South Korean reality TV – Page 2

Kyeonghun (경훈) got a crack in the case, but the bandits were determined not to be found out, and no one believed Kyeonghun; they just dismissed his hunch. Even when Dongmin (동민) Oppa (오빠) correctly guessed Jeongmun (정문) was a bandit queen, the bandits were determined to survive, and win, while the villagers were just content with not losing.

Jeongmun was just fighting to survive. Kyeongran (경란) Eonni (언니) wasn’t innocent. She was also a bandit. Jeongmun didn’t sell her mentor out. She won legitimately – bandit queen vs. bandit queen. I empathized with Jeongmun so much, at that moment. You have to survive. Hyunmin’s (현민) reaction was mine: big time relief.

Jeongmun’s face, when she found out Kyeongran Eonni was a bandit, was just the best. I was blown away. Jeongmun could at least hide it better. Kyeongran Eonni had zero poker face. That’s how Eonni ended up on Exile Island. Kyeongran Eonni couldn’t stop smiling, for the entire episode. There was no hiding it: she was a bandit through and through. Obvious bandit is obvious. I was Jeongmun, in this video game.

Episode 5 is definitely the best episode, of Season 4 – if not, the entire series. You know a show is a winner, when every time you re-watch it, it gets better and better. I love The Genius. The stage was set for there to be so much drama over whether one bandit would escape, while one innocent person would be sent to the Death Match. Thankfully Kyeongran Eonni was indeed guilty. But that was such a good Main Match and hence, such a good episode. It was true catharsis – like medieval Korean dance, with folk masks, or ancient Greek theater.

Nobody got it right, so the viewer wasn’t the only one fooled. Literally no one, in the house, knew for sure, 100%, that Kyeongran Eonni was a bandit, until the reveal. It’s so ironic that Dongmin Oppa was legitimately the villagers’ king, but by the end of this tumultuous Main Match, half the village put him down as the main suspect, for the bandit king. Dongmin Oppa and Jeongmun got the evil edit and Kyeongran Eonni got the crystal clear, innocent person edit.

Thankfully, like in real life, it was a bit of both: Dongmin Oppa and the villagers weren’t so smart to figure out who all the bandits were – but they weren’t so diabolically self-interested to sacrifice innocent people, just to get ahead in the game. Kyeongran Eonni actually being a bandit queen saved everyone from being forced to go over a pretty steep moral event horizon. The group could have voted out an innocent villager, and maybe justified it or rationalized it – but what would that say about them? What would that say about society?

Kyeongran (경란) Eonni (언니) was onto Seonggyu (성규), from Episode 1. He seemed all jolly and happy, like Charlie, on Lost – but there was an exceptional and crafty mind, beneath that cheery veneer, beneath the mask.

Seonggyu won the Expression Auction. He granted Sangmin (상민) Oppa (오빠) immunity. Then, Jinho (진호) Oppa, who lost, picked Eunji (은지) in the Death Match. It was the mercenary, Jinho Oppa, versus Eunji, the lone wolf.

Eunji should have never given Seonggyu 8 garnets, at the beginning of the episode. Even Sangmin Oppa was aghast. Seonggyu should have gotten 2 and Sangmin Oppa, 1 – that’s it. Why did she give Seonggyu 8 garnets, and then Sangmin Oppa 6, and then another 2, to Seonggyu?

Seonggyu wasn’t even grateful. 48 Laws of Power. Never try to win people over by holding people in your debt. Never appeal to graciousness or mercy. Always appeal to greed and self-interest. Seonggyu didn’t owe Eunji any favors.

Seonggyu, and his producer, wanted to run the second horse race, in Episode 10, with their huge amount of garnets, and trick the other teams, with false bets. This created a real underdog situation, for the other teams. Karma did Kyeongran Eonni a solid, in helping her team win immunity.

Seonggyu tried to buy the race, by buying up all the expensive hints, but Sangmin Oppa’s loyalty was to many other people, in the game, than to just him, and he lost the Main Match and went home, after losing in tactical yut nori (윷놀이).

Buying the expensive decks, in Open, Pass, worked – but Sangmin Oppa, was only loyal to Seonggyu, in the beginning of the season. By Episode 11, the rising tide of Kyeongran Eonni and Jinho Oppa, could no longer be denied.

By spending too much money, too early, Seonggyu put a huge target on his back. He became the one to beat, instead of the dark horse. This happened to Eunji too, before her final Main Match.

She immediately began wasting her assets, on paying off people, like Seonggyu. At the end of the episode, she didn’t have enough garnets, in Indian Poker, to save herself, and Jinho Oppa eliminated her.