TAN fans (they’re called SODAs) (I’ll explain
later) know that Jooan is a Justin Bieber fan who plays guitar and writes
songs. He tells the coaches he couldn’t
bring his guitar into the wilderness, but he’s going to sing an arrangement he
composed of Bieber’s “Off My Face.” And
then he sings, and I wish I could put the sound into words. He’s vulnerable and seductive. He’s sweet and strong. Those high notes are heaven.
We go from here to the rankings, and I’m excited. Everyone gathers at the Tower, talking about how important it is to get into the Top 14, so maybe we’ll get eliminations now.
The rankings are encouraging, even though I know these are the ones before any math shenanigans.
Number 1: Changsun and
Jooan are tied.
Number 3: Sunghyuk
Number 5: Taehoon
Number 6: Jaejun.
Number 12: Jiseong
Number 17: Hyunyeop
Now for the double
points. The Tower will determine who
gets these by announcing the overall winner in all of the talent
categories.
The overall
winner in vocals is Jooan. I love the
joy on his face. For dance, it’s
Changsun. Modeling is a tie with Jooan
and another trainee. Time to see how
this affects the rankings.
But the Tower isn’t done. It announces one more mission. Everyone must do a group choreography routine to the Wild Idol theme song, the same song they had to dance to over and over again during the dance challenge. I’m already tired of hearing it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if all 44 trainees threw down their badges and ran screaming to the nearest Holiday Inn.
There is an incentive to stay, though. The overall winners in each category will be the main dancers, getting the most screentime and attention from the coaches, who will be picking their favorites to get additional points. This is also the performance the viewing audience will be watching and sending in their favorites for the online poll. So you’d better believe they all get into formation and start rehearsing.
Here’s the thing. These trainees, who have been competing all day and are probably exhausted, are about to rehearse the entire night. The only people who can’t possibly benefit from this are the ones at the very bottom of the rankings. They have to know that no matter how well they do in this performance, they still won’t get into the Top 14. The only justification could be that quitting will affect their reputation in the industry.
Although now that I think about it, there might be some brainwashing involved as well. If I’d spent an entire week hearing a Tower lecture me that living in the wild means surviving, and idols need to survive by being wild and being idols and fighting to be a surviving idol, I’d be an all-night dancing blithering mess.
As the dancers rehearse and
rehearse and rehearse, we get the caption, “The night goes sleeplessly in the
wild.” Well, the animals WOULD be
sleeping if you’d stop with all the dancing and turn that song off for ten
minutes. Does Korea have its own version
of the ASPCA?
At sunrise, our bleary-eyed idols are given a breakfast of chicken sausage and other healthy things, and I watch them eat while I enjoy a bagel and Diet Dr. Pepper.
Then the dance coach comes back, and they keep rehearsing, and that’s when I realize that the final competition isn’t until nightfall. These trainees will have been up for two straight days. I will say it again: America would never, there would be lawsuits, you know the drill. Just putting it out there again. And before you argue with me, just remember that some former contestants from the American version of Love is Blind are suing Netflix for making them stay awake for many hours and not giving them enough food. I’m not saying the Love is Blind contestants don’t have a case, but they really oughta get a load of this show.
So now it’s night again, and the coaches from all the talent competitions arrive. They tell us that during the performance, each coach will pick one dancer to get 100 extra points. Those, along with the audience poll bonus points, will be added to the current rankings.
The dance begins, and it’s high-energy, perfectly synchronized, and in the light of the tower looming over them, positively tribal. Now I think I understand why even the lowest-ranking trainees would work so hard. How amazing to be a part of this. No matter what happens to these trainees going forward, they will have been part of a performance that looks as exhilarating to take part in as it is to watch.
When it ends, I play it back again. I’m not ready to let it go. I even forget how tired I am of the song because the performance makes it sound new. We find out later that they weren’t even dancing on smooth ground. There are loose pebbles everywhere. You’d never know. Not a single slip or stumble.
The judges make their
decisions, and all the scores get recalculated, including the audience
poll. The trainees gather around the
Tower. We are about to get the final
rankings, and this time, people will be going home. Only the Top 14 will continue. We already
know that the members of TAN will be in the Top 14, but there will still be
surprises.
