queendom puzzle recap/review: ep 2

june 27 2023

We're back with another episode of Queendom Puzzle, moving onto Episode 2, where the contestants finish up the Up-Down battles and move on to team battling. Like Pokemon. Getting my hands on this episode was a bit more difficult than I anticipated, considering Mnet wised up to the fact that people could just watch the livestream VOD on Youtube instead of buying the episode on Viki, so they privated the livestream as soon as it was done airing. I'm not kidding, I was in the middle of watching the livestream before work, paused to go to work, and then came back and tried to unpause the video— "This video is private." Cmon, man! I ended up downloading a VPN and watching it on Bilibili.

**Reminder: Mnet edits the shit out of these episodes. Unless a girl comes on screen and says with her own mouth, "I downvoted X because of Y," don't trust Mnet's editing that makes it look like they downvoted someone. Also, all of the rivalries and drama Mnet tries to push are completely fake. These girls are all on good terms in real life. DO NOT get into fanwars over this stupid show. NONE OF IT IS REAL!!! Okay, moving on.

Last week's episode set up a Bora-Kei rivalry and ended on a cliffhanger as Kei prepared to sing, but this episode keeps us dangling over that cliff until the very end. Instead of Kei going next, it's Juri from Rocket Punch. Listen, I don't like Juri as a person (she made some transphobic comments during her days as an AKB48 member), but even I can't deny she's a natural talent and a born performer. Even when she's not onstage, she's "performing" to the people around her and making them laugh.

Mnet has to have some weird beef with Rocket Punch (or is perhaps setting them up for a "redemption arc"?) because the Rocket Punch members keep giving very good performances, yet getting downvoted harshly. I had some problems with Suyun's performance, but I didn't think it was bad, definitely not worthy of the downvotes she got. Juri had a great performance too. She performs Heart Burn by Sunmi, which is kind of a bad choice for a competition show as it's a very laid back song that doesn't really seek to impress, but Juri makes it work. She has some interesting choreo and giant fan props that make the stage exciting, but she gets only 7 upvotes and 20 downvotes. Which to me is just insane. Unless Mnet heavily touched up her vocals and she sounded awful live, I absolutely do not understand this ranking.

The votes are overall much harsher this episode, some stages having baffling upvote to downvote ratios. I think as they see more performances, contestants are both getting harder to impress and also are becoming more aware of the fact that they need to vote strategically, leading to lower scores overall. There are some performances here that I think are better than performances from the first episode, but they get voted lower as people's standards get higher and as they get more panicked about their own ranking.

Next is the last Rocket Punch member, Yeonhee, performing Somi's Dumb Dumb. This performance is really great, complete with a costume change that she pulls off perfectly and a cute switch-up stage concept. Yeonhee has great stage presence and is an amazing dancer, so much so that you barely notice the fact that her shoe strap snaps at the beginning of the performance and makes it difficult for her to dance. I was sure this was going to be one of the higher voted performances, so the final score of 12 upvotes and 15 downvotes made absolutely no sense here! She at least deserved a positive ratio!

Moving on from that injustice, Soeun from Weeekly is up next, performing Seulgi's solo 28 Reasons. I honestly think a lot of these girls are setting themselves up when they compare themselves to amazingly talented performers like Taemin and Seulgi, but this performance wasn't anything to sneer at. I think it could have used just a little bit more energy, but overall she pulled it off well. Another overly harsh outcome here, with 13 upvotes and 14 downvotes.

Another Weeekly member is up next, Soojin, performing Jisoo's Flower. To be honest, I've never really liked this song and I find it quite boring, and it's another song that I feel like just doesn't suit a competition. But Soojin has a great voice and is very pretty, and I don't think this stage is bad. She's a little blank faced, but I think it works with her elegant aura. She also gets 13 upvotes and 14 downvotes, which still feels a little harsh, but it feels more understandable here.

