Running Man: Episode 89

by gummimochi

Fall down the rabbit hole with the Running Man cast as they enter the strange occurrences in Wonderland. But watch your step, because your world can come crumbling down on top of you in one fell swoop. Only one Alice can return home. Have a safe trip in Wonderland.

EPISODE 89. Broadcast on April 8, 2012.

The cast readies themselves for bed after a long day. They’re sleeping in some nice beds given that they’re in a tent. Some members feel awkward about the sleeping arrangements while others snuggle in. And check this – it’s HEATED. Now I want one.

Gary slips under the covers and warns the staff that he sleeps naked. And then off come the pants. HA!

Meanwhile in the rain, Haha complains at his sleeping arrangement (they’re a tent short) – can’t he sleep in peace sans Jong-kook? He’s not happy with the alternative (Jae-suk) either, admitting he’s gotten more sensitive and unable to sleep since his roomie buddy got married.

Jong-kook clears up the dilemma with one phrase: “Then give me a room.” Jae-suk and Haha don’t put up a fight about it.

Not like it’s any easier for these two when they’re back in their tent. As the tent maknae, he’s ordered around by Jae-suk, and his nerves are so worked up that he mistakes Jae-suk asking for a cup as coffee, slightly offended to subject himself to such servile duties.

To push his buttons further, Haha insists that he wants to read before bed… and Jae-suk pulls one out of his bag. And then another one. Is this man a walking librarian?

They keep up the antics until they’re joking about what sleeping positions they’ll take (Haha pretends to curl up in a corner of the bed). So childish, these two.

Morning. A few minutes before 7, Jae-suk awakes and heads outside. The first and second place teams were instructed to call in that morning while the last place team (Ace + Easy Brothers) heard nothing.

After complaining about his snoring roommate, he’s told that they’ll be going to Wonderland today. In order to enter, he’ll need to know where the Magic Door is and that information is in Kwang-soo’s tent.

It doesn’t take him long to find the note as Kwang-soo slumbers, and heads out.

Jong-kook enters the tent cautiously, after running into BoA, and either the lights or the shuffled noises finally wake Kwang-soo. He finds two of his hyungs sitting at the edge of his bed, too drunk on sleep to fit any pieces together.

Once Jong-kook finds the note, he slips out, leaving with Haha hand-in-hand.

Jae-hyung calls in, and is especially sensitive this morning. He mistakenly hears Kwang-soo’s name for Lee Ki-kwang (a B2ST member), and marches right into Kwang-soo’s tent, leaving as fast as he came. The Giraffe‘s noggin finally begins churning and he rifles his own room to find the note as the others follow suit themselves.

Except for Ace Ji-hyo, who is still very much in dreamland. After a little nudging from Mr. PD, she too heads out to find the Magic Door.

Both Jae-suk and BoA reach the estuary, and find a mysterious magical door. They open it to step through to the other side… into Wonderland.

Mr. PD welcomes them and hand them their mission – to find the key to return back home. There are ten doors to get them back home, but only one key will do it. And there are tens of chests in Wonderland.

Only the best will get to return home it seems.

The two find their first chest, and in it is a slice of cake. BoA feeds a bite to Jae-suk (silly man). The cosmos shift, the ground shakes… and Jae-suk’s name tag grows bigger. AHAHA – they’ve found a way to even make Alice trademark moments Running Manesque.

They head off their separate ways as Jae-suk sarcastically thanks her for making his name tag so obvious now.

Haha suggests himself to take a whack at another chest while Jong-kook trudges along with his enlarged name tag (apparently he ate a slice too). It’s cake again, and they’re wary.

They offer some to Jae-hyung when he comes by only to have Haha try it to find out its effects. Sure enough, the result is a name tag that nearly engulfs Haha. Jae-hyung comments, “You guys look easy enough [to eliminate] now.”

After a failed attempt to scare Kwang-soo, the boys gather around laughing at each other’s blown-up names. However, something else that grabs their attention- – Jae-suk’s bright red heels. When did he get those?

If he wasn’t enough of an object of ridicule, he rolls up those trouser socks in front of them.

Jae-suk spots another chest in the far distance, but one look at the crane tips him off that this is NOT where he wants to be, running in the other direction. Mr. PD tries to bait him that it could be something good, but he attests, citing his fear of heights, “What good can come of it?! That thing goes up and down!”

As he leaves, he runs into Ji-hyo who believes him at his word to just randomly open chests and she goes for a crane ride instead.

Same goes for Gary, clinging on for dear life. Jae-hyung finds him in this frightened state, asking if he’s up there because he opened the chest. Gary claims that it isn’t so, and Jae-hyung falls right into his trap. As Gary steps off, he gives Jae-hyung a send-off greeting, “It’s really windy up there!”

