The Devil’s Plan is a South Korean competition reality show released on Netflix on September 26, 2023. It was created by Jeong Jong-yeon (The Genius, The Great Escape) and produced by Choi Seong-yoon. Only four episodes have been released so far, with a runtime of about 60+ minutes each.
The cast of the show includes Boo Seung-kwan, Ha Seok-jin, Lee Si-won, Park Kyeong-rim, Suh Dong-joo, Kwak Joon-bin, Suh Yu-min, Orbit, Guillaume Patry, Lee Hye-seong, Kim Dong-jae and Cho Yeon-woo.
The concept of the show is that everyone wears some type of mask while being a functioning part of society. However, to win this game, the 12 contestants need to put down their masks and over 7 days – they need to face off in mind-bending games of wit and strategy. The ultimate winner can take home up to 500 million won as prize money.
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The Devil’s Plan Episodes 1-4 Review
In simple words, the show is like Survivor but specifically for the brainiacs. As soon as the contestants meet up in a huge rectangle built inside a soundstage that serves as their living space for the next 7 days, they are given a golden-looking coin called Pieces. It’s like the lifeline that will make you a winner if you have the maximum number of pieces. These pieces can be lost or gained in each game round and can be used to purchase assets that offer a competitive edge in the game.
It can also serve as a bargaining chip for negotiation between contestants. The participants with the most number of ‘pieces’ will become the winner and those who will lose all their pieces in games will be eliminated. And in a day, two matches will be played in total. The main match in the morning, where two contestants will end up in jail (chosen by the winner of the game). The second match in the evening, called the Prize match where the remaining contestants will be able to add money to their winning pot by successfully playing games, as they start with zero balance.
The contestants who are sent to jail will have to spend the whole night there and live like prisoners. The first main match played on the show was called – Virus Game. It’s like an updated version of the Mafia Game with various roles given to everyone. The game consisted of two terrorists, whose role was to infect people and they would die by the end of each round, spreading it to 2 other contestants who fell before & after them in order.
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Among the citizens, there was one officer who had the power to kill anyone and two researchers who could make anti-dote by holding hands with the person who carried antigens. One journalist, who could check other’s identities and a Fanatic, who could win up to three pieces if he gets killed as early as possible. During introductions, Orbit and Dong-jae stood out a lot due to the way they presented themselves, especially Orbit took on the role of a strategising leader who would guide others.
Park Kyeong-rim was the journalist and she caught the terrorist early on in the game. However, she was killed early on and eliminated from the game after she revealed that Lee Si-won was one of the virus terrorists. Yet as the game progressed, almost all the citizens were eliminated and terrorists won the game i.e. Si-won and Guillaume. Also, Dong-jae helped them a lot and won three pieces as he was a fanatic. This was the start of an alliance that could fall heavy on them.
Kyeong-rim and Yu-min were sent to jail by the winners and later in the day, the prize match was played. The game was called a cooperative puzzle, where the 10 remaining contestants had to fit the puzzle pieces correctly while spinning on a round wheel. The person who stands in front of the solved puzzle when the wheel stops spinning increases their chances of winning a piece & if they stop at the puzzle twice – they get the piece. If they collectively solve the 10 puzzles then 50 million won would be added to their winning pot – which stands at zero.
Unfortunately, they weren’t able to solve one puzzle and lost 50 million won. On the other hand, Dong-jae and Joo-bin were lucky enough to win pieces. After the first day, Si-won, Dong-jae, Guillaume and Ha Seok-jin created a sort of team as they had more pieces than others. While others only had one piece each and formed a team together with Orbit, which came to their advantage. On the second day, the main match was called Race Rule. A rule-themed board game where the dice contained initial numbers, jail sign and escape sign.
On top of it, the contestants were asked to make group rules & personal rules – which could be implemented if they landed on the office sign. The top three contestants would get pieces as prizes and the bottom three would get a penalty of giving the pieces back. If they run out of pieces to give due to penalty, they would be eliminated from the show. Although it seemed complicated at first, the game was similar to the Snakes and Ladders game & replaced it with jail & escape tickets. The rules made by the contestants allowed them to even use escape tickets to drag others back from their positions.
This helped the Orbit team to send the other team members back again & again, while they moved forward and finished the game before them. Especially Si-won, Kyeong-rim, Dong-jae and Guillaume were left behind and were caught up in the jail loop. Eventually, Guillaume ended up last and was eliminated from the show as he didn’t have enough pieces to give in penalty. It became an emotional moment for all, especially his team members who felt guilty for his elimination.
Seok-jin was the winner of the game and he sent Yeon-woo and Seung-kwan to jail until the next day. Later on in the Prize game, they had to play a memory game. After analysing a large image for 20 minutes, the contestants had to answer 10 questions to win 50 million won. They could pass on the question to the next person in line but any wrong answer would take away the prize. Si-won goes first but as she wasn’t sure of her answer, she passed the question. On the other hand, Dong-joo answered all 10 questions single-handedly and finally added the money to the winning pot.
Final Thoughts: Surprisingly, the games presented on the show are quite interesting but the cast feels like a downer. Sometimes, by the middle of the game, it feels like they have no interest or energy to play & win the game. Some contestants are too overconfident in their intelligence and try to control others and those who try to do something different – the others gang up on them.
Some of the female cast are really disappointing or the show is edited in such a way that seems like they are not doing anything and want others to take them along. Especially, I don’t understand why do they cry when others deceive them, isn’t it the whole point of the show? Hopefully, the show will bring interesting twists in the next episodes.
Rating: 3/5
The Devil’s Plan is currently available for streaming on Netflix. New Episodes will be released on October 3, 2023.
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