Leaving the two’s behind, it’s the start of a new episode. The best performances of the previous week get their own few seconds to shine again, as well as the two contestants who were allowed a chance of return. There will be no more chances for return and, counting with this episode, there are only three left. There’s still a lot to happen, however. The middle has only just been breached.
The public is welcomed to the set of recordings and the layout they are already used to. The thirty remaining contestants are properly separated between the two sides of the stage and, just as impressive as always, the five CEOs make their way to their seats. They look bigger up there, but their strong aura gives that impression from anywhere. Once they’re properly seated, the episode is ready to start. “Welcome, all, to the fifth episode of the Mnet Global Auditions!” Baek Jiyoung greets. The remaining contestants nod or clap in agreement before she continues.
“Let’s bring our first-ever trio to the stage, shall we?” The woman smiles. “Please come to the stage, CHOI MINHO, JEON HEEJIN, and ZHOU JIEQIONG.” The contestants do as told, walking to the center to introduce themselves. In unison, they say their team name. “Hello! We are the Royal Court!” Once they’re done, they move to their practiced positions. Before they can prepare themselves, however, the image wobbles to something different.
It’s the outside of the Sphere Entertainment building. As announced in the previous episodes, the contestants would be practicing inside camera-filled practice rooms for the public to see how they act behind the scenes. For the time being, only one person appears to be inside. When they zoom in, it becomes even more clear that it is CHOI MINHO. He paces around the room, clearly unsettled. To remind those not up-to-date on idol news, images appear of the same man debuting under that same company he was in that moment. Now, he’s only another contestant waiting for his partners to arrive.
MINHO moves towards the bag he’s brought and opens it, but the item inside it properly blurred for no one to see. It’s only when the camera focuses on the opening door that you can see what the proper reaction to it would be. His teammates, JEON HEEJIN and ZHOU JIEQIONG, enter the practice room and stop on their fit. HEEJIN’s eyes open wide while JIEQIONG tries to hold in a smile. “Heejin… should we be worried?” She asks the other. When the screen finally shows the man, he has a clown wig on top of his head. “Just one question,” JIEQIONG continues, “how long have you been sitting there like that?” He looks surprised by the question but answers it. “Long enough to put this wig on?”
“You’re an interesting guy…” HEEJIN adds before properly walking inside the room. The two girls appear without any makeup on, unafraid to show their natural looks. Time skips ahead to them in the middle of practice. HEEJIN puts on weird-looking glasses as part of their practice but, by doing so, her hair gets all messy. “Oh my god, Minho - Heejin now!” JIEQIONG gestured wildly in the other girl’s direction. “We have to protect her image! Hurry!” While MINHO moves to help HEEJIN, the other girl sticks her face in front of a camera and makes weird faces to try and save her partner’s image. It’s then that the camera freezes and an arrow points out another camera behind the girl’s head. The angle is changed and now people can see JIEQIONG going crazy in front of the camera while the man tries to fix the other’s hair. The screen quickly goes black-and-white and a text appears saying ‘image-less contestants.’
It’s like that their behind the scenes sequence ends and we’re back to the stage. A stool is set on the center of the stage with HEEJIN while JIEQIONG and MINHO move to separate sides of the stage. The younger girl puts on the glasses that act as a VR set and picks up a game controller. An announcer voice comes from the speakers saying ‘Jeon Heejin, select a song to continue.’ Their song starts to play, and it’s a mashup of two popular songs. While the other two dance, HEEJIN acts as the one who’s controlling them. That’s until they take off her glasses and the girl starts to dance along. They smile at the end of their performance. “I think we did good,” JIEQIONG comments on her interview. “It was supposed to be a fun performance so I hop everyone liked watching it.”
When the screen shows the Sphere practice room once again, the previous trio can be seen talking to each other but the camera zooms in on the other corner of the room where maybe the small DO KYUNGSOO wasn’t seen at first glance. He sits by himself far from the other group, just staring at them from afar. Time skips to when his other two partners join him: CHOI YEWON and SEO CHANGBIN. They sit in silence as well, and the scene is edited to show a rainy cloud above their heads while the other side of the room appears to live in sunshine.
They change, and the text at the bottom of the screen says ‘Day 2.’ DO KYUNGSOO enters the practice room with two boxes. He places one of them in front of his teammates while the other he pushes across the midline of separation from the other trio before running away. Inside is food which is, apparently, the best of friendship makers. Not only did the trio seemed to enjoy the quiche brought to practice, but also the team on the other side of the room. In a nice montage, the screen shows the different snacks they’ve brought for practice. In one of the cuts, KYUNGSOO is seen is CHOI MINHO’s arms as he does squat reps. They make sure to include some scenes of the trio practicing together as well just to make it clear it wasn’t all just fun.
“Working with KYUNGSOO and CHANGBIN was so much fun, though I don’t know if they would say the same.” CHOI YEWON says in her interview. “KYUNGSOO is a little quiet when you first meet him but once he warms up to you he is really easy to get along with. CHANGBIN, on the other hand, was sort of intimidating at first but after being around him for so long you realize that he’s a nice guy, you just have to feed him.”