Number 1: Jooan. He’s overwhelmed to find himself at the top. He looks like he can’t believe it. Then, we cut away to a confessional, and he reveals something that stuns me. He’s not signed to a company. Because he doesn’t have the privileges associated with belonging to an entertainment company, he doesn’t have reserved space in a training room to practice. He has to schedule his practice sessions around the signed trainees’ appointments. He was very nervous about doing this show because he was afraid he’d embarrass himself against the competitors with entertainment company backing
I hit the pause button after hearing this and just sat for a few minutes.
I had no idea. It puts everything he has done in this show in a new light. In the No Mercy recaps, I talked about all the sacrifices and hardships that come with being a trainee in an entertainment company, but aspiring artists still audition to get signed by these companies and put themselves through the hardships because of the benefits. You have access to professional trainers, rehearsal space, industry contacts, stylists, promoters, and anything else the company is willing to invest in you.
Jooan not only didn’t have any of that, he had to work around those who did. He probably had to audition for this show on his own instead of being referred by a company. And in this show’s first round of eliminations, where nearly two-thirds of the competitors are being sent home, he doesn’t just hold his own. He beats them all. His name is at the very top of that tower.
After sitting for a while, I wrote in my notes that I would have loved to know this in the beginning, if only the show hadn’t had to race through the missions with too many candidates to tell us any of their stories. But now as I’m typing this, I’m not so sure. Being told this now has much more of an impact, and I think it sends a signal. Now that we have a manageable number of competitors, we’ll have time to slow down and get to know them.
I also realize that I have been calling all the competitors “trainees” in these recaps. Jooan isn’t a trainee, at least not in the regular sense. He’s an indie artist. I wonder what else I’m going to learn about these fourteen competitors we’ll be seeing.
Okay, time to see where the rest of TAN wound up in the rankings so we can move forward and find out.
Number 2: Changsun. No surprise there. He and Jooan have been each other’s biggest rivals since they almost tied in the log-flipping race. It should be fun to see the rivals become bandmates.
Number 4: Sunghyuk. Dropped a spot, but probably just because
Jooan and Changsun had previously shared the top spot. Everyone is dropping down a bit.
Number 6: Trainee 11, who finally gets his name badge. It’s Hyunyeop. He rose all the way up from 18th place in the previous rankings. He was the choice of one of the coaches in the final group dance. He’s overwhelmed and crying. Just when he’s pulling himself together, he finds out he’s finally getting a name badge, and he’s crying again. I love this guy.
Number 9: Taehoon. Our Loyal Trainee. I love this guy too.
Number 11: Trainee 9, also finally getting a name badge. It’s Jiseong. I am so happy about this. Jiseong is the one who got robbed in his group’s rapping challenge, losing to a guy doing “melodic rap,” WHICH IS JUST SINGING. HE LOST A RAPPING CONTEST TO A SINGER. NO I WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THIS. JUSTICE FOR JISEONG. Oh wait, he got justice. He made it to the Top 14. Never mind. Moving on.
Number 12: Jaejun. He was the winner of his group’s
rapping challenge because HE ACTUALLY RAPPED INSTEAD OF SINGING okay I’ll
stop. I promise I’ll stop. TAN is now all present and accounted for, so
I’ll stop.
After the fourteenth number is called, it dawns on the remaining thirty that this is it. No more missions. They are going home. And here’s where it gets brutal. Most of them are hugging the new friends they’ve made and saying goodbye. All except for one, who can only stand and stare at the Tower. He can’t move just yet. Turning away would mean taking the first steps toward admitting defeat, going home, and continuing his struggle as an trainee, but he needs a minute first.
Most of the other eliminated trainees
are taking it well, but we do have a few crying hard. I think it’s more than just the
disappointment of being sent home. The
past few days have taken everything out of them. They are physically, emotionally, and
mentally exhausted. When they get home, they’re
probably going to sleep for a month.
Just as we’re wrapping this up, the Tower speaks again. Just one word.
Everyone spins around.
“… there’s an additional survivor.”
The episode ends.
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