Running Man: Episode 214

by gummimochi

It’s time to loosen those vocal chords and stiff muscles in order to sing and dance through this music episode. The cast of She’s So Lovable comes to play with their competitive spirits and water-repellent pants. Get ready to sing your heart out with this music hopefuls, as you share in their pain, their laughs, and their teams. After all, no one said that making it big would be an easy road to travel.

EPISODE 214. Broadcast on September 28, 2014.

Today we’re joined by the cast of She’s So Lovable: Rain, f(x)’s Krystal, Clazziquai’s Alex, along with actors Kim Ki-bang, and Park Young-gyu.

Aptly named the Survival Audition Race for the music industry drama, only those competitors who make it to the final round will earn the chance to audition on stage. One team member from the losing team will be eliminated following each mission, and naturally cannot participate in further games. The prize? Golden mics.

It’s sort of funny how the PD agrees to at least give them a VJ (for some airtime), to which Ki-bang asks, “That camera will be [recording], right?” That’s only the beginning of Ki-bang’s chatterbox tendency, as he admits that he has to get as much variety screentime here since he doesn’t in the drama.

It’s barely been five minutes, but it certainly seems like the Asian Games coverage (which pre-empted other variety shows like 1N2D and Roommate this week, and then shaved down some time off of Running Man’s usual 90 minutes) forced the show to edit down any unnecessary material.

So by the time everyone arrives at their first location, they’ve already been divided into teams: Team RM (Suk-jin, Jong-kook, Gary, Kwang-soo, Haha, and Ji-hyo) vs. Team Lovable (Young-gyu, Rain, Alex, Krystal, Ki-bang, and Jae-suk).

To start things off, our teams will run in circles on that trademark acupuncture mat trying to chase down and rip off the opposing team’s tail’s nametag. Needless to say, our guests instinctively yelp in pain upon first step on the prickly track, which has me thinking that we’re in for much hilarity ahead.

Jae-suk tries to strategize how to crawl under their first obstacle—netting—and Krystal innocently asks if they aren’t supposed to walk over that instead. There’s a chorus of screams as soon as the whistle blows

As Team Lovable crawls under the net, Team RM hits their first literal snag at the rubber curtains. Noticing that the Lovable members are catching up, Team RM picks up the pace. Cue more painful screams.

Gary’s still caught under the net by the time Jae-suk catches up, but then Team RM manages to get away at the last second. Up, over, and under everyone goes, and Jae-suk gets yet another opportunity when Team RM gets caught up again. Off goes Gary’s nametag, and Team Lovable wins the first round.

Team RM is busy pointing fingers at who to blame for their loss, while Young-gyu looks pretty beat already. After a quick water break, Jae-suk is eager to test out the veteran actor’s waterproof pants, and ha—the water repels off of his trousers.

Just like in the first round, Rain makes sure that all of his teammates pass through safely before following suit. But ow—he trips and falls onto the acupuncture mat. That ought to hurt.

This time, however, Team Lovable gets caught in the netting, giving them barely enough time to make their escape. Team RM gets caught in the same place, and then Kwang-soo falls butt-first onto the spiky mat below. Owwwwwwww.

Round and round both teams go, until finally Kwang-soo catches up and eventually tears off Rain’s nametag. Exhausted, Ki-bang asks, “Can’t we play the third round next week?”

Young-gyu looks like he’s near tears, and Haha tests out the sunbae’s water-repellent pants himself. Hahaha, watching those water droplets slide off is oddly amusing. Curious to see if Jae-suk’s pants do the same, Haha pours water on him. It doesn’t work, and Jae-suk’s left with wet pants.

After another break, it’s time for their third and final round, and after a few close calls, Team Lovable catches up and gets the win. Which means that Team RM has to cut their first member—will it be their weakest link (Suk-jin) or the one at fault (Haha)?

