After probably the best pre-match banter in the series where Kyunghoon keeps insisting he is Sangmin's dog and keeps getting bounced around because no one wants to take him in, lawyer Yoonsun and Kyungran have a standoff, Hyunmin is told not to get too close to Jungmoon because the last guy who did it was eliminated by her and Dongmin challenges Jinho saying that he's not as sharp as he was in season 1.
Main match is Today's Menu. All players are given cards with 3 Korean traditional dishes on them: Jajangmyeon, Jjamppong or Fried rice. Then they put a card in a special box, close it and put the box on one of the designated sections on the table. They are marked as: 1, 2-3, 4-6, 7-10 and 11. The goal is to match number of people who ordered the same dish as you with number on the section you put the box in.
After everyone places their box, they have exactly minute to look at other people's choices and maybe move their box as they see fit.
Correct guess in 1 section gives 5 points. 2-3 gives 3. 4-6 is 2 points. 7-10 is 1. And 11 section gives 4 points.
Game is played over 4 rounds and for each 4 points players get 1 garnet.
The way this game designed is very conducive towards betrayals and smaller groups rather than big alliances because if even one person betrays and strays away from big group strategy he can leave out everyone in his group with 0 points while taking maximum of 5 points for himself. Hyunmin wants to repeat his Stormy Stock Market strategy and starts collecting and exchanging information. Everyone eventually start doing the same.
In round 1 most people put their boxes in 4-6 section. Jungmoon however misplaced her box and Sangmin got too distracted talking to Jinho to notice the time running out so he didn't had time to put it in the right section. Both of them receive 0 points while everyone else get 2 and 3 points.
Kyungran, Dongmin and Sangmin then start saying what's the point of getting 2, 3 points like this if they all can collude, put out the same dish, each get 4 points and a garnet from producers.
All 11 players agree to it. To prevent shenanigans, they all open their boxes with the same dish card so everyone can see, close them and then put them all in 11 section.
Everyone picks fried rice and puts their box at 11. Minute to change their choices starts. At the last 3 seconds Kyunghoon suddenly moves his box from 11 to 1. Only cautious Hyunmin who was on it and didn't go away from the table has the time to move his box from 11 to 10. No one else is fast enough to realize what's happening and react to it.
Flashback.
Sangmin discovered a trick to the boxes. They have double bottom, so one can put a card on a black panel, hold it up with a finger and show box with another card. Once you close the box panel falls down and you have a different card on top.
After receiving 0 points in round 1 Sangmin is desperate. He recruits Kyunghoon who craves for anyone to take him in and shows him the trick, ordering him to show fried rice to everyone while actually holding jajangmyeon. He doesn't want to do it himself because big group still has some faith in him while Kyunghoon is already an outcast. Once Kyunghoon does that, 10 people he betrayed and left with 0 points would obviously form a group to prevent him from winning. Sangmin's plan is to be a mole in that group and relay information about their strategy to Kyunghoon to push him to victory and then get a token of life from him.
Dealers open boxes and Knyughoon has fried rice while everyone else has jajangmyeon. He gets 5 points, Hyunmin gets 1 point and everyone else get nothing.
Dongmin looks at Kyunghoon and swears if it keeps like this he's gonna lose on purpose and then drag Kyunghoon to the Deathmatch. Kyunghoon gets scared and spills his guts that it was Sangmin's plan all along.
What a moron.
Sangmin's betrayal is discovered. Now Sangmin can't pretend that he was Kyunghoon's victim as well and can't spy for him in the big group. Him and Kyunghoon are isolated from everyone else.
Big group now have to choose whether to try to save Jungmoon who still has 0 points or to keep pushing Hyunmin so that Kyunghoon doesn't win. They decide to try to make Hyunmin win as more probable outcome. Their strategy is for 4 people to choose dish A and another 4 — dish B. These 8 people all put their boxes on 4-6 and get their guaranteed 2 points. Sangmin and Kyunghoon can't disrupt that. While Hyunmin will be picking dish C and putting it on 1. This part of the plan can backfire though because if Sangmin and Kyunghoon somehow guess Hyunmin's dish, choose the same and put their boxes on 2-3 - they will get 3 points. To prevent information leak Dongmin says he will pick actual dishes at the last moment and will whisper it to everyone individually.