When they’re back on the stage, they stand with beautiful outfits. SEO CHANGBIN and DO KYUNGSOO wear red and white suits, respectively, while CHOI YEWON has a blue silk dress. “We are the Ugly Truth!” They introduce themselves before getting into position. The two men stand on opposite sides of the table while the girl sits right at the front. They prepared a stage filled with story. YEWON stands and walks around the time while she raps, stopping to hold onto KYUNGSOO but he does not react. CHANGBIN’s voice brings more strength and power unlike the soft voices before him. If you pay close attention, you notice they only move when they are singing or rapping. As the song drifts away, their sad performance also comes to an end.
With the first two performances over with, the next trio makes their way to the stage, the table that was previously there disappearing. The third trio to stand on stage is formed by KIM JUNGEUN, TAKADA KENTA, and CHWE HANSOL, all wearing bright shades of red with a hint of retro style. “Hi, we’re Triple Treat!” They introduce themselves. Wearing a smile, HANSOL continues: “It’s about to get funky.”
Nova building is shown on the screen for a second before it moves into the practice room trainees will be sharing. JUNGEUN is the first to arrive and takes her time to explore the room before it gets too crowded, visibly amazed. “Hello,” the female representative of the first trio waves at the camera. “Let’s begin!” They’re sitting together in the practice room to discuss their song. When the girl suggests doing a track from Triple H, both KENTA and HANSOL look excited and pleased with the option, so the next step is sorting out the technicalities.
At first, despite KENTA’s attempt to demonstrate the dance taking JUNGEUN’s place and teaching HANSOL, they seem to struggle because of the awkwardness between the members during the sexy parts the girl shares with HANSOL. JUNGEUN laughs at times and, KENTA, one the other hand seems to lack focus, eyes on the other group’s constant arguments. However, they persist and keep practicing together. “Don’t they look…. so pretty? I feel like I see flowers when I look over.” It’s YEJI from the other trio who says it to the camera. HANSOL offers to help KENTA with the English lines and JUNGEUN’s with her rap portion, yet the scene is still far from ideal. Through the week, KENTA tries to keep everyone’s spirits up making faces in the mirror, interacting cutely with the camera and chatting, sometimes getting a displeased look from PARK JINYOUNG.
When they’re going over the choreography and JUNGEUN makes a small mistake, the girl laughs with frustration and the boys join in, clearly exhausted, creating a scene that looked more terrifying than funny despite the laughter resounding through the room. “You guys wanna catch a movie?” Eventually, HANSOL suggests they take a break and they all agree. Once they’re back and other things keeping distracting the members, HANSOL approaches KENTA. “We really need you to focus. This is getting out of hand, don’t you think?” The rapper says firmly. “I can understand the jokes and the tricks and all that other stuff. It’s good for morale, but it’s only good to morale when there aren’t other things to focus on. You just seem way too distracted by what’s going on over there because of DANIEL and your is over there. It’s really becoming too much, KENTA. DANIEL isn’t a child.”
After their honest conversation, the members run through everything once again, dance and vocals put together, but the screen freezes before the first verse and returns to the trio on stage, positioned in the middle to start. HANSOL holds a charismatic expression as they kick off the performance and, even if she struggled during practice, JUNGEUN confidently displays the sex appeal the song needed. The choreography is not too complicated, but they manage to execute it well with their energy and it’s visible that their chemistry improved. They do the moves in sync. KENTA doesn’t miss the opportunity to give a sexy look to the camera, pushing a hand through his hair. Freestyling for a bit as the song comes to an end, the trio finishes their performance well. “We were so cool!” We hear KENTA gushing as they return to their seats. “Yeah, we’re not bad at all,” JUNGEUN says.
HWANG YEJI, PARK JINYOUNG, and KANG DANIEL are next. They place their chairs down and gather to introduce themselves. "We are the love shot!" They exclaim in unison. "Jin-" JINYOUNG shouts immediately, followed by DANIEL's "Niel-" and the girl’s "Ji!", the syllables of their names before they hold a gun pose, two of them turning their backs on DANIEL.
Inside Nova’s practice room they are sharing with the previous team are YEJI and JINYOUNG. Something looks off in the way the girl stares at her partner before she suddenly shouts: “Ah! Snow White Oppa?” The camera zooms in JINYOUNG’s expression and the editors add elements of the said Disney princess on the contestant’s face before it shatters into pieces as DANIEL walks into the room, making the atmosphere rather gloomy. The trio starts discussing their song options, but not everyone seems interested. “Daniel? Are you listening? We need your opinion on this.” JINYOUNG asks and the other’s surprised reaction says more than words. “For now you don’t even need ideas, we just want to know what you think of these songs.” It’s clear by his tone that JINYOUNG is losing his patience, especially when DANIEL mentions his friends’ eliminations. In the end, they all seem to agree on Love shot and choose to put some twists on it.
“i let my emotions get the best of me,” DANIEL admits in an interview. “I started thinking that I didn’t deserve to be there anymore. It wasn’t the first time I thought it, but this week was the first time I’ve ever been in the mgas without SUNGWOON.” PARK JINYOUNG appears next. “I won’t lie and say there wasn’t any tension. On the first day of practice, I felt like DANIEL just gave up on himself and on us, and he really wasn’t putting any effort to help to choose the song and figuring out what we wanted to do. It’s very unfair on his part to act like this when so far he’s been treated very favorably in this competition. That is the behavior of a spoiled child,” he finishes honestly.