Next is Seoyeon from TripleS, performing her subunit KRystal Eyes' song Cherry Talk. Mnet makes a big deal about Seoyeon having ZERO days of training and basically being picked out of school and plopped down in TripleS, and it's at this point that I started to get very worried about the way things are being run over at Modhaus. They're making themselves look absolutely incompetent. Sure, there are stories about Loona members like Olivia Hye having extremely short training periods, but they still got training, and all of those girls were already seeking jobs in the entertainment industry. Like, Chuu got scouted off Instagram, but she was also releasing song covers and recording guide vocals for other singers. Modhaus is literally just choosing random seventeen year olds off the street, giving them no training, and then sending them to a survival show to get harshly judged and it's genuinely concerning.

At the time this episode was filmed, Cherry Talk hadn't even been released yet and the subunit was likely still in the rehearsal process. It really shows! I don't want to be too mean to Seoyeon since she's so young and it's not really her fault that she didn't get any training, but man, this performance is a mess. She's out of sync with her backup dancers, out of breath the whole performance despite the super easy and boring choreo, she's audibly fighting the beat and struggling to hit the notes... it's just all around a very sloppy performance. The one thing I can give her is that she does have natural stage presence and is super cute. Like Jiwoo, I think the things she really needs are time and practice, which are things that have no shortcut. Seoyeon gets 2 upvotes and 25 downvotes but seems very happy, saying she thought she would get 0 upvotes. Ouch.

Next up is Miru, a former NMB48 idol. Miru is basically positioned as the "Anti-Chaeyeon," since she's given every contestant so far an upvote, which is cute. I think she was on Produce48, and has now decided to try to start a career in Korea. She's been active in the industry for 13 years, and it really shows! She has great stage presence and really strong live vocals. Unfortunately, because she's acting as a solo agent and likely has no company to bankroll props, dancers, choreographers, etc, she has no backup dancers and the choreo itself is very simple. She stays in one place the whole time and is mostly just moving her arms around. Despite that, it was still a good performance and the fact that Fye got 16 upvotes and Miru only got 5 really doesn't sit right with me. 22 downvotes feels incredibly harsh and unfair.

Yuki from Purple Kiss is next, performing her self-written solo Who Cares. They make a big deal about her being one of three rappers on the show (it's Yuki, Sangah from Lightsum, and former CLC member Yeeun). Personally, I don't really care about K-pop rap and when that's your entire position/role... I can get pretty bored. Yuki's rap tone is kind of grating, but she's a great dancer and has a lot of natural stage presence. She has some interesting choreo, too. I think it's much harder to be impressive as a rapper or a dancer on these shows (and as an idol in general), because in this era, every idol dances well and I don't really care about rap. Yuki messes up her lyrics and gets sent straight to the 13 upvote, 14 downvote hell zone.

Rapper rivalry set up, next is Sangah from Lightsum. She performs a Cube rap medley, going from CLC's Black Dress to Tomboy. A really unfortunate set of songs, considering Yeeun herself is right there in the audience, and Hwiseo will later perform a much better version of Tomboy. Overall, I think Sangah's rap tone is by far the most grating out of the three. Sangah is beautiful though, and a great dancer. Her performance is just average, really, and she gets 11 upvotes and 16 downvotes. Which again feels a little harsh, even though this wasn't my favorite performance.

Rounding out the rappers, Yeeun goes next and performs her recently released solo song, Cherry Coke. Man I hate this song lol. So many good fucking CLC songs to pick from (and a couple other decent solo songs, if that's what she really wanted to go for), and she goes with Cherry Coke?! Well, she's a great dancer and has good choreo, and I actually find her rap tone to be quite pleasant. It's definitely the best out of the three to me personally. Yeeun also has been in the industry so long that she has great natural stage presence and she just looks comfortable onstage. As a veteran, she breezes by with 19 upvotes and 8 downvotes, which feels a liiiitle high, but who am I really to complain?

Next up is Haein from Laboum, performing Laboum songs Journey to Atlantis and Between Us. Haein is another member who dropped out of the show before the first episode aired, and unlike Lee Chaeyeon (who dropped out likely because her songs finally began charting) nobody has any idea why Haein left. Haein was also recently on Girls: Reverse (aka the best survival show to come out in the past five years) and I loved her there. She played the role of friendly blue haired fox girl Dopamine, and basically all of the contestants fell in platonic love with her. The same thing doesn't really happen here. Like a couple other contestants, Haein either has a broke company or no company, and she has barely any backup dancers, no props, and poor styling. She tries to spice things up with an outfit change, but both outfits are cheap looking and fit poorly.

