I-LAND official poster. Credits to the rightful owner. 

 

What is I-Land?

I-LAND is a South Korean survival reality show organized by Belift Lab (a joint venture between the entertainment companies CJ E&M and Big Hit Entertainment) and was broadcasted worldwide through YouTube and other streaming platforms starting June 26^th, 2020 with Namkoong Min as the host. The purpose of this reality show was to debut a 7-membered boy group among 24 contestants coming from all around the world (one contestant didn’t appear because of an injury, and another dropped out for personal reasons during the show). The facilities took many years to build and the casting lasted almost a year. 

  

The show was divided into two parts: Part 1 where contestants had to go through several test that would determine who will get to stay in I-LAND (synonym of getting a chance to debut) and who will go to GROUND (synonym of going back home), and Part 2 where the 12 contestants who made it so far go through another series of tests and get eliminated one by one until the last test.  

The last episode was broadcasted live on September 18^th, 2020, and the final 9 contestants had to perform one last test before the announcement of the final members. It was announced that the new group will be debuting under the name of “ENHYPEN”.  

  

Follow the group on their official social media accounts (communicated on the ENHYPEN Weverse account):

Twitter (official)

Twitter (members)

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Weibo

TikTok

V Live

Official Naver Post

 

What happened in the final episode? 

The episode starts with the host, Namkoong Min, opening the global live voting. In the background were the faces of many global fans watching the live broadcast through videoconference. The 9 members then perform I&Credible, personally one of my favourite songs on this show, in front of the panel (Bang Si-Hyuk CEO of Big Hit, the directors Pdogg, Son Sung-deuk, Wonderkid and Doobu) but also in front of special guests (TXT and BTS).    

After a few comments from the panel and the guests, the host announces the current rankings of the trainees and they start appearing one by one. We all wanted to see TXT interact with Heesung since they trained together for 3 years, but all we got is a plan of Taehyun with a total pokerface... No comment. Then the special co-host for the final episode, Shin A-young, takes a look at the world map and announces who are the number 1 trainees in the countries with the most votes: 

#1 in USA: Jay (not surprising since he's American) 

#1 in Indonesia: Jake  

#1 in Egypt: K (surprised that they took a look at a country from the MENA region, they are usually put aside so it's great) 

#1 in South Korea: Park Sunghoon 

 

We move on to the pre-recorded footage of the trainees being called to the lobby. It's time to announce the final test, but first the trainees are informed that the last episode will be live. I could totally sense how stressed they felt when they announced that it was going to be live. When performing live, lots of mistakes can happen and the trainees were definitely anxious before that so yeah, I was clearly rooting for all of them at this precise moment. Now, the final test is being announced: "Calling". The choreography video shows up, and the trainees get excited because they really wanted to perform altogether this time (the previous tests of Part 2 were all done in units). Comes the time of distributing the parts and everyone seems to agree that part 1 and 2 should be given respectively to Heesung and K. Part 3 goes to Jungwon, Part 4 to Sunoo (although Jay fought really well to get it, but instead he got another embarrassing moment), Part 5 to Sunghoon (I mean, what a coincidence that he has been getting this part since the beginning of the show), Part 6 to Niki, Part 7 to Jay, Part 8 to Jake and Part 9 to Daniel.  

 

Mid-point check arrives, directors Doobu and and Son Sung-duk evaluate the trainees and find the rehearsal pretty "average". I really hate them for never giving really positive feedback, I know that giving constructive criticism will push the trainees to outdo themselves but one positive comment won't hurt you know? Anyways, before leaving, the trainees have a present for their two mentors. Earlier, they wrote some heartfelt and thankful comments to those who taught them a lot and helped them grow. They give it to them and take a picture of them holding the two big papers (watch it here). 

 

After that, the trainees are being called to the item room where they find all sort of material and accessories to shoot their self-pr videos that were published a couple of days earlier on I-LAND's official instagram. The higher the trainee's rank was, the more time he got for his video. I really felt bad for Daniel who had to beatbox for Niki's video countless times... The poor kid's face muscles were totally dead (watch it here). 

 

For the second time tonight, the trainees are called to the lobby again this time to reveal the group name. We can't see it yet, but the trainees seem pretty enthusiastic about it. A couple of seconds later, we are back to the live stage and the name of the group, "ENHYPEN", is finally revealed to the world. The host, Namkoong Min, described the meaning as "hyphens that connect a word with another word to create a new meaning. It's also about discovering each other and growing together through connexion." The meaning makes sense, I just need time to adjust to this name. I still wonder whether it's pronounced ENHYPEN or ENHYPHEN. The time of the final performance arrives: "Calling" (run to you) by the 9 remaining trainees (watch it here). 

 

Going back to pre-recorded footage where we see the trainees heading upstairs to eat something. But... SURPRISE! Lunchboxes prepared with love by their families are here alongside handwritten letters. Heesung is the first to open his letter from his brother that ends with "PS: Tell Jay that I love him more than you Heesung" (I think Jay and Heesung's brother would get along really well lol). Next is Jay, then Sunghoon. Sunghoon gets really emotional even before starting to read his letter and ends up crying really hard. He starts reading his letter but, unable to finish it, he hands it to Jay who reads it for him. Daniel's up next, and our maknae affirms that he'll read it while being cool (epic fail lol). The remaining trainees also have a hard time reading their letters since they haven't seen their families for a long time.  