The sky resounds with Jae-hyung’s screams: “Stop! STTTTOOPPP!!!”

Jae-suk runs into the Queen of Hearts and her posse. The task here is a battle against the Queen. She informs him that a sizeable reward can be won here and punches him with her fan when he interrupts, “A key?”

This is no easy battle – the cast member must play win mookjjipa (a revised, more difficult version of rock-paper-scissors) against her lackeys. But as expected, Jae-suk loses. Nothing seems to be going his way today.

Haha takes down the lackeys with ease, and Jong-kook comments that the Queen looks awfully nervous. She storms him in response, noting that he’s sure acting all powerful just because he has some muscles.

It’s up to Haha, and each turn is a tense-filled moment. He loses, however, and the Queen ushers them out of her kingdom.

Kwang-soo wanders around, still in admiration of the Running Man Wonderland. He notices that Jae-suk is without his shiny red heels (they were only a temporary punishment), wondering where they’d gone.

Jae-suk explains to him that he clicked them three times in order to go home and he’s now he’s on his way out. As an apology for barging into his room this morning, he’s letting Kwang-soo in on the secret.
Kwangsoo counters, “When have you ever been apologetic towards me?” Touché.

He runs in a general direction when he spots a curious sight – the White Rabbit (or maknae FD) yelping, “I’m late! I’m late!”

Following the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, Kwang-soo wonders where he’s leading them, all the while pouring out compliments behind him, “You were my favorite character in Alice in Wonderland!”

Which is when he sees the European inkwell he won a few months ago. There’s a hidden secret – it’s a magic lamp. Kwang-soo flusters excitedly, that he’s familiar with this tale too, and sings a line from, “A Whole New World.”

He plays up the dramatics, rubbing the lamp delicately. In a puff of smoke, the genie of the lamp appears. And hey, it’s Julien! Kwang-soo asks what he’s doing here, mouth agape, and he happily answers, “I live here!”

Kwang-soo’s got one wish so he better use it wisely. His wish? For the genie to eliminate Jong-kook. Pffft, ’cause you’re too afraid to do it yourself? I love it how Julien initially blusters, but eventually agrees to do it, offering to put Jong-kook in a chokehold for his friend.

Let’s be honest – the genie’s terms stink: one measly hour is allotted to fulfill his wish as the genie is needed elsewhere.

Kwang-soo gets worked up at these conditions, and in an attempt to lift his spirits, Genie Julien chants, “Ee yeuh ja (That woman)!” when he really meant to say “Ee gee ja (Let’s win!)!” He’s not really that great of a genie either, as he just wanders off by himself anyway.

BoA breezes through the Queen’s minions with ease and faces off the Queen herself. And she wins.

A curse falls upon the other cast members and it’s the LARGEST name tag I’ve EVER seen in my life.

Kwang-soo resolves that he needs to camouflage himself – against a giraffe statue. HAHAHAHA. He spies his useless genie leaving him behind.

Then when he spots an inanimate tiger, he slaps it then suckerpunches it in the gut. Venting those subconscious desires, are we now?

Looks like someone has eaten all the cake that minimizes the name tag’s size. Haha sighs that it can’t get any worse, and Jae-suk retorts: “There is something worse. YOU.”

He voices all of his complaints to his rowdy sleeping mate – how he snores, how he went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and how the draft kept him up all night. He finishes: “And you slept on the inside of the tent [where it’s warm]!”

In case he forgot, Jae-suk demonstrates his snoring habits into his ear and all Haha can do to save face is to apologize via superhero chant.

They bicker some more about how they lost to Jong-kook and Haha shouts, “The hyung who can’t make a peep in front of his own dongsaeng!”

What luck for the Genie and Giraffe duo that they run into Jong-kook (Genie Julien not so subtly mutters, Should I take him out now? to Kwang-soo’s orders to wait). In a flash, Jong-kook realizes that someone must have let the genie out – was it you Kwang-soo? Without hesitation, he blubbers, “No!”

But Jong-kook has a sharp eye and figures that the genie will grant the wish of the first person he sees. Genie Julien hesitates for a moment and then looks over at Kwang-soo, “Wasn’t that you?” He asks what Kwang-soo will need in order to win and the color in Jong-kook’s face fades – so there ARE people Spartakooks is afraid of.

Then Jae-hyung runs for his life in the other direction as fast as his feet can take him. Genie Julien runs off and Kwang-soo calls after his useless genie, “You idiot! That’s not what you’re supposed to do! Just go home then!”

