Pyramid Game (2024) K Drama 2024 Episode 8

Episode 8 of Pyramid Game starts where we left off with Soo-ji realising how she could turn over the prisoner’s dilemma that Ha-rin was trying to put them in to break their friendship. Ja-eun, Soo-ji and Jae-hyeong state their respective flaws and shoot at themselves. The girls turn the serious game into a playful ordeal by shooting at each other over minor faults and start chuckling.

Soo-ji realises that getting together as a group and presenting a united front is the only way to break Ha-rin’s resolve. Ha-rin is dumbfounded and gets furious by what Ja-eun’s actions and recalls an incident from their childhood. Eun-byeol notices Ha-rin’s reaction and tries to rile Da-yeon up. Da-yeon gets aggressive and tries to stop Ji-ae but Eun-jeong intervenes and tries to stop her.

Da-yeon gets aggressive and kicks Eun-jeong, causing her to fracture her already injured leg. Da-yeon pushes Eun-jeong around and the latter ends up hitting her thigh on a wooden board. Eun-jeong starts bleeding profusely from cutting up her thigh because of a nail on the wooden board. Chaos ensues and Soo-ji asks the girls to call for an ambulance. Eun-jeong is rushed to the hospital.

Mr Lim calls his aunt, Principal Im and tells her all about the incident. Principal Im asks him to resolve the issue and to make sure that Eun-jeong’s family does not make this into a huge issue. She then meets Ha-rin’s mother – Choi Yi-hwa, Do-ah’s father – Dr Seo and Da-yeon’s father – Mr Kim to inform them about the incident.

Meanwhile, Da-yeon is scared about her father’s reaction and asks Do-ah to save her. However, Seol-ha calls her out for acting recklessly. Da-yeon calls Seol-ha her errand girl and speaks badly to her. Seol-ha leaves, asking Da-yeon to get a hold of herself as she is turning into Ha-rin’s puppet. Both Do-ah and Da-yeon get calls from their respective fathers.

Eun-byeol tries to convince Ha-rin to get rid of the game and offers to take the blame for bullies to save Ha-rin. Ha-rin recalls an incident from her childhood when Ja-eun and the other students from her class laughed at her for losing a similar game they had played in elementary school. Jae-hyeong, Ja-eun and Ye-rim welcome Ji-ae to their room.

Soo-ji calls Ha-rin out for not being remorseful over what had happened to Eun-jeong. Yu-rim and Ye-won join Soo-ji on her way back to the room and show their support for the group’s attempt to ruin the game. Ye-rim tells Soo-ji that Eun-jeong’s coach was at the hospital and would give her timely updates on Eun-jeong’s condition. Eun-byeol calls Ye-rim out and tries to get her to withdraw from Rank A’s upcoming decisions.

Being worried about Eun-jeong, Ye-rim agrees to let go of her right to revolt in the upcoming decisions made in the pyramid game. That night, Mr Lim calls all the girls out and tries to make sure they are going to ignore the incident. He calls the incident a prank and gets furious when Soo-ji asks for a school violence committee to be called.

Soo-ji realises that the school, especially Ha-rin, Do-ah and Da-yeon’s parents were desperately trying to cover up the incident. Eun-jeong’s coach texts Ye-rim and tells her that Eun-jeong is never going to swim again due to her ankle being broken because of Da-yeon’s push. Da-yeon shows up there drunk and states that she hadn’t done anything drastic to Eun-jeong as she was still alive.

This pisses Ye-rim off and she grabs Da-yeon by the hair and attacks her. The students try to separate Da-yeon and Ye-rim. Soo-ji asks Ye-rim to stop and promises to make Da-yeon pay for what she had done to Eun-jeong. Ha-rin sends a message to the group and announces that Da-yeon will be punished for her actions. Soo-ji learns that Ha-rin is still not ready to back down from the game.

After the trip, Do-ah notices Ja-eun and Ye-rim showing up at the hospital to meet Eun-jeong. On her way back home, Ja-eun blames herself for what was happening in the class. She attempts to tell her mother the truth but backtracks. The next day, Soo-ji tries to get more students to join her attempt to destroy the game. She asks Seung-hwa to build a chatroom app exclusively for their school to spread the news about Da-yeon’s actions.

The students from other classes start calling Da-yeon out for beating Eun-jeong up. Do-ah meets Dr Seo and tells her father all about the app that was spreading the news of the incident. In class, Eun-byeol announces that Da-yeon will not be considered as part of any of the Ranks going forward.

However, Mr Lim shows up and takes Da-yeon away to chat with her about the incident. He tries to make money out of the situation Da-yeon was in but Mr Kim barges into the room and starts beating Da-yeon up. News about Da-yeon’s transfer from the school spreads. In class, Soo-ji notices that something about Ja-eun has changed.

