Running Man: Episode 300

by gummimochi

Six years, 71 months, and 2,192 days. Running Man has been through a lot over the years, but it’s saved some epic missions for the big 300. Our cast will be put through a variety of challenges in this two-part special, where they’ll be pushed to their physical, mental, and emotional limits. The only way they can get through it will be to work as a team and face the next obstacle together.

EPISODE 300. Broadcast on May 22, 