Running Man: Episode 285

by gummimochi

It’s that time of year again—the 5th Strongest Running Man Games will put our cast members through a battery of tests and assess their abilities on a level(-ish) playing field. Reaction, strength, and courage are just a few of the factors the researchers will look into to determine who is the strongest member on the team. Some results might seem obvious, but others will leave your mouth agape in surprise.

EPISODE 285. Broadcast on February 7, 2016.

Researchers are hard at work in the Running Man Laboratory, preparing for this year’s Lunar New Year special: the 5th Strongest Running Man Games. After carefully reviewing the data collected over the past five years, these scientists seek to put its subjects through four different tests to determine the strongest Running Man cast member.

Experiment 1 — The Reaction Test: From the moment you walk inside, someone is eyeing your nametag. Defend your nametag. Everyone’s reactions? Utter bewilderment. Jae-suk: “Who is? My nametag?” then to VJ Kwon-ryul: “Is it you?” Ha.

Already inside the restaurant, Haha whirls around: “So it’s starts now?” Suk-jin is confident that all those years of experience under his belt will be to his advantage. Says the Race Starter.

Kwang-soo has no idea what to expect once he walks inside, since this is the first time he’s ever been to this hair salon. He makes sure it’s neither a PD nor his VJ… but it is that male employee hanging around the coffee machine. Kwang-soo keeps him at bay for ten seconds, which is when his attacker backs off. “But… who are you?!” he asks.

Suk-jin takes the straightforward approach, asking everyone he sees point blank if it’s them. Haha suspects the couple sitting behind him, and even questions the staff. Jong-kook thinks it’s weird that there are so many people at the gym this morning and pushes away everyone who draws near.

He also makes sure to check out his VJ for good measure. Ji-hyo is on edge and tells the salon employees (whom she has had a long working relationship with) to go away. When she finally gets to her chair, she sinks into it to protect her nametag.

She worries about her tendency to fall asleep whenever someone is working with her hair, and we do see her yawn a little later.

Jae-suk is approached on the street by fans who want a photo, and just as he’s about to get in the car, a hand lunges towards him. It’s one of the fans and Jae-suk gripes that he had reason to suspect them.

The production crew tells him that there’s a mic problem, and that’s when one staff member carefully fingers the nametag… and rips it right off.

Meanwhile, Gary backs away from a pair of fans, declining to take a photo. He keeps them at a distance—for good reason because one reaches for his back—until he can get in his car. And then his manager tries, but fails at ripping off Gary’s nametag.

Kwang-soo gets nervous when a staff member cites audio issues. He insists on doing it himself, wielding a curling iron in case he needs to defend himself. He can’t be sure of who actually works here or not, and one woman in blue keeps staring at him until offering softly, “Do you need anything?”

Haha keeps an eye out, and when the boyfriend steps out, he asks the “girlfriend” how long they’ve been going out, where they met, and when his birthday is. But as soon as he gets up, a crew member tears off his nametag.

I feel like Suk-jin’s VJ is getting too close for comfort—turns out I’m right as Suk-jin whirls around at the very last second. His VJ is persistent though, and he gets that nametag.

Jae-suk gets testy when the PD keeps trying to reach for his back when they’re in the car. They finally arrive at the coffee shop for his second mission, and Jae-suk suspects everyone.

He can feel someone lingering behind him when he stops to take a photo with a fan, but she gets a second chance to tag him out. Ji-hyo leaves the salon hand-in-hand with the stylist—they may have known each other for 13 years now, but that won’t shake her suspicion.

But as soon as her back is turned, the stylist rips off her nametag gleefully. I feel these guys won’t ever trust anyone anymore, especially when one of Jong-kook’s health trainers grab his nametag.

Gary nearly jumps out of his chair when he sits next to Jae-suk at the coffee shop and the Grasshopper lunges at him. He politely declines taking a photo with a fan, and then regales in telling Jae-suk that his own manager tried to get him. Two seconds later, he obediently walks over to the staff to check his mic. Tsk, tsk.

