And so, my winner's pick has fallen. ):::
This was a rather good episode I feel, especially after a few weaker ones, though of course not the best one this season. Having the guests interact with the remaining players was rather cool to see who had the social abilities to work with people even outside of the game. Yep yep, Dongmin dominated again... Or should I say dongminated again hahahah >< I also liked how Kyunghoon sounded like Sunggyu when he interacted with Sangmin. O.O
However, I somehow feel like the guests were rather bias in a sense that Ahyoung went with the mindset of making sure Kyunghoon didn't get to win... Not exactly the best decision for guests to just target someone. Also, I wished that more eliminated players this season got to come back and play ): Furthermore, we didn't quite get to see some guests like Jongbum and Doohee do much to shake up the game.
Alright, now that I have ranted a little about the guests, back to Horror Race II! I liked the slight changes about carrying other pieces and the mud (though the latter didn't make much of a difference). It made it slightly easier for characters with more supporters to still get to move forward a little. It started off with a brilliant move by Hyunmin to have 1 overlapping character with one player each. However, it proved to be a sad drop from there on out as the players kind of saw through him and didn't want to play with him 100%. Junseok had an interesting start to the game with the least number of players sharing the same characters as him, however it also meant that fewer players were supporting his characters... Kyunghoon and Junseok were doing rather well with their white chip, until they were just 2 players who were supporting them full on.
I will fast forward to Dongmin winning the game with the help of 3/5 returning guests. Once again it just showed us how good of an influencer he is. Even Hyunmin couldn't understand how he got 3 guests and Jinho to back him. Me neither. :/ Looks like Dongmin stands a really good chance of winning, especially if he gets into the final 2.
Kyunghoon lost and he chose... Junseok. I am upset. I kinda wished that Hyunmin would go to the Deathmatch for once just because he hasn't played. I was really hoping Junseok won but he didn't, so there goes my winner's pick. I really thought he did fantastic this season! :)
Deathmatch was the most awaited Quattro!!! Finally! :D
And they were playing with... players who were quiet and unresponsive? How rude, haha! The social aspect of this game which we all loved in season 2 ep 1 was gone for motionless players that could only swap cards. I thought the change was alright though. Now for a little game talk, I was thinking that the shuffle was a really important one. Kyunghoon got super lucky with three 6's? Wow. Meanwhile, Junseok wasn't too good with his draw. I thought that getting a (few) 0 card/s might be good at first and then if you let it/them out nearer the end, it might be interesting to make your opponent get them. I wished they had more silent players though, 6 players felt too little.
A roundup after this session, 4 players left: Jinho, Dongmin, Hyunmin, Kyunghoon.
I am seriously looking forward to how the last few episodes will play out. Also, now that we have come so far this season, the likelihood of seeing a non-winner win this grand final is looking pretty dim. ): I hope to see them win of course, but I guess if Jinho/Dongmin won again, I would be happy nonetheless.
Next episode! With selected guests playing separated mini games... Looks really interesting and I am looking forward to see how it plays out, seems like Kyunghoon and friend will do well, but it could be misleading.
Crunch time! ;D
Find me on twitter @raycherr or comment below!
Cheers & I will see you next week!
Hello! Was quite busy last week, so I didn't comment on the previous episode. Really wanted to though! But Jinho won, so all's fair (I'm biased like that heh), and that's that.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, regarding Ahyoung going into this game with the mindset to kill Kyunghoon, I think it's just part and parcel of the game. I suppose it's like throughout the season, you 'collect' accomplices and when you enter the finals, you gain help from them since you were allies before. And if say you rarely interact with the person, he or she won't help you in the finals by not giving the power-ups for the games. So I guess Kyunghoon should have thought about this before he betrayed Ahyoung last season. Meh. I suppose it's like say, Jiwon is in the game and Doohee is a guest, I think Doohee would still have a grudge against Jiwon and set out to not help him or even to kill him. I guess this is the variable? You gotta win but in the process you gotta make sure to maintain cordial relationships. Tough life for the players haha.
Yeah, I thought the puddle would make the characters stop for one round or something, but it didn't really help. Hmm, actually I'm not sure whether Jinho should have revealed to the two who chose the mummy. But I suppose his loyalty(?) to Dongmin as alliances this episode made him trust Dongmin and Sangmin (who wanted to help a previous winner win - yay!) and not help the other side. I guess Jinho chose the right side in this episode, whereas Hyunmin... I think Dongmin knows him too well so he was able to see through Hyunmin's plan and his actions (like going to Dongmin for help when he knows his side isn't going to work out). I really want to support Hyunmin but idk.
