YG Treasure Box, Episode 2: CEO Yang breaks my brain.

Back to Site Table of Contents

(Written February 28, 2025)

Okay.  Back down the tunnel of trauma we go.

When we last left our trainees, they were being judged harshly by a future felon CEO who, earlier in his career, had decided that Rain wasn’t good enough to join his entertainment company.  So this is definitely someone whose opinion we should trust.

We return to the D-Day assessment, and the J Team is being called into the room.  Good.  Maybe we’ll get the full performance this time.  Right away, the camera zooms in on Haruto and Yoshi.  

The other teams are not happy about the new competition, but no time to dwell on that, because it’s flashback time, and we’re off to Tokyo!

We learn that YG Japan held its own auditions for this show.  Thousands of Japanese kids audition every year to be a trainee with YG, and only one or two are picked.  We see the crowded dorms they live in and the classrooms where they learn foreign languages (especially Korean) and music composition.  Aaaaand…. End of flashback!

Back to the D-Day assessment.  CEO Yang tells our J Group that the other teams have disappointed him.  He says he’s looking for “someone who dances deliciously,” and the look on his face when he says it creeps me out.  Can he just go to jail already?

Time for Team J to attempt a delicious performance.

We only get to see about a minute of the performance, but that’s more than we saw in the last episode.  They dance well enough to make the other trainees look nervous.  When it’s over, instead of evaluating them, CEO Yang asks Bang Yedam to give his opinion, because CEO Yang is a very mean man.

Yedam chooses his words carefully, saying that Team J was more powerful.  He adds, “Like you said, they dance more deliciously.”  Okay, everyone please stop using that word.

CEO Yang declares that the J Team’s performance is, and I quote, “a crushing defeat for Korea.”  Again, he says they danced deliciously, and I never want to stop punching him.  He scolds the Korean trainees and makes them applaud the J Team.

Here’s the thing.  Just based on the few seconds I saw of each performance, they were all fine.  The J Team was good but not the electrifying explosion of talent he’s making them out to be.  The Korean teams were a bit out of sync but not an embarrassment.  CEO Yang is playing mind games with his own trainees.  He’s pitting them against each other.

The J Team is happy.  Don’t get used to it, boys.  Your CEO will pull the rug out from you eventually.

After a break, CEO Yang has a great idea.  He says YG is going to try something they haven’t done in 22 years.  What could he be thinking of?  Being encouraging and supportive to the trainees?  No longer using creepy words to describe their dancing?  Focusing on talent as well as looks? 

Well, I’m an idiot.  He tells the trainees to decide who is the best-looking member on each team.  He’s looking for the best visuals, and instead of making an executive decision like the head of any entertainment company would do, he’s making the trainees do it.

The teams discuss.  Everyone is too modest to be chosen, plus they’re probably scared of what the CEO has planned for them.  

One by one, they start coming forward.  Junkyu for Team A.  Jang Yun Seo for Team B.  (I can’t believe Team B didn’t choose future Treasure guy Jaehyuk.)  The C Group chooses In Hong, who won’t get into Treasure but will go on to be part of a trainee group called M.I.C.  Finally, for the J Group, it’s our confident Haruto.

I’m thinking they’re going to have to walk a runway or pose for selfies, but no, they have to sing.  Junkyu goes first, and his voice is gorgeous.  I’ve also gotta hand it to Jang Yun Seo – he’s also a wonderful singer.  In Hong does a melodic rap, but Haruto is a much better rapper.  More aggressive and sexy dangerous.  

Junkyu and Haruto

 

Suddenly, we get yanked into a flashback as Haruto tells us that his parents are BigBang fans.  We cut to his mother in a room full of BigBang merch she’s collected over the years.  I’m confused.  What are we doing here?  I know BigBang is a legendary YG group, but are we really trying to plug an already successful group on this show?

We see Haruto’s mom at a BigBang concert, screaming and waving her light stick.  Haruto tells us that her love of this group made him want to join YG.  When he got accepted there, his parents were over the moon.

