Warning: This recap is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own risk!
Other Recaps: Episode One // Episode Two // Episode Three // Episode Four // Episode Five
THE PRELUDE
We’ve already reached the eve of Kingdom‘s final round. And to celebrate, the show is going to pause for a… sports day.
Ironically, as much as I’ve been complaining about the lack of levity on the show, this episode is the least interesting to recap because it’s basically a typical variety show sandwiched in between Kingdom’s competitive rounds as filler.
Before we get to the fun and games, there’s a dramatic introduction of the final round’s theme, “No Limit.” (Honestly, I suspect there will be some limits…)
This round will have two parts (see? already a limit). The first part will mix and match members between the groups. Even though the guys feign total surprise at this turn of events, cross-collaboration has been a hallmark of every season in this franchise. This time, there will be a vocal unit, a rap unit, and a performance unit. This isn’t too different from Queendom, which had vocal and performance groups.
Poor Changmin’s got a lot of details to get through as part of this announcement, and they seem to drag on forever. Honestly, my eyes started glazing over as soon as he began rattling off tens of thousands of points possible for each round. Numbers are hard on a Friday.
Because of this, I think I missed some of the specifics around choosing collaborations. I guess ATEEZ gets to choose their groups since they scored highest in the last round?
Anyway, this is how it shook out:
ATEEZ chose BTOB and Stray Kids
The Boyz, iKON and SF9 become the opposing team by default.
SPORTS DAY
Next, we head to Kingdom’s track meet, which I suppose is this season’s version of the retreat that the Queendom girls went on. Of course, the male version focuses on physical strength rather than emotional connections. Typical… right?
Rather than recap this filler in excruciating detail, I’ll just list some random observations. But before I do, the format here reminded me of the excellent variety series Let’s Go Dream Team, which I recommend every chance I get. It was such a great blend of idol and sports variety, and gave a much-needed spotlight to lesser-known groups. And… BTOB’s Minhyuk used to be a staple on that series, if I’m remembering correctly!
*ATEEZ’s Grungy fashion choices, complete with baggy jeans, were an interesting choice for a track meet.
*I loved hearing Crayon Pop’s Bar Bar Bar in the background of the vaulting montage. It was wonderfully on the nose.
*I need Stray Kids to re-debut as “Strawberry Kids” at least once. Is there a cute fruity concept lurking in our future?
*Changbin… ouch…
Much respect to iKON, who play the role of the sarcastic hecklers in the sidelines. I won’t even pretend that I wouldn’t be right there with them…
*The vaulting segment was fun at first, but like so much Korean variety, it stretched out waaaaay too long. In the end, it reminded me why I usually fast forward through a good chunk of the Idol Athletic Championships each year.
*MNET Are really getting their mileage out of the slow motion shots, aren’t they?
*I wonder if Changmin knew what he was getting himself into when he signed onto this show? Hosting a sports day is an interesting look for him…
*In a move straight out of the Produce series, the guys vote amongst themselves to crown the “visual king.” Honestly, this kind of fluff rarely appeals to me. I’d much rather they have a chance to get to know each other through team-building activities or collaboration. These silly bits always feel so forced.
But just in case you were curious, here’s who the guys chose:
4. Eunkwang (BTOB) / Hyunjae (The Boyz)
3. Sunwoo (The Boyz)
2. Felix (Stray Kids)
1. Minhyuk (BTOB)
Definitely some surprises, but yay for us oldies in our thirties!
*If nothing else, it’s nice to see BTOB get some well-deserved respect from their junior groups. I can’t say they’ve ever been a personal favorite of mine, but I believe any group who has stuck it out as long as they have deserves recognition from those whose careers stand on their shoulders.
