going seventeen | what happened on the set: don't lie
premise:
seventeen play a version of don't lie where everyone gets their own special role, with no one as a simple citizen. for example, the revolutionary as a role who, if killed, takes another citizen to the grave with him.
comments:
with it being three years since they pulled off the last don't lie episode, i think team going especially held back from doing additional episodes after doing three in a row to kick off gose 2023 because, like, obviously. it's become a flagship series and THE longest lasting beyond even TTT with, now, seven (eight, if counting mafiapoly) installments compared to TTT's five. i think they understood that to really shake things up, something drastic had to be made to the don't lie structure so they could justify an EIGHTH installment. and oh man. this. is. COOL.
i have no clue why early spoilers! the staff let dino find out about minghao's role about the mafia, but man this episode keeps both you and every member on their toes. it's just plot twist after plot twist after plot twist that i don't even want to talk about any in this review! (but i will at the very bottom beneath the ranking). every round, like, half of the members get to do something in the night which shakes up the game dramatically. i complained previously about alliances hurting the game in some episodes, and i think this episode was truly a warning against the members who did that because it's so scary watching how quickly every single alliance fell apart. despite how much i praise don't lie's concept as producing the best episodes in going seventeen, i do believe that the citizens get much less to do than the members with roles -- a lot of the fun from rewatching this series back to back was seeing the roles getting distributed from member to member through each installment which, while fun, took six years to see every member really get a substantial role. wonwoo's biggest moment in don't lie comes in clue, the fifth rendition of don't lie, even if he ends up winning the don't lie trilogy. what happened on the set gives us a reason to care about each and every member of the game because suddenly everyone has an ability that can shake up the whole game -- an ability that, because of the troublemaker, can change in an instant.
so yeah. i think that's really fun and especially plays a hand in making a really great strategy. i liked seeing the more villainous sides of each member come out because this new role-based aspect of don't lie really fed into individual play rather than making alliances. i don't even think the members dying is a hole in screentime like it tends to be in the other don't lies -- the fact that so many people can die in a single round so quickly made it become more of a peanut gallery style than simple spectators (no more rule of "the dead can't talk", which i appreciated).
a complaint i also had about don't lie iii is that it aimed for something as high concept as what happened on the set, though it didn't entirely work because it just felt like they were pulling something on the audience for pure shock value. while i didn't really like the reality tv style talking heads with each member explaining their motivation as it went on, it kinda did end up making sense once roles got more and more confusing and got revealed one-by-one, even though i didn't particularly like it stylistically clashing with the observational fly-on-the-wall format of don't lie. anyway, i bring this up because they reveal the ending of what happened on the set immediately as the first part of the episode and you're left to just watch and find out how they barreled towards this conclusion (and despite it consisting of two 30 minute episodes, it feels a lot faster than i thought).
anyway, again, this was super cool!!! i think it was actually hilarious that they said they could "finally have a conversation" since soonyoung wasn't there, but omg i really hope they run this back with as many members present as possible because i can't wait to see how chaotic this game could get. (though i doubt that'll even happen -- who knows if this chaos balance can be upheld if there are any more than this specific amount of members and roles?)
ranking:
concept: 9.75; this is probably the most nitpicky i've been with my score because i love everything about this episode except for the frickin talking heads
chemistry: 10; HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP it's perfectly manufactured for great interactions
enjoyment: 10; A LEGEND AND DON'T LIE IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE LEGENDARY
overall - 9.9/10
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERFUL SUMMARY
starting roles:
dino policeman
joshua mafia variant (mafia who gets more prize money if he is the last one standing)
the8 mafia
scoups mafia
dk doctor
seungkwan revolutionary (kills a fellow citizen if he is killed)
mingyu sniper (can kill someone at night, but dies if it is not a mafia member)
jun goblin (wins if he is killed, everyone else is killed if the goblin is killed, and gets double the money if he is killed while possessing money)
vernon troublemaker (can switch any two roles at any time)
dino is voted out first despite finding out about minghao's role early and siding with minghao and joshua, the mafias, therefore destroying that alliance.
then vernon switches the role of mafia 3 (minghao) and dk (doctor) then joshua tries to convince the8 to convince s.coups that he was originally the mafia variant and to influence s.coups to kill dk, only for the8 to betray joshua and tell s.coups joshua is the real mafia variant. this is after seungkwan finds the money and joshua sees, where joshua becomes suspiciously antsy over the money, leading to him getting voted out.
AT THE SAME TIME ALL OF THIS IS HAPPENING, from the very beginning, mingyu, s.coups, and dk had an alliance, with s.coups lying about his role and saying he is the revolutionary. and then, of course, dk getting his role switched while having told the other two he was the doctor of course throws a wrench in these plans. though s.coups tries to convince mingyu to take out the variant mafia (dk) before finding out joshua is the real variant mafia, mingyu instead takes out s.coups because whether dk or joshua is the variant, mingyu knows s.coups is a mafia for sure.
(actually, because of this alliance, over night one, s.coups tried to kill dk, who he knew was a doctor, before the role got switched, but dk saved himself)
however, seungkwan is the revolutionary and allies with jun, the goblin. seungkwan understands he will be killed by the mafia for having the money, so, as the revolutionary, 1. gives the money over to jun so he is no longer in possession of it and 2. chooses to take jun out if he is eliminated. however, the troublemaker vernon switches the role of goblin and policeman, making seungkwan and jun's possible victory void.
TO RECAP, in ROUND ONE, only dino died because of voting out. if dk hadn't saved himself, he would be killed by the mafia. mingyu the sniper does not kill anyone. (1 death out of the original 9)
in round TWO, seungkwan finds the money. joshua is voted out. the mafia kills seungkwan. seungkwan, the revolutionary, takes jun with him. mingyu, the sniper, kills s.coups. that's FOUR DEATHS out of the remaining 8.
in round THREE, after no one finds the money, the8 argues he is the doctor who was swapped with the mafia, while dk argues that was actually what happened to him. mingyu convinces vernon to vote the8 out, which successfully takes the8 out. over the evening, dk kills vernon, mingyu kills dk, and vernon switches his role as troublemaker with the revolutionary. as vernon dies, he chooses to take mingyu with him, making every player dead.
so yeah. things get messy very very quickly in this game. and it's very confusing. but i think just reading this summary alone you can see how cool this game got especially in comparison to other don't lie episodes, let alone going seventeen. super duper cool!!! certainly raises the bar for these kinds of games. how'd we go from milking cows on dangdanggamche to this?!