Running Man: Episode 223

by gummimochi

Surviving the workplace is never easy, but as our new employees quickly find out, getting there is a feat in and of itself. No morning commute is as hectic and full of obstacles as theirs, and that’s all before they set foot in the office building. And once they’re on the clock, our employees must manage the office politics and learn the importance of keeping the big man happy, even at the expense of their own stamina.

But it can all be worth it when there’s a promotion on the line, and only one of them can snag it. Let the games begin and the best employee win.

EPISODE 223. Broadcast on November 30, 2014.

What starts off like an ordinary Monday morning commute is about to get a lot less mundane for newbie Jae-suk when he arrives to find a mission kiosk at his subway stop. It’s in his best interest to be faster than his other employees in exiting the terminal and avoid clocking in late for his first day.

And so Jae-suk takes off running, soon finding himself caught up in a literal obstacle course from a wave of college students to cleaning ajummas knocking him over with their brooms to bitter drinks to seemingly endless staircases.

Still Jae-suk huffs and puffs his way through, politely telling passersby that he isn’t who they’re looking for and falling over in shock when a wheelbarrow of bottles crashes into him. It’s a grueling way to the top, but Jae-suk finally makes it out. And this is only Day 1.

Our next recruit Kwang-soo pushes his way through the students only to discover that he has to wind through the cleaning ajummas, and I’ll admit the visual is pretty funny. I really love the strained expression on Kwang-soo’s face after downing the health drink, along with his shock from the tipped over bottles.

That last staircase up to the exit is bound to be the bane of everyone’s existence, especially after going through so many exhausting trials. Aw, I’m a little sad we skipped over Haha’s run, but it’s not like we can see them all. At least the picture-in-picture shows us his hilariously disgusted expression at the gosam-cha.

It turns out Kwang-soo put in a word with the ladies providing the drink to fill it up for the next runner. They’re hoping Suk-jin’s up next, and sure enough Suk-jin gets off the train moments later.

Suk-jin actually gets pushed down the stairs by the barrage of students, and even though he’s pretty speedy, Jae-suk is hoping the gosam-cha station will trip him up. Indeed Suk-jin’s reaction is pretty priceless, and he also gets held up by the strangers mistaking him for someone else.

I swear I’ll never tire of the empty bottles accident, because it comes at the moment when the weariness and annoyance kicks in. Suk-jin’s biggest obstacle, however, is always the stairs, but he finally makes it.

Hahaha, Kwang-soo, Jae-suk, and Haha have something else up their sleeve for the next runner whom they hope is Jong-kook. Running to join the college students, the guys encourage them to use physical restraint if necessary.

They move as one collective movement to block Jong-kook’s path, and after holding him up for a few moments, the trio hurry to make Jong-kook’s commute as annoying as possible. We know that health nut Jong-kook loves gosam-cha (much to the others’ disgruntlement), and both he and Ji-hyo are dead tired by the finish.

Is it just me or does Gary look especially handsome in his suit today? He’s already climbing the first staircase by the 90-second mark and down the gosam-cha like a champ. He tries ignoring the fallen bottles to no avail, and picks up a few before trying to run away again. Hahaha.

But Gary can’t stop and won’t stop until he reaches the finish line, where he confesses wearily that he isn’t made to clock in and out every day.

Today’s Employee Super Race will have our workers-for-a-day competing against one another in various missions to earn stickers that will qualify them for their final mission. Speaking of which, in the final mission, real-life office workers will bet on their favorite members, and as always, there’s a big prize on the line.

Our mischievous trio Haha, Kwang-soo, and Jae-suk all clock in around the four-minute mark, though Jae-suk cheers at hearing he was three seconds faster than Kwang-soo with 4:11. Last place Suk-jin’s record is five minutes and twenty-five seconds.

Jae-suk’s record still beats SpartAce, but it’s Gary’s record that will make all the difference… with 4:02.

On the bus, Ji-hyo admires the folk who commute to work every morning because simply climbing the stairs wore her out. Jae-suk: “That’s why when we were in school, we’d sleep during class.”

At their next mission location, our employees are greeted with a loving banner for their chief, none other than former handball player turned sports commentator Choi Hyeon-ho wearing the trademark Secret Garden Kim Joo-won tracksuit.

Our employees pull out their best flattery skills, and then Jae-suk says Chief Choi was hand-picked for the position. That’s the wrong thing to say to his superior (even if it is true) and the others are quick to pour on the compliments.

They’ll be engaging in a sit-up contest (with prizes!), and when Chief Choi says he’s eyeing the third-place prize instant coffee set, they all scramble to figure out a way so that their boss wins what he wants. Of course super-athletic Chief Choi is all, I don’t do flattery, so don’t go out of your way to make sure I placed third when his fit body suggests that he’ll cream them all.

As expected, Chief Choi is super speedy and puts 36 sit-ups in 30 seconds on the board. Everyone’s faces read, We’re scrrreeeewwwwwwweeedd!!

Gary is up next and despite his best efforts, he doesn’t beat his boss’s record. Ji-hyo does half-sit-ups that get progressively smaller as time passes, and even gets a slap in when she gets annoyed at Kwang-soo.

She gets 39 in, and then Haha looks like he’s flailing about on the mat. Their last remaining hope lies with Jong-kook, who indeed completes more sit-ups than Chief Choi. Who knew that making sure that your boss is happy would be this hard?

Which is basically what Jae-suk says when he ignores Jong-kook’s after-effect pain because all that matters is that their boss gets what he wants.

Then it’s up to Kwang-soo to do his best but not try too hard, either. No one really keeps count, instead teasing him that he’s about to beat their boss. At one point Kwang-soo throws caution to the wind and throws his body around, which forces the others to keep him down. In the end, he doesn’t beat Chief Choi.