They put it to a vote, and the caption tells us that their loud voices reflect their anxiety. Both Haha and Jong-kook’s name are on the table when another name is called: Bae-bae… which is just “Haha” read upside down. Hahahaha.

When Jong-kook gets another vote against him, he drags Haha and Kwang-soo out for a little beating, convinced they wrote down his name. In the end, Haha gets four votes against him, making him the first to be eliminated today.

Haha gives a few words on his post-elimination feelings, though Jae-suk doesn’t hesitate to interfere with the interview. Haha’s words basically boils down to that he hopes that everyone on his team fails.

At least Haha isn’t alone, because he’s joined by Alex in the car (the latter was cut from his team during the lunch mission). Alex remarks on how sad it would be if all they did was do nothing for the rest of the day and join in on the closing, which Haha says has happened a few times on this show.

Back in the gymnasium, the teams are joined by three retired athletes: Lim Oh-kyung (handball), Kim Dong-moon (badminton), and Woo Ji-won (basketball). Ah, so this must be how SBS decided to tie-in the Asian Games to the variety shows.

Our teams will face off with these former professional athletes at their own games. The team to win two out of three games wins. First up is handball, where Lim will attempt to score once the music cuts out. All the team have to do is block her shots, and Imma say that’s going to be easier said than done.

The teams are pretty confident about this 5:1 odds against Lim, but she’s a former Olympian, and I will laugh if she wipes the floor with our cast and guests today. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of Jong-kook dancing to his former Turbo hits, especially if he’s going to keep dancing so enthusiastically to them.

It’s like you can see the competitive glint in Lim’s eyes when she’s just about to shoot, and her first goal easily goes in. The second flies through the narrow space between Kwang-soo’s head and the goalpost. Kwang-soo yelps that he didn’t shrink away this time, to which Jong-kook yells, “You’re supposed to block it!”

Team RM manages to block two goals before letting another shoot past them. Ha, I love how Woo tried to psych them out by almost hurling a basketball at them. In the end Team RM blocks three shots in total.

Team RM tries to earn extra brownie points with Lim by giving her a massage, and she shakes everyone but Kwang-soo off because her daughter loves Kwang-soo. Aw. Young-gyu gets into the music, shaking his bum and everything before the whistle blows.

Ha, Lim lightly tosses the ball into Rain’s arms, much to Team RM’s displeasure. I mean, I can’t say I blame her. Upon hearing that Team Lovable needs to block the rest of the oncoming shots on goal to win, Lim feigns a misthrow.

And just when Kwang-soo gripes at the obvious tactic, the ball rebounds off of Ki-bang’s foot and hits him directly in the face.

Scaredy-cat Jae-suk is the black hole on Team Lovable, and it’s down to the final shot. Watching Lim rev up is just plain impressive, and the ball shoots past Rain into the net. Team RM wins the first round.

For their second round (basketball), our teams must correctly guess the song from the first few beats Woo sings for them. If they give the correct answer, Woo will attempt to shoot a three-pointer for that team. The team with the most three-pointers, wins.

Woo sings, “First…” which prompts Kwang-soo to slide forward and guess the song he once played on the piano (Yoo Jae-ha’s “Because I Love You”). It’s wrong, but then Rain gives the correct answer: the Last Match OST.

It doesn’t help that Woo is slightly off-key, but regardless, both teams slide down the court to get to the flag first. Woo keeps adding a beat upon every turn to help them out, and out of the chaos, it’s Rain who grabs the flag.

Rain correctly identifies it as one of JYP’s hits (“Behind You”), and later on, Jong-kook identifies his own single (“One Man”). At the end, Team Lovable have three shots compared to Team RM’s one.

Woo shoots a clean shot for both teams, bringing the score up to 1:1. He misses the second basket, but gets the third basket in.

Kim shows off his accuracy skills by successfully knocking down a tower of cans with one smash. And that’s just warm-up. The teams will face off against Kim, and the team who acquires the most points wins.

