Last time the episode ended with Trudy winning the first challenge and subsequently having the ability to eliminate another rapper (keep someone from participating in the next challenge).

Heize believes she’ll be Trudy’s target because she received the 2nd highest number of votes.
Trudy picks Sua to the shock of the other contestants.

Remember when Sua voted Trudy the lowest rapper?? Is this behind Trudy’s decision. If you ask me that’s a petty thing to do but when San E asks Sua if she regrets voting for Trudy she says no/

Trudy, please, this is a competition. Sua seems unfazed as she exits.

San E introduces the 2nd track mission producer who is none other than…

YES Herbal Mint is back. He has produced two tracks, Me, Myself and I and ‘음악이 아나였다면 (If There Weren’t Music).
There will be a team for each track and the song will be performed with 2,000 people present. Some of the contestants are nervous hearing this but others are excited about it.

Haha San E was salty the girls were too worried about the upcoming challenge to pay him any attention. ALSO VJ and this moon sweater…
Verbal Jint  announces that there will be a feature from a female rapper for each track. Jessi from the first season of Unpretty Rapstar enters first – she’ll be on the 2nd track – followed by Cheetah who will be the feature on the 3rd track.

San E will draw names and each rapper will get to choose what track they want, but there are only 5 spots on each track. Their performances will be evaluated by the guest rappers, Verbal Jint and subjected to the audience’s vote.

It seems the most popular track will be the one with Jessi on it. One of the girls comments saying this is because it’s more upbeat than the other track.

Kasper gets first pick.

Even though the 3rd track suited her more, she thought it was better to pick the 2nd one because there would be less of a chance of her messing up the lyrics.

Yubin gets 2nd pick and joins Kasper on Track 2. Kitty B gets 3rd pick…she and Jessi seem to have some beef over their differing opinions about the use of Korean and English in rapping.

Jessi’s shady response to this is that Kitty B should just focus on her rapping and then she adds this comment about Kitty B’s English usage. I love San E’s face here.

In an interview portion, Jessi also voiced what I’m sure some people were thinking about Snoop Dogg’s appearance on SMTM in the summer (“did he judge just by their voices? what the f**k?”)
In spite of the drama, Kitty B makes the bold choice to join the 2nd track (Jessi says in an interview that she wanted to swap her LOL). Ash-B with the 4th pick chooses Cheetah and Yezi with the 5th pick chooses Jessi, meaning there’s only
one spot left on the 2nd track. Heize is super worried she won’t get the spot she wants on the 2nd track and GIlme gets the next pick, distressing Heize even more. Gilme ends up joining AshB on the 3rd track and  then Heize finally gets to pick,  joining Jessi’s team.

This means Soomin and Trudy will automatically be put on the 3rd track with Cheetah.

As the girls begin arranging the track and preparing for rehearsal, Yezi is lost yet again…

…and again Kasper can’t deal.

I have to agree the girl needs help.

Kasper shares what she has prepared but Kitty B says it’s too “girl-groupish” and Kasper doesn’t like Kitty B’s idea for the hook either. Meanwhile on Team Cheetah, Gilme is practicing her part which consists mainly of vocals instead of rapping. AshB is having none of it.

Gilme does seem to have more energy this episode. Can we give her credit for that ya’ll?? After hearing what the team has come up with, Cheetah suggests they reconsider the singing.

Jessi comes in to see what the Track 2 team has so far. We keep revisiting Jessi’s comment to KittyB who looks like she’s scared of Jessi (and says so). When the girls are done Jessi asks “who made the hook?” and KittyB says they made it together but she had the mot influence. Nice try, KittyB.

Jessi is pleased with Heize and surprised by Yubin, Jessi tells Kasper her voice is quiet and in that moment (with Mnet’s editing we’ll never truly know) Kitty B’s ringer goes off earning her more side eye from Jessi.

Each team learns that someone will be eliminated after the group rehearsal…

After watching the rehearsal for Track 2 team, Jessi seems to have a change of heart towards KittyB…

She says she thinks that Yezi is trying to hard to look strong.

Jessi tells Yezi she also looks too choreographed on stage, a critique Yezi admits she has received before, even as an idol. Even though Jessi is impressed with Kasper during rehearsal she still thinks she’s lacking a bit.