Ha-rin throws a fit in front of Yi-hwa and asks her to get Da-yeon back in the class. Yi-hwa tells her that she has no control over Da-yeon’s transfer. Just then, Cho-soon shows up in the room and shuts Yi-hwa down. Ha-rin feels empowered by her grandmother siding with her. Cho-soon tells Ha-rin that she had handed over the school for Ha-rin to run and practice her management skills.

She adds that if Ha-rin makes a mistake and gets sloppy, she will have to suffer the consequences. That night, Ji-ae, Jae-hyeong and Soo-ji hang out for dinner. Jae-hyeong states that Ye-rim was practising to take her mind off Eun-jeong’s health while Ja-eun did not want to hang out. Soo-ji realises that something had happened which caused Ja-eun to alienate herself from the rest of the class as well as her friends.

Soo-ji tells the two that Sung-ah, Ye-won and Yu-rim are willing to join their group anonymously. At the same time, Ha-rin shows up at Ja-eun’s house and chops off her hair. She threatens to ruin Soo-ji’s father’s career Ja-eun to protect her friend by becoming a Rank F student. Ha-rin also tells Ja-eun’s mother the truth about what had happened when they were kids.

This causes Ja-eun to break down into tears on the phone. The next day, all the students are shocked to see Ha-rin’s new haircut. Mr Lim conducts the final exams in class and Ja-eun appears disinterested in the paper as well. Soo-ji is trying to study but recalls how Ja-eun asked her to mind her business when they were in class.

She goes to the convenience store where Seung-hwa learns about Ja-eun’s sudden withdrawal from the core group. He plays a few recordings from the app he had secretly installed on Ja-eun’s phone to make Soo-ji see that she can trust Ja-eun. Seung-hwa plays a recording of Ha-rin threatening to ruin Soo-ji’s father’s career as well. The next day, Soo-ji tries to talk to Ja-eun in class but the latter ignores her.

Soo-ji recalls overhearing how Ha-rin had also threatened to expose Soo-ji as a school bully to tarnish her image. Ja-eun agrees to do as Ha-rin says to stop her from ruining Soo-ji’s life. On the rooftop, Soo-ji tells the group that Ja-eun needs time to sort her thoughts. She asks her friends to get more students to join them so they can attain a majority against Ha-rin.

In the restroom, Do-ah and Soo-ji come face to face but avoid talking to each other. Soo-ji meets Ja-eun in private and calls her out for not giving their friendship a chance to withstand Ha-rin’s manipulative game. She goes to the rooftop and meets all the students who have now joined hands with them.

Soo-ji calls out the girls for not taking bold action against the bullying when it started but realises that she too would’ve avoided the attention if she had never been bullied. Soo-ji tells the team that since Ha-rin was so adamant about getting a Rank F student in the next game, they would bring out a majority and quit playing in the Pyramid Game altogether to stop Ha-rin.

The episode jumps Woo-ri who is getting restless about not seeing any new update from Ye-rim. She learns that Ye-rim will be performing at the school festival and decides to see her there. Seung-hwa gives Soo-ji a better spy camera that she can install in the classroom. The next day, Soo-ji as well as the rest of the class attends school for the last Thursday of the academic year.

The school is celebrating the yearly festival after the final exams. Ye-rim performs with her pre-debut group. After the performance, Soo-ji leaves to meet someone. Meanwhile, Seung-hwa is in the school in disguise as well. Ye-rim can be seen crying on her way out of the stage. Someone dressed up as a teddy bear follows after Ye-rim. The school bell rings and Class 5 students start assembling in class for the next game.

Do-ah notes that Ye-rim and Soo-j were missing. Just then, Da-yeon barges into the class with bruises all over her face. She is about to take her seat when an ambulance sound alerts the class. Ye-rim is seen being taken to the hospital on a stretcher as Soo-ji as well as the rest of the school watches her. The episode ends with Soo-ji entering Class 5 furiously as she pushes Ha-rin onto the chalkboard.

The Episode Review

The Baekyeon Girls’ School is one of the weirdest schools in the world because I wonder how the show just jumped into finals week when there was no foreshadowing of it. Do the students just deal with all the chaos, bullying and mind games around them while continuing to study?

I have no idea what Ha-rin’s new haircut implies but that was the most random thing for her to do as we do not know if she has any sort of attachment with her hair or what the new haircut symbolises.

We see Ja-eun taking responsibility for what happened to Ha-rin but from what we see in the flashbacks, it looks like Ja-eun had made fun of Ha-rin when they were playing a similar version of the pyramid game as kids. If that is the true reason for Ha-rin’s hatred towards Ja-eun, this show is going to be disappointing to many viewers.