Team Lovable is up first, and Rain scores the first point against the retired athlete. The score is eventually 2:1 in favor of Kim, and then the shuttlecock hits Young-gyu in the face. Ki-bang gets a good relay going, but Young-gyu fails to hit it over the next, leaving their team with a loss: 4:1.

Jong-kook’s feeling pretty confident, since all they have to do is score two points to win. Rain: “It was hard enough getting one point!” And then the shuttlecock lands in Jong-kook’s arm.

When Jong-kook slips up again, he gets pushed to the back. But even there, Jong-kook hits the shuttlecock out of bounds. Ji-hyo manages to score a point for her team, so Kim decides to target the weakest link: Jong-kook.

And then if you can believe it, Team RM scores another point against Kim. This means that Team RM wins the second mission and that Team Lovable has to eliminate another teammate. It looks like everyone apart from Young-gyu voted against him, and his teammates try to explain that he just looks so exhausted.

Haha and Alex burst out laughing when Young-gyu joins them, but then they’re told that there’s a secret mission for them. So when the two teams arrive for their final mission, they’re told that they’ll be performing for the judges like a real audition.

And who would be their R-Pop Star judges but their fellow eliminated teammates, who are eager to exact some revenge. As Team Lovable prepares for their Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” performance, Rain suggests that they tweak the words to “Lend your heart to me.”

Jae-suk adds they need a sexy twist: “without security [collateral]” and “without interest.” The finished lyrics is pretty catchy: Lend your heart to me without collateral and without interest / Don’t you believe Oppa?

Our trio of judges stop by to check in on our teams, and they’re quick to tell Team Lovable how Kwang-soo humbly got down on his knees. Ki-bang and Jae-suk start to follow suit, and Haha goes ahead to ruffle Jae-suk’s hair (and his feathers).

Young-gyu offers some thoughts of how he was moved by everyone’s dedication to pull a performance together in an hour… but the scores will speak for themselves. Team RM is up first with their rendition of the Dreamgirls’s soundtrack “One Night Only,” and they appear in flashy red dresses and full-on makeup.

OMG, this is awesome. Kwang-soo’s wig is pretty awesome, but Suk-jin and Gary singing backup (“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”) and making heart signs together make it that much more brilliant.

Am I the only one who thinks that Kwang-soo makes a rather pretty lady in his wardrobe? Young-gyu admits that they put on an entertaining performance, but their score might not reflect his own enjoyment.

Haha takes over the harsh judge’s role, and his first few statements has Kwang-soo near tears already. Despite his criticism, he thanks the team for pulling something together so quickly.

Then it’s Team Lovable’s turn with “Billie Jean,” and Rain impresses the judges with his smooth dancing right out of the gate. If there’s anything that I’ve noticed about Rain is that he works super hard at everything he does, so you aren’t going to see him half-ass anything, even for a fake audition on a variety show.

It’s cute how Rain and Krystal dance their little couple dance sequence while Jae-suk and Ki-bang provide backup. The judges have nothing but praise for Team Lovable, and Young-gyu admits that he’s glad he was eliminated or else he would have ruined the team’s perfect harmony.

Team Lovable receives a total score of 280, leaving Team RM a worthy shot to win. Team RM needs at least a 90 from Alex to win it… and they receive an 88. Therefore, Team Lovable wins the competition, but the captions warn us that there’s a huge reversal in store soon.

And sure enough, Mr. PD announces that the victors will choose one judge as their “producer” whereas the remaining two will face punishment: flour-filled balloons. Haha pleads that he gave Team Lovable a perfect 100, to which Jae-suk tosses back, “Who are you?”

But they choose Haha anyway, and the balloons pop over Young-gyu and Alex’s heads. They’re both good sports about the mini-punishment, their smiles and gratitude overpowering anything else.

RELATED POSTS

• Running Man: Episode 213
• Running Man: Episode 212
• Running Man: Episode 211
• Running Man: Episode 210
• Running Man: Episode 209
• Running Man: Episode 208