Not really happy with the editing this episode. They decided to only focus on one girl in almost every performance. Not really fair specially when they made every group have 9 girls. Also not a fan of how they always ask the questions to the girls before the performance to set up some kind of forced rivalry or drama. Most of the girls clearly don't have that personality and just awkwardly do a very half-hearted diss.
Watching the individual cams before the full performance definitely changed how I viewed the episode as a whole. Hard thing to balance the micro-analysis you can do with the solo cam compared to the few snippets you get of each girl on the full group stage. On one side it's slightly unfair to the girls because they won't be put under a microscope like that once they debut, but on the other side the benefit of both winning the points multiplier and being selected to the final debuting team are huge so the more skilled girls deserve to have a chance to show how good they are even if that isn't the only or the main point fans use to vote. As a result the aired episode didn't really changed much how I felt about the girls' performance. I ended up more focused on how they edited the episode and what narrative they were trying to push.
Interestingly they didn't show either of the collisions from either Fiesta team. Team Butterfly was very obvious on the individual cams, but on the show it's hard to see. Maybe the judges didn't notice live or it was only on the recording and not on the performance for the show. Either way it's as if it never happened. The editing was entirely on Ito Miyu. I like her so it's bitter-sweet. Her cell was on elimination range but I fear that won't change even with the spotlight considering neither Suh Jimin or Wang Qiuru did amazing on this performance and Miyu herself wasn't able to overcome the challenge the show highlighted her for. I think she definitely improved from the audition performance but still quite rough singing and dancing. She could be a decent sub-vocal in time. Needs to work on her expressions though, but you could attribute that to being worried about the high notes. Surprised they didn't highlight Bahiyyih at all. Wonder if they are trying to avoid the fan wars or just saving it for a push next mission since she is easily going to stay in the show. She performed well overall but had a awkward expressions. Nancy I thought did well considering how she did on her audition performance. Danced well, had good expressions and pull off her parts well. Shihona danced well and had good expressions but breathing issues and went off-pitch singing. Jimin danced well. Some good, some bad expressions. Sang well enough a few breathing issues. Qiuru had a lot of trouble singing, but danced well. Had too many blank expressions but could also be out of concern. Yubin did well overall just a few awkward expressions. Same thing with Shuyun but a little weaker dancing. Kyara's expressions were pretty weak but she did well otherwise. No one really stood out to me in this performance. They did well enough, but nothing spectacular and a few mistakes. I wish they had shown the trainers comments on Bahiyyih and Nancy at least because I thought they did well. They showed the trainers react to Shihona and Qiuru mistakes but no comments.
Team Crown they decided to make all about Xingqiao. The run in with Reina was off camera on the aired version so I can't tell if it happened on that performance or a different performance just to record the individual cams. I thought she did a fine job though. A few breathing mistakes, a few awkward looking dancing moves and decent expressions. Way more stable than the audition. They also did a very slight comparison between Miyu and Sunwoo because they focused so much on her being the main vocal. Sunwoo was better but I also thought she made a few mistakes. She went off-pitch on a high note and sounded off after that. Danced well, but had uneven expressions. Wingchi did a good job all around. Nagomi had a few breathing issues singing. Also fluctuated her expressions, but danced well. Yeyoung did well dancing and singing but needs to work on being more expressive. Xinwei also improved from her audition, but still needs work. Lacked a bit of energy dancing, a bit off singing and some blank expressions. Reina sang well but still felt she overdid her expressions and had too much power on her dance. Yeseo did well overall. Mashiro also did well, but for some reason she had worse expressions during her part. Maybe she was focusing too much on singing. I also thought no one stood out in this performance but the overall level was slightly higher than the other team.
