Episode 4 - Sword and Shield

[Kyungran]

I would like to return 1 garnet to sunggyu and 1 to Yoonsun.

[Bandage Man]

You've received a Garnet from Hongchul

[Bandage Man]

Congratulations on winning the Main Match!

What did you make of the Death Match between Yuram and Jinho? Are you happy with the result?

How did you feel about your performance in the Main Match? Was there anything telling about how anyone was playing?

If you could, rank each player out of 5 based on how much you would trust them to help you in a Death Match with 1 being "I am certain they would betray me." to 5 being "I know for a fact they would help me."

[Kyungran]

It was so long ago that it feels weird to talk about Sword and Shield as the last Main Match! I feel I performed really well in it - it was probably my best showing so far. I think a big part of the reason for this was the game was "simpler" in the sense that there were only two teams to keep track of instead of 10+ independent individuals. I think I was a valuable team member, both in my role as a decoy leader (which I suggested and volunteered for) as well as in helping the whole team make their decisions. We worked really well together as a team. It was a bonding experience between us all, and I have come out of it feeling particularly close with Hongchul who was somebody I hadn't had much interaction with previously.

Based on this and similar Main Matches from the show, I expected that the key to the game would be to have a mole on the other team. Maybe it happened unbeknownst to me, but if it did it wasn't very effective. I made a few suggestions about this sort of thing to the Grape group with Dongmin, Eunji, and Kyunghoon, but once the match began it quickly became clear that the way we were split 2-2 it wasn't going to happen. The only tricky thing I experienced was Dongmin asking me point blank if I was the Leader in one of the brief PM sessions between rounds. He and I have claimed to be open books with each other from the beginning, but I didn't want to tell him I wasn't (and screw over my team) or tell him I was (and be caught blatantly lying to him) so I had to think on my feet and say I had been threatened not to tell or I'd be picked for the Death Match. This may have hinted to him that I was the leader as this team continued targeting me for a long time after that exchange.

Here are my scores of who I think would help me if I was in the Death Match, subject to who I was up against:
Ahyoung - 4
Dongmin - 4
Eunji - 3
Hongchul - 5
Jinho - 2
Kyunghoon - 4
Sunggyu - 4
Yoonsun - 4

I think I have a good social standing with most people and am not viewed as too much of a big threat just yet.

Even though it was a team game, I was still surprised at my team's willingness to give me their garnets. I'm not sure at what point Hongchul sent me that last one which I have kept, but it's been so long it would be awkward now to give it back Basically it means I got through the match without spending my own garnet - I only used everyone else's!

I was glad that Yuram was eliminated over Jinho as we had minimal interaction. However, I don't feel great about my relationship with Jinho. Part of that is probably guilt I have over picking him for the Death Match - something I tried to reassign the responsibility for at the Dinner Party - and the other part is annoyance for what he did to me in the Zombie Game.

I had good conversations at the Dinner Party with Hongchul and Ahyoung. There is a bit of an agreement that the three of us will work closely together tonight, so we'll see how that plays out. I believe it, but I don't believe it's the only deal they have each made. Ahyoung and I are also in a bit of a trio with Dongmin. Speaking of Dongmin, I trust him less than I used to having heard some of the questions I'm told he's been asking Hongchul about me. Dongmin seems suspicious that I'm somehow involved with the Strawberry group. I can't even think of who's in that group off the top of my head

I'm really looking forward to tonight's game. It's been a long time coming!