Yep, so that nametag gets ripped off for the first time today. At least Gary gets a taste of what it’s like when he rips off Suk-jin’s nametag soon after the mat hyung arrives. Twice.

They need to finish their drink here in order to move on, and Suk-jin falls for the oldest trick in the book—a mic check. When Jae-suk rises, Gary advises him to always watch his back, so it’s not much of a surprise when Suk-jin grabs at a chance to rip off Jae-suk’s nametag.

Kwang-soo asks the cafe employees who want a picture with him to lay on the floor together. Jae-suk tries to stay alert, but then another crew member rips off his nametag. Neither he nor Gary fall for the “let us check the audio” line, and Haha tries warding everyone out upon entering the cafe.

He looks seriously stressed out whenever someone approaches, and he twirls like a windmill to keep the staffers away. Although Kwang-soo tries his best to keep his back protected, he gets tackled just outside the waiting room.

The results: Haha and Ji-hyo are tied for first place, Jae-suk and Gary are tied for third, Jong-kook is in fifth place, followed by Kwang-soo, and lastly Suk-jin.

The cast gasps when they enter the Running Man Statistics Laboratory, oohing especially at the life-size robot. It turns out that Haha and Suk-jin had requested this theme and there’s a fair shot for all.

Jong-kook says they’ll need to have Kwang-soo compensate for his tall height (Haha: “Have him crawl on his knees.”), but he’s told that he needs to attach his arms to his legs because of his brute strength. The winner will get an ultimate prize: a trip to London.

Gary says it’s not much of a vacation since the entire thing is filmed, so he declines. “I’m not going! I won’t go!”

The PD debriefs the group on their results, adding that there were too many of Suk-jin’s eliminations to count. HA.

There’s a test of concentration for Suk-jin, who briefly meets the doctor until Jong-kook and Jae-suk come storming in. While his attention is diverted, the doctor hides under a desk and a different man sits in the chair.

When Suk-jin looks at him again…. he asks, “Do I have to write in my broadcast age?” Didn’t even notice the switch. He looks up a second time to see an empty chair and there’s another switch… which he doesn’t even notice.

Jae-suk distracts Suk-jin one more time by ripping off his nametag, allowing the docs to complete another switch. And another. And Suk-jin doesn’t even look up from his form.

Kwang-soo remarks that even the doctors appear disappointed that Suk-jin hasn’t caught on yet, and that’s when Suk-jin asks why the doc keeps dropping things. The others keep pretending like they’re ripping off each other’s nametags when Suk-jin walks in.

They can’t bring themselves to tell Suk-jin what went on, telling him to not get too upset when this episode actually airs. Suk-jin slays the room when he’s still fixated on the surprise nametag attacks.

So they finally tell him about the doctor switcharoos, and Suk-jin turns bright red.

Their next test in the lab involves mysteriously covered boxes—the researchers will be testing them on their levels of courage. According to the data, Jae-suk and Kwang-soo are the biggest scaredy cats, though it’s Haha and Suk-jin who are amongst the most reluctant.

Here, they must dip their hands into these water tanks and take out four to ten marbles—depending on their ranking—as quickly as possible. There are two marbles in each of these seven tanks, fourteen in all.

Jong-kook needs to pluck out ten marbles, and he plunges his hand into the first tank without hesitation. His eyes are full of determination and talks to the marbles to come out already, and the others freak out whenever he does.

Needless to say he picks up ten marbles easy. He finally gets a look at what’s in those tanks, and all he can say is “sorry”. Gary is pushed to go next—he needs eight. He claims that he’s not at all brave, to which Jae-suk says, “To us, you’re a superhero!”

Gary’s hand starts shaking as soon as he sticks it inside the first tank. He thinks something has bit him, but we see the contents are harmless: spiky balls. He reluctantly picks up two in the first tank, but has to brace himself for the second, and then jumps back in alarm.

