Pyramid Game – K-drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

Episode 6

Episode 6 of Pyramid Game starts with Ja-eun telling Ha-rin how she hated being a Rank F student which leaves her shocked. Soo-ji asks Ha-rin to “get lost” and back off because she is nothing but a pretty-faced school bully. The comment makes Ha-rin scoff and she promises to ruin Ja-eun’s life soon enough. We see a small glimpse of Baekyeon Girl’s School being lit up on fire.

Meanwhile, Da-yeon worries about what her father will do now that she has dropped ranks. Do-ah also seems flustered by the new ranking. Inside the school, Eun-jeong tries to apologise to Ye-rim but the latter mocks her for having feelings for her. Though Ye-rim has feelings for Eun-jeong too, she tries to push her away as per Soo-ji’s plan to not cause Ha-rin to target Eun-jeong.

Eun-jeong, who is not aware of Soo-ji’s plan, is hurt by Ye-rim’s comment and leaves. Soo-ji, Ja-eun, Ye-rim, Do-ah, Da-yeon, Seol-ha and Woo-yi show up in the foyer as Ha-rin climbs up the stairs as we see another flashforward from the school burning down with an unnamed student lying unconscious around the fire. The episode moves back to the present day with Soo-ji standing by Ha-rin’s desk.

Soo-ji is trying to make friends with other students in class using Ja-eun’s approach. Knowing how Jae-hyeong was loyal to the group all thanks to Ja-eun’s kind-heartedness, Soo-ji apologises to Seung-yi in front of the class and asks for her forgiveness for driving her to slit her wrist. She also greets Ji-ae which leaves the other kids in class shocked. Soo-ji claims that Ji-ae was no longer a Rank F student.

She suggests the entire class do away with the game altogether and suggests everyone vote in favour or against the game. This pisses Da-yeon and Woo-yi off but Soo-ji informs them that she was not a Rank F student who can be bullied. Ha-rin is smoking in the school backyard and realises that Soo-ji is up to something. She asks Ye-won to reveal details of the girls that voted for Soo-ji and Ja-eun.

Meanwhile, Da-yeon avoids talking to Woo-yi because she has fallen a rank and Do-ah ignores Da-yeon but she forces Do-ah to go to the cafeteria with her. Soo-ji, Jae-hyeong and Ja-eun note that Ha-rin’s core trio has broken. They wonder how Eun-byeol, out of everyone in class, ended up becoming a Rank A student.

Eun-byeol asks Da-yeon to bring her chocolate milk from the cafeteria, using her privileges as a Rank A student. Soo-ji realises that Eun-byeol has always been Ha-rin’s wild card contestant, following Ha-rin’s commands in exchange for test papers. In the principal’s cabin, Eun-byeol agrees to help Ha-rin with her plan in exchange for question papers for the final exam.

After school, Ye-rim hangs out with Soo-ji, Ja-eun and Jae-hyeong in the cafeteria. Seung-hwa recognises her as the girl Woo-ri was obsessed with. He asks if Ye-rim had bullied Woo-ri as well but Ye-rim states that she was equally as responsible because she had watched the abuse unfold as a bystander. Ye-rim tells Seung-hwa that she is not going to be a bystander anymore and will fight back.

Soo-ji tells the group that her first task would be to bring down Ha-rin and turn her into an ordinary student just like the rest of the class. The next day, while all the girls are cleaning the classroom, Ha-rin and Eun-byeol start to leave. However, Soo-ji stops Ha-rin and asks her to help clean the class like Ye-rim was doing.

Soo-ji states that since Ye-rim was a Rank A student who was helping, it was only natural for all Rank A students to help. Da-yeon tries to counter but Soo-ji calls Ha-rin out for acting like a princiess which makes the other students look down on her. Ha-rin asks Ye-won to let her know the names of the girls that voted for Soo-ji and Ja-eun but the latter refuses to do so.

Ha-rin throws Ye-won’s laptop in a bucket of water. On their way back home, Soo-ji learns that Ja-eun lives alone and has a broken sink. She offers to repair the sink for Ja-eun and asks for some ramen to eat. Ja-eun brings out an assortment of different ramen noodle packets because she doesn’t know what Soo-ji likes. The two have ramen and tteokbokki together and chat about their respective families and their future goals.

Ja-eun tells Soo-ji that she wants to live with her mother in Busan as a small-town farmer but adds that her mother wants Ja-eun to be a civil servant. Soo-ji reveals that she wants to be a documentarian. While having their meal, Soo-ji notices Ja-eun getting a phone call from Ha-rin and gets curious. She hands the phone over to Ja-eun and gets back to eating while Ja-eun dismisses Ha-rin’s call. Ja-eun tells Soo-ji that Ha-rin was in elementary school with her until she moved away.

