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I kept hoping for redemption for them, or at least for one of them to switch sides. Kids that just kept getting failed by adults around them and carried that trauma into adulthood when they had no one else. Unjeong was kinda lucky getting away from Ha Wundo. Would have been interesting if the show explored a little what life was like for the WunderKinder while he was in prison since grandma only helped the kids without abilities.

You’re not wrong, but all the constant hammering of his acting skills made me think he would be especially bad when he’s just mediocre and ok. Like there’s no reason for his acting to bring up so much discourse the way it does imo

Honestly don’t really care too much about why the grandma invested. I’m a little curious about Chaeni’s parents but again, same thing. You could go down the whole rabbit of more info, like who was the old guy? In all, I don’t think it matters too much, for me the show told the story it needed to tell it doesn’t need to explain every little thing.

The only thing I’m really concerned about was what happened to Juran at the end, whether she passed out or died. The way her character was depicted hard to believe if she survived she’d just slink into obscurity.

Kind of confused about the difference between the grand prize and the best prize

I’ve seen enough, welcome back Baek Ajin.
I also like how much all the characters rage bait each other but no one does it as much as the leads. A true rage baiter x rage baiter couple it makes me wonder what their marriage was like before all this

“Oh shit💩” 🤡🤡🤡

Man what in the Safdie brothers/Murphys law/butterfly/domino effect is this 😭😭

Who’s the actress playing Heeju (the realtor working with Sujong) I don’t think I see her in the cast list

Wow their marriage dynamic is kind of what I wanted out of When the Phone Rings (minus how morally grey they are here)

Been a while since I’ve watched a drama that cared about its supporting cast. Lots of gems last episode

Seeing Seo Hyeonwoo show up after watching Honour…
Also gotta say, I didn’t recognize Nana. I’ve only seen one of her dramas but still, I kept wondering which character she was supposed to play 😭😭

So far progressing nicely. Story isn’t intense but it sparks enough curiosity to want to see what exactly is going on with these weird deaths. The plot reminds me of The Witch which came out last year but seems to have a lot more meat to the plot here (I didn’t finish The Witch so I don’t know how that mystery was resolved there but I remember hearing it was fairly simple).

Also got to say, I missed KJH’s character this episode. He’s just a big question mark at this point so wish to see him more. I agree him being the culprit would be too straight forward, but I’ve had my fair share of straight forward predictable plots, and regardless of that he sticks out like a sore thumb villain wise so I got my eye on him for the time being.

I really love plots where the FL is like a femme fatale/sort of “evil” type character and the ML is giving chase in a “is she actually evil or just stuck in the middle of unfortunate circumstances” type plot I wish there was more of them. Curious to see how CWS ends up falling because you’d think he’s had a fair amount of warning, especially from HSA herself

Damn for the year? March just started 😭😭

My guess is Baek Jun Beom is the stalker/murderer. Everything about their “first meeting” just rang a lot of bells

I'll get around to watching season 1 eventually, but I've seen season 3 now (it's what made me come around to finally writing this long review of season 2 after pushing it back for so long), and I don't know if it's recency bias but I actually preferred it to season 2. I think it's because I liked the cast of season 3 individually more, and no couple to me in that season was as messy as *the* couple here.

It’s been a while so I may be misremembering but the leads dynamic felt a little like Shin Hyesun’s Alice to Lee Junhyuk’s Luther (season 1 I mean; though Sarah Kim is obviously the main driving force/character here)

Her money is stuck in her house which is on a mountain in North Korea and thus inaccessible. It’s also apparently cloaked in some kind of magic so she’s the only one who can find it (so Geumho can’t just travel there and retrieve it).

1) As soon as I saw Yujung and Juwon, I thought they would look great together. So imagine how happy I was when they started being more exclusive with each other and for most of the show too. After the events of I think ep 15/16, I could sense a lot of cracks in their dynamic especially with the way Seokyung seemed to want to keep such a strong influence on Juwon (which she did). In the end, I was surprised by both YJ and JW decisions and while it made sense, I was disappointed (because after Juwon had mustered the courage to tell Seokyung to leave I got really hopeful).

2) Around the time that Seokyung suddenly started acting very jealous (ep 15/16), it was then that I had the thought "oh is this why so many people don't like this season? Does it get worse from here?" In my perspective, after those 2 episodes and maybe 17 (I don't actually remember) it cooled off, but the way she was acting really threw me off. Juwon had made it very clear that he still wanted a relationship with her, so much that some others in the house could tell. He kept asking her if she wanted to get back with him and she kept being very vague. It was so strange for her to demand he texts someone else, not even ask that he text her, and then not text him at all either. I really don't get what her hang up was with getting back into a relationship with him when every time she asked him that was what he said. I always felt like if she had any moment before the end had said "I still want to be in a relationship with you" it would have been a done deal, or at the very least she could have texted him.

3) I don't know what Kwangtae was doing for most of the show. There was no reason for him to have been so adamant about Yujung when it was so clear she wasn't into him. Some of the texts he sent her were so... He seemed to have wised up a bit when his ex finally showed up, but the way he acted in the show made it seem like he simply just wanted attention, and his last minute pivot to Seokyung, I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't genuine (especially when I remembered how he felt after their first date). It felt like he thought he couldn't leave without a match so he pivoted to someone he thought he could match with.

4) Hwihyun came in with the goal of winning Hyewon over. Maybe because he’s so young but he seemed to lose sight of that as the show went on and only came back to it at the end. I think if he had been more consistent/persistent he would have succeeded.

