‘Girls Planet 999’ Episode 5 Recap: Round 1 elimination and the TOP9 girls
Cell rankings from #17 to #1, the individual TOP9 ranks and the first 48 girls to be eliminated were revealed in 'Girls Planet 999' Episode 5. The first cell to survive was ranked at #16 and had Bora (Cherry Bullet), Hana (Orange Latte) and Luofei. The #15 cell had performed BTS’ 'MIC Drop' and had Wang Yale, Jeongmin and Ayaka. #14 had girls who had performed Apink’s 'Chu' in the demo stage and were one of the benefit winners of the Connect mission. One of the twins, Liang Jiao, was in the cell and cried because her sister did not make it. The other two were Hyewon and Manami.
#13 had one of the girls whose demo stage had more than 5M views and had performed Twice's 'Yes or Yes'. Lee Chaeyun, Cheukying and Ririka made up the cell. #12 had Jiwon (Cherry Bullet), Chiayi (Fanatics) and Moana. They had performed 'Yes or Yes' and one of the members had a killing part. #11 had one of the youngest members and were the winners of the Connect mission. They had performed Seventeen's 'Pretty U' and had triple benefit points. Zige, Myah and Kotone were part of the cell.
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Hsin Wei apologizes to Jingoo
#10 had a K girl who had performed 'POP/STARS' by K/DA. It was revealed to be Hsin Wei (Daylight), Yeyoung and Reina's cell. #9 had a girl who was initially ranked #1 from her country group. The girls revealed were Tammy, Kim Dayeon and Sakurai Miu. While the selected girls were asked to say a few words, MC Jingoo recalled the time when Hsin Wei accidentally called him ugly. They bantered where she apologized and said that she meant to say he's handsome.
'The Planet Fashion Queens'
We were then shown the aftermath of the Connect mission where Sunmi did a mini fashion show for all 99 girls. She reiterated why fashion, catwalk and stage presence was important for an idol and had the girls participate. One girl from each Connect mission team would catwalk while two teammates would help them by doing their hair and makeup. There were two categories - the 'best dresser' and the 'worst dresser'.
Sunmi also invited models Jang Hyuk and Bae Yoon Young to judge the girls. Sumomo from the 'Yes or Yes' Team 1 wowed everyone with her sultry look. Xinyu from Blackpink's 'How You Like That' Team 2 stumbled but made it up with her confidence and professionalism. Joungmin from the IZ*ONE's 'Fiesta' Team 1 had the two model judges trying to recruit her. 'Yes or Yes' Team 2 sent Wen Zhe (Hickey) who is known for her hilarious personality. Her seriousness and catwalk won her team the first category of the 'best dresser'.
The 'worst dresser' category saw 'Pretty U' team’s Zige give a seductive but campy look while Suh Jimin from the 'Fiesta' Team 2 acted out a whole plot with her look that had the girls giggling. In the end, the 'Pretty U' Team won. The two winning teams got a free day pass and got to play at an amusement park.
Elimination continues
The elimination ceremony resumed with Jingoo announcing the cell that ranked #8. While they didn't win the Connect mission they had a leader and they were #8 before the mission too. It consisted of Suyeon, Shana and Fu Yaning. #7 had girls from the 'Fiesta' Team 2 and were Bahiyyih (TXT Kai’s sister), Nientzu and Shihona. #6 had a K girl who had already debuted and it was revealed to be Doah (Fanatics), Risako and Ziyin's cell.
#5 had performed a girl group’s song and turned out to be Yiman, Kim Chaehyun and Ayana. #4 had one of the girls who was a leader. They retained their 4th place and it had Xingqiao, Kang Yeseo and Mashiro. In #3, one of the girls had a killing part. Another girl was the centre and initially #1 during the 'signal' song. It was Su Ruiqi, Hikaru and Jiyoon.
Mini award ceremony
Jingoo then showed us a fun mini award ceremony. Turns out that certain girls were nominated by the other girls for categories like 'the one to wake up first'. Bora and Yurina were nominated with the latter winning. Xiaoting won 'the beauty queen' award while Jiwon was also nominated. Yoo Dayeon (Lipbubble) and Wang Yale were nominated for 'the best makeup transformation' and the former won. 'The most popular' award nominees were Wen Zhe and Su Ruiqi who are both quirky and extroverts and Su Ruiqi ended up winning. The last award was 'the cutie fatale' award and went to Myah for her energy.
