Running Man: Episode 226

by gummimochi

Merry Christmas, Running Man! A veteran actress comes to play with the cast this week, brightening up the set with her sparkling eyes and her sweet words. It really feels like the show invited an adoring mother to join them on the festivities this year. And if that means it’ll bring more laughs our way for the hour, then more the merrier, I say.

EPISODE 226. Broadcast on December 21, 2014.

We start off this Christmas special by introducing our three guests who are here to promote their upcoming film How to Steal a Dog: actress Kang Hye-jung, Chunderella—… I mean, Lee Chun-hee and Korea’s “Mother” Kim Hye-ja.

We’ve seen Chun-hee here on this show before, although this would be a rare, if not first variety appearance for Hye-ja. If the preview clips are any indication, she ought to be a hoot and game for anything. Always a good indication in my book.

Anyhow, Hye-ja has such beautiful sparkling eyes that just pull you in, and a soft voice that still commands your attention. She’s adorably worn sneakers for today’s appearance, too, and Kwang-soo makes his first misstep by suggesting the veteran actress wears sneakers all the time. I love how Haha whispers, “You’ve met her for the first time today…”

Jae-suk recalls Hye-jung as the wife of his insect cousin, Tablo aka the bush cricket (If I recall, Tablo appeared in the radio show special on Infinite Challenge). And of course, Chun-hee is best known as the original klutz.

Hye-ja recognizes Ji-hyo as co-stars on Goong, remarking on how pretty she was then. When Jong-kook tries to play off the statement (“She was pretty then,”), Hye-ja firmly clarifies that Ji-hyo’s still pretty.

She’s definitely witty—at Haha’s mention that he thought that she and veteran actor Choi Bool-am were a real-life couple back in the day, she returns, “Your words are so old-fashioned.” Lol.

It’s sweet how she asks if she has to run at all today, wondering if she only has to talk her way through today. She seems rather excited about nametag ripping, although she gets confused again when Kwang-soo says she’ll end up in jail if her nametag is ripped off.

In today’s Santa Lottery Race, everyone will work collectively as one team. They’ll draw a ball after each round—succeeding the mission will provide an advantage and failing will provide a disadvantage. And on this joyous special, it sounds like there are big prizes on the line.

I love how Hye-ja waves her hand to indicate the difference between us (the cast) vs. them (the staff). And then Kwang-soo slips up again by referring to the staff as “bad guys.”

Aw, the Christmas animations are adorable. For their first game, they must find items scattered throughout the place and return to complete their mission. Right off the bat, they must find the animal masks and take a group selfie.

The group runs to find a mask for eldest Hye-ja first, though she’s eager to help out and find some more. She asks the VJ for help, and they’ve got less than a minute left once everyone has found a mask. Gary trickles in last, and they all squuueeeezzze together for a photo.

Unfortunately, not everyone’s faces show up in the photo. Hye-ja jokingly asks what took Gary so long. Hahaha.

Next up, the group must find R-stickered items that weigh over a total of 150 kg. But some of the items (e.g. toilet paper, a jug of water) seem rather light, and Chun-hee carries what looks like a heavy blanket. Does that have a R sticker on it?

Hye-ja feels bad about not finding anything, but the other ladies have got her covered. Hye-jung flies down the hall with a planter, and it must be because she’s a mom ’cause she’s incredibly strong, too.

They weigh each of their findings, and Kwang-soo comes yelling that Jong-kook is carrying a person. He means a mannequin, of which the staff surprisingly knows its weight already. Still, you have to give them points for pressing down on the lay figure as if it weighs more than it does.

Unfortunately, their total weight is well below the limit. When Haha gives Kwang-soo flack for not bringing back something heavy enough, Hye-ja points out that Haha didn’t either.

So it’s onto the next round, where the cast will break into pairs and toss dice that make up two-digit numbers. Each pair must roll a number that exceed the pair before them, so basically if anyone “rolls” a 66, they’re done for.

They decide to pair up the unlucky ones together (Chun-hee, Kwang-soo, Jae-suk, and Suk-jin), and there’s this long argument of what order those unlucky couples should roll. Then they decide to pair each Very Unlucky with a Just Unlucky to counterbalance the effect.

That’s how Jae-suk and Chun-hee and the Easy Brothers are paired together. Suk-jin somehow gets the idea that taking the elevator is faster, and then he and Kwang-soo run into Hye-ja, who’s already found a die. So they decide on a practice roll, though Hye-ja just makes the die land on her favored number. Heh.

