ok i'm in the middle of watching devils plan s2 ep10, and boy do i have some THOUGHTS. I've been watching everyone dogpile on kyuhyun and sohee on this sub since the finale aired, and i haven't watched what sohee/hyungyu do in the finale.
but for kyuhyun, i think he did decently well for himself. just think about what the prison gang was asking of him. i get that hyungyu's manipulations were fucked up, and that his behavior was highlighted by the editing/creepy bgm. but...
- from kyuhyun's pov, this was his friend. he played with him, lived with him, ate with him, etc for 5 days straight. that is long enough to build an emotional bond - and that's clear by how hard the prison gang members themselves cried when their own allies got eliminated earlier on. the game is fake, but the emotions people feel during the game are extremely valid. people who want to disregard the emotional aspect of the game have an unrealistic expectation of human nature, and honestly, come off like T bastards (to use kyuhyun's words).
- kyuhyun and sohee are both clever people. you see BOTH of them whispering to their team members and figuring out strategies in every game. and although them contributing to their team's wins do have the consequence where someone is eliminated from the game (due to the game rules, which they didn't set), their focus was on winning the games for their team. the consequence didn't occur directly because of them. they saw how hard the prison gang had it, and they felt for the others (even brought them food/requested amenities before every main match), but they didn't want to be placed in that position, and they weren't, because of their abilities/how unbalanced the game was. it's like how the rich people in parasite didn't do anything wrong, per se, but they enjoyed their privilege and felt thankful they weren't poor. not likeable, but not wrong, per se. the real villain is the unbalanced and unfair game system - kyuhyun/sohee didn't cause the unfairness.
- when hyunjoon ditched hyungyu (and honestly, good for him, because hyungyu was being toxic as all hell that game. like jfc, does he not hear how villainous he sounds.) for kyuhyun and sohee, the entire situation became an entirely different beast altogether. they were being asked to help stab their friend, in a 6 on 1 situation. it was a cruel eventuality that people get eliminated, but the manner this ploy had clearly been carefully arranged (for hyungyu to lose all of his allies, to lose the game, to get sent to prison, to lose in a rigged prison game) was probably beyond the pale for them, who still considered hyungyu their friend. when the others got eliminated, they lost the games fair and square. Lee sedol and Justin simply didn't pick up how the games they lost in worked, at all. kh even tried to help justin.
- if we're being honest, how many contestants would have agreed to that? if eliminating harin so cruelly made game sense, would eunyu have helped kill her off? or if eliminating justin made game sense, would 7high or jiyeong have helped kill him off? justin wasn't even technically a part of the prison gang alliance (he was still a self-professed lone wolf), and the prison gang tried so hard to save him. the fact that kyuhyun and sohee felt they could not bring themselves to help off hyungyu, who was a part of their key alliance from day 1, is very understandable.
- this game is about social strategy as well as mental fortitude. the fact that 7high and the prison gang could not see how unreasonable and unrealistic their ask was, even if this was "just a game", is incredibly stupid on their part. what was supposed to be kyuhyun and sohee's reason to help stab their friend? because they'd "agreed" to help the prison gang for that one game? they'd agreed under the understanding that hyungyu would have a fighting chance and that this would be a fair game. helping their friend who was being ganged up on would obviously take priority over some "agreement" for a single game. or because it made game sense that hyungyu should be eliminated before the final? competition is one thing, but many players have lines that they won't cross even for the game, and ganging up on and stabbing your friend (even if it's for good game reasons) is a very reasonable and normal line. not clocking this was a major oversight by the prison gang - hinging their whole goddamn strategy on kyuhyun and sohee not feeling bad for their ally and friend was insane.
- what's more, it sounds like 7high really rubbed sohee the wrong way, with his bullshit "i don't even really care about winning, i want you to win". she's naive but not that naive, and his disingenuity lost him a lot of potential trust. that kind of dishonesty just makes him unappealing to be around. she must have known that if she and kyuhyun allied with the prison gang like that, 7high could not be trusted and there was a real possibility he would just pick off her and kyuhyun immediately.
- perhaps the worst part of 7high's strategy was he didn't clue in kyuhyun and sohee from the very start. they clearly felt just as blindsided as hyungyu did when hyunjoon ditched him. as a result, they didn't have time to process or properly consider what this new situation would mean or what they might want to do, rationally or emotionally. when people are blindsided like this, they usually stick with their gut emotional reaction - and in this case, it was to help out their friend. also, the fact that their new allies placed them in a very difficult spot as well, where they had to quickly decide whether they could be ok with following the prison gang's clear plan to off their friend in such a cruel way. i also want to point out that this was incredibly disrespectful to kyuhyun and sohee - the fact that their "new allies" just did this to them probably highlighted just how insignificant they were to their new allies and how untrustworthy their new allies were.
- in the face of all this, kyuhyun stood up for his and sohee's line. sohee can't do confrontation, so kyuhyun did it for her too - he fended off the prison gang, defended his own playing style and emotions, and he took his own elimination on the chin.
- but at the end of the day, i think it was not as much about hyungyu and protecting him, as it was about kyuhyun sticking to his own line. he didn't want to play like that, and it was very understandable. his friend was being ganged up on and expressed that he was having a difficult time (even if he knew his friend was fine in terms of the game, the emotions are still real). he chose to help his friend and refused to participate in offing his friend. that was his line. tbh, it was probably a line that most of the other contestants would have stuck to as well, with respect to their own allies/friends.
- and now, i'm in the middle of ep 10, and sohee is clearly feeling very bereft. probably feeling guilty for stepping away from hyungyu and for helping in the plan that ended up with kyuhyun eliminated. she was not a very secure person to begin with, so her eventual decision to help hyungyu to the very end to make all this have some kind of meaning makes sense to me.