Screen split in two, images of YEJI adjusting the choreography and DANIEL sitting with his guitar, working on the arrangement, are shown side by side. “I have fixed the choreo so that you should be able to dance it,” the girl nods and it goes back in time where DANIEL supplies. “I’m not good at dancing.” However, when they finish the first draft with the line distributions, YEJI doesn’t look pleased, giving a DANIEL a slight glare. “Are you underestimating me?” And the week continues to be turbulent to the trio. “I don’t… think I have very much to show, especially not anything I didn't already. It’ll be just like ERIC said,” DANIEL says during practice. “Take what he said and use it. Fight, don’t just stand there and let him and all the other decide who you are, because I’m honestly starting to believe them.” JINYOUNG’s words are harsh and the air is thick when YEJI returns to the room. “Are you here to argue or practice?” She asks. When DANIEL finally agrees, JINYOUNG asks for a hug so they can move on.
Commanding the dance practices, YEJI shows a professional and stern image. As DANIEL continues to make mistakes and apologize, the girl gets more frustrated. “Don’t apologize for making mistakes, just practice so you don’t make them when we’re performing- this is where you can make mistakes.” The teammates are interrupted by JUNGEUN, making her way to their side of the room. “Look, I know we’re on different teams, but if you don’t get your shit together then you might as well tune your bass again instead of being here,” she says to DANIEL before HANSOL separates them. “I’m going to get better just so I can bet you, JUNGEUN-ssi,” he says. Tensions are high, but it seems to motivate the boy because when more images of him practicing are shown, he has a different look in his eyes. As they run their lines together and practice the choreography, DANIEL expresses his desire to sing the last line. “If you can do the entire choreo, without making a mistake by the end of today. I’ll consider it.” YEJI says.
And to keep the element of surprise, they go back to the studio without revealing if DANIEL got his wishes granted. They’re sitting on their chairs, DANIEL in the center, holding his guitar. It’s a melody everyone can recognize, but the acoustic version gives a different vibe to it. JINYOUNG’s voice is heard through the room and the other member joining him for a brief second, YEJI taking over before the rap portion that belongs to DANIEL. With JINYOUNG singing “It’s a love shot!” and aiming the gun formed by his hand at the camera, it all seems to lead to the chorus, but the instrumentals pause and they surprise the audience with a dance break. Centre-stage, YEJI shows her powerful moves and overflowing charisma. Pretending to take a shot, the girl walks back to her position and they continue doing well. When they progress to the chorus again, signaling the end of their performance, the whole group dance to it. It’s DANIEL who sings the final line before the music fades out and all three of them strike a pose as if drinking a shot.
“The team performing ‘Love Shot’ did well,” LEE CHAERYEONG comments, “I like how they put effort into changing the performance from the original.” Not everyone felt like agreeing with her, however. “It was good and they all had their solo moments,” CHOI MINHO starts, “but it didn’t feel like a team performance as much as it felt like they were taking turns.” JO YURI appears as well. “DANIEL-ssi and that guitar.” She groans. “We get it, you can play guitar – but really? It’s all he’s done.”
The building to appear is TRC. When the practice room is shown, most of the contestants are already there, except for WONG YUKHEI, who comes in holding cupcakes for both his teammates—JO YURI and MIYAWAKI SAKURA—and the one sharing the room. It feels like sharing food is a recurring theme between the rooms, no matter where you are. As much as they eat, the editors make sure to also show them practicing.
It’s another random day when WONG YUKHEI is shown leaving the room without explanation. They fasten the footage to indicate how long it had taken for him to return before he does so, walking in without much to show. “YUKHEI had to run to the bathroom for a while without telling us what was happening,” SIA KIM (one of the other contestants in their room) comments. “After a long time, he came back and told us he had Mexican food the night before and not to use the bathroom after him.” She covers her face with her hands and groans a little, but it doesn’t stop the laughter. “Maybe we never should have asked…”
With the end of practice comes a performance. The trio stands on stage, all wearing suits, before introducing themselves. They get into positions, each doing something different for the start. YUKHEI starts by singing the first vocal lines, followed by YURI’s own charming voice. In contrast to them, SAKURA takes on the rap lines of the song and also manages to show some of her Australian accent when the song gets to English words. They all stop together when the song ends, concluding their performance.
“They worked well together, and maybe it’s because the song is originally performed by a smaller group, to begin with, but it looked very complete even with just three of them.” PARK WOOJIN says.
Back in the practice room, the door opens, revealing one of the members of the other trio. “Whoa!” KIM SEUNGHUN gasps. “Do you feel this energy? It explains why their trainees and artists have that aura,” he continues, truly amused, then snaps back to reality. “Oh sorry! I got carried away in my excitement,” The boy bows to his teammates, KANG HYUNGGU and SIA KIM, with a sheepish smile. “Nice to meet you! Let’s work well together.” The three sit together on the floor and it’s the other boy who suggests they play an icebreaker game to take the edge off. The end is cut short when the scene changes to SIA’s face of disbelief. “How could you tell three lies?” HYUNGGU doesn’t see that as a negative. “I do what I want,” he says with a laugh.
“Do you think the fact I accidentally threw a flower at HYUNGGU last week was a sign we’d work together?” SEUNGHUN questions during his interview. “I think he was embarrassed about it,” HYUNGGU adds to the story. “I don’t think the flower was originally intended to be for me. But it helped us be more comfortable around each other!”