We see the trainees practicing the last test in the practice room when the alarm suddenly rings and the egg starts moving to reveal the 13 ex-trainees of I-LAND. After an emotional reunion, all the 22 trainees visit the I-LAND premises (some have never been there because they always remained in GROUND and got eliminated in part 1). Then, all the trainees move to the practice room to practice "Into the I-LAND" (the first song that was performed in part 1) together to later perform it live (the performance was epic, even J-Hope grooved to the beat lol watch it here).  

 

The New host, Shin A-young, takes a look at the fan's comment on social media like twitter and SNS before interviewing two of the international fans who were watching the live broadcast through video conference. The first fan is from Russia and gives genuine and cheerful comments to all the trainees. The second fan is from South Korea and is clearly Sunoo biased, but she also cheered on all the trainees. 

 

And finally, after two hours and a half of live broadcast, the moment we've been all waiting for: The ranking announcement. 

Fifth place, with 1,137,323 votes, Lee Heesung from South Korea. 

Fourth place, with 1,140,728 votes, Niki from Japan.

Third place, with 1,179,633 votes, Jake from Australia.

Second place, with 1,192,889 votes, Jay from the United States.

First place, with 1,417,620 votes, Yang Jung-won from South Korea.

Sixth place, with 1,088,413 votes, Park Sunghoon from South Korea.

Seventh place, chosen by the producers and with 935,771 votes, Kim Sunoo from South Korea.

The eliminated contestants, therefore, are: K (7th place according to global votes but wasn't chosen by the producers) and Daniel (9th place). 

 

The episode ends with final credits, the "I-LAND system" shutting down, and a teaser hinting for a Girl Group second season. 

 

 

My personal thoughts

First of all, I think we all were disappointed not to see any direct and spontaneous interactions between TXT, BTS and the trainees, but I kind of saw it coming. Since it was live the trainees couldn't be shown fanboying like crazy over BTS or speak casually with TXT. And I believe that, as guests, BTS and TXT were just there to give feedback (although TXT didn't speak much and BTS seemed pretty tired because of their hectic schedule). Let's not forget that at the end of the day, bringing BTS, TXT and even Seventeen was nothing but a marketing move destined to attract the largest audience possible. 

Second of all, don't be disappointed with the final lineup. The 9 remaining trainees ALL deserved to debut. I personally thought that Daniel was a bit lacking (the gap between him and the others being really small) but I believe that with a little more training he'll be ready to debut. And we were all shocked by K getting eliminated especially that the producers ranked him #1 the previous week. However, you can't blame it on other trainees who made it to have stolen his place, it's really unfair to say that especially that the rankings were never consistent in Part 2:

 

First week, producer's ranking from 1st to 12th: Heesung, Jungwon, Sunghoon, K, Sunoo, Jay, Jake, Niki, Hanbin, Daniel, Geonu, Taki (Taki got exempted of elimination so Geonu was eliminated).  

 

Second week, global votes ranking from 1st to 11th: Sunoo, Heesung, Jay, Harbin, Sunghoon, K, Jake, Jungwon, Niki, Daniel, Taki (Taki gets eliminated this time). 

 

Third week, producer's ranking from 1st to 10th: K, Niki, Sunoo, Heesung, Sunghoon, Jay, Jake, Daniel, Jungwon, Harbin (Hanbin gets eliminated). 

 

Frouth week and final rankings from 1st to 9th: Jungwon, Jay, Jake, Niki, Heesung, Sunghoon, Sunoo, K, Daniel. 

 

I was really surprised (in a good way) by the top 4. I really didn't expect Jungwon, Jay, Jake and Niki to rank so high. I really expected Sunoo to be #1 and when the producers had to choose between K, Daniel and Sunoo I really thought they would choose K because they ranked him #1 last week. But I think that they took in consideration his popularity (Sunoo is really popular and was always ranked #1 when it came to global votes) as well as his overall evolution. 

 

Furthermore, I want to congratulate all those who didn't get influenced by Mnet's evil editing. Showing Niki as a douchebag and a selfish kid for the first two episodes, and then doing the same with K, it was really awful. And we didn't get to see Sunoo and Hamnbin at all when they were in ground. Sunghoon was also in the background for a couple of episodes. So I really want to praise those who were faithful to their own impressions of the trainees.

 

Last but not least, something that made me lose my composure was the way they edited the trainees once they are announced as members of the final group. Hogwarts wizards hello? I mean… I didn't know Enhypen was the fifth Hogwarts house. It was hilarious, for me at least.  

 

Announcing Heesung as an official member of ENHYPEN. Credits to the rightful owner. 

 

To put it in a nutshell, I’m sure this group will be successful. They have all the qualities to be an all-rounder group. They have amazing dancers (Niki and Sunghoon in particular), amazing singers (Jungwon, Heesung, Sunoo), amazing rappers (Niki and Jay), and amazing personalities. They all share a common story and they will become one of the best rookie groups next year. I'm really looking forward to the fandom name announcement (more details about the fandom name process of the group's official Weverse account) and I hope we won't have a "Treasure VS Qteez" 2.0.

 

That's it guys! What did you think about the last episode? If you already have a bias in ENHYPEN who is it? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I'll see you all soon!

  

Love, Swan 

 

 

Sources: Youtube, Soompi, Weverse