Team Oh My God they focused on Rayeon. She sang well for the most part, just the missed high note. Maybe because of that and her having trouble leading the girls she was virtually expressionless. Danced well too though. Min did well, had 1 mistake singing when she lost her breath, and dropped her expression a few times. Qiao also did well just needed more work on her expressions. As did Wenmeixiu with better expressions. Her voice is still limited but she managed her small part well. Fuka also did well except for her expressions. Haeun struggled a lot. Her dancing was shaky, didn't really have great expressions and made quite a few mistakes singing. Szeching danced well, but had awkward expressions and needs to project her voice better. Kanno Miyu managed her part well, did decent job dancing but had almost no expressions. Fuko had a few breathing problems and let her expressions go a few times. Another team with no stand out performer, and also were a step lower in quality.
Team Our Season they decided to focus on Bora and do the leader and main vocal rivalry. I think she did a great job with everything. Sang great, danced well and had good expressions. Very solid performance by Bora. They kept praising Sion's beauty, and she really is a pretty kid. She danced well but had a few awkward expressions. Sang fine a little bit aery in parts. Chang Ching did well with everything except singing. Had a few off-pitch moments. Hina's rap wasn't great. She also looked a bit awkward dancing and her expressions was lacking. Hyewon is also very raw skills wise. She has a nice voice but needs to project it more. Wasn't too expressive and needs to clean up her dancing a little bit. Jiao did well, but also could do a better job projecting her voice. Manami had some good some bad points. Sang well for the most part but couldn't hold a note at one point. Had good expressions but at times they fell too weak. Luofei did well except for her expressions. Same with Hana. Bora stood out in this performance, but otherwise both teams had a very similar level imo.
They kind of focused on the An Jeongmin, Wang Yale and Fujimoto Ayaka cell on team Charismask. With a bit of more favorable light on Jeongmin leadership despite Dana being the leader. They gave the girls a very favorable edit despite their performance being the weakest imo. I don't blame the girls though. I think this was a pretty bad pick by the producers. It was clear none of the girls matched or had any idea how to interpret this song. I get why they wanted to do EBS but they should at least pick concepts the girls can pull off. Jeongmin performed well but didn't really express the song. They gave Yale a slight redemption edit after the trailer focus, but I thought she still didn't look that into the performance. Just seems like a concept completely out of her comfort zone. Ayaka sang well enough but her dance and expressions didn't match the energy of the song. Same thing with Dana. Chenhan was the closest to matching the concept of the song. Still her limited dancing skills were apparent and sometimes she dropped her expressions. Yuna had good energy and decent expressions, but still had a few moves not look right. Also a few breathing issues. Hyerin lacked energy and her rap wasn't great. Had good expressions at least. Yuhan sang well, but was expressionless and lost energy as the song went on. Aratake Rinka improved from her audition but still has a long way to go. Her dancing was stiff, her expressions weren't there and her rap wasn't great. I don't really get the praise they gave this team. I'm sure the girls tried their best but this just wasn't a good fit. Maybe they felt bad for the song selection and were more lenient or the PDs tried to make them look better to avoid a drop in interest or criticism towards the show. I wish they had picked a song that better fit the girls.
Seems like they were right to focus on Myah for team Q-teen. Even before the show aired she had a lot more views than her screen time would suggest. I think this concept is way easier for the girls to get and they did well. The energetic peppy vibe was perfect for some girls. This is one of the songs that overdoing your expressions or dance moves wouldn't be such a bad thing. I think Myah did pretty well all things considered. Her voice is still a bit amateurish, but she didn't make any mistakes. She danced well and had some good expressions. I thought she had some times she went blank too so there is some consistency she needs to work but she is a cute kid that draws attention which matches well with the song. Yeeun is in a similar place. Her voice still sounds amateurish but her cute image matches well. She did a good job with the dance and her expressions. Shiqi was more of a mix bag. Something happened to her individual camera so they did a patchwork deal for her with some real bad quality shots. She has a nice voice and sings well but the high note wasn't great and she kind of started sounding off after it. Her expressions were inconsistent with some good some blank. She danced well though. Ruan did a good job overall. Her expressions fluctuated a bit, but were mostly good. Zige did pretty well throughout as did Yume. I don't quite agree with their take on Yizhou. I think she had a couple awkward dancing moves, did ok on her parts but was up and down with her expressions. For the most part the girls all fit this concept well.
