'Girls Planet 999' Episode 3 Recap: How teams fared in the 'Connect Mission'
After last week’s episode where the teams were made for the first mission ‘Connect Mission’, we saw the girls preparing by first selecting what parts each trainee would take. They had to trust each other and pick the best fit because either the whole team would win or get eliminated. Some of the girls were intimidated as the cells making up ‘How You Like That’s’ Team 1 had four TOP9 girls and were dubbed as the Avengers.
Team 1 of Blackpink’s ‘How You Like That’ had Yujin (CLC) as the leader. Shen Xiaoting got the centre, while Cai Bing and Xia Yan were the rappers. As for the vocal, it went to Youngeun. Yeongyung tried for all of the parts but unfortunately didn’t get the ones she wanted but she did shine in the final performance. Team 2 was led by Seungeun (BVNDIT) who lifted everyone's spirits despite not having any TOP9 girls.
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Distributing the parts
Team 1 of IZ*ONE’s ‘Fiesta’ had Reina and Sunwoo having high note battles for the vocal part which got the rest of the girls cheering them. Team 2 was slightly nervous as they were the last cells to be chosen. The girls trying out for the main vocal parts were not confident and hence were hesitant while still hitting the high notes.
Team 1 of TWICE’s ‘Yes or Yes’ focused on the high energy and cute gestures which were the highlights of the performance. Hyerim (AQUA) and Jiwon (Cherry Bullet) led the conversation and made quick decisions such as the adlibs and harmonizations. But the team had problems while selecting the parts as they didn’t agree with Hyerim and Jiwon’s choices. Team 2’s Doah (FANATICS) got the killing part and to be fair chose the shortest lines which touched the other girls.
It looks like the girls were looking at already experienced idols to lead them as even for Team 1 of OH MY GIRL’s ‘The Fifth Season’, Bora (Cherry Bullet) was selected as the leader. Team 2’s leader was Rayeon (FANATICS). Both of them also picked the main vocal parts. Almost everyone in the Seventeen’s ‘Pretty U’ Team wanted the killing part but it went to leader Yunji. The Team that selected BTS’ ‘MIC Drop’ felt a lot of pressure since everyone else seemed good and the song itself was hard.
EXO’s ‘Eve’ Team intimidated everyone as they belted out the high notes effortlessly. Fu Yaning chose herself as the leader as she was the oldest. As most of the girls wanted the killing part they all battled it out with Su Ruiqi winning with the most votes from her teammates. Yoo Dayeon was disappointed as she lost the killing part as well as the vocal part she wanted and burst out crying. After days of practice, all 99 girls got together to perform for the judging panel.
The winning benefits and dance battle
One team from each of the girl group songs' performances would be chosen while one team would be selected from all three of the boy group songs. Then the mentors would select the best team out of the five chosen that would win and get to perform on ‘M Countdown’. If it was a girl group song winner their points would double up and if it was a boy group song winner, their points would triple.
And the order of the performances was decided a couple of days ago through a dance battle between all of the teams. Three dancers from each team could go up and freestyle when the music played. The dance mentors Juhee and Kooyoung would then select the winning team of that song to go first. They also did a mini dance battle to kick start the event. Team 2 of ‘How You Like That’ won the first battle. For the ‘Fiesta’ battle, Reina shook everyone with her b-boy moves and energy. Team 2 of ‘Yes or Yes’ won their battle by goofing off with chaotic moves. The boy groups’ battle was intense as we had girls from ‘The Eve’ Team cartwheeling, taking the mentor’s mic and winning it. They decided to go last for the ‘Connect Mission’ while the ‘MIC Drop’ Team came second.
'Yes or Yes' and 'How You Like That' performances
We also saw the first rehearsal for ‘Yes or Yes’ Teams and the mentors were not happy with Team 1. Team 2 was commended for their energy and making the song theirs. They turned it out for the performance and impressed the mentors which ended with them winning. However, it was close since Team 2 was also good. The youngest trainee, Sein had everyone worried during the practice but she did her best and finished the performance albeit being a little faster than everyone else. Ririka was singled out by Sunmi for her stable vocals which stood out throughout the performance and Jo Ayoung was impressed with Wen Zhe’s improvement.
Team 1's stage (winner):
Team 2's stage:
The next was ‘How You Like That’. Hanbyul noticed how the most TOP9 girls were in Team 1 but also acknowledged Team 2’s synergy with Juhee calling them hidden cards. Team 1 had a lot of mistakes but both teams did well during the rehearsals. Unfortunately, both teams lost their nerves and made mistakes in the actual performance. The mentors ended up picking Team 1 as the winner.
Team 1's stage (winner):
Team 2's stage:
Episode 4 preview
The episode ended with a preview of ‘The Eve’ Team getting ready to perform next. In the rehearsal, their vocals were not stable and they were not in sync. We see the first few seconds of their actual performance where Kooyoung and Sunmi do not look happy as she says she liked their interim performance better. We also get a glimpse of the ‘MIC Drop’ Team’s practice which was a mess but we see the mentors and the girls cheer them during the actual performance. Episode 4 will air on August 27 at 8:20 pm KST (7:20 am ET) on Mnet's channel and YouTube channel. Voting will continue on the 'UNIVERSE' app. The first global voting round will end on August 28 at 10 am KST (August 27 9 pm ET).