What’s even better is that she practically throws down her die when they’re all gathered together again so it lands on 1. Too bad it lands on 5, but they hurry so that she can toss again. It lands on 1, and so does Jong-kook’s.

Hye-jung and Ji-hyo get a 25, but then Gary and Haha get a 54. Pointed out as the unluckiest one by Hye-ja, Kwang-soo rolls a 1. He gets chewed out for tossing his die, and he takes it back, calling it a moment to let out his anger.

The pressure’s on for Jae-suk when his teammate gets a 4. He lands a 6, which means the Easy Brothers must roll a 65 or 66. Kwang-soo gets the first 6, and now they need the other one… only that Suk-jin rolls a 1. Aw, that won’t do.

Adding salt to injury, he tosses the die twice for kicks, only for those to both land on 6. Now they’re down to their last attempt, where the cast must find hula-hoops and last for more than three seconds.

Hye-ja is too embarrassed to try and hula hoop in front of everyone. She’s adorably terrible at it too, and even hits herself by accident when twirling the hoop on her arm. They all succeed by a hair, and then run to the lottery zone. It’s cute how Haha and Hye-jung exchange high fives for arriving first (thanking their speediness for having young kids).

Again, the group will have a chance after every round to draw balls towards a seven figure number with a top prize of 9,990,000 won (about 9,990 USD). They’ll start off in the ten thousandth won place (increments of 10 USD) and draw an 8. That’s 80,000 won (80 USD), which isn’t a bad start.

Hye-ja sticks by Jae-suk’s side while they walk towards their next mission. Here, they’ll be playing Bingo Quiz, where they must answer nine consecutive correctly to get a bingo. Some sneaky glances are exchanged, and when Gary is asked what he wants for Christmas, Hye-ja perks up, thinking that the dog Gary is here.

Ha, it turns out that the dog in the movie is also named Gary. What are the chances? Chun-hee mentions that he’d like a laptop, to which Hye-ja asks almost pitifully, “… you don’t have one?”

Just before the game begins, there are some more suspicious glances. Ji-hyo gets her trivia question correct right off the bat—pretty specifically at that, which sets off my suspicion radar. Seeing as Hye-ja is placed last in line, is the cast playing a bit of 1 vs. 9 Hidden Camera with her?

Even Jong-kook gets his question correct and everyone else’s affected reaction and praise is mighty suspicious. Sure enough, we rewind to two hours before the opening where everyone expect Hye-ja is told of the secret mission.

They must make sure that Hye-ja doesn’t catch on or guess the correct answer. Furthermore, they must answer their own questions correctly, lest they fail in this mission. So they get to studying, and Hye-jung admits that Hye-ja likely won’t know any of these answers like a series six-cylinder engine.

Kwang-soo and Jong-kook joke that Hye-ja could have a surprisingly keen interest in cars or sports, but what they need is a plan. Haha gets upset when he doesn’t get heard (“Who doesn’t have a brain here?”) which sparks a bickering round with Jae-suk.

Kwang-soo gets confused on the rules for their mission, but he isn’t alone because Chun-hee doesn’t know what’s going on either. Jae-suk: “You didn’t know on Family Outing and you don’t know now. When do you wanna know?”

As they study the 81 answers, all I’m thinking is why don’t they decide on a few lines and an order and memorize the answers in that line? Chun-hee looks like he’s legitimately studying, and Jae-suk points out that everyone’s grouchiness suggests that no one likes studying in the first place.

Thankfully, Suk-jin comes up with that very idea. So Haha presents the questions in their rehearsal that looks remarkably like the real thing. Everyone studies on their way to their opening, even writing little cheat sheets on their arms and fingers.

Hahaha, they were even sneaking glances of their sheets whilst Taek PD was introducing the bingo game. With that, we pick back up on the present, where Hye-ja looks amazed by everyone’s knowledge banks. Caption: “To be honest, these guys don’t really know, either.”

Her eyes grow wide as more of the members answer correctly, but the we land on Suk-jin, whose panicked expression suggests that he’s forgotten his answer. He remembers, and I must say it’s pretty funny watching everyone give very specific answers, like Kwang-soo replying that a 25-year-old ginseng from Jirisan is the best.

Gary rattles off his answer, and then it’s up to (or is it down to) Hye-ja. Following their plan to make the question super difficult, Haha tosses out phrases that barely string together. Hye-ja runs out of time to answer and she sweetly says she wouldn’t have known the answer anyway.