Another sudden jump in time, and Haruto and his family are going to another concert the day before he flies to Korea for this show.  We see the poster.  The concert is by former BigBang member … oh no.

Okay.  We have to talk about someone else who is eventually going to prison.

The concert is by Seungri.  A year after this show aired, he went to prison for his role in the Burning Sun scandal, a crime that is too horrifying to discuss here, so look it up on your own if you ever feel like losing complete faith in humanity.  I didn’t think I would say this, but can we please go back to CEO Yang talking about delicious dancers?

I fast-forward through the concert footage, but it just keeps going because after the show, Haruto and his parents and his innocent-looking underage sister get to meet Seungri backstage, and now I’m throwing all my weight on the fast-forward button.  Let me be clear, I know this isn’t the show’s fault.  This show was being filmed before the allegations started.  I just hate this.

I feel better when we leave the concert venue and see Haruto having a final dinner with his family before flying to Korea.  He has a loving, supportive family.

Thankfully, we return to the practice room, where our CEO decides to put Haruto up against his future bandmate Junkyu in a vocal battle.

Haruto’s up first and raps with that sexy aggression.  He’s already K-pop idol material.  He gets enthusiastic applause when he finishes.  CEO Yang says he has a good voice and his own groove in the way he moves.  He calls it a very indie kind of rap with visual appeal.  I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but no.  He means it.  It’s a very positive review.  Haruto is pleased.  Junkyu looks worried.

It’s Junkyu’s turn.  He steps up and sings, but both his hands and voice are shaking.  He’s too nervous.  We get a flashback showing how the constant criticism from YG coaches has been getting to him over the years.  We already saw Junkyu in the first episode, exhausted and losing focus.  Now he’s up against a member of Team J, a team that just decimated the Korean teams, according to his own company’s CEO.  Of course he’s shaking.

But after that shaky start, he seems to slowly gain confidence again.  I love his voice.  It’s soulful and has a wide range.  He can hit some high notes without straining for them.  He dances to the beat, and the other trainees are caught up in the positive energy of it all.  It’s uplifting.  He’s finally found his footing.

CEO Yang tells him he did well.  He says he finally sees Junkyu’s potential.  His fellow trainees cheer for him.  I actually get a bit misty-eyed.

Our CEO declares the battle a tie.  Is he starting to mellow out?  He now wants a dance battle and tells everyone to choose the best dancer from each team.

Team A chooses future Treasure member Doyoung.  He’s going up against Team J’s Kotaro, who won’t make it into Treasure but will later join a Japanese co-ed group called Diavo.  I did not know co-ed groups were allowed in this genre, and I guess they still aren’t because they seem to have disbanded.  I can’t find anything about them online. 

Kotaro goes first.  He’s high energy hip hop in motion.  We only get about 15 seconds of the performance, but I like it.

CEO Yang doesn’t.  He says Korean trainees dance more in the latest style.  He tells Kotaro he needs to make the latest dance trends his own.  I feel incredibly out of touch with modern trends.  I mean, if Kotaro had come out wearing a fedora and dancing the Charleston, I would have known something was off, but I didn’t know what he was doing was already outdated.

Doyoung’s turn.  In a quick flashback, we learn that he’s always been the best dancer in his trainee group.  That’s a setup if I’ve ever seen one.  Showtime!

Again, we only see a few seconds of the performance, so I can’t really judge, but it looks good.  I don’t really see how it differs from Kotaro’s style of dancing, but I’m not the expert.  That would be CEO Yang, who loved it.  He likes that Doyoung chose a recent style of dancing and a great song.  He declares Doyoung, and by extension, Korea, the winner of the dance battle.

Now for a rap battle.  Each team sends up their best rapper, and I don’t know why Haruto didn’t choose to be in this battle instead.  Among the rappers, I see future Treasure members Hyun Suk and Yoshi.  I am so ready for this.

Hyun Suk steps up first.  He’s doing a song he wrote himself, called “Go Yard.”

I love it.  I love his flow, his expression, his confidence.  The beat gets right into my bloodstream, and I’m bouncing in my seat along with the other trainees.