Team Red Moon is the only one they gave more girls some attention. The lead up was all about the Dayeon part distribution drama, but after they showed the judges comment on more than one girl at least. The part distribution issues is why I said I wanted more trainer involvement with the girls. I think Yaning went for what was the fairest ways in her mind, but that doesn't always makes for the best result for the team. I get why Dayeon didn't push more against the group when she lost her part. She seems like a very shy kid and that group is filled with strong personalities that would be intimidating for her to confront. At the same time I agree that it was something she should have brought up within the group and not to the trainers. In the end they redistributed the parts without much issues and I think it was for the better of their overall performance. As with all the other performances my mind didn't change much with the full performance. The teased synchronization issue wasn't even in the episode in typical Mnet baiting fashion. The trainers brought up something I mentioned before that I thought Dayeon and Yaning overdid their expressions. They added Ruiqi too, which I didn't see but also don't argue too much against. What I do disagree with is their reasoning. I don't agree it's because they have strong feature I think it's because it doesn't match the song. If they had the same expressions on Growl for instance I think it would fit, but this song isn't an aggressive fierce mood, it's more of a seductive defiant mood. Dayeon danced well and sang well, just needed to tone down her looks. Ruowei did well, just got overshadowed by the rest of the group. Same with Rei, she did even better than Ruowei but this team was just too strong and other people did better than her. If she had the same level of performance on other teams she would be the best performer on them. Suyeon did very well too, got the mood of the song down to a t. Yaning same as Dayeon sang and danced very well just needed less aggressive look. I was happy they took the time to show praise for Shana. To me she was one of the best in the entire show. Surprised they didn't do the same for Jiyoon though. I thought both of them interpreted the song perfectly. Ruiqi did well overall too. Hikaru, as I've said before, didn't quite express the song properly. She danced and sang well but her expressions came off more blank than what the song requires. You could see she was trying but this concept isn't quite in her wheel house.
I don't agree at all with the trainers on this one. I think this was an easy win for team Red Moon. Q-teen did well but no on e on the team did as well as Shana and Jiyoon and overall the only real mistakes Red Moon had was not matching the right expression of the song. Q-teen had more mistakes and more people with expression issues and should not have won. I don't agree on grading on a curve here because we are not trying to find trainees that will spend time preparing before debuting. You are looking for a group to debut asap so current skill should be the main point for the trainers to give the benefit to. I felt the same way when they said they didn't give Kim Dayeon a top 9 spot. You really shouldn't be doing arbitrary decisions against your skill judgement. This is exactly why people wanted fan voting to be the only factor on audition shows. The judges are always way too biased for weird reasons.
The Eve team should have won it all, but since they didn't I think YoY team 1 was the next best team. The reward of performing on M Countdown is a bit weird. For some girls it's a dream come true, and considering some of these girls will be eliminated after this it's a huge deal. But for others it's either bitter sweet, in the case of the girls from groups that disbanded, or not a huge deal, in the case of girls on active groups that performing on Mcountdown is just another day.
Sunmi and Tiffany's message at the end is pretty standard at this point. I still think Jang Geun Suk delivered it the best though. Even if you don't make it here it isn't the end. Everyone has their own path in life so don't look at this as a last opportunity but just another valuable experience in your life.