Hye-ja remains optimistic though, and the group places her in front of the line. That’s still a part of their plan, and Chun-hee is thrown in to explain the questions. If only he could explain the first one because he stands there staring at the card for a good twenty seconds.

Getting impatient, Hye-ja tells him to skip the formalities, but Chun-hee keeps stumbling over his words. He resorts to just making noises, and then uses these pained facial expressions to indicate syllables. The others yell that he’s horrible at explaining, and either that’s true or Chun-hee’s just really could about making this look real.

So naturally Chun-hee runs out of time, and even Hye-ja admits that the answer was way too hard. If you only knew that that was the point. She pulls Chun-hee aside to whisper that doing it this way is what makes it entertaining on TV.

It’s a comment that has him freeze up, but thankfully Hye-ja is talking about the difficulty of the questions. Phew.

In their next round, Hye-jung rattles off the questions so quickly that you can hardly tell what she’s asking. Nevertheless, the members keep answering correctly, and I swear there’s a little swag in how Gary answers “hybrid anti-aging cream.”

Haha has forgotten his answer, so he bends down to check his cheat sheet right out of Hye-ja’s view. Then it’s back to Hye-ja, who has to guess a standing air conditioner and heater. Hye-jung tries to buy some time and remains vague, but then Hye-ja guesses, “standing air conditioner?” Er oh.

It turns out the crew had practiced with a PD beforehand, though they worried that Hye-ja might be able to guess. To their luck, they run out of time. With one attempt left, Suk-jin remarks that “we’re almost there,” a phrase that sparks Hye-ja’s curiosity once more. Whoops.

Thankfully, Hye-ja doesn’t dwell on the moment and now it’s up to Kwang-soo to bring it home. He gets confused and explains the wrong question at first, much to Ji-hyo’s confusion.

Despite the others putting him back on track, Kwang-soo’s still pretty frazzled. Both Chun-hee and Hye-jung fall to their knees, dying of laughter. Confused about what a buckled cot bed is, Kwang-soo says it’s something from the Joseon era. Thankfully, Jong-kook has his back and points him in the right direction.

I’m seriously starting to think that Kwang-soo’s explanations make no sense, forcing the cast to do this backwards way of feeding him the explanation in their answers. Seeing how everyone gets their answers right ought to raise some suspicious eyebrows, but bascially Hye-ja looks on with an amazed expression her on face.

They run out of time just as Hye-ja steps up again, which means they fail the bingo game but succeed in their secret mission. They all get down on their knees in apology like misbehaved children, showing her their cheat sheets and scribbles.

Through it all, Hye-ja honestly believed that the cast was just that smart and happy that they succeeded in their own mission. That makes them feel even worse, and yet she says, “But it’s entertaining!” Aw, that’s sweet. And then with a wide smile she says she won’t ever be fooled again.

As expected of the unlucky one, Suk-jin draws a 1, bringing their total to 180,000 won (or 180 USD). And as always, Hye-ja says that’s quite all right because life doesn’t always go your way.

For their final mission, Hye-ja must succeed lest the other nine face punishment: a downpour of flour. Here she must send a text message within 30 seconds and it won’t be easy because she’ll need to be exact with adding emoticons and the like. It would be a great twist if Hye-ja is well-versed in the smartphone age.

She is, as she confidently tells Taek PD that she texts all the time. However, she admits that she doesn’t use specific punctuation like commas in her text messages (…and neither do I, I’ve realized).

Still, her thumb’s pretty quick in typing out the characters. She runs out of time for the first round, and down comes the first shower of flour. And although the cast doesn’t mind getting floured upon again and encourages her to relax, they remind her not to relax too much since there’s money on the line.

The next text just contains characters, and I’m impressed at how quick Hye-ja is. She has one word left in the final five seconds… and finishes with one second to spare. Woot!

Now they have one last chance at the lottery (with an extra 9 ball tossed in), and Taek PD reminds them that the worst-case scenario would be to draw a 0. Hye-ja squeals with excitement… and it’s a 6, bringing up the total to 6.18 million won, a solid number.

And for this festive occasion, the prized money will be donated to less fortunate children under Hye-ja, Chun-hee, and Hye-jung’s names. Hye-ja offers some final words expressing her happiness to be a part of today’s episode, and then Kwang-soo asks if she could re-enact one of her famous catchphrases for them.

So she rips off Jong-kook’s nametag and says with a wide smile: “This is what I’m talking about!”

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