#ip4 episode 002

in her confessional, hayoon admits that she’s nervous for this first week-- in previous idol projects, the first challenge has been a huge undertaking, with some years being forced to learn four songs in the span of a week. jaehee’s confessional mirrors that, with her worrying that this might have been an mistake.

once everyone is settled, ilya announces the first challenge-- as part of their letter grade teams, each team will be assigned a company, and will be tasked with preparing two songs; one by an older group that debuted in or before 2014, and one by a newer group that debuted in 2015 or later. there will be two performance nights, and on each night, they will perform one of their two songs. they will be matched against one of the other teams, who will perform their song from the opposite era. team a is assigned spotlight, team b is assigned higher, team c is assigned liberty new age. with that in mind, the teams are set loose to choose their songs and begin preparing.

the camera follows team b first, who seem to be the most straightforward fwith what they want. the chosen groups are clear-- the old era group is obviously og reign, with the new era group being rejectz. jaehee really rallies for their team to perform gotta be you (a favorite of hers), and isis (who is a rejectz stan) proposes that they perform maze-- a lesser known rejectz song, but one that she explains would highlight the many vocalists on the teams best. it takes them all of fifteen minutes to decide on their songs.

team d seems to be the opposite-- the members, while having bonded the night before, still seem to be a little awkward with each other. in her confessional, windy explains that there seemed to be a burden on all their shoulders, what with being labelled the worst on the show. she explains that she felt an extra burden, because destiny was in a group that had multi wins already, and she knew how good of a dancer yooi was. she continues that she felt unworthy and out of her depths, so after the first hour, they’ve come up with nothing.

team a agrees immediately that juliette is their first group, but ahki and hayoon run into a bit of friction-- ahki wants to perform a violetta song, but hayoon seems hesitant, wanting to go for a venus song instead. ahki, in her confessional, explains that she thinks that violetta would be a good omen, what with so many members in that group being OG idol project winners. hayoon, in her own confessional, explains that she wanted to go for venus because venus is korea’s girl group, and universally popular, so audiences would favor them. (also woori is in violetta and ratted on her during ip1 and got her eliminated so harsh feelings but thats subtext lol). sikyung is eventually the tiebreaker, getting hayoon to agree to a violetta song by pointing out that violetta’s style and vibe suited the three girls much better. team a picks juliette’s i got a boy, as well as violetta’s dramatic for their set.

after checking in on team d for comedic effect, who still haven’t made much progress, we check in with team c. in her confessional, misaki explains that she isn’t very familiar with liberty’s groups, and doesn’t know most of their songs, which is embarrassing because she just met sikyung, whose songs she does not know. because of that, she says that she let the other two decide. instead of arguing, team c goes with a different approach-- nayoon picks their older song, as more of a veteran of the industry, and as more of a rookie, andy picks the younger song. nayoon ends up picking harmony’s heart attack-- she explains that she feels as though the stage presence their team has could really come out in this song, and that selfishly, she wants to be a little sexy. andy, on the other hand, picks burnout’s piri. she says that it has elements that suit everyone-- misaki’s dance, her voice, and nayoon’s charisma.

finally, team d seem to have come to a consensus. they decide on their older song first, with deviant being the only real choice for girl groups. destiny drags her feet a little when picking a song, as it seems clear she’s a little uncomfortable going full goofy, but they settle on dancing queen-- it’s not as goofy as some of deviant’s other songs. after clarifying with production staff that they can pick a byulbit song as long as it’s from a unit yooi isn’t part of, the trio settle on a polaris song; shooting love. destiny isn’t thrilled with this one either, but in her confessional, she says she wants to try hard to apply her notes from the previous week. the judges said she didn’t emote well and couldn’t embrace the cute aesthetic, and she says that as someone who performed love & live with terra, as well as debuted with a rather cute debut song in everyday i love you, that shocked her. she wanted to prove them wrong, and resolves to show them that she can do it.

