Back to Site Table of Contents
(Written March 5, 2025)
I’m excited! Our ten finalists, or maybe they’re not finalists, because no one’s been eliminated and a few of them won’t make it into the final group anyway … okay, whatever these ten trainees are, they have an assignment! One hour to pick a song and put a performance together!
Our trainees from Wild Idol would roll their eyes at this assignment, because at least our YG trainees get to do this indoors without being rained on, but let’s focus on this show. Welcome to Episode Four!
Right away, we hit a snag. The judges look at the current team and say there’s no rapper. What are they talking about? Haruto is in this group. The judges collectively shrug and call the ten trainees back into the room.
CEO Yang tells this group
that he’s still determined to get a 5-person group out of them. You can almost hear the air being sucked out
of the room. But then he tells us this
weird plan of how he’s going to go ahead and choose five now and make the
remaining five battle it out for two more places, for a total of seven. The group needs a few minutes to process this.
Okay, so let’s see who the guaranteed five are for now.
First, Bang Yedam. The poor guy has been fighting back tears this whole time. Maybe this will give him a chance to breathe.
Second is … yaaaay! Haruto! The judges must have remembered that he’s a rapper, and they need him.
Third is our own Junkyu. I just love how expressive he is. Two spots left.
Yedam, Haruto, and Junkyu
Fourth is Ha Yoon Bin, the future Zero/O-Wave guy. We were so close to having all five be future Treasure members. He still looks like he has absolutely no idea what’s going on.
Fifth and last is Junghwan,
future Treasure maknae. Everyone is
surprised. Trainees in confessionals say
he’s the last one they expected to make it.
It sounds mean, but in their defense, Junghwan is currently ranked 22nd.
Ha Yoon Bin and Junghwan
I want so much to push Ha Yoon Bin back into the line and replace him with Jeungwoo. I can’t imagine what the judges were thinking. At any rate, our remaining five who didn’t get picked will now have to battle it out for two more spots. They are future Treasure members Jeongwoo, Mashiho, and Jihoon, as well as Taiwanese trainee Jyun Hao and future CIX member Seung Hun.
CEO Yang checks his phone and says, “It’s now exactly 8:20pm. Meet me back here at 9:20pm.” They are expected to have a full performance ready, and the clock is ticking.
They quickly gather and scramble to find a song. They manage to narrow it down to “all pop songs,” which is not helpful. They start throwing out names. Sam Smith. Michael Bublé. Michael Jackson. They listen to “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendes and several other clips. They can’t seem to find a song they all know. And one of them doesn’t speak Korean well, which I guess is why they’re going through songs in English.
Twenty-five minutes go by. Our boys are getting VERY stressed.
Finally, Seung Hun suggests an iKON song called “Love Scenario.” I pull up the video. It’s a bouncy, playful song. As long as Jyun Hao can handle the Korean lyrics, we should be okay. The only problem is that all five of these guys are singers, and they need someone to do the rap. Hey, guys: Hyun Suk and Yoshi are still in the waiting area. I’m pretty sure in exchange for a trip to Starbucks and some fashionable thrift store attire, one of them would volunteer.
But then the Japanese trainee Mashiho, whose first language is also not Korean, decides to step up. The others go with it because they have thirty minutes to divide up the parts, learn the choreo, and maybe rehearse.
Time’s up. Back to the practice room we go. Our boys look confident. Let’s do this.
Interestingly, Jeongwoo is doing the rap. He’s good. I wonder why he switched that with Mashiho. (According to the trainees in the waiting area, Mashiho’s pronunciation is perfect when he sings in Korean.) There’s not much choreo. Each one just bops along and waits for his turn on the mic, but to be fair, they didn’t have enough time to learn the choreo.
CEO Yang seems to enjoy the performance, but once it ends, he has them all turn around while the judges decide. Honestly, I can see why Mashiho will make it into the final group. I’m willing to bet he’s one of the two chosen right now.
When the trainees turn back around, the CEO tells them it was really close. The 2nd and 3rd places were one vote apart. We get the names.
The first one is Mashiho. No surprise there.
Now for the final one. But before we can get the name, we’re getting a flashback about Seung Hun, so I’m assuming he’ll be the final one. We learn he’s been working so hard for two and a half years at YG, and the CEO has never complimented him once. That’s a long time to be ignored. We see that it’s taking a toll on him.
Back to the present. CEO Yang reads the name. And it’s not Seung Hun. It’s Jeongwoo. Yes, Jeongwoo deserves the honor, but my heart still breaks for Seung Hun, and the placement of his flashback feels really cruel.
We now have our Treasure 7,
and I can’t get over how young they look.
To review, our Treasure 7 Team is:
Haruto. Japanese trainee, future Treasure rapper.