About the death match, I thought the guests and the other players will participate in it, but I guess they wanted to make the game fair, since the others could be biased towards/against one and it would inevitably make the player eliminated at their own hands. Like you, I think the change is alright too! Again, I'm amazed at Kyunghoon. Really smart move to trade later so that he could see the cards that had already been traded. Anyways, side note, I thought the death match would be Twelve Janggi (it's still around right?). Wow, so later on, Dongmin or Hyunmin might be advantageous since they are rather familiar with this. But back to Kyunghoon, I kinda thought he would be eliminated here. I wish he was! But I guess he earned this position since he did prove to everyone his ability is main matches, albeit the standard dropping due to wrong decisions.
Okay I'm sort of done! Can't wait for next episode! Suddenly reminded about Jinho's partner in one of the previous seasons when they were playing the betting horse game. Hopefully their partners will be more adept at the match so that we can see a great fight!
Thanks for providing an avenue for me to rant haha. Hope that your next winner's pick won't fall! :)
Hello! Love it that you contribute so much to the conversation! :)
DeleteWow what you explained is really good! :D I can't believe that there are so many factors that will still steer the game. Somehow I imagined a clean sheet for every game, so that it is more "fair" for all the players... This long term factor is really making this an interesting show to watch in the long term though. ^^
Yes, Dongmin is way too good, most who want to play a game, like they could have with more "normal" players, are stopped by Dongmin's interference. That's his strength; and also partly why Fish shop was a good episode, Dongmin wasn't able to spot and stop others' plans from working out like what he does almost every game. :/ Nonetheless, Dongmin remains one of my fave players ever to play The Genius. :)
If Hyunmin didn't play on a season with Dongmin, I'm sure he would have done even better.
Yep! Twelve Janggi is still available together with Double sided Poker. [Side note, I just saw spoilers about which Deathmatch is played in which episode on Wikipedia... D: ]
I think Kyunghoon would be good at 12Janggi too, he know all the games very well actually.
Yes I would love to see a great fight in the upcoming episodes. ^^
Welcome, feel free to rant here with me! :D
Haha, I doubt I will be choosing who will be choosing another winner's pick this season but to just enjoy the last few episodes! :)
Hello again!
DeleteDon't you just hate it when you accidentally see spoilers? I accidentally saw a comment on YouTube about Junseok getting eliminated and I got so turned off but I watched the episode anyway to see how the main match goes. I hope you didn't see who got eliminated!
Sigh why do I get the feeling that Kyunghoon will win.
Haha yeah let's enjoy the rest of the season~ :D
Yes, oh how much I dislike it, the viewing experience is so different because you already know the outcome.
DeleteHaha Kyunghoon winning would be the biggest shocker ever, probably no one thought that he stood a chance at the beginning.
Oh man, hopefully we don't see anymore spoilers this season and enjoy it! ~~ :D
Omg I love this blog because it's like the only one recapping the genius?? But anyway I only started watching this season (with the exception of some sunggyu eps in season 1) and my bias is definitely definitely jinho hahahaha im constantly worried that he'll be out :( kyunghoon and dong min are close seconds though I know dongmin always dominates but I've gotta give him credit cos he's rly rly good and he's proven himself so far, as compared to jinho who's been more passive (sigh) although tbh if you watch the bts and everything it seems like jinho is literally just eating 24/7 HAHAHAHA but he did look extremely hot in this ep (he has to continue wearing these shirts man) and hyun min ack I don't want to see him go but he's getting annoying lol also Oh man sunggyu got screwed over last time cos of his guest (his ceo) so I hope jinho's guest won't screw him!!!! Perhaps a reversal for dongmin would happen? Hahaha as much as I like him I don't particularly want him to win
ReplyDeleteYippee! :D haha actually there are a few other blogs that do recap the genius, but they haven't been doing so lately idk why... Also, there is an interesting podcast out there too.
DeleteAwww, Sunggyu haha, I highly recommend you watch the previous seasons though. :D
I think that Jinho has been receiving a lot of help this season, with stronger allies than he did the first time round, perhaps that's why he is pretty passive now. Haha YES his shirt was fitting him well. >< Yea, it would be so sad to see the players get dragged down by their guest partners.
Me too, I would want to root for an underdog this time round, but now that it has come to this final 4, I have come to accept and wouldn't mind that much if Dongmin won again.