Apart from HYUNGGU, the other two members don’t seem too familiar with dancing. “If you guys give me tonight and tomorrow morning, I can learn it and teach it to you guys,” the dancer promises confidently. While they appear busy learning their song, SEUNGHUN also appears busy with something else. The boy appears dancing to something different, and once the camera zooms out of him, it shows that he’s copying the other team’s dance moves. “Apologies! I thought you needed a fourth member!” He jokes, dropping himself on the floor beside his trio.
The team makes their way to the center of the stage and introduce themselves. “Leaving you breathless, we’re team Avid!” They all say together. From the start, they move gracefully to the choreography of the song. HYUNGGU starts as the center before the other members can be revealed from behind him. The three get to share their vocal tone, and the three of them are also dancing. Throughout the song, they keep their faces expressive as well. In the end, the dancer takes the center again, and their performance neatly comes to an end.
“The performance was a bit of a letdown.” LEE NAKYUNG says. “I thought they’d all unify their creative minds and come up with something great, but all they really did was a cover? I don’t know what happened there. maybe they were trying to play it safe. Maybe SIA has grown complacent with her achievements so far but the CEOs themselves said she shouldn’t let it go to her head. If she falls out of Top 3 I wouldn’t be too surprised.”
Three chairs in the center give a déjà-vu sensation, but this time who goes up next is YOO TAEYANG, SOHN YOUNGJAE, and KIM HYOJIN. "Unlocking your hearts, we are The Master Key," they introduce themselves, followed by Park Jihoon's famous "jeojang" gesture.
The camera follows HYOJIN into KT’s practice room, where the red-haired contestant joins the two dancers and greets them respectfully with a bow. “Hi, I’m KIM HYOJIN.” Once they’re done with introductions, the performance topic comes up and HYOJIN’s bright hair color is not what makes the boy stands out this time. “I’m… not the best dancer, but I will work my hardest on whatever we end up choosing.” He says, but as Youngjae continues to suggest some options for the trio, it seems like it will be a problem. “You think you’d be able to do something like this?” YOUNGJAE insists. “If we make the choreo easier, maybe this one?” Another failed attempt. Visibly frustrated, HYOJIN bows his head apologetically at the others. “What should we do?” He asks. It takes a while, but they finally set with Blooming Days.
The task of training HYOJIN for their stage is left to TAEYANG, who already proved his expertise in the skill and seems qualified to not only help the singer but to offer modifications for certain parts so that members’ all level of dancing are able to execute it nicely. They throw around the idea before they decided to use chairs as part of the choreography. Despite the struggles and the time frame offered, TAEYANG is shown coming up with a fitting choreography without trouble. Practice starts right away and the seriousness of the moment is interrupted when the camera focuses on HYOJIN breaking out into an embarrassed smile when he attempts to execute a sexy move and keep a charismatic expression. “You go into the chorus with a bang! And then, like, swoosh, and you get the feeling of pow!” YOUNGJAE tries to explain the routine when Taeyang is out, doing the movements of the song, but the other’s expression is of utter confusion. “Eric… I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” says HYOJIN, and they show a scene of YOUNGJAE staring at the other side of the room here his former partner, YUGYEOM is practicing.
When everyone is gone, HYOJIN stays in the room practicing the choreography in front of the mirror persistently, showing an image that contrasted with his sweet vocals. “I’ve really decided to take a risk this time, hm?” He mumbles to himself out loud. “I’ve never danced before… And this is also the first time I won’t be using an instrument. Keyboard-ssi, I miss you.” The boy hums the last line with a melody. A different outfit shows it’s a different day, but he remains practicing until he’s the only one left in the room even though he looks exhausted. HYOJIN yawns and turns his phone to the camera to show the hours. “Right now, it’s around two a.m. Hope you’re sleeping well - I’ll work hard and quietly so that I don’t wake you up, okay? Fight!”
The camera returns to the stage where we can see TAEYANG sitting down on one of the chairs with HYOJIN, back to back, while YOUNJAE stands to the side, the third seat empty. The instrumentals kick in and HYOJIN’s voice is the first to be heard until TAEYANG takes over. Although there’s no dance for this part, they keep their expressions on point as they deliver the lines. It’s when YOUNGJAE starts singing that the others stand up as the song builds up, they show what the audience was expecting from the dancers, mixing the original choreography with something new, and their different images seem to work well on stage. TAEYANG and YOUNGJAE make a picture sign with their fingers, a reference to the original version. HYOJIN doesn’t struggle to keep up with the others and uses simple movements in his favor, not only showcasing his stable vocals but also a new image. The challenges during practice don’t stop them from ending the performance neatly. Running back to his seat, Youngjae realizes too late that his chair was still on stage. “Whoops!” He says and runs back to get it before joining his trio again.
DO KYUNGSOO appears to comment. “I did notice there was a part where TAEYANG and ERIC danced and HYOJIN, who was in the center, just sang. I am not sure if I agree with that choreo choice, mainly because HYOJIN looked out of place in the middle there when the two other boys were dancing hard and in sync.”