much of the episode is the teams rehearsing. team b has a lot of chemistry, and seem to work really well together. jaehee talks in her confessional about being a little hesitant to work with melody, as they are the oldest and youngest contestants with 15 years of age difference, but that she has come to really love the energy and optimism the younger girl brings, and explains how it makes her feel young again-- there’s something about a fresh rookie that changes your perspective. team c runs into a lot of issues, however. misaki does her best to try to teach the other two the choreography for both songs, but runs into some language barriers in the process, and gets frustrated that she can’t communicate.

finally, its time for performances. the stylists get the teams ready for night one-- Team A for I Got a Boy, Team B for Maze, Team C for Heart Attack, and Team D for Shooting Love. Team A us facing off against Team D, with B vs C. When one team is performing, the other team is watching in a special viewing area, with cameras capturing their reactions. After all four stages, audience votes (as well as judge input) will be tabulated, and the MVP from each matchup will be announced (as well as which team won). 

Team A performs their Old song first.  Before the performance really begins, Sikyung mentions in her confessional just how scared she is to perform a Juliette song in front of Pansy, and expresses how much she hopes that she does it justice. All three members seem to have taken on various big vocal parts from the original song, and the stage presence and polish are undeniable. Sikyung stands out the most, however, delivering some of the coolest, killing part-est lines.

Team D is next, doing their new song, which is Polaris’ Shooting Love. Before the performance begins, Yooi mentions how shaken up she is by Team A’s performance-- not only are they the worst team up against the best team, but that best team just put on an idol-group-in-their-prime-after-months-of-practice level performance. The song starts, and it starts off well enough. Windy and Yooi are so so likeable, and Destiny is much more charming and cute that in her first stage. But the lack of true vocalists in this team stabs them in the back eventually, with Destiny struggling to hit some notes, and Yooi outright failing.

Both teams are brought out for the mentors to critique them. Pansy is incredibly complimentary of Sikyung, and tells her that she performed her rap parts better than she had on the original song, which Sam humorously refrains from commenting on, leaving Sikyung flustered. All three of them are complimented for bringing their own flair, and making the song their own. As for Team D, the mentors are less complimentary. Matty compliments Destiny, saying that the mentors can see that she’s pushing herself and they appreciate it, but all the mentors agree that the performance just didn’t stack up, and that they should have picked a song more complimentary to their ranges and vocal skill levels. The mentors don’t lay into them too much, though, and everyone can tell that they just feel bad for the three foreign idols that just seem a step behind.

Team B takes to the stage next for their New song, with Maze. The mentors seem a little surprised when Isis performs Sookie’s rap parts, but pleasantly so. The synergy of this group is incredible, and while Jaehee’s dance ability (and style, and energy) may not match up with someone like Melody on the surface, the group does a good job of working together, making sure no one stands out for the wrong reasons, and making sure everyone gets their shine. 

Team C performs last, with their older song, Heart Attack. It’s not a bad performance by any means, but there are issues. Some of the dance is a little sloppy, and the team isn’t on the same page. Nayoon appears to be fighting for the center position the whole time, and really can’t perform all of her vocal lines up to snuff. Misaki also has some issues, especially in her rap, where some pronunciation is dropped. 

The mentors start with Team C, and they aren’t very happy. Jinkyung criticizes them on not working together as a team, pointing out how it seems to her like they just left their foreign teammate to twist in the wind. Matty takes aim at Nayoon, telling her that being a good center means knowing when to turn on the charm, and when to let the other members have their turn, and that in this performance, Nayoon just seemed like an attention whore. The critiques for Team B couldn’t have been more different; there isn’t a single negative note. Sam takes an interest in Isis’ rap especially, with him mentioning that he is Sookie’s mentor, and that he was very impressed, and Isis explains that her sister is Dylan, and that being Dylan’s sister means that she doesn’t rap much herself in Byulbit songs, but that she has picked up a lot from her. Sam retorts that Byulbit ought to let her rap more. 

All the teams are then brought to the stage, and Ilya announces the results-- for the first matchup, Team A won, and Sikyung was the MVP. As for the second set, Team B won in a landslide, and Isis was named MVP there. 