*“Catch the balloon tail” was… interesting. Not really the “collaboration” I’ve been longing for…
THE (ALMOST) FINAL EVALUATION
We’ve yet to see everything added up, but here were the results for two more of the four voting categories in the last round:
Global Evaluation
1. Stray Kids
2. The Boyz
3. BTOB
4. iKON
5. SF9
6. ATEEZ
Online Views
1. Stray Kids
2. iKON
3. ATEEZ
4. The Boyz
5. BTOB
6. SF9
MY FINAL EVALUATION
Thank goodness this lasted only one episode.
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Ouch, this episode sounds… painful. For the last two episodes instead of watching the whole thing, I just browsed through the episode. I think I might skip this one entirely, as well as my recap. No offence to the Kingdom groups, I love them all, but how was the Road to Kingdom contest more interesting, with much better performances to boot.
Of course, Queendom was epic as well, but I did not follow it closely when it came out, nor have I watched the whole thing.
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This was the kind of levity I’d been waiting for… but I agree that I wish it hadn’t been dragged out quite so long. The Produce series had more of this fluff but it was peppered here and there (in between the god awful business with the supposed rankings ugh), and wasn’t really stretched out to a full episode which I now find I enjoyed a little more. The highlight of this episode for me was Changmin finally loosening up a little more (I’m referring primarily to TVXQ but this could also go for TBZ I suppose lol) – BTOB screaming ‘Changmin!’ is what I wanted from Kingdom from the start.
I’d be so down for a Strawberry Kids concept, something lighthearted and fun from them in the vein of Awkward Silence or Get Cool would be so good!
I have no interest in the rankings anymore so I’m just going to skip over all that entirely and instead focus on the fact that we’re getting a Wolf cover… interesting choice, I’m keeping an eye out for it lol.
(Side note: If anyone’s interested, the Going Seventeen episode (Seventeen’s YouTube variety series) for the coming week – on Wednesday – will be a SVT version of Let’s Go Dream Team! I miss that show, I’m all for more of something along those lines)
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I love the subtle promo 😂
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I really struggle to believe ateez would place last in the global evalutation….ATEEZ
I came in this show expecting them to thrive in that category. But wouldn’t cross out the possibility of the voting for each round being somewhat rigged, considering its mnet.
But yeah, teambuilding activities would’ve been much better than *yawn* sports, would’ve loved to see more friendships come out from this show. I always enjoy Wooyoung and Changbins little tweedledum-tweeldedee moments.
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Friendships are growing out if this show though. Maybe not at first but now that they have the collab stages you can clearly see how they’re interacting. Especially stray kids and ateez, BTOB and stray kids and ATEEZ and IKON.
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Que pena ver que no hay apoyo a un excelente grupo que es digno de admirar como es, Sf9 que pena ver que no apoyen en lo personal soy admiradora fiel de Rowoon y el se esfuerza mucho al igual que los otros chicos, pero también ver estos resultados los han de estristecerse
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Well then, I am glad I skipped this episode.
Points systems in kpop are always so complicated. And then at the end there is always some fudge factor, some “producers vote”, where they can put their thumb on the scale anyway.
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The points system was hardly what you call complicated. It literally was this point is for this game and at the end whoever has more points win. How can you simplify that even more.
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The more I read your reviews the more I think you look for things to unnecessarily criticize. We’re finally getting interactions between the groups which YOU mentioned would be nice but now that we have it you hardly have anything good to say about it. There are about 40 idols there in total but you say the vaulting competition dragged out too long. When it’s not like they didn’t cut some parts out. They got everyone to participate which was nice. And you compare EVERYTHING. Even in your song reviews. Even if similar things appear on the shows do you have to do make soooo such comparisons??
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These recaps are meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek, but if my writing isn’t for you, that’s totally fine. No one’s forcing you to read it.
In my defense, try writing about a topic every day for (welp) 1,901 days straight (yes, wordpess recently started keeping count…) and *not* making comparisons.
My philosophy for rating songs is that every track starts at a ten and my writing has to touch on the aspects that knock it down to a lower rating. Of course I cover the positives too, but unless I’m scoring something a 10/10, I’m going to criticize. Again, if it’s not for you, that’s fine. It’s just my opinion, after all.
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