The next group appears also formed by three boys. They’re KIM YUGYEOM, NAM JOOHYUK, and WANG JACKSON. “Hello! We are Two Twenty One Two!” They introduce themselves and get into position before it changes back to their practice room time. YUGYEOM comes charging through the door and holds onto JACKSON. “Hyung! I can’t believe we get to work together!” The three seem to work well together, and the two friends get to know JOOHYUK better as well which is proven by the intricate handshake he shows off with YUGYEOM on another day.
“This week…” JOOHYUK chuckles during his interview, “YUGYEOM and JACKSON were a blast to be with. YUGYEOM and I are the same age and our wavelengths are completely compatible while JACKSON made sure we held it on together, I think we make a pretty strong unit.”
They appear again on top of the stage, ready to perform. To show off their charms with a song that could be classified as provocative, the boys all show a bit of dancing as well as another one of their skills. JACKSON is the one in charge of singing, while YUGYEOM performs with a rap, and JOOHYUK decides to do a bit of both, showing that they had it all. The choreography involved a lot of body rolls and the unexpected lifting of their shirts, but only two of them did it—YUGYEOM and JACKSON. They go into a dance break that leads towards the end of their song and they make their final pose.
KANG HYUNGGU appears on the screen. “Did you see him lift his shirt?” An image appears on the screen to make it clear he was referring to YUGYEOM. The one being interviewed starts to laugh. “kIM YUGYEOM does not have abs. I’ve seen him shirtless multiple times and those were almost definitely drawn on.” Another person appears. “YUGYEOM’s group?” LEE NAKYUNG says. “Did they forget this is family television? With JACKSON on their team just back from elimination, I would have thought of something better to do… I still hope YUGYEOM is the one to go rather than JACKSON, though.”
Three more people make their way to the stage. There are two girls, LEE CHAERYEONG and LEE NAKYUNG, and a boy, PARK WOOJIN. Together, they say their introduction. “We’ll burn the stage! Hello, we are Firefighters!” With a special computer effect, the scene goes up in flames, and, in its place, the outside of the Royal building appears. There’s a loud mash of two different pieces of music going against each other before showing the contestants inside. They try to practice at the same time, but the loudness appears to even affect them. “I had to leave a couple of times a day just to give my eardrums a break,” PARK WOOJIN grimaces upon recalling the ringing in his ears. “What were the chances the two teams with the loudest songs ended up in the same practice room?” WOOJIN is shown making his way back inside the room.
Going to a more quiet time, the group sit calmly together and discussing what to prepare. “We are all dancers so we came to the agreement that this was a great outcome.” LEE NAKYUNG says. “We didn’t have to hold back much in case someone else wasn’t too comfortable with the skill.” The interviewer asks her a question. “Did the trio that shared the room with you ever interfere on your plannings?” The girl stops for a second before replying. “Honestly… yes.” She chuckles but her face isn’t very amused. “I really had no problems with him beforehand but I think SUWOONG may be a bit too competitive.” While she explains the situation, it plays on the screen for people to see. “One day when we were practicing our songs, SUWOONG kept turning the volume of his group’s song up even if that clearly made it hard for us to listen to our own. It’s not that hard to keep the two songs balanced—we were already doing that before. So, of course, I turned our own song up. We had to practice just as much as they did. Honestly, it just felt very immature.” In response to this, SUWOONG appears on the screen. "She started it.“
In contrast to the two other’s unhappiness, CHAERYEONG doesn’t look as bothered. Their practice session comes to an end with the girl making different expressions towards one of the cameras, preparing for the stage that was about to come.
They’re back on the stage, now all in their starting positions. With the start of the song, they all scream the first line together: “Get it lifted!” And their loud song starts. CHAERYEONG starts with her first rap verse, and NAKYUNG follows along with one of her own. Unlike what would normally be expected, the two cute girls take on the long portions of rap that took most of the song, while WOOJIN is the one who sings the fewer vocal lines. Along with the lines, the group is continuously dancing, as expected of a group of three dancers. As their song near the end, instead of following with a final dance break together, each member has their own time to shine with a solo choreography of their own. Once they each show what they got, they finally take on their final positions and what was once loud comes to silence.
HWANG YEJI appears in her interview. “NAKYUNG’s performance stood out to me. Their stage was more powerful than I thought but they are all dancers, so they had it rather easy I think. It was impressive.”
Heading to the final performance, the last group take their place on the stage composed of LEE SUWOONG, NA JAEMIN, and SHIN RYUJIN. “We are the Golden Trio!” They make sure to introduce their team name. Just as before, the scene changes to how their practice time went. This room also appears to enjoy something when SUWOONG brings bubble tea with him and offers them to the other group first before sitting with his own teammates. Except the happy vibes don’t last for long in this group.
They’re practicing their dance routine, and when they finish, SUWOONG doesn’t seem too satisfied. "Let’s do the chorus again, it feels a bit sloppy.” They try again, but the boy still doesn’t look content. “Let’s break for ten,” and then he leaves the room. When he makes his way back, someone else is missing in the room. It appears that RYUJIN went to the infirmary over a migraine. His brows furrow a bit. “A migraine?” So the two males continue to practice by themselves without the presence of their third member.
SUWOONG sits by himself in the room before both JAEMIN and RYUJIN enter the room. The girl has the eyes of someone who had obviously been crying. She demands an explanation of the false truths the boy had been telling about her. The boy crosses his arms. “Are you calling my cousin a liar? That’s very accusatory, Ryujin-ah. I don’t really appreciate you insulting her in front of me.” RYUJIN says back that she doesn’t even know who his cousin is, so SUWOONG calls the other girl to get this confusing debate over with.