“It feels like a snake!” he cries. Correct answer: massage gloves. He tries putting his hand back in, only to pop out again. If only he knew that those rubber gloves are nothing compared to the mudfish he’s about to touch. He surprisingly gets through that just fine, but it’s the unknowable textures that freak him out.

The fourth tank contains wigs, and I totally get it—sticking your hand in that much hair has got to feel weird. Gary: “Is it alive?” Every time he jumps makes everyone else jump too, and the fifth tank must feel slimy, because it’s filled with sea cucumbers.

Gary finally gets all eight and gasps when he sees what he was actually up against in the second tank. The sixth and seventh tanks contains scouring pads and pasta, respectively.

They change up the order of the items for Kwang-soo’s turn. He can’t get a read on Jong-kook’s face when the latter examines the third tank (pasta). His hand is literally shaking from the start against the moving massage gloves, and his meltdown makes the rest of them nervous. Kwang-soo: “It licked me.”

Even after he’s asked for Jong-kook’s help, Kwang-soo punches him when Jong-kook tries to stuff his arm in. With great effort, Kwang-soo swipes the first marble (of the six he needs).

Kwang-soo yanks his hand out of the second tank as soon as he touches water. Gary grabs the best seat in the house, and he and Jong-kook nearly split their sides watching Kwang-soo sort-of-not-really tackle the pasta tank.

He even skips over the scouring pads tank, and asks the next tank is filled with pudding. Nope, sea cucumbers. He takes Jong-kook’s advice to grab it, but Kwang-soo yelps, frightened, and runs out of time.

Jae-suk needs only four marbles, but this is the legendary scaredy cat we’re talking about. He barely gets his fingers into the tank before removing them, and when he actually gets them in, Kwang-soo comments that “it really follows your hand”, which of course, only makes things worse.

He screams when the glove “kisses” him, and he asks Kwang-soo if that thing’s lips were on him. Jae-suk tells the others that it was a moist kiss, which makes the others think of the Predator.

The glove is waiting for Jae-suk, and Kwang-soo asks, “Isn’t it angry right now?” Jae-suk freaks when his hand touches the glove. “It was waiting for me!” Jae-suk moves on to the mudfish tank, and Haha’s jaw drops when Gary says, “Why are you making them fly?!”

Jae-suk’s third tank is the pasta one, but that’s where he runs out of time. When he finds out what he was fighting against, Jae-suk crumbles, embarrassed.

The order is changed yet again for Haha and Suk-jin, the latter of whom freaks out whenever his fingers come in contact with anything. Still, Suk-jin comes out with three marbles.

Ji-hyo looks to be on the verge of tears and sends Kwang-soo away in exchange for Jong-kook to place her hand inside the tank. She lets out a terrified scream, and when her fist touches the scouring pad, she swears that something gave her an electric shock.

Haha asks if they got the next tank (pasta) from Laws of the Jungle, and Gary reassures her that this won’t bite her. Kwang-soo: “But why is there steam?” When Haha tells her to trust him, the other guys rag on him for trying to pull the trusting oppa card.

But she’s too afraid of the second tank, so they move on to the third (the one with the moving massage glove hand). She can’t bear to go through it anymore, so they call it quits as tears stream down her cheeks.

Now the ranking is as follows (from first to seventh): Jong-kook, Gary, Ji-hyo, Suk-jin and Kwang-soo tied in fourth, Haha in sixth, and Jae-suk in last place.

Their next test is a Strength test, and Kwang-soo seems surprised to see that he ranks third in the results. Suk-jin is dead last. Given the structure of the test, it seems more like a resistance test: each member will be eating lettuce wraps with their arms tied to resistance bands.

Jong-kook will be using the shortest bands and Suk-jin the longest. There’s a lot of screaming and yelling as they lunge for the food in the middle, and Kwang-soo ends up eating his wrap faster than Gary. But really the others take issue with how Jong-kook managed to win with his handicap. “Is this truly a fair game?!”