It's performances like her and Miru that make you realize how much of an advantage it is to have a well-off company behind you that is willing to pour lots of money into your stages. Even though it's not a bad performance, it's not an impressive one, by no fault of Haein's. She ends up with 5 upvotes and 22 downvotes, and her acceptance speech made me giggle, because she was basically like, "Damn, I was just playing, I didn't realize this shit was this serious..." That's probably why she dropped out, really. She signed up for Girls:Reverse 2 and ended up on Korean Ninja Idol Warriors.

Next is Chaerin from Cherry Bullet, whose company has actually been willing to pour money into their contestants' stages (but not on giving Cherry Bullet an actual comeback? Curious). Bora and Jiwon both gave great performances and got great scores, and you can tell it's really stressing Chaerin out. She has to be compared to everyone else, but also specifically against her members. She's definitely questioning her life choices right now. She performs Bicycle by Chungha, and it's an interesting rock-flavored arrangement. But because she's so nervous, she ends up not really dancing full out and she keeps messing up the steps/running into her background dancers. It's funny to see the ever-happy Bora stop smiling and give Chaerin a side eye when she continuously messes up the choreo. She ends up getting only 4 upvotes and 23 downvotes, which (say it with me now) feels pretty harsh, but I can see where they're coming from with this one.

Next up is Elly from Weki Meki, who talks a little bit about the struggle of being from a group where people only know 2 members (Yoojung and Doyeon, of IOI/Produce 101 fame). Elly wants to leave this show with people knowing her name, which is a valiant goal, but I don't really know if anyone beyond dedicated stans are really watching this show. That aside, this is one of the more egregious ratios of this episode. Elly gives a really solid, exciting performance of the song Sonata of Temptation. It's bullfighter inspired, a little different, and Elly is a born performer, looking very natural onstage. But she stumbles over her words ONCE and is slammed with 23 downvotes, only getting 4 upvotes. This one REALLY confused me, and I'm not a huge Weki Meki fan so it's not like I just have my stan goggles on here. I genuinely don't get this one. The only thing that explains this is, again, if she sounded really bad live and Mnet just edited it in the final episode. But knowing how much Mnet likes to milk voice cracks, I doubt it.

Former Momoland member Jooe performs next. Momoland are infamous for being one hit wonders with smash shit Bboom Bboom. I remember learning the choreo and dancing it with my friend in the art hallway before school started, and I wasn't even that into K-pop then! But their company had no idea what to do with them, and severely mismanaged them until most members either left the group or were kicked out for no reason. Jooe is on her own now, with no company/agency, and is basically up for 24 hours a day trying to manage, produce, and perform all at once. And she's also footing the bill. Again, it is such a huge benefit to have a company that will take care of all this for you, because Jooe is visibly tired and low energy. And you can't really blame her! She's trying to juggle so much at once that I don't think she can pull off a good performance right now. No one could!

Nevertheless, she tries, with a cover of Sunmi's 24 Hours. She goes for the ultra-sexy concept and stands out because of that. The only other mildly sexy concept was Jiwon's Gotta Go, and even that was more elegantly risque than overtly sexy. She does some chair and hat choreo, and has great stage presence. But the song is in a very high key and she struggles to sing live after her dance break, thus getting slammed with downvotes. She ends up with a final score of 6 upvotes to 21 downvotes.

Next is Hwiseo from H1-Key, seeking redemption for member Riina's voice crack and low score. Hwiseo performs her own song Rose Blossom (which went mildly viral in Korea) and then transitions into Gidle's Tomboy. Wow, just wow. Hwiseo has a freaking amazing voice, with a unique yet clear vocal tone and great breath support. She sounds great live and is also able to pull off dancing while singing, which edges this above Bora's performance for me. Bora's performance was very emotional and beautiful, with great live singing, but she used the staging to cleverly get around having to dance at all, thus making it easier to sing and hit those high notes.