With cuts appearing on the screen, the public is introduced to Amarante. It’s the name of a group that was supposed to debut with RYUJIN in it, but the girl clearly isn’t part of the plans anymore. SUWOONG’s cousin had told him that RYUJIN was the cause of their never coming debut, but now that she’s put on the spot, the girl on the phone confesses her lies on television. SUWOONG looks defeated and puts his head down after the phone call is done. “You were right, JAEMIN.” He says. “It was a misunderstanding, after all.” He raises both of his hands in prayer while looking at RYUJIN with a slightly pinched nose and softened eyes. "Please forgive me.”
The result of the situation is to be shown at their stage, whether they deliver a performance with high spirits or not. It all starts with a line done by RYUJIN. “Those oppas are weird.” That kickstarts to what will be the rest of their performance. Following the girl, SUWOONG does the energetic introduction embedded at the start of the song, followed by JAEMIN’s rap verse as the true first lyrics of the song. Their choreography comes with a lot of performing. They all act weird, just like RYUJIN has called them. They all fight and play with actions pre-prepared. At the final stretch of the song, they take out golden coins from bags and throw them at the contestants sitting on the side, showing the ‘jackpot’ they had earned.
“Ah, truthfully, RYUJIN and I had a misunderstanding in the beginning.” SUWOONG starts. "We were really lucky that we were mature enough to talk through it, otherwise it would’ve impacted our performance. We’ve worked hard to make it this far, so it would’ve been a shame had we let this small hiccup drag us down.” He offers a small smile then. NAM JOOHYUK appears next to leave a comment. “They were pretty good! RYUJIN’s solo part was as expected from her, phenomenal and while the rest of her team came on quite strong as well.”
With the end of all performances comes the tense music the public should be used to by now. Should a contestant make it through this episode they’ll see themselves going straight to the semi-finals. With a total of ten groups on this round, a brutal number of five—half of them—will lose one of their members. Katie Lee takes her microphone to start with the announcements which will be a long one for sure today. “Congratulations to all of you for putting such impressive performances today. As much as you’ve grown with each passing episode, not everyone can be on the top spot.” The woman pauses, looking at the contestants below her.
“From the ten groups here, three trios will get to stand on stage right now.” The CEO looks down at her notes before calling out the names of the best contestants of the week. “The top three of the week are CHOI MINHO, JEON HEEJIN, and ZHOU JIEQIONG; JO YURI, MIYAWAKI SAKURA, and WONG YUKHEI; and LEE CHAERYEONG, LEE NAKYUNG, and PARK WOOJIN.” They’re welcomed to the stage by the other contestants and stand beside their own teammates. “You’ve all managed to show a captivating stage in your own way. It was great to watch you perform, but the top performance has been chosen.”
A long pause makes time for the camera to focus on each of the contestants on the stage before it returns to Katie Lee who sports one of her more serious looks. “The winners of this week are… LEE CHAERYEONG, LEE NAKYUNG, and PARK WOOJIN.” The screen shows their reactions. “With a team composed of three dancers we were scared of what you would be able to come up with, but you managed to show that you shouldn’t only be classified as that. You also didn’t try showing more than what you have and it was a very well-balanced performance. Congratulations on your win and the two other groups here as well.”
There’s a new round of applause and the trios already called are safe for the day and each received their own spot at the semi-finals. They return to their seats and, between the seven trios left, only two of them will get to remain complete. For what’s next, and what everybody dreads, Hyun Bin is the one to speak.
“The same way we have our higher ranking teams, we also have the lower ranking ones.” The man nods towards the contestants. “During our duos rounds, both members of the pair were eliminated when they landed on a low rank. For this round, only one of the members will be leaving us. Five contestants in total will be eliminated today.” And with that, the tense music returns. The camera focuses on the face of different people and maybe one of them is your favorite. “So… we’ll start with the first trio who’ll lose a member today.”
Hyun Bin pauses again, raising the tension in the room. “It’s between KIM YUGYEOM, NAM JOOHYUK, and WANG JACKSON.” He stops and directs a stare at the three males. “You had an entire week to prepare something and it just felt really lacking. You had everything to make this a very risky but good performance, but instead, it was incredibly bland. Sadly to you, showing your body wasn’t as impressive as it could have been. As mentioned before, though, only one of you will be going home today.” The man takes the time to lick his lips before making the announcement. “The member of this trio to be leaving us is… KIM YUGYEOM. We hope you may continue with your journey, although this competition may no longer be part of it.”
With a nod, the man moves on to the next. “The second trio between the lower ranks are… CHWE HANSOL, KIM JUNGEUN, and TAKADA KENTA. While it certainly looked like you were having a lot of fun together, it wasn’t really a performance that felt like you could show your skills very well. If you think it was and that is all you got to show then you all must also agree with your position here. Of course, this doesn’t mean all of you were bad. Only one will leave us today and that person is… KIM JUNGEUN. We hope you can see where you can grow and continue improving yourself out of the show.”
