Recap / The Genius S 1 E 12 Finale

"Rules of the Game" Finale

Air date: July 12, 2013

Games inspired by: "Gyul! Hap!" — Set

Finale starts with two players looking at each other and reminiscing about the season and what actions led them to finale with flashbacks to the best moments of the season.

Eliminated guests are back and can pick a finalist to give out tokens and hints. Their choices roughly reflect players' playstyles because "high IQ smart guys" (Jungmoon, Junseok, Changeyop) are picking Jinho and people who relied on political sense more (Sangmin, Gura and the like) pick Kyungran.

First game is Indian Poker. Kyungran tries to read Jinho but after a while he starts avoiding eye contact and she loses.

Second game is "Gyul! Hap!" which is an extremely challenging game based on pattern recognition. Both finalists struggle with it but then Jinho starts receiving hints from his "smart guys team" (namely — Jungmoon and Junseok) and he wins, ending the game and breaking his "2nd place" curse.

Tropes:

• Back for the Finale: all eliminated guests come back and can influence the game by giving out tokens to the player they like most.
• Confetti Drop
• Dramatic Spotlight: finale episode starts with Jinho and Kyungran in darkness with spotlights on them. This becomes a signature scene for all Genius finales.
• No Eye in Magic: Kyungran depends on reading her opponent moves by looking into their eyes. Jinho scared that she will read him starts to avert her hypnotic gaze and even calls her "Medusa" afterwards.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Jinho is infamous for being "eternal second place". He can't bear a thought that he might get to the finale, lose and get 2nd place once again.