Bora was basically standing in place singing, then doing a twirl to another location, then standing still to sing again. And her performance was great, don't get me wrong! But I think Hwiseo did a better job giving a full, more balanced, better realized performance as an idol. Bora's performance felt like a musical theatre stage, whereas Hwiseo's felt like an actual idol performance. It was just really good. They cut to Taeyeon a couple times and even she was visibly impressed, lol. Hwiseo ends up in a 3 way tie for second with 23 upvotes and 4 downvotes!

We wrap up the up-down battle with Kei from Lovelyz performing the Lovelyz song Destiny, and they've hyped this performance up for two weeks trying to set up a Bora/Kei rivalry. But it doesn't really pan out. Kei has a very loud backing track and doesn't sing live, which is strange when apparently she's such a good singer. The other contestants notice that she's lip syncing and she gets a fair amount of downvotes. Nevertheless, this is a really beautiful performance (and a great song) and I love Kei's timbre. She has more of a heavy mix, as opposed to the other major vocalists Hwiseo and Bora, who are power belters. It helps her stand out among fellow vocalists. She pulls through with 18 votes and 9 downvotes, which is much higher than some of the other ratios this episode, but a little lower than what I think she deserved.

Finally done with the "re-evaluations" aka Reddit Upvote Battles, they do a tier reshuffle and everyone is publicly shamed by being forced to go sit with their new tier. I would care more about this tier thing if they hadn't been completely arbitrary and meaningless in the first place. Although, it is funny that Haein JUMPS off the top tier all the way to the bottom. That had to have hurt her knees. Tier 3 is having a good ass time, thanks to the Rocket Punch and Weeekly girls being a bunch of extroverts.

Next, they transition to a new building (or the same building rearranged? I'm not sure) where they prepare for the next stage of the competition, which is a team battle. There are two songs, and each song will have 2 groups of seven battle it out over who can perform better. Oops, I mean, who can film a better performance video. I love that Mnet has just completely given up on even having the semblance of life stages with these kinds of shows, knowing the majority of the fourth gen can't sing at all.

Contestants choose between the trendy and fresh Charismatic or the sexy and powerful Snap. They're choosing in rank order, and once one song is full, all the other members will automatically go to the other team. I think Mnet thought they would get some good drama out of contestants being forced to go to a song/concept they don't want to perform, but they don't really get that. The math just works out in the contestants' favor— there's only two songs, with fourteen spots each, and twenty eight contestants. The contestants seem to be mostly evenly split between the songs and basically everyone ends up being able to choose a song they like. The teams don't fill up quickly and every single contestant except Seoyeon (in last place) gets to choose between the two songs.

The two top ranking contestants for each song then enter the Puzzle Room, and gain The Right To Puzzle (the right to puzzle MUST be added to the US Constitution), meaning that they get to arrange the two teams. They put each contestant either on the Pick team, which is people they want to have on their team, or the Drop team, which is members they don't want. Funnily enough, the two Puzzlers end up both being Cherry Bullet members, with Bora choosing for Snap and Jiwon choosing for Charismatic. Their picks are actually live-streamed to the girls anxiously watching in the other room, which is so evil. I'm obsessed.

Bora strategizes with Jiwon before entering the Puzzle Room and decides to snap up (see what I did there?) all the rappers for her team and drop all the vocalists that might take her parts. She ends up with Yeeun, Yeoreum, Sangah, Riina, Yuki, and Chaerin on the Snap Pick Team, which they name PICK-CAT. The performance videos are already out, despite the episode ending before they start practicing/filming, so I'll go ahead and review the performances now. Riina begins the song as center, and she fits this song really well. So do Yeoreum and Yeeun, who fit this song like a glove. Yeeun takes the "rap," and she has great stage presence and is pleasant to listen to and watch.