And with two people out, it means it’s time to cross the middle line. To continue with the announcements, Seo Jisub is the one to speak next. “Moving on, the third trio between the lower ranks are… KIM HYOJIN, SOHN YOUNGJAE, and YOO TAEYANG.” The CEO calls out. “We appreciated the modifications you made to your performance. You tried fitting all the members to the performance. However, each time we have fewer performances, and while we may appreciate some things, we also must pay more attention to smaller details. There were others who performed a better act, and they had more of these details than yours did. Due to this, one of you will have to go home, and that person is… YOO TAEYANG. Hopefully, you’ll get to keep working towards your dream even after leaving us.”
Heading towards the end, the man continues. “The fourth trio between the lower ranks are… HWANG YEJI, KANG DANIEL, and PARK JINYOUNG.” Jisub looks over at their direction. “You performed your own version of your chosen song. It felt like you were trying to split it into different sections to highlight each one of you but not everyone really got the attention that they wanted. It also feels like one of you had their strength turned into a disadvantage. Still, only one of you will go home. This person is… PARK JINYOUNG. This may be your second elimination but you made it further than most. We hope you keep pursuing your dreams even after this.”
To bring an end to it all, Tiger JK is next to pick his microphone. “There are only three teams left, and only one of you will be losing someone today. The last trio between the lower ranks are… LEE SUWOONG, NA JAEMIN, and SHIN RYUJIN. As entertaining as it was, a performance must be more than that. You had the story elements and even the special surprise at the end, but you still landed just below the cut mark. You certainly picked a very strong song. The problem here is that you tried reaching that level of excitement and not exactly all of your skills followed along with that. And the last person to leave us today is… NA JAEMIN. Keep up with your hard work.”
With eliminations finally coming to an end, the rest of the contestants clap. Except, instead of the CEOs changing things around to announce the next challenge, Tiger JK continues to speak. “We’ve now reached our last 25 contestants of this season. On the first episode we had 100 hopefuls wishing for a spot on this show, and, before that, we had thousands of people signing up for auditions. Next week will be the semi-finals and, this time, we weren’t the ones to show who was paired with who.” The man looks to the side and Baek Jiyoung takes her own microphone at the end of the table.
“As we walk towards the end of the competition, we asked for some help from a few people you’ll probably recognize. If you’ll please take a look,” the woman points forward to the stage. It is empty now but, suddenly, the set starts to do something most didn’t even know it had the ability to do. The screen at the end of the stage parts in two and the floor is taken over by dry ice, raising the expectation by each second that passes. Whether curious eyes managed to figure out who the three figures are in between all that smoke or not, the woman makes sure to introduce them to the public. “From Sphere Entertainment, please welcome CONVEX’s very own JINKI and JINWOOK, as well as our star trainee and winner of the last season of the MGAs, GO HOJUNG!”
Just like that, the three men reveal themselves from the mystery and make their way towards the center of the stage. As they do so, new shadows appear between the cloud waiting to be announced as well. “From Nova Entertainment,” Hyun Bin starts, “please welcome our future AND*ROMA members SEUNGWAN and SUNMI, as well as our star trainee, LEE SUNGYEOL!” The camera makes sure to capture any interesting reaction from the contestants.
“From TRC Entertainment,” Tiger JK continues, “please welcome our K.ARMA’s DOYEON and SANA along with our star trainee, JUNG JINSOUL!” The three girls reveal themselves from the smoke and join the others on the stage, leaving a space in the middle for whoever appears next to have the clear passageway.
The one next proceeds with introductions. “From KT Entertainment,” Katie Lee says, “please welcome our ECLIPSE’s dearest HASEUL and MINJI, as well as our star trainee, LEE LUDA!” Another three girls make their way forward to the center, a continues round of surprises.
“From Royal Entertainment,” So Jisub brings the final addition, “please welcome these members of LUXE, CHERI, and ELLA, as well as our star trainee, JEON WONWOO!” These are the final trios to take the stage, although they aren’t there to compete.
To explain the situation a bit better, Baek Jiyoung is the one who adds to her previous words. “You’re all probably very surprised by the presence of these idols and trainees here. Just like you, all of them took part in the MGAs before. Not all of them won, and not all of them made it to the finals, but they still managed to debut or get signed under one of our companies. With their experience both as past contestants and as trained performers, these people in front of you will be this season’s coaches.”
There’s a clear smile on her face as she nods at those on stage. “This year, there won’t be only one winner but, instead, a team. The coaches before you are here representing their company and each took a vote on who they thought would best fit its image. Based on that, five new groups were formed with five contestants each. Since next week will be our semi-finals and with the help of these talented coaches, we hope to see some next-level performances.”
To see all the of this season’s contestants, click here!
And now, let’s see what’s in store for our sixth episode and semi-finale!