A flashback shows younger Ha-rin bragging about all the places she visited as a younger Ja-eun. Back to the present day, Ha-rin is infuriated when Ja-eun dismisses her call. She sees a photo of Ja-eun enjoying the ramen and gets even more furious. On the rooftop, Soo-jo tells Jae-hyeong and Ye-rim that she wants to turn Ja-eun into a student that the entire class loves.

The trio start a rumour about how Ja-eun was a Rank F student because she was betrayed. Ja-eun’s kind-heartedness shows when she offers to run errands for a fellow student with lower votes. Ye-rim invites Ja-eun to sit with her and tries to make her friends talk to her as well. Ja-eun’s reputation in class turns into that of a cool person which pisses Ha-rin off. Ha-rin shows up at Ja-eun’s house.

At the same time, Lieutenant Sung gets back home and tells her that he was being transferred which means that she would no longer have to stay in the same school. Soo-ji realises something feels off and decides to do something about it. The next day, Ye-rim goes ahead with the plan and tells the class that she would rather have the Rank A privileges be scrapped out.

Ye-rim states that if there are no Rank F students in the next game, it is pointless to let Rank A students have privileges. She also asks Da-yeon, Woo-yi and Seol-ha to apologise to Ja-eun for beating her up and leaving bruises on her which was against the game’s rules. Soo-ji backs Ye-rim up as well.

Ha-rin argues with Ye-rim and challenges her. She looks at Ja-eun and Soo-ji and tells the class that if there is no Rank F student in the next game, she will give up on the privileges that Rank A students enjoy. Soo-ji thinks to herself how the students in Class 5 were different and leaving the class won’t be as bad now. Later that night, Ja-eun’s mother calls and tells her about someone named “So-woon” who visited.

Ja-eun is shocked to hear the name. The next day, Ja-eun is absent from school and does not answer any of Soo-ji’s calls. Ye-rim and Jae-hyeong also worry about her but Soo-ji notices that Ha-rin is absent from class.

On her way home, Soo-ji notices the soldier who will be replacing Lieutenant Sung and sees him with bags full of goodies from ha-rin’s family. She realises that Ha-rin had orchestrated her father’s transfer and is sure that she was up to something. Just then, Soo-ji calls Ha-rin but the latter tells Soo-ji she is busy and hangs up.

Ha-rin is outside Ja-eun’s house and starts humming the same tune. She smokes a cigarette and asks Ja-eun about her mother. Ja-eun asks Ha-rin to stop meddling in her life and apologises. Ha-rin tries to burn Ja-eun’s hand with the lighter but Soo-ji shows up there. She tells Ha-rin that she is not going to leave the school and will stick by Ja-eun.

Ha-rin warns Soo-ji and tells her that there is no limit to the extent she would go to destroy Ja-eun. Soo-ji promises to not only end the game but destroy Ha-rin as well. Ha-rin leaves the two and on the next day, Soo-ji and Ja-eun walk to school. Ja-eun tells Soo-ji why she had missed school over the last few days and reveals that she had fallen sick.

A flashback shows Soo-ji telling her father that she would like to graduate from Baekyeon Girls High School and would not move away with him. Present-day, Ja-eun and Soo-ji visit the convenience store before going to class. They meet Seung-hwa who plays the audio recordings from the app on Soo-ji’s phone.

Soo-ji tells him that she was ready to expose the recordings and leave Ha-rin at the mercy of the raging public as she was aware of how influential the Baek family was. At school, the girls from class greet Ja-eun which pisses Ha-rin off. In the dressing room, Ha-rin and her minions – Da-yeon, Woo-yi, Do-ah and now Eun-byeol are gathered for a group discussion.

Woo-yi asks Ha-rin to stand up for her as if they were friends. However, Ha-rin steps on Woo-yi’s foot and reveals that she never thought of her to be a friend. Do-ah runs into Soo-ji on her way out who reveals to have accidentally swapped phones with Do-ah. A flashback shows Soo-ji exchanging the phone with Do-ah on purpose.

After school, Soo-ji, Seung-hwa and Ja-eun try to listen to the recording from the dressing room meeting but find nothing in it. The next day, Eun-byeol asks Soo-ji to be prepared for what Ha-rin has in store for her. During PE class, Eun-byeol suggests that they play a game of dodgeball to determine the results of the PE final exam.