It is then time for the second day of performances, and the styling is shown again. Team A is dressed for their Dramatic performance, Team B is dressed for their Gotta Be You performance, Team C for Piri, and Team D for Dancing Queen. 

Team A goes first again, and it’s much the same as the day before-- they are incredibly well prepared and polished. Hayoon seems a little off, but not in any huge way. Not in any way anyone could place or point out. It’s just a feeling, and so their second performance falls short of their first, even if there is nothing wrong with it. 

Team B follows up, and there’s something magic about it. Jaehee is clearly more in her element here than she was with Maze, and even though she performed Maze wonderfully, it is so so clear that this is her wheelhouse. She puts on a show with the vocals, even adding in extra runs that Haena hadn’t on the original. Isis has big shoes to fill with Starr’s parts, but she brings the charisma. Aeri is the perfect compliment to Jaehee, and while Melody doesn’t have many lines to work with, she turns it on for what she does have, making sure it’s memorable. 

Team A is critiqued first, as well. Ilya tells them that they were very good, but that it just wasn’t good enough. Pansy piggy-backs on it, explaining that it was a well polished and executed performance, but it lacked fire and passion. It was just talented people going through the motions. There are no real bad critiques, but everyone just agrees that it just wasn’t as good as Team B, nor was it as good as their previous stage. As for Team B, Sam insists that Isis is the complete packages, complimenting her rap once again. Jinkyung talks about how all four of them really pushed the song to its’ limits, and Ilya tells them they picked the perfect song. Matty explains that while this was her group’s song, it was released before she was part of the lineup, and talks about how it was a difficult song for her to wrap her head around-- it’s not challenging in a dance perspective (which is where her specialties are), but the vocals need a lot of emotion and dedication to get the real feeling across, and that to this day she sometimes struggles with that, but that Team B didn’t and that she was so impressed. Before they leave the stage, Jinkyung tells Jaehee that she is (in her opinion) one of the best k-pop vocalists the industry has ever seen, which pushes Jaehee to tears. 

Team C has a big act to follow with that, and once again, they fall a little short. Misaki is a standout for the stage, and while she stumbles a little over vocals again, she really puts her all into the choreography, and is captivating to watch. Andy can’t quite hit all the notes she needs to, but she puts on an impressive showing nonetheless, and while her dancing isn’t up to snuff either, you can tell she really tried. Nayoon is a mess, though, not keeping up with the choreography, dropping her vocals, and seeming all too focused on image once more. 

Team D, however, blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. They all really seem to give it their all and have fun with the song, with Destiny in particular seeming to let go of whatever was holding her back and really go all in. Windy is the most engaging she’s ever been, and Yooi suits the concept perfectly. It’s in no way a Team B-style grand slam, but it’s a good performance, and warrants many cheers from the crowd. 

The mentors address Team D first, and it’s clear that they are very proud. All three of them are brought to tears by the encouragement from the panel. They are complimented on picking a song that suits them and doesn’t push them too far. Matty compliments Destiny in particular, saying that while many might read Destiny as someone cold and very focused on image and look, she really showed that she not only loved performing, but was capable of breaking out of her own box, and that she was very proud of Destiny for that. Team C is the last to be critiqued, and it all ends on a sour note. Sam compliments Misaki on doing her best, with a sharp jab at the other two, noting that she probably could have been great with the right guidance from her teammates. Jinkyung is a little kinder, speaking to Andy in particular, telling her that while she missed a few notes, Phoenix was a very very skilled singer and not everyone could do what she could. And while Andy missed some big notes, Jinkyung was still impressed with all else she hit. Matty expressed her frustration with Nayoon, however, saying that she didn’t take their notes from the previous stage-- instead, she got worse.

The teams all come out once more for Ilya to announce the results. Team B win the first matchup, with Jaehee being named MVP. He then announces that Team D won the second matchup, which prompts that team to tears once more, and when Destiny is named MVP, she gets on her knees and bows to the audience.