Ha Yoon Bin. Our Zero/O-Wave guy who still looks confused. His facial expression had not changed once this entire series. Is he okay? Did he wander onto this show by accident? Are his friends and family wondering where he is?
Junghwan. Future Treasure maknae and headphone collector.
Bang Yedam, who hasn’t smiled once in two episodes. For the sake of his own mental health, I can’t wait for him to join Treasure so he can leave it and enjoy a solo career.
Jeongwoo. Treasure crooner extraordinaire.
Mashiho. Japanese singer who will temporarily be in Treasure.
Junkyu. Future Treasure member and Expression King.
Now, our stunned Treasure Team 7 goes to the waiting area and is greeted with hugs and applause. Everyone is emotional, not just from being chosen or not chosen, but because their teams are being split up. Some of these teams have been working together for a couple of years, and in the case of the A and J Teams, living together in the dorms. Everyone’s lives are changing.
I’ve seen enough of these
shows that I’m used to seeing the tears, but seeing Haruto cry as Yoshi hugs
him really gets to me.
Thankfully, we move ahead to the next rehearsal day, and it looks like no one has actually been eliminated yet. The Treasure 7 Team has their own practice room, and the remaining 21 wait in their own rather crowded room. The trainees in the crowded room are rather nervous, with no idea of what’s about to happen next.
A new YG group manager enters to talk to them. She has a big announcement. “From now on,” she says, “you will prepare for a one-on-one battle. Not all 21 of the trainees here will get to challenge the seven. Only five will be selected for a chance to compete.”
So it looks like the Top 7
will get switched out more than once. This
is exciting! Now that they know they’re
not going home just yet, the remaining 21 have their spark back. They will have
to do video assessments to compete for one of the five spots. “Show us your skills and charm!” the manager
says.
Now the 21 trainees start anguishing over what they can do for their talent. They have a two-tiered challenge. First, get one of the five spots, then successfully challenge one of the Top 7 for his spot. Just writing that down feels overwhelming. And it looks like the talent needs to be something other than singing, dancing, or rapping. Like a talent show-type talent. At first, I can’t believe these guys can’t think of anything to do, and then I realize I wouldn’t know what to do for a talent show either. I guess I could properly iron a shirt. That oughta wow the judges.
Let’s see what these guys come up with. We move ahead to Video Assessment Day. The Hallmark Card people could make a ton of money in Korea by making “Happy Video Assessment Day” cards to send to trainees. They could make a whole line of K-pop themed cards with messages like “Condolences on your evil edit,” or “Sorry you got eliminated,” or “Good luck on your next survival show (tenth time’s the charm!)”
Where was I? Right.
Talent show videos. Our guest
judges will be watching the videos on a monitor in a separate room. Who are they?
Please welcome BlackPink!
Style King Hyun Suk is up
first, and I have no idea what he’s doing.
It looks like an aegyo thing while eating a jelly candy, like he’s on
Sesame Street. The BlackPink girls are
laughing, so I guess it’s working. Next up is future Ciipher member and Boys
Planet contestant Keita. He does a
flapping mime dance that is pretty funny.
We move quickly through the other trainees because they each only have two minutes. Asahi demonstrates his facial expressions. Jihoon does vocal impressions. Yoshi makes sound effects. BlackPink makes fun of Yoshi’s animal print jacket. BlackPink is now my least favorite K-pop group.
When the auditions end, we don’t learn right away who the five winners are. Instead, we get a quick few seconds with the Treasure 7 Team who are choosing their songs for the D-Day Battles. Junghwan chooses “Lie” by BTS. Yedan chooses “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber, which is a great song for showing off your vocal ability. I can’t wait to hear Yedam sing it.
We now go back to the 21 trainees, who are listening to a song that the Treasure 7 Team has already recorded. (These two teams have been BUSY.) The song is called “Going Crazy.” We only hear a snippet, but it’s a fun dance beat. I’m guessing that tomorrow, the 21 trainees will all get copies of Treasure 7’s debut EP and learn that it’s already gone double platinum.
Suddenly, something awesome
happens. We see a stage being assembled
and an audience filing in. We’re getting
a real live show!
I am so excited. Live shows in front of an audience are my favorite part of these survival shows. LET’S FRIGGIN DO THIS.
We’re told that the audience consists of 100 “Treasure Makers,” which probably means they’ll be voting for the winners. However, Treasure fans on Tumblr have already warned me that CEO Yang makes the final decisions, so I’m taking these audience votes with a huge pillar of salt.
We jump right into the show
with Treasure 7 performing the signal song.
The song is a forgettable little dance bop, but I don’t think the song is supposed to stand out. It’s supposed to be a platform for the Treasure 7 members to show what they can do. And they are impressive, especially the vocalists. Yedam, Jeungwoo, and Junkyu really stand out. I love their voices.
