1, 2, 3 Game (Winning Streak)
Given this is the first Main Match, strategy is slow. However, former poker player Cha Min-soo (aka Jimmy Cha) is quick to explain his "simple" strategy. Given there are 13 players with 9 cards each, it makes an odd number of cards overall (9×13=117 cards). Rather than aiming to win, simply getting rid of all your cards will guarantee safety. By pairing up with one other player, both can gain three wins each by putting out 1s and 2s in turn, leaving their 3s to either draw with or win against others.
Teams form naturally from this point. Pool player Cha Yu-ram joins in with TV weather presenter Park Eun-ji. TV Host Kim Gu-ra and 90s pop idol Lee Sang-min naturally join together, having worked on shows in the past, and they're accompanied by webtoon writer Kim Poong, a fan of both of them. Everybody tries to get favor of the naive k-pop idol Kim Sung-kyu, but he ultimately pairs up with auctioneer Kim Min-seo. Finally, Cha himself works with TV announcer Kim Kyung-ran.
Elsewhere, players are forming strategies past Cha's simple 3:3 strategy. Choi Jung-moon, a Mensa member and student, sits down with Choi Chang-yeop, a student and actor. Both close in age (and rather cute as a duo), they manage to devise a strategy that gives them 4 wins each, AND gets rid of all their cards, guaranteeing no loss. However, Hong Jin-ho, a former pro-gamer under the name of YellOw, and Lee Jun-seok, the youngest politician to sit on the council of the ruling part, manage to go further. They create a 9:0 strategy - with one partner giving away their 3s and receiving 1s. With 9 wins, said player can hopefully win the Main Match and give their spare Token of Life to their partner.
In the end, they decide that 9 wins might not be enough, and plan on giving Jinho 6 wins. This would leave six 3 cards to pick up wins from other players. However, to their horror, Jinho repeatedly ties against others with his 3s. As it turns out, just about everyone has done the 3:3 strategy, leaving them all with 3s. At this point, Jinho is just wasting wins he could've gotten from Junseok! At the same time, Minseo begins to realize that players are running out of cards, while Sunggyu remarks that she might not be able to finish. Jinho and Junseok use their cards (giving 5 wins to Jinho, and 1 insurance win to Junseok), leaving only Minseo with three cards remaining... despite having allied formerly with Sunggyu.
Flashback. Minseo and Sunggyu planned on following the 3:3 system, and Minseo cedes 3 wins to Sunggyu, who inexplicably stops playing! Other players remark on this being an event of dumb luck, and Eunji tells Minseo that - when she goes to the Death Match - she can simply pick Sunggyu as revenge for betraying her. But Sunggyu has somehow picked up 6 wins, putting him in first? With a Token of Life, he's safe- and as Eunji remarks, "Something crazy just happened!"
Second flashback. The three-person alliance of Gura, Sangmin, and Poong was fundamentally flawed, given an odd number of players means there's no guarantee they can all get rid of their wins. Gura reaches out to Cha, and they make a plan to make a six-person mega-alliance including the aforementioned three, Cha and Kyungran, and lastly, Sunggyu. As Eunji tries to cast light on what Gura did, she discloses the true secret to Minseo: Kyungran was the person who caused Sunggyu to stop playing with Minseo, outright suggesting it in front of her at the betting table!
With this, the game is just about over. Jinho and Junseok are dismayed, given their 9 win strategy was more than enough to succeed. Sunggyu is immune, the person Minseo wanted to challenge. And furthermore, Kyungran does some intense brown-nosing to Minseo, trying to make sure she doesn't get chosen. The least Minseo can do is give Jinho an extra win, making him joint-winners with Sunggyu. Despite Gura's best attempts to dispel this plan, she plays with Jinho. Jinho and Sunggyu are joint winners with 6 wins, whereas Minseo is the loser with no wins.
Perhaps due to the suggestions of the majority (who tried to get Minseo to pick Jinho for the Death Match), she challenges Junseok. This works to her favor, as the Death Match is Winning Streak. In this game, both candidates play Rock Paper Scissors against all 11 other players in a row, trying to rack up the longest winning streak. Both contestants decide to take a simple route and leave their fates in the safe contestants, using one symbol (rock for Junseok, paper for Minseo) and not complicating things. Jinho tells Minseo (who helped him gain the win at the very end) that his position is largely trivial as the 11th and final player in the order. Despite this, Minseo gives her sole garnet to Jinho as a bribe.
Before the Death Match starts, Gura pulls all 11 safe players into a room away from the Death Match players to discuss. They decide that, given Jinho worked extensively with Junseok and received a win from Minseo, it's only fair that he should decide who goes home. He's notably flustered about this, but there's nothing he can do as the match starts and each player gives wins to Junseok and Minseo, giving both a chain of 10. It all comes down to Jinho... and ultimately, the garnet is a gesture he simply can't overlook, giving a win to Minseo but defeating Junseok. However, as a chyron lets us know, "a huge twist is about to be revealed".
One last flashback. After Junseok and Jinho were called out by Sangmin to see what was going on in the Main Hall, Jinho left his garnet bag unattended, which crafty Sangmin catches and takes for himself. Later, he transfers the garnet to Minseo- telling her to use it to bribe Jinho without telling him the true nature of the garnet. He gets his garnet back, and she possibly can buy herself a win with it.
With that, Jinho has been completely duped, sending early favorite and his own Main Match ally, Junseok, to a swift yet tragic elimination.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Catchphrase: Jimmy Cha's "SIMPLE!"
- Costume Porn: Uniquely for the first episode, everyone is wearing very formal black suits and dresses. Fashion choices becomes much more relaxed and diverse later on.
- Dresses the Same: Jinho and Junseok look nearly identical in their black suits and jokingly refers to that as reason why eventually decidedto eliminate him at the end.
- Easily Forgiven: After Kyungran's role in Sunggyu's betrayal is revealed, she hastily apologizes to Minseo (who is now the elimination candidate and wields the power to choose her Deathmatch opponent), talking Minseo out of picking her.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: Eunji enters the mansion and faces the rest of the players waiting for her, all wearing their Sunday Best. Cue the music.
- Gilligan Cut: Eunji asks if the oblivious Sunggyu understood the (rather simple) rules of the main match. He answers that he almost got it and everyone laughs, thinking "That Sunggyu – so dumb!". Cut to flash-forward of him winning the main match.
- Manipulative Bastard: Sangmin's garnet heist, bribing Jinho with his own garnet through Minseo,and then guilt-tripping him into eliminating Junseok.
- Pinky Swear: Between Minseo and Sunggyu.
- Twinkle in the Eye: CGI added effect on Sangmin's eye when he notices Jinho left his pouch unattended and sees an opportunity for shenanigans.
- Witch Hunt: Eunji organising an investigation to find out Sunggyu's mysterious backer.
- Unique Pilot Title Sequence: The first episode doesn't have "previously on" and pre-match banter, instead showing the contestants receiving invitations to a game and reading aloud list of what qualities the game will require of them. Future seasons' premières would retain the invitation, but also include the standard pre-match banter, as everyone enters, one by one.