Now it’s time for the final mission in a school in Sangam-dong, where they’ll play a nametag ripping race. However, the crew has taken special care to level the playing field—those higher in ranking are given a disadvantage, and those lower in the ranks are given an advantage.

HA—Jong-kook’s nametag has wings. “Just tell me that you don’t want to send me to England!” Conversely, Suk-jin’s nametag is pretty small. Jong-kook: “If you want to take that off, you need to knock him out first.”

Additionally, some players are given extra weight to carry as well as bells that sound their whereabouts. Ji-hyo’s nametag is pretty huge too, and Haha asks if today’s the day they don’t betray one another and try to win this thing.

Suk-jin is determined to eliminate Jong-kook today while Gary and Ji-hyo complain about the bell on their shoes. Jae-suk can already feel the extra 2 kilograms weighing on his arms.

Everyone silently moves to ambush Jong-kook, but then Suk-jin surprises everyone by drawing Jong-kook out with a 1:1 battle. When Jong-kook says one person can hold onto Suk-jin and another rip off the nametag, Suk-jin argues that that’d be cheating.

What everyone wants to see is Suk-jin act on his claims, and when Jong-kook is asked if he’s ready, he answers that it doesn’t matter since he’ll do what he must all the same. So Suk-jin toes that line by walking right up to him and trying to draw him out… and jumps back when Jong-kook feigns an attack.

Jae-suk is highly reluctant to take Kwang-soo up on his offer to become allies, but when Kwang-soo says it’s an new year, Jae-suk takes the chance.

Haha and Suk-jin immediately suspect an alliance when they meet near the stairwell. Suk-jin drinks in the power he has over everyone right now, and Haha calls out Gary and Kwang-soo for working together.

Kwang-soo runs up the stairs and he climbs into the elevator before Suk-jin can follow him. He’s waiting for Suk-jin when he gets out of the elevator though, and grabs Suk-jin’s shirt to drag it towards him. Ooh, smart.

He actually grabs hold of the nametag, but that’s when the others rush in… and eliminate HIM. Suk-jin’s crew—Ji-hyo, Gary, and Haha—are told to hunt Jae-suk down but leave the elimination to him.

They surround Jae-suk, who keeps evading their oncoming attacks. So it’s a struggle, but eventually Haha rips off Jae-suk’s big nametag. Kwang-soo isn’t all that surprised, and believes Jong-kook might be next… but Jong-kook is waiting it out so he can go up against Suk-jin 1:1.

At least Jae-suk and Kwang-soo have something to do in jail—knit a scarf. Out in the halls, Jong-kook agrees to let that 1:1 match happen now. This is Suk-jin’s only shot to really change his variety image, and the others are not allowed to intervene.

Jong-kook grabs Suk-jin’s shirtfront first, but Suk-jin whirls around and reaches for one of the wings… and rips it right off. Everyone stands amazed and the four decide to take a photo together…

… and that’s when Haha grabs Suk-jin’s arm and Gary reaches for his back. LOL, of course. Off it comes and Suk-jin can hardly believe it. Turns out Gary and Haha had sat down 30 minutes ago and planned out the whole thing.

Now that only three of them remain, Gary advises Ji-hyo not to fall for Haha, who realizes that it’d be oddly refreshing if the boys tried to rip off her nametag. Gary tells her to come towards him and he grabs Haha.

When Haha tries to grab Ji-hyo’s nametag while pinned to the ground, Gary yelps, “You can’t tag her out!” So Haha rips off his nametag instead.

Meanwhile in jail, Kwang-soo and Jae-suk play cat’s cradle while Jong-kook says he’s totally got the hang of knitting.

Ji-hyo and Haha are left and are reminded of how well they get along together. But right now, only one of them can win and Haha isn’t going to give up that easy. She tries to grab an opening, but that’s when Haha bites down on her nametag.

She screams that her hair is caught in the velcro, and Haha removes the nametag easily. That means Haha is our winner, as he’s awarded a trip to London. Aww, please go take a vaycay with Byul and little Dream.

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