When he finishes, CEO Yang looks skeptical.  He says Hyun Suk had too much going on.  “You make gestures before you rap,” he says.  “I can’t hear you rap because of those distractions.  Too much, too salty!”  He tells Hyun Suk to learn to get down to the essence of a song, or he won’t make the final five.

I’m so confused.  In all the recaps I’ve done so far, I’ve gotten pretty good at judging performances and predicting how the judges will react.  On this show, I’m getting it wrong almost every time, and I don’t know if it’s me or if CEO Yang is just trying to create drama for the show.

All the trainees look bummed, and I think they weren’t expecting this kind of feedback either.

We’re moving on, and I guess we’re skipping Yoshi.  Next up is Jung Jun Hyuk from the Junior Group C.  He’s so young and much shorter than the others, looking like he’s part of Bring Your Kid to Work Day.  The show even plays baby gurgling noises on the soundtrack.

In a flashback, we learn he’s a first year trainee and just recently took his first steps and graduated to solid foods.  (Sorry, that was mean.  But am I deleting it?  No.  Look at this picture.  He’s practically daring me to leave it in.)

Okay.  Let’s hear this kid spit some bars.  But wait.  CEO Yang tells Hyun Suk to step forward.  He wants Jung Jun Hyuk to school Hyun Suk by rapping directly at him.  I thought Korean kids were taught to respect their elders.  I want to see how our first year trainee keeps his confidence when rapping at someone old enough to tie his own shoes.  

It’s a verbal beatdown.  The kid is GOOD.  He earns the respect of all the other trainees, including Hyun Suk.  Although I maintain that it’s still a little weird watching a little kid rap with that kind of attitude.  He needs a few more years on him for that kind of credibility.

CEO Yang tells Hyun Suk he could learn a thing or two from this kid.  He asks Hyun Suk if he’s embarrassed and gets an affirmative reply.  And that’s it for the rapper assessment.  I don’t know what the other competitors were doing up there, unless their parts were edited out along with 90% of the rest of the performances.

Everyone takes a break, and Team A says they’re worried because they’ve been getting bad reviews so far.  Wait a minute.  (checking notes)  No they haven’t.  Junkyu’s on Team A, and the CEO praised his performance.  He had even more praise for Doyoung in the dance battle. 

After the break, which I hope Team A spent watching the footage of their own show, it’s time for the remaining twelve vocalists who haven’t done their assessments yet.  This group includes future Treasure bandmates Bang Yedam, Jaehyuk, Jeongwoo, and Asahi. 

But first up is Wang Jyun Hao.  He has a lovely voice, but the song is in English, and he struggles with the pronunciation.  His dancing is also a bit awkward and doesn’t really fit the tone of the song.  But our CEO is entranced.  He loves the performances.  I give up.  I’ve clearly lost my ability to properly critique these performances. 

Now we finally get to see Asahi. We get five seconds of his singing.  I can’t even form an opinion based on those few notes, but the CEO says he lacks charm.  I can’t even with this guy.  Well, bye Asahi.  Good seeing you for those apparently charmless five seconds.

We get just two or three seconds of the other singers, and I have to scramble for the pause button when Jaehyuk steps up so I won’t miss him.  He also stumbles over the English pronunciation, but I love the quality of his voice – a very smooth low register.  

Asahi and Jaehyuk

 But CEO Yang is displeased.  I’m just going to assume that he and I won’t agree on anything for the rest of this entire series.  Pavarotti could rise from the dead and flawlessly belt out a piece from La Bohème, and our CEO would tell him it wasn’t beatboxy enough.

After a series of more “bad” performances, CEO Yang is getting fed up.  He wants a vocal battle between the two remaining trainees – Bang Yedam from Team A and Jeongwoo from Team C.  These are two excellent singers, so I’m sure the CEO will hate them both. 

Right away, the other trainees are betting on Yedam.  Yedam doesn’t look so confident.  He’s going first with a song he wrote himself, called “Blackswan.”

