the water stage!

I loved the water stage, it gave a really interesting level of dynamic play to the movement of the routines. And just, in general gave a good extra level of challenge. The biggest issue was just the potential for injury which seemed to be fully realized throughout the episode. Honestly, when I remembered that Yibo was up against Wallace I was like "oh no." Technically I think, Wallace might be the weakest individual dancer in the group and Yibo the strongest, and in a challenge where the captains have to be involved it didn't portend well. I think the choreographers for Wally's team did a good job working around his ability, but it was hard to compete with the showboat-y things that Yibo's team was able to bring to the table. I would've thought before this episode that Jackson and Lay (and their teams) were more evenly matched, but honestly I don't think the judging on those rounds was wrong. Overall a deeply enjoyable episode.

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Exciting Episode

The four teams battle 1 other team in a water arena for 2 rounds. The stakes are quite high - for every loss, the captain must kick off 2 people. So, at the worst case, if a team loses 2 rounds, 40 % of their team is gone.

****SPOILER****

Wallace:I really liked how in sync the first dance was. However, I did feel that because he isn't as powerful as his team member, he held them back a bit during his dance. I love watching the dance practice, you could tell he really cares for his team and tries hard. The second dance - some really cool stuff. like skipping like a frog and the formation (all in sync). They also had worm move that was in sync.

Wang Yibo:

His first dance - honestly I thought it wasn't as in sync as Wallace's. However, when the bboys did the handstand it was pretty good. This clip of WYB dancing : https://youtu.be/rAFNdmb65d0 is what motivated me to watch this. When WYB joinned, i thought it was pretty good. Unbeknownst to me, when I watched this on YouTube, he actually had a foot injury... his team worked around it and figured out which moves he could still do. And WYB was eager and did some really cool stuff. I thought he blended quite well with his team. When I saw the clip the first time, I didn't know which one was WYB (well except when he popped the chest xD).

Lay:

I really liked the performance he participated in. The lotus flower was really good and the lights... he knew how to draw attention. I really liked watching him practice with his team. He was very eager to teach the team Krump and participated with the brainstorming. He looked like he had a lot of fun. My impression of him improved in this episode. When he said he screwed up (I didn't even noticed) he had a complete melt down. I guess he's really strict with himself.


Jackson:

I felt bad for this crew - one had a serious injury - probably because this wasn't the safest environment. The first dance I felt like it wasn't as good as Lay's. Just nothing stood out as much. The second one, when Jackson joined... it was completely different. I love the sticks and Jackson's presence made a difference.


Kudos to the captains!

I especially liked how the idols (Yibo,Lay, Jackson) presence improved the dance. They weren't a hindrance to the professional dancers.

One of my favourites left this week T_T

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