Julien chases Jong-kook down, and tells Kwang-soo outright to tell everyone what his wish was. Kwang-soo understandably makes a fuss, shouting that their not-so-secret plan is out in the open and Jong-kook wonders aloud, “How can you two be so similar in height but act so differently?”

Which is when Kwang-soo orders his genie to make his wish come true. So Julien pounces, a battle between Genie versus Tiger… and off goes his name tag. Everyone disperses and Kwang-soo gains a little confidence now that Jong-kook is out of the game.

Poor Jae-hyung wanders Wonderland, unable to find more chests for himself. He spots the White Rabbit in the distance and chases after him. But the sudden physical exertion is too much for him to keep up and he ends up collapsing on the ground.

In a last ditch effort, he lunges for the rabbit and catches him. Good thing too because he gets his normal-sized name tag back before crumpling in tired victory.

BoA drops by and Jae-hyung gathers enough strength to ask if they should create an alliance. She honestly refutes his request, despite trying to convince her that he caught the Rabbit: “He’s fat but he runs fast!”

Meanwhile Jae-suk and Haha hunt the Rabbit down too, both gaining back their original name tags.

The Giraffe and Genie pair eliminate Suk-jin (in red high heels, heh) and the next moment, Ji-hyo appears, telling them that they need Big Nose Hyung because the guests have made an alliance. Flashback to earlier when as a team, the guests eliminated Haha and Jae-suk, securing a few characters for themselves.

With that, only Kwang-soo and Ji-hyo remain against the Jae-hyung and BoA. He declines Ji-hyo’s request to ally together (“I’ve got a genie after all.”) Not that it does him any good because Julien soon informs him that he has to leave – his hour is up. Kwang-soo: “How much time do we have.” Mr. PD: “20 seconds.”

Kwang-soo guffaws and starts to panic. That offer looks mighty tempting now, doesn’t it?

They run and Julien chases BoA, jumping over ledges (and so does his VJ!) to catch her. He closes in the gap to less than a foot… but time is up. The genie’s powers have expired and with a poof, he disappears.

Kwang-soo roars, “What am I going to do now?!” Caption: I’m screwwwweeeddd…

Kwang-soo comes back, groveling on his knees, begging Ji-hyo to take him back. The alliance isn’t necessarily in her favor: Kwang-soo isn’t the best player in the game and the huge name tag plastered on his back makes him an easy target.

Thankfully for him, she agrees to do so.

In a great stroke of luck, Jae-hyung deciphers the Magic Door’s location and find the key needed to exit Wonderland. He rolls in the ground, ecstatic. But his gleeful moment is short-lived as BoA appears, confronting him about the chest.

Though he slips past BoA for now, the remaining three soon have him cornered near the greenhouse in a defensive stance. Ji-hyo asks him if he wants to win, and Jae-hyung nods frantically, “Yeah.” Pffffttt – this is SO much more than a game to you.

While the other three start to strategize, Jae-hyung darts, determined to win.

Surprisingly, Kwang-soo eliminates BoA, and is nervous at her thinly veiled disappointment as she casually hands over her name tag. She doesn’t even look at him as she’s dragged to jail, rooting for Ji-hyo to win it instead.

The remaining Running Man find Jae-hyung alone. First contemplating to attack the Ace, Jae-hyung settles for Kwang-soo instead, warning her that it can ‘get ugly.’ Rrrriiiiggghhht. With Jae-hyung’s lack of athleticism and Kwang-soo’s name tag flapping in the wind?

Jae-hyung whines that his hands are precious – injuring a pianist’s hands means the end of his career. He makes these flimsy jumps (?) at the Giraffe, his energy nearly spent.

Watching these two reminds me of the fight scene in Bridget Jones – two men who just size each other up without throwing a single punch.

Jae-hyung gathers up the last bit of energy for one final attack, and both men grab each other’s backs. He screams, “I did it!”…only to see his own name tag in Kwang-soo’s hands.

And ever so coolly, Ji-hyo rips off Kwang-soo’s. Kwangvatar tries to let the disappointment sink in whereas Jae-hyung lies on the ground, exhausted.

Jae-hyung isn’t ready to give up the key just yet, so she asks Kwang-soo to help her out. Intimidating Kwaang-soo bites: “You wanna die?” As they get dragged away, Jae-hyung requests that the earlier fight scene is edited so that it looks EPIC.

The secret key in hand, Ji-hyo finds the locked Magic Door that leads her out to Wonderland, making her today’s Alice and victor.

She explains to the cast the final battle for the key, adding that Kwang-soo is mighty pissed, but Jong-kook, still spiteful: “What’s HE mad about?”

Ji-hyo earns a gold key and thinking of all the jewelry she’s acquired over Running Man’s run, Suk-jin blurts, “Just set up your own jewelry shop!”

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