5) I don't know why Dongjin didn't want to get back with Dahye. Maybe it's because I didn't remember why they broke up but with how she was willing to get back together and the fact that they had spent almost half their lives together, I would have expected him to consider it. He came in so determined to move on and I wasn't sure why.

6) I noticed that essentially all the couples had been recently broken up. I think that's the reason they couldn't let go off their relationships (I was surprised Kwangtae and Jongyeon seemed to have had a clean break tbh). I definitely didn't like that. I prefer more diversity in proximity to the relationship because the wounds were still too fresh for all of them.

7) Unlike last season I can see so many of these seasons participants still being friends after (maybe I’m wrong). But I’m not surprised to hear that apparently like 2 other ex-couples reunited after the show (so 4 of the 6 total ex-couples got back together). I wonder how many are still going strong now.

Some general thoughts first:
I'm genuinely surprised so many people didn't like this season. I actually preferred it to season 2 (i think because i liked more of the people this season, and there was a couple/relationship last season that I really did not like lol). Reading the comments, I can't quite get what exactly it is that people didn't like, other than perhaps that so many participants were still hung up on their exes. Even though the ending didn't go entirely the way I wanted I did support all their decisions. The main hang up I had (and honestly not that much tbh) was that I thought exes would have more interactions/dates with each other but it really didn't happen till the end. And maybe it's because I've only seen season 2 but I didn't really sense too much of the production changes that so many others did.
I still think the participants who join late/at Jeju have the shorter end of the stick. They have less time to adapt, and if they want to find newer relationships it's more difficult since everyone has had prior time to already match with people.

Random, but I feel like so many dates this season were pasta dates. I don't recall season 2 having so many similar type dishes. I kept being surprised by just how much pasta the participants were eating!

Thoughts on exes and general dynamics. I will say, this comment is like a month after I finished so I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff.

Just as I don't typically root for exes to get back together, I'm also not a believer of relationships formed in dating shows and expect them to break up after filming ended. I was genuinely surprised to hear how long the Hyungyu-Haeeun relationship went on for. Like the show is almost a social experiment, everything is really heightened and made more intense due to its nature so I tried not to judge the characters and their decisions too much. So the fun for me with a show like this, as someone who does not really believe in relationships formed on dating shows and also as someone who does not think you should get back with your ex, was seeing the kind of relationships people had and how people respond because I think human behaviour is interesting, and learning about dynamics and interactions like that was also fun to observe. I remember thinking this season in particular, got an almost kdrama type writing especially towards the end (and why I thought perhaps it was the most popular and so highly rated).

Ex-couples:
Jiyeon-Taei: I don't remember too much about their relationship, but I do remember that Jiyeon would often make very interesting comments about Taei. I was glad that he and Naeon got on so well because if I'm not mistaken he was fairly lonely till she showed up.

Gyumin-Haeeun: At first I understood Gyumin's intentions. He didn't want to get back together with her so he thought the best thing he could do was to be firm and rebuff her, especially with how incredibly hung up she was over him. And I agreed with that approach honestly. Like she was so so hung up any small thing he did could have given her false hope. But then towards the end he suddenly broke down and started saying things and I got very confused and frankly annoyed by him. I'm glad she didn't waver when he did that. That said, she seemed at times to have so many complaints and issues with him that I didn't get why she wanted to get back with him

Heedo-Nayeon: There's been plenty said about them, and I'll try not to be to judgy about them, but they got so incredibly frustrating with their constant arguments. I'll be lying if I said I was rooting for them, but apparently they're still going strong so good for them

Wonbin-Jisoo: I remember initially thinking that maybe because they had been broken up for 3 years that they seemed to have had the best mindset and had had a clean break from each other. Then the Jeju trip happened and it genuinely sucked to see how the rest of the show was essentially ruined for both of them like they were both so sad.

Hyungyu-Naeon: they honestly didn't seem like exes, they had more of a friends vibe. I don't know if its because Hyungyu showed up so late. And honestly, I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for those who join late, especially at Jeju.

Mingi-Yihyun: I know they left very early (I think like episode 3 if not even 2), but they left an impact on me so I will comment on them. I think they were the most interesting participants for me initially (Yihyun for obvious reasons, Mingi actually snuck up on me later, like right before he left). I kept thinking for a good portion of the show (I think maybe till Jeju) how things would have turned out if they were both still present. Especially regarding Taei and Yihyun. It seems the general consensus as to why Yihyun got kicked out was because she was dating someone else outside the show though I've also seen that maybe she revealed her age too early (from just one person multiple times so who knows cuz I don't think that's a valid or sensible reason to have kicked her out)

Dynamics (what I remember):
Heedo-Jiyeon/Nayeon-Gyumin: I rooted for them. I remember being particularly invested in Jiyeon-Heedo (I didn't really care for Gyumin tbh). Their dynamic seemed better and they had a lot of fun together. And I already mentioned how I felt about Heedo-Nayeon so I was rooting for these two.

Taei-Jiyeon: I thought their dates were cute. Taei was probably the guy I was most interested (storywise) in and he seemed to get some of his spark back with her. I didn't expect them to last post show though (though I wished they did).

Hyungyu-Haeeun: I'll be honest, Hyungyu showed up too late for me. It was very entertaining to watch and it was admirable how consistent and persistent he was but I didn't really have the bandwidth to care for a new participant. As I mentioned earlier, I was surprised to hear they lasted as long as they did (and may even still be dating who knows).

I think that's everything. I'm genuinely curious how many are still friends with each other after three years.