Crafty Sangmin is still looking for ways to come out of this mess. He asks Dongmin to talk with him personally and offers him 2 garnets provided if Dongmin saves him from the last place. Dongmin uncharacteristically agrees to betray his team and throw Jungmoon under the bus for 3 garnets. He reveals 4:4:1 strategy and tells Sangmin to put jajangmyeon on 4-6. It's still important not to allow Kyunghoon any more points so Sangmin will tell him to put jjamppong on 1 which is a wrong choice and will win him 0 points.
Round 3 goes according to plan — 8 people from the group put jajangmyeon and jjamppong on 4-6 and earn 2 points. Sangmin also puts jajangmyeon on 4-6 and gets 2 points as well. Kyunghoon is fed wrong information and wins nothing. Hyunmin puts fried rice on 1, gains 3 points and overtakes Kyunghoon.
Sangmin and Jungmoon are still last place with 2 points. Dongmin is already morally preparing her for Deathmatch advising her to pick Kyunghoon as opponent. For round 4 they will be doing the same 4:4:1. Dongmin then secretly tells Sangmin and Kyunghoon to put fried rice on 2-3. With Jiinho's fried rice on 1 this will allow Sangmin to gain 3 points while Jungmoon will only be getting 2, making her last.
Everyone gets their instructions from Dongmin and put their boxes for round 4. It seemingly goes according to Dongmin's plan with Sangmin and Kyunghoon putting fried rice on 2-3 and just about to receive 3 points but then they open Junseok's box and it's fried rice too. This makes fried rice 4 and denies Sangmin and Kyunghoon of any points.
What happened? Flashback.
Junseok was worrying about Jungmoon so he comes up to Kyunghoon and asks what are they doing for round 4 pretending he is going to save him. Fool still hasn't learned anything and simply blurts out that they both are going to put fried rice on 2-3.
Junseok going against Dongmin's orders and picking fried rice saves Jungmoon from last place and dooms Sangmin to Deathmatch. He also unknowingly thwarts Dongmin's secret plan to get 3 garnets from Sangmin.
Sangmin goes to Deathmatch and he picks the main culprit of his loss — Kyunghoon as his opponent. He seems like an easy mark too.
They're playing Betting Rock-Paper-Scissors as played in season 3. Producers have addressed drawing strategy and made betting on a draw an option and player who wins that bet gets triple rewards. Instead of a tool to keep advantage for winning player draws becomes a way for losing player to overcome their opponent.
Everyone agrees to tell their picks to both players so they all have complete information. However Sangmin being Sangmin still does his magic and convinces Kyungran (whose last turn is very important) to lie to Kyunghoon.
Deathmatch starts and Sangmin unexpectedly keeps losing to Kyunghoon. He just can't read Kyunghoon's erratic ways. His last hope is Kyungran's, last turn. Sangmin bets all his chips on draw. Kyunghoon was told by Kyungran that she picked scissors while in actuality it was paper. If he puts paper too the game ends with draw and Sangmin wins.
But Kyunghoon in a rare moment of insight somehow realizes that Kyungran lied to him and puts scissors instead.
Sangmin loses Deathmatch and Kyunghoon goes forward.
Tropes:
- Bring It: Dongmin challenging Jinho in pre-match.
- Cat Fight: CGI enhanced showdown between lawyer Yoonsun and Kyungran during pre-match banter.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: you can clearly see Sangmin and red light of his nametag under the table before it's revealed he was hiding under the table spying on people.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Sangmin hiding under a table which is not really that big but still somehow managing to spy on people like that for half an hour.
- Mole in Charge: Dongmin who is otherwise a very loyal leader, leaks information to Sangmin in exchange for 3 garnets.
- Loose Lips: Kyunghoon can't, just cannot keep it in himself. First, he reveals Sangmin's plan of making him first which isolates them two, then he reveals their last move to Junseok which burns Sangmin's last lifeline to escape Deathmatch.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Sangmin, the only one willing to give Kyunghoon the time of day, was rewarded was elimination.
- Spanner in the Works: Kyunghoon's blabber mouth ruined not only Sangmin's original scheme, but also his attempt to salvage the situation with Dongmin.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Betting Rock-Paper-Scissors has been modified to include Draw option of betting to prevent draw strategy that has been an important factor in all previous Betting RPS Deathmatches.