But honestly, Bora doesn't fit this song and her plan of dropping all the vocalists for the rappers backfired hard, for reasons I'll get into when I talk about the other team. I get that Bora was trying to show her versatility and show a different side of herself with this song, but it's just like putting a leather jacket on a puppy. You're just like, "Aww, it's trying so hard, that's so cute." Their performance had a lot of pyrotechnics/special effects (I'm assuming because they were the Pick team) but it honestly did not add anything to the performance and was in fact kind of distracting. Overall, I thought this performance was just okay.

The drop team is named Athena, and consists of Elly, Miru, Dohwa, Kei, Hwiseo, Fye, and Juri. Man, I really just don't care for Snap as a song. But this performance almost makes me like it! Hwiseo begins as the center (both Hwiseo and Riina start off the songs, can you say H1-Key it girls? No, don't say that, that's stupid) and she does a lip bite that is a little corny, but ultimately works for me. Dohwa performs better with a group giving her energy and backing her up, and her and other industry professional Kei definitely whipped this group into shape. Kei has a great voice, and again, she utilizes more of a heavy mix, which blends so well with Hwiseo's belt.

They put Fye on rap duty, which I think works fine, although she's not as naturally charismatic as Yeeun. Elly and Miru both have amazing stage presence and are giving just the right amount of energy. Juri adds a nice smooth vocal timbre to the group, and this team's final chorus is just so great with all the vocalists chiming in and doing adlibs. This is where it becomes obvious that Bora really shot herself in the foot, because Athena's final chorus is much more impressive than PICK-CAT due to all the vocal slayage going on. It's much more of a spectacle even without the intense pyrotechnics that the Pick group got. Personally, I prefer this performance overall.

For Charismatic, Jiwon picks Nana, Chaeyeon, Jiwoo, Soeun, Wooyeon, and Jihan for her team, named PICK on the top. I like Charismatic a lot more than Snap as a song and think both groups gave really good performances here. Chaeyeon dropped out of the program before they filmed this, so she's not here, and I think the group was kind of depending on her to give them that kick, because something does just feel missing. Mnet is pushing Nana a lot, but I can't even be mad because she's just that good! She's a great performer/dancer and has a nice voice too. Jiwoo's on the rap part, and she sounds... not great but not horrible? But moving swiftly past that, Jihan's voice fits this song really well and sounds perfect here.

The benefit for this Pick team is that they do fake rain and have them dance in the rain for the final chorus, which looks... awful? Lol? The girls are clearly struggling and trying to blink water out of their eyes, and the choice to turn the lights off and have them dance in the dark AND the rain just seems misguided. It also just doesn't fit with the tone of the song, which is upbeat and fresh. All of a sudden it's rainy and dark?

Moving onto the Drop team, which is named DROP the beat (very cute) and consists of Suyun, Seoyeon, Jooe, Soojin, Zoa, and Yeonhee. Unlike PICK on the top and Chaeyeon, DROP the beat weren't really depending on Haein, so it doesn't seem to be a big deal that she's gone (although I personally would have loved to see her perform this song). Unlike PICK on the top, this team doesn't look like they're fighting for their lives trying to do the choreo, and I think it helps. Suyun's extensions are distractingly horrible, but the girl herself can sing and dance! She's giving it all here.

Seoyeon does the rap here and it's... also not great, but not distractingly awful. The TripleS girls seem to have gotten pigeonholed into rap positions as a side effect of simply not being that good at anything else. Yeonhee is really talented, rubbing further salt in the wound that is her up-down battle score. Snap was all about dance, power, and charisma, but Charismatic is mostly focused on cuteness and energy, not raw talent. I think this group really brings effortless high energy. Instead of rain, they get bubbles (which might be digital? I can't tell) and I think it's honestly a much better choice than the rain. They fit better with the performance's bright and cheerful energy.

Overall, I think I preferred the Drop performances from both groups, although I could be completely biased since they have what I would consider my "picks." The next round of competition will be another "live" stage, which makes me wonder why this was a performance video instead of just a filmed live performance. It's much less impressive and makes it harder to actually fairly judge the groups' capabilities. Either way, the show remains pretty messy and exciting, so I guess I will spite Mnet and keep finding ways to watch it for free.