It’s a hard choice for Jessi to make. She decides that it is between Kasper and Yezi.

Jessi shares that she could see Kaser improving so she decides to let Yezi go. Track 2 team’s performance begins and I’m unsure how I feel about Jessi’s voice. It sounds like she needs a glass of water.The chorus is a little messy and the girls don’t sound great together. Compared to the challenges on SMTM, I think the competition on Unpretty is fiercer so each rapper is focused on shining more individually and this means that maybe the teams won’t sound that great together.

This is VJ’s opinion after Track 2 team is finished. KittyB has a mistake in her lyrics but Yubin says it wasn’t that noticeable.

Now it’s Cheetah’s turn to decide which rapper will not be joining the rest on stage.

During rehearsal, we see Jessi and Cheetah are both impressed by Trudy, while Gilme doesn’t do very well at all.
AshB forgets her lyrics and n addition to this Yubin felt she didn’t move well on stage with everyone else.

One by one, as the rappers join Cheetah on stage we see Gilme was allowed to stay while AshB was eliminated. I personally thought Gilme sounded much better than she did in rehearsal but Jessi said it was too old school. I thought that track 3 team’s performance was much more cohesive.

Jessi makes quite a claim concerning Trudy:

Post-performance we get to see brief clips of audience members sharing their thoughts on who stood out.

PAUSE.

Who is this?? I don’t think there were any black people present at the SMTM performances or at least they weren’t shown on camera. This guy liked Trudy the best which isn’t super surprising. I wonder if he knows about her trifling appropriation of black culture (nope, she’s not mixed). Anywho…

For Jessi’s track, Yubin has received the most audience votes.VJ announces who he thought did the best, sayin that his vote is in agreement with the audience.

VJ says he thought Kasper was too passive in her delivery on stage. 

Kasper has something to say to this of course.

Well…

Heize is the last rapper chosen even though Jessi thought KittyB did well in the end and Cheetah agrees.

The first place rapper chosen by the audience for track 3 is Trudy. VJ’s choice? Once again the same as the audience.
His next choice? He says Ahn Soo Min’s style and Gilme’s style differ a lot. He says Soo Min has a thin voice and sharp rapping while Gilme has a more heavy style. He chooses Gilme next.
Cheetah chimes in and says she believes Ahn Soo Min is growing through each challenge and she is looking forward to her improving more. Her words move Soo Min to tears because she’s so touched.

The 1st place above all goes to Trudy according to the votes and Gilme is in 2nd place.

So we have the match-ups for each track:

Gilme has made it to the solo battles. Who knew? Jessi is obsessed with Trudy and San E calls her out on playing favorites.

The final collab artists have been chosen – singer Wheesung will be featuring on Jessi’s track and Verbal Jint will be on Cheetah’s track. It is announced that Trudy will go first and Gilme second in the solo battles.

This time around I focused more on Trudy’s lyrics and she could do better… Her lyrics need work but she has enough confidence and swagger to wow everyone with her delivery.

It is Gilme’s turn next. Sua, Kitty B and Heize say that they believe Gilme was the only one able to tell her story through her lyrics. As she stands up, they cheer her on.

Unfortunately Gilme cracks under pressure…she messes up, stops, and Jessi tells her to keep going but she can’t pull it together. She only manages to get a few verses out.

I was hoping it wouldn’t go down like this. Gilme sits down defeated but then asks if she can rap on Jessi’s track (even though it’s against the rules) just to show what she can do. She has a good start but then doesn’t do as well as she wants, disappointing herself and her supporters.

The winner is Trudy but the mood has been brought down a little because of Gilme. Cheetah presents Trudy with a ring for winning this challenge and in the next episode. Heize and Yubin will go head to head.

Trudy is getting cocky and her smack talk is getting old fast. I hope Sua is able to come back and set her straight. I actually was really proud of Gilme and her performance watching her fall apart during the solo battle was painful. I’m so glad Verbal Jint is here (that man had better have taken a vacation after his SMTM trauma). I’m mad Jessi talked so much but maybe Cheetah just didn’t have much to say. I’m very confused about these so-called eliminations so far because in the preview for the next episode it looked like Hyorin was back.

Check back here soon for a recap of episode 3!