With a look behind each team’s initial trials done, it was on to the meat of this episode, crushing the spirit of youth by telling them, “You shall not pass!”
Unlike the last elimination, this was a long and dragged-out affair. So rather than recap every excruciating moment, I’ll list who survived in each group.
K Group
- Choi Yujin
- Kim Chaehyun
- Kim Dayeon
- Kang Yeseo
- Seo Youngeun
- Guinn Myah
- Kim Bora
- Huening Bahiyyih
C Group
- Shen Xiaoting
- Su Ruiqi
- Huang Xingqiao
- Cai Bing
- Wen Zhe
- Chen Hsinwei
- Fu Yaning
- Xu Ziyin (left show due to health issues)
J Group
- Kawaguchi Yurina
- Sakamoto Mashiro
- Ezaki Hikaru
- Nonaka Shana
- Nagai Manami
- Kishida Ririka
- Ikema Ruan
- May
Planet Pass
- Kim Suyeon
- Zhou Xinyu
- Kamimoto Kotone
Top 9
- Shen Xiaoting
- Kawguchi Yurina
- Sakamoto Mashiro
- Ezaki Hikaru
- Choi Yujin
- Su Ruiqi
- Huang Xingqiao
- Cai Bing
- Kim Chaehyun
If you thought it was a lock for particular girls to survive after the past two episodes, take a look at the rankings above and think again. There’s a lot of “WTF” to discuss here.
I’ll start with the good stuff. Some girls managed to claw their way up into the top eight on the strength of their performances. Team We Are, in particular, managed to make it to the next round intact.
Many members of team Ice Cream also managed to advance despite a losing effort in the nine-member group competition. Nonaka Shana placing fourth in the J group was a pleasant surprise. At least one of the master’s favourites made it through.
Lastly, yay for Kamimoto Kotone for squeaking by. I guess bitching about screen time in your rap gets you somewhere.
And that’s it for the good things.
When it comes to the bad? Where to start? Team Salute got obliterated, with only Cai Bing surviving. That is like a commander leading her troops into certain death through a minefield and machine-gun fire and only coming out with a scratch on her face while everyone else got chopped up into hamburger.
Her speech sounded focused on herself, and there was no mention of thanking the bodies she left behind to get to her spot. I’m pretty sure that the villain in this show has switched from Fu Yaning to Cai Bing. She’s so good at digging a hole for herself that she doesn’t need the evil edits.
Also, why did Liang Jiao get a sniff of being near the top eight in the C Group? Did people not see her awful performance? I guess not.
Moving on to the K Group. I don’t get the appeal of Huening Bahiyyih at all. The girl hasn’t shown a lot outside of her small spot during the Ice Cream performance.
Perhaps her brother’s stans are pushing her to the moon, or some other forces behind the scenes want to keep her around for name value. But she isn’t anything special as far as I’m concerned.
I would have preferred Kim Doah in her spot. But, yes, there’s some high bias there since I’ve been a fan of hers since Produce 48.
Since we’re talking about her, she sure got robbed hard in this episode. Missing out on eighth place and the planet pass is a tough pill to swallow.
Seeing her and Jiwon get the boot leaves the U+ME=LOVE team in a jam losing both killing part candidates.
Since I mentioned the planet pass, many other girls from the K group, mainly Choi Yeyoung, deserved to get it. Nothing against Kim Suyeon, but not falling doesn’t necessarily warrant getting a pick from the masters.
It looks like the viewers whose hopes were on Yeyoung surviving got swerved hard.
The only complaint I have about the J Group is that Kubo Reina is now gone. That girl can sing circles around most of the competitors, and it sucks that she will be watching from the sidelines rather than continuing in the show.
Next week the remaining girls continue to practice the original songs for this round of the competition. However, the teams are uneven thanks to the recent elimination, so some girls will be switching sides whether they like it or not.
The dynamics of the groups could change for the better or not.