I love his voice and this song.  I’ve always loved Yedam’s voice, even before I knew he used to be in Treasure.  He already looks and sings like an idol.  The whole room is bopping along with him.

Jeongwoo’s turn.  He’s singing an Adele song.  

It’s a ballad, and his voice is absolutely gorgeous.  It soars with emotion, more than I’d expect a kid his age to understand.  He’s spellbinding. 

I don’t think it’s fair to compare these two performances and pick a winner.  These two singers have very different styles and sang very different songs, and they were both wonderful.  They’re my favorite performances of the episode.

But CEO Yang finds a way to wreck the mood.  He heaps praise on Jeongwoo and then tells Yedam the song he wrote wasn’t trendy, which made him lose that uniqueness.

Let me see if I can unpack this.  By definition, being trendy is not being unique.  A person is unique by defying trends.  Yedam’s song wasn’t trendy.  Therefore, he is unique, unless you live in CEO Yang’s head, in which up is down and down is up and ice cream tastes bad and earthquakes are good and PUPPIES ARE EVIL AND ROOT BEER IS POISON, AND I LIKE ROOT BEER BUT WHAT DO I KNOW SO I GUESS I HATE ROOT BEER NOW AND EXCUSE ME I’M GOING TO GO OUTSIDE AND KICK A TREE.

okay.  i’m okay now.  let’s just get through the rest of this episode.

So Yedam the Trend-Lacking Non-Unique Trainee loses to Jeongwoo.  We cut to later that night at the practice studio, where the 29 trainees return from dinner to find the rankings posted on a wall.

I don’t read Korean, but here are some of the translated rankings, presented to us out of order because why the hell not:

1^st place:  Jung Jun Hyuk, the babyfaced rapper.

4^th place:  Bang Yedam.  Urge to kill rising.

3^rd place:  Wang Jyun Hao, the awkwardly dancing singer.

7^th place:  Ha Yoon Bin.  I have no idea who this is.  I don’t have him anywhere in my notes.  I looked him up, and after this show, he takes two different stage names (VIIN and Ben) and joins a group called OWAVE.  I don’t know if that’s “Zero Wave” or “O-Wave,” but it doesn’t matter since CEO Yang probably hates both names because waves are SO last week.

8^th place:  Mashiho.  He’s not in my notes either, so I looked him up, and guess what?  He’s going to wind up in Treasure at the end of this series, and then later, he’ll leave the group.  I can’t imagine what it’s like to be this group’s manager.  That person must drink a lot.

2^nd place:  The soulful singer and future Treasure member Jeongwoo.  Well-deserved. 

13^th place:  Jeongwoo’s future bandmate Doyoung.  Doyoung won his dance battle, and CEO Yang raved about his performance, so in the Salvador Dali School of Realism that is this show, he’s ranked low on the list.

11^th place is a tie between our Style King Hyun Suk and his future bandmate Junkyu.  Hyun Suk lost his battle and Junkyu earned praise, so yeah, let’s rank them both the same.  Fun Fact:  if you dig your nails in hard enough, you can lose all feeling in your left arm.

17^th place is Lee Byoung Gon.  Literally no clue who this is.  He’s not in Treasure.  I looked him up.  He will go on to join a group called CIX.  Oh, I know them!  I love their song “Thunder”!  Or maybe I don’t.  Someone go ask CEO Yang what I should think of it.

That’s all the rankings we get translated.  Hyun Suk is pissed off.  In a confessional, he tells us he’s mad, embarrassed, and upset.  This is probably what Tumblr’s Treasure fans were warning me about.

Team A returns to the dorm and mopes.  

And it’s on this depressing scene that this episode ends.

Wow.  I’ve recapped some strange shows in my day, but never one where a judge appeared to be getting his opinions from the voices in his head.  Maybe it’s a good thing that CEO Yang gets arrested.  I hear your nicer prisons offer mental health treatment.

As for me, I’m going to find some Excedrin and lie down for a while.  See you eventually in Episode Three.

 

Episode 3:  NOW we’re off and running!

Back to Site Table of Contents