The #1 cell
The #1 cell had the most votes with 2.9M votes. The show revealed the contenders which were Yujin (CLC), Cai Bing (KSGIRLS) and May's (Cherry Bullet) cell, and Yurina, Xiaoting and Youngeun's cell. Both were in the 'How You Like That' Team 1. It was a close call since the #2 cell had 2.6M votes. One girl who didn't make it joked that they needed popcorn for the #1 reveal. Turns out #1 was Yujin's cell and it seems they retained their #1 rank that they had before the mission. Xiaoting's cell also retained its rank of #2.
The last cell to survive
The show also revealed two candidates for #17. It would mean that the one that didn't rank #17 would be at #18 and eliminated. The girls found it cruel that the #18 cell had to be given false hope. Jia, Xinyu and Moka's cell, and Wen Zhe, Sein and Momoko's cell were the contenders which no one predicted.
The #17 and #18 cell had a difference of 69k votes with Jia’s cell winning and ranking #17. They thanked Seungeun (BVNDIT) and Tzuling’s cells who were in their 'How You Like That' team but didn't make it. Sein was sorry that Wen Zhe, whose birthday it was, was so close but lost out.
The 'Planet Pass'
It was then revealed that three girls were saved by the judges with a 'planet pass'. The first 'planet pass' went to Ruan, the J girl who had sung Oh My Girl's song. The judges were touched by her effort and performance.
The second planet pass was revealed to be given to a C girl. A majority of the girls wished it was Wen Zhe when it was revealed that the girl's team hadn't received benefit points during the Connect mission. Wen Zhe was indeed revealed to be the lucky girl. Everyone was happy for her and started singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. The judges chose her because they could sense her genuineness, sincerity and could see that she had improved a lot.
As for the K girl to get a second chance, no one could predict who would be selected. It ended up being Hyerim (Limesoda) who had sung 'Wow Thing' in the demo stage and was the main vocal during the Connect mission. The judges were impressed with her leadership skills and believed that her voice saved her team's performance.
The new TOP9 spots
It was then revealed that even the TOP9 spots that were selected by the judges had changed due to the voting. #9 went to K girl Kim Chaehyun who had been in the winning team of 'Yes or Yes'. She got the first TOP9 necklace to identify her rank. #8 was someone who had also been chosen in the TOP9 by the judges and got benefit points and it turned out to be Kang Yeseo.
The #7 girl was in the cell that was in the top 3 and had performed 'How You Like That'. It was Cai Bing from C group. #6 went to Sui Ruiqi who was also in the judges' TOP9 and had performed EXO's 'The Eve'. #5 was a Connect mission leader and had ranked #1 in Japan. It was J group's Sakamoto Mashiro.
The remaining candidates for #4, #3, #2, #1 were revealed all together - Yujin, Hikaru who was #1 by the judges, Xiaoting and J group's Yurina. Many girls were shocked that Bahiyyih didn't make it to the TOP9 since she was popular among the viewers.
#4 was Yujin which surprised many as the girls thought that she would be #1. Hikaru dropped down to #3. The girls then realized that that #1 and #2 were from the same cell and they were both #1 in their respective countries. #1 went to Yurina who was #1 in 83 countries while C girl Xiaoting was #2.
Episode 6 preview
54 girls survived. The episode ended with the eliminated girls leaving. We then got a preview of episode 6 where the next mission was announced. Titled the Combination mission, the current cells will disband. We then see the mentors scold the girls during practice and Sunmi tries to calm a girl who is crying.
Voting for round 2
The second voting round has begun and will also take place on the Universe app as fans can increase the ranks of their favorites by voting for individual girls. But they cannot vote for the cells anymore. Ten girls with the lowest votes of each country group, that is the K, J or C group will be eliminated. Voting ends on Sept 17 at 10 am KST (Sept 16 at 9 pm ET). Episode 6 will air on September 10 at 8:20 pm KST (7:20 am ET) on Mnet's channel or YouTube channel.