The song ends, and an
announcer comes out. Holy crap, this
stage is amazing. It looks like an ice
castle.
The announcer introduces our Treasure 7 Team. Then we learn that the 100 Treasure Makers are all YG employees. Ooooookay. Now I get it. So when CEO Yang overrides their votes, they’ll know to keep their mouths shut. I bet their voting devices don’t even work. They’re probably mini-calculators with the batteries removed.
The announcer explains the rules, but they’re kind of confusing and involve cards, so let’s just see how this plays out. We learn that the 21 challengers don’t yet know which five of them will get to challenge the seven. They also don’t know yet that BlackPink was judging their talent show, so I’m guessing we’re about to get eliminations when some of them just die of embarrassment.
BlackPink appears on a screen
to reveal that they have determined the five challengers.
The trainees react in shock. They’re huge BlackPink fans. The first challenger the group announces is …
Kim Yeon Gue. Oh, okay! Who? (scrambling
through my notes) Here we are. He’s a future member of the groups ATBO and
TheCrewOne. He will not wind up in
Treasure, but it looks like he’s going to try.
Yeon Gue walks out onto the stage and is told to pick which Treasure 7 member he wants to battle. He chooses Jeongwoo. Wow. One of the best vocalists out of all the trainees. That is ballsy.
These two now go to a waiting area backstage. They’re both awkward with each other, even though they’re friends who came from the same team. The circumstances are very different now. Friends get pitted against each other all the time on these shows, but this feels especially rough. Maybe it’s because outside forces didn’t choose this – Yeon Gue chose it himself. There’s a hint of betrayal behind it.
Now to the stage. They’re going to sing “Stay” by
BlackPink. I like that there’s a live
band behind them. Let’s do this.
Okay. Let’s assess.
My opinion isn’t based on the fact that I’m a fan of the final group. This is just what I really think. Jeongwoo is a way better singer. Yeon Gue does have a lovely voice, but it doesn’t come close to the soulful passion in Jeongwoo’s voice. And Jeongwoo’s expressions are better. He makes eye contact with the camera and the audience. Yeon Gue spends most of the song staring at the floor. When they stand up and move to the music, Jeongwoo looks more comfortable in his own skin. He’s a natural performer, still needing more polish, but clearly a star.
The YG employees press the buttons on their toy calculators to stall for time while CEO Yang makes up his mind.
We’re then told that there will be switch-up rules, and either the Main Producer Card or the Treasure Maker Card determines the win. Wait, what? This makes no sense, unless they just want to make it looks like there’s a chance the employees will override the decision of the CEO. Which will NEVER happen. I hate when these survival shows do gimmicky stuff like this. Wild Idol did this a lot, and it drove me nuts.
On the screens behind them, a
gold playing card and a silver playing card appear. One represents the results from the audience,
and the other from the CEO. Jeongwoo
gets to pick the card, and I get to mutter under my breath about how stupid
this is.
Jeongwoo chooses the silver card, because it really doesn’t matter since the CEO is pulling the strings anyway. The announcer says the silver card just happens to be (prepare to be shocked) CEO Yang’s card. I’m sure it would have been CEO Yang’s card no matter which one he chose. That’s why they don’t tell the trainees which one is which until after they choose.
In case I’m not being clear, I really REALLY hate this.
Let’s get this over with. CEO Yang is asked to give his choice. And he chooses …
Yeon Gue.
Are you fucking kidding me?
I knew CEO Yang and I have a history of disagreeing on pretty much everything, but again, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? I demand to know how the audience voted.
The rest of the challenging
trainee group is excited, telling us in confessionals that they feel better
about their chances now. Well, of
course. Because they’ve just learned that
apparently you don’t have to be better than your opponent. You just have to hope that whatever CEO Yang
is spiking his drink with will make him hallucinate a TOTALLY DIFFERENT
performance than the one that is ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE –
Let’s just get through this. The audience card is revealed. They also chose Yeon Gue, which I refuse to believe, unless they’re on the same homemade bathtub amphetamines their CEO is taking. Judging by the surprised looks I’m seeing in the audience, those little voting devices are truly not connected to anything.
Jeongwoo keeps a brave face
until he joins the others backstage.
Then he lets the tears fall.
Back onstage, Yeon Gue does not look happy. I don’t think he expected to beat his longtime friend, and now he realizes what a stunning blow that friend is reeling from. It’s not really Yeon Gue’s fault. It’s the way these shows are set up.
The episode ends here. Stay tuned for the next episode, in which I’m
guessing Bang Yedam will lose his spot to a challenger with laryngitis. See you then.
Episode 5: Things get kind of dark.
Back to Site Table of Contents
No comments:
Post a Comment