Eun-byeol explains the rules of the game according to which Rank D students with 1 vote will be hit by the ball by Rank D students with 2 votes. Soo-ji realises that Ha-rin was trying to create a Rank F from the 4 students who only had one vote each. She sends a text message to Ye-rim and asks her to change the rules.

Eun-byeol reluctantly agrees to follow Ye-rim’s plan of including all Rank D students as one. She states that there will be three balls in the game, one for Rank A, one for Rank B and C and the third ball for Rank D. The more people a student hits with the ball, the higher they score. The game begins in chaos and the girls start hitting each other with the ball, nearly injuring one another.

Soo-ji sends a message to Ja-eun and Ye-rim asking them to take the ball and stop playing to stall the game. When Eun-byeol, Da-yeon and the others force the trio to keep the game going on, Soo-ji, Ye-rim and Ja-eun lightly touch the students with the ball to score the point. This makes Ha-rin and her friends look like mean girls in front of the rest of the class.

Soo-ji notices how the students of the class look at Da-yeon – who is being aggressive with the rest for no reason. The game proceeds with the rest of the girls from class lightly tapping each other with the ball to score the required points for the PE final exam. Meanwhile, Ha-rin is pissed at Soo-ji. The girls leave PE class and Ja-eun has already started making more friends.

Meanwhile, Soo-ji starts getting messages from the girls in class. After PE, Jae-hyeong and Soo-ji go out to get lunch for Ja-eun and Ye-rim. They decide to eat their meals at the restaurant itself and finally try to get close to each other while talking about their love for the K-pop group – Monsta X. After lunch, Soo-ji, Ja-eun, Ye-rim and Jae-hyeong hang out on the rooftop.

Ye-rim thinks about Eun-jeong and how badly she was hurt in the game. Meanwhile, Ha-rin and her friends gather together in the principal’s room. Ha-rin calls Da-yeon’s father and complains to him about Da-yeon’s behaviour. Meanwhile, Eun-jeong sees Ye-rim taking a nap in the classroom and tries to kiss her. She pulls back but Ye-rim wakes up and asks her to see a doctor for her foot.

Ha-rin shows up there and mocks Ye-rim for making it seem that they are no longer friends. She threatens to tell the truth about Eun-jeong’s sexuality to the swimming club. Ye-rim asks Ha-rin to back off but Ha-rin threatens to expose Ye-rim as well which could ruin her chances of debuting. Eun-jeong gets down to the ground and kneels and grovels in front of Ha-rin, asking her to take pity on Ye-rim.

On the other hand, Da-yeon goes home and is brutally beaten up by her father inside one of the rooms while her mother ignores her screams. At Ha-rin’s house, her father wonders if he can send Ha-rin abroad but her mother states that since Ha-rin has proof of Mr Baek laundering money from the Baekyeon Foundation, they can do nothing about it.

Mr Baek wonders why his mother liked Ha-rin so much and Yi-hwa states that it was because Ha-rin too is a psycho just like Byun Cho-soon – her grandmother. That night, Ha-rin sends Soo-ji a photo of her father shaking hands with her grandma and threatens to expose him for going up in ranks fraudulently. She asks Soo-ji to keep the idea of exposing the recordings to herself.

Soo-ji is shocked to learn that Ha-rin was aware of the recordings and realises it was Do-ah who had facilitated all this. She realises how Ha-rin had planned all this from the very start and gets worried. Soo-ji meets Seung-hwa at the convenience store and tells him the truth. He asks Soo-ji to delete the recordings on her own if it feels right to her. The episode ends with Soo-ji contemplating deleting the proof against Ha-rin.


The Episode Review

As interesting as this show is, there is very little sense in the things happening. There are a lot of flashbacks and flashforwards that make this a confusing watch. I wonder how Ha-rin is always 10 steps ahead of Soo-ji but Soo-ji is also thinking ahead of Ha-rin. This back-and-forth between the two is confusing most of the time and it feels like the other characters are just puppets to the two masterminds.

The only two watchable plots on this show are Ja-eun and her clumsiness and awkwardness as well as Ye-rim and Eun-jeong’s angsty romance. From the way Ha-rin has a deep-seated hatred for Ja-eun, it looks like she did something really bad to her when they were younger. However, it does not look like Ja-eun would do something as vile as what Ha-rin is doing to her.

From the look on her face when Ja-eun’s mother mentioned “So-woon”, it seems like So-woo could be a connection between Ha-rin and Ja-eun. But we will only know more about this as the last 4 episodes of the show are released.

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Expect a full-season review once the season ends!

 

  • Episode Rating
    (3.5)
3.5

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