Our employees look blank-faced to hear that their next game is to knock down as many plastic bottles within attempts. Chief Choi is a former handball player, and like the last time, he’s got his eye on the third place prize. Gary: “Is this what they call [work] stress?”

As expected, Chief Choi is an accurate shot, so the others attempt to distract him. But down and down the bottles go, and he sets the bar at seven out of ten bottles. When Jae-suk misses a few, he resorts to taking his rage out on the bottles, threatening to quit. “Why do we keep playing games instead of working?!”

Jong-kook misses his first two throws, and then takes out his anger on the bottles, too. Later on, Ji-hyo takes first with eight bottles.

It’s up to Suk-jin to make sure that Chief Choi ends up in third place. He hits his first two bottles, to everyone’s amazement. Gary’s side remarks break his concentration, but still, Suk-jin manages to knock down five bottles.

He’s down to his tenth and final attempt, and is encouraged to knock down three in one throw. He throws it… and only knocks down one more.

Still, our employees’ efforts earn them some monetary gifts, and the one who picks up the one with the most cash will win this round. Haha ends up with the biggest prize and get his sticker. Feeling bitter, Jae-suk vows that he’s going to go into entertainment. Ha.

It’s nightfall by the time our employees arrive for their third mission: a business meeting with their buyers. Their jaws collectively drop when a group of foreigners walk through the door, though they’re quick to point out that Brad from Busker Busker and Fabian can speak Korean.

In fact, all of their guests can speak some Korean and have had some TV exposure. The aforementioned two are perhaps the only ones I’m familiar with, but perhaps some of you have seen them (forgive any misspellings since I’m working off the Korean romanizations): British national Jake, Americans Mark Tyler, Chris Johnson, and Greg Priester, the last of whom sings for everyone.

German national John Rosenthal is pleased to hear that Haha was born in Germany. It’s just that Haha has trouble pronouncing his own birthplace (Stuttgart). Hehe.

Fabian proclaims that he’s here to get his revenge on Kwang-soo (who had ripped off his nametag last time), and now he’ll get his chance because this is a nametag rippin’ competition.

Our employees will have to rip off their foreign clients’ nametags and sign off on them to close their deal. The last employee standing with the most signatures will win this round.

Soon after the game begins, Mark runs into Gary and quickly rips off his nametag. John feels bad about targeting Ji-hyo, who sighs regretfully after being eliminated that he’s too tall.

Brad and Greg go separate ways to ambush Kwang-soo and Jae-suk, only to find themselves falling into Jong-kook’s trap. Jong-kook eliminates Greg that way, though Kwang-soo is quick to try and steal away to claim the nametag as his own. Kwang-soo and Jae-suk argue that they had a part in this strategy too, but Jong-kook waves them off.

Fabian thinks he’s in the all-clear to take on Suk-jin when Haha suddenly pops out of seemingly nowhere. Mark comes to his rescue, but Haha eliminates Fabian anyway. Aw, John adorably slips in shock upon hearing Fabian’s elimination announcement.

Chris is busy exploring the museum when he’s ambushed by the employees. Despite his screams, he gets pinned to the ground and eliminated. When he recants the story to the others afterwards, he describes Suk-jin as “that man with the slightly big nose.” Ha.

Our remaining three buyers’ strategy fail when Mark is ousted, forcing Jake to make a run for it. Suk-jin runs right into Brad’s path, but the latter fails to rip off Suk-jin’s nametag and gets eliminated instead.

Jake is pretty quick, evading his attackers and eliminating Suk-jin. And after Kwang-soo eliminates him, Jake falls on his knees, letting out a dramatic cry. Both Haha and Kwang-soo tie for first place with two nametags each.

Then it’s off to the office, where our employees are greeted by a crowd of adoring office workers. Gary, Haha, and Kwang-soo are the only ones who qualify for a promotion in this final mission. I’m sure the Misaeng-esque sketch profiles of these three was a deliberate choice.

Each candidate rally for support, and the other employees also choose their sides. The Easy Brothers and Monday Couple stick together while Jong-kook stands with Haha. Jae-suk chooses the Monday Couple, citing that this duo scarcely lose whenever they’re teamed up together.

Slowly but surely the crowd moves to the candidate they wish to support, and then the crowd cheers again when they hear that ten people in the winning team will win gold. Jae-suk makes sure to remind everyone that the tiny R circle is the only thing made out of real gold.

And on this epic stage, our teams will engage in… a rock-paper-scissors battle? Well, how’s that for anticlimactic. The first to win three points gets the promotion. Haha: “What have we been doing all day then?”

Our three candidates step up to the platform and the first round is no good. Gary ultimately win the first point, to his supporters’ glee. So Haha and Kwang-soo exchange hushed words, and Jae-suk asks Haha if he can really trust Kwang-soo and vice versa.

As expected, both Kwang-soo and Haha betray each other by throwing out a different gesture than originally planned. But Haha wins his first point in the next hand.

Kwang-soo’s hopes of winning are slipping away when Haha and Gary beat him. Haha picks up the next point and Kwang-soo apologizes for his rotten luck.

Everyone in the room can feel the tension, and Jae-suk points out that they were all mocking in laughter at this event not just five minutes ago. And this time, Kwang-soo advances. Yay!

Kwang-soo has to win this next hand or else Haha will take the win. He throws up scissors… and Haha throws up rock. Thus Haha and his supporters win the final mission, the promotion, and the gold.

Our employees distribute the prizes and spend some time taking selfies and thanking the crowd, which stamps the end to their long, long day at work.

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