With the revelation of this season’s coaches comes the revelation of the next challenge. Each coach was told to vote for who they thought fit the image of the company they’re in and, from these votes, groups of five were properly arranged. All people involved should show at least two of their performance skills, one of them being dancing. The theme is to not only impress but to prepare a stage that fits the image of the company they were assigned under. This may differ from the image a contestant may have had of themselves. All groups are told to come up with a name of their own. A list of the groups can be found below:
SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Jinki, Jinwook, Go Hojung #5006 - CHWE HANSOL #5017 - KANG DANIEL #5033 - MIYAWAKI SAKURA #5035 - NAM JOOHYUK #5038 - PARK WOOJIN
NOVA ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Lee Sunmi, Son Seungwan, Lee Sungyeol #5004 - CHOI YEWON #5025 - KIM SEUNGHUN #5039 - SEO CHANGBIN #5045 - TAKADA KENTA #5046 - WANG JACKSON
TRC ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Doyeon, Sana, Jung Jinsoul #5002 - CHOI MINHO #5011 - HWANG YEJI #5018 - KANG HYUNGGU #5028 - LEE CHAERYEONG #5040 - SHIN RYUJIN
KT ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Haseul, Minji, Lee Luda #5014 - JO YURI #5026 - SIA KIM #5030 - LEE NAKYUNG #5047 - WONG YUKHEI #5050 - ZHOU JIEQIONG
ROYAL ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Cheri, Ella, Jeon Wonwoo #5007 - DO KYUNGSOO #5013 - JEON HEEJIN #5020 - KIM HYOJIN #5032 - LEE SUWOONG #5042 - SOHN YOUNGJAE
By the end of the next episode, one member from each group will be eliminated. This means that even if your entire performance is considered sub-par, only the contestant who was considered as having the weakest performance will be eliminated.
Just like the previous episode, the contestants will be recorded during their preparation time. The five companies prepared one of their practice rooms with cameras and will allow their group to practice inside with free use of the high-tech equipment available in it. On the first day of training on Friday, the 26th, the coaches will visit their practice room to help the contestants decide on songs and give them some tips on not only their past experiences in the MGAs but also as performers. Additional meetings may be arranged if needed and if it doesn’t conflict with anyone’s schedules.
All contestants are supposed to make their own way to the recording studio prepared specially for this episode. Unlike previous episodes, this time contestants will have to perform a stage in front of a live audience of 1500 people. To help with this, the episode will be hosted by the MC Hong Jinwoo. They’ll have to go to a different set this time and it’ll look a bit like this. The bigger stage will allow for bigger props if needed, and these should be checked with the staff beforehand for them to prepare it. The groups will get to prepare themselves backstage and, this time around will have to wait there while the other groups perform. A room with a TV is available for those who’d like to watch the groups performing. Just because most eyes will be on the performance doesn’t mean no one will be paying attention to you. A set of cameras will have their lenses ready to capture any sort of interesting reaction from those watching backstage (beware of the evil editing).
Sitting between the stage and the public with their much more comfortable chairs are the CEOs of each big company. They’ll make sure only the most captivating contestants will continue their journey to make this the best season yet and continue to represent their companies.
Tune in next Saturday, the 3rd, for our sixth episode!
MGA Season 5 episode six preview: Idols and trainees have been revealed as this season’s coaches and the remaining contestants are now assigned to the five companies. Will they manage to do a good job of keeping up with their image? How will the coaches help the contestants? Tune in next time to find out!
[ All of the performances were aired in their entirety. Cuts from the show itself were uploaded to Mnets’s Official Youtube Channel. ]
If you made it this far, either if you were eliminated on this episode or not, you may add +3 POINTS IN A PERFORMANCE SKILL to your points tally. Make sure to link back to this post for verification.
Contestants have until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 2nd, to post their 200+ words solos about the groups challenge in front of the CEOs. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5groups. They’ll have less than four minutes to perform their chosen performance to prove their worth to make it to the final (as long as it doesn’t break any laws). Good luck! Song choices should be submitted to the rkevent inbox. Two groups performing the same song will not be allowed and this will be chosen on a first come first serve basis. Any group chats made for plotting should include both Mod Bianca (luvseungjoon on twitter) and Mod Gab (jindeukii on twitter) for monitoring.
After the last performance is done, the CEOs will leave to discuss their thoughts privately. While this happens, the contestants will be taken one by one into a small room to be interviewed on their thoughts of the current state of things and all the live audience will be told to leave the set. The contestants will be asked a variety of questions and some may be included in the list found below! Feel free to come up with your own questions if you think they can be fitting.
What did you think of the results last week?
What did you think when the coaches first appeared?
How was it like working with your group?
How was it like working with the coaches?
How do you think you did?
Were there any performances you liked?
Were there any performances you didn’t like?
What did you think of ___’s performance?
Which group do you represented their company the best?
Was there anyone you think that brought their group down?
Is there anyone you are certain will move onto the next phase of the MGAs?
Is there anyone you are certain will be eliminated today?
Once they’re done, they’ll be taken back to their waiting area to wait, or may go to the bathroom if needed.
You may also write an extra 200+ words solo about your muse’s interview, as explained above, to also be posted until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 2nd. For doing so, you may earn +2 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS and these can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5groups. Please link this post as verification.
COACHES! If you write one 200+ words solo about your muse’s time spent interacting with the contestants you may earn +3 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS. You’ll also have until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 2nd, to post your solos. These can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5groups. Please link this post as verification.
For an additional +2 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS, you may also write an extra 200+ words solo about your muse’s interview. These would take place after or in between their time spent together on the 26th. Coaches will be taken to a separate practice room where a mini-interview-set has been prepared for recording. Questions will mostly be about their thoughts on the contestants and how the performance preparations are going, as well as their expectations for final results. Please post this until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 2nd, to collect points. These can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5groups. Please link this post as verification.
If the coaches write their solos or not will not impact the results of the groups. More information about muses joining the live audience will come in a separate post.