Now looking at who won the benefit and if that is going to help them. The cells that were in elimination range and received the benefit are Sion cell, Yunji cell, Yeeun cell, Sunwoo cell, Yeongyung cell, Hyerim cell and Bora cell. If we assume they maintained their voting rate and you take into account the points per day I think only Bora cell has a chance to be saved. Even with triple points for a day Yunji and Yeeun cell are too far, and not popular enough to make it to 17. After Bora cell, Hyerim is the next closest to 17th, but still had almost half the points Bora cell had. Bora herself got a bit of attention and that along with double points for the last day might be enough to save them even if the rest of her cell didn't get much of a push. Even though I thought Xia Yan was among the best performers this mission it doesn't seem to have changed her popularity much so I also don't see Yeongyung cell making a push. Sunwoo got a bit of attention but not much. Maybe if they voted for her every day of the week after the individual cam, but I would imagine they'd be more vocal and inflate her youtube views more if that were the case. It's hard figuring out who drops out. Unless a lot changed in the voting this week I think there is a chance even with the benefit Bora team doesn't make it. I can see people voting for Sein cell for memes and to support Wenzhe, but they are probably the most likely to drop out if anyone does drop. I think the ranking among top 17 will change a lot because of the benefits, but don't see many cell at risk of dropping out of top 17. Myah cell should go up a bit for the popularity she gained and the triple points. Yujin cell will probably stay at 1 since they got the benefit and are still popular. Same for Youngeun cell. Yeseo cell might overtake Jiyoon cell because of the benefit. But I can also see no change there because Jiyoon gaining a bit of popularity, Hikaru and Ruiqi remaining popular with international fans and the pushback for Yeseo. Dayeon cell might go down a bit. No one in it gained a lot of popularity and they missed out on the benefit. Chaeyun cell might go down. Ririka got a little bit of popularity with the Koreans, but I don't know if it will be enough without the benefit and Cheukying and Chaeyun popularity largely reminas the same. If it weren't for the benefit I could see Hyewon cell losing rank but the double points should help them. I have no idea how people are reacting to You Dayeon stuff. My guess is people that voted for that cell before won't have changed so even without the benefit I don't expect them to drop but they are on the watchlist. All in all I don't foresee much changing because of the benefit as far as elimination goes. I think it will be more relevant for individual voting and the top 9. My guess is the benefit for top 9 is first choice on next mission song and position which is a huge deal considering how many girls get stuck with positions they can't perform or songs they don't fit in.
If I predict Bora team getting in and Sein team being eliminated the master picks get a bit harder. You have Hyerim, Jia, Seungeun, Rayeon, Sunwoo and Yubin and you can only save one. My personal pick would be Hyerim but I think the masters will pick Rayeon. C-group would be Xia Yan, Yizhou, Shiqi and Tzulin. I would save Xia Yan based on what they've done so far. I think the masters will save Yizhou, maybe Wenzhe if they feel bad for her cell. J-group there's Ando Rinka, Hayashi Fuko, Oki Fuka, Hiyajo Nagomi, Murakami Yume and Kitajima Yuna. I would save Ando Rinka. Not sure who the masters would save. They haven't really showed much favoritism to many of the J-group girls. Maybe Nagomi.
At this point the only lock I see is Yujin. She is popular both internationally and in Korea so unless some huge voting benefit makes 9 girls jump her I doubt she drops from the final group. Everyone else I can see the tides changing depending on editing and performance. International fans and the PD like Cai Bing, but I don't know how much Korea likes her and their votes were worth 5 times international votes because of the ratio. If Korea isn't behind her I can see her falling behind. Xiaoting and Yurina are popular in both sides of the voting and their ship is getting some attention. I would say they are close to locks being liked by everyone including the PD, but I don't think they are immune to some pretty hard public shift of perception with some evil editing and poor performance. They are both talented enough, but neither is flawless. Hikaru and Ruiqi seem like another case of popular internationally but not as much in Korea. They are still somewhat popular, but I can see other girls overtaking them when the cell format is gone and people have to pick only 1 girl to vote and the Korean votes become super important. Yeseo I can see falling short because half the people aren't buying into the attention she is getting. Mashiro I feel runs the risk of being one of those girls everyone likes but when it becomes only 1 vote she doesn't have enough solo fans who would support her alone. Same thing with Youngeun. I think there is a chance Myah shoots up. She has gotten some traction and I feel like the show is gonna continue pushing her. I still feel like the group is gonna end up something like 5K, 3C and 1J. Maybe even 6K, 2C and 1J. The results of this first elimination are gonna be very interesting and specially the individual votes for top 9.
My way too early prediction for the final group just for fun in no particular order is: Yujin, Xiaoting, Yurina, Bahiyyih, Chaehyun, Myah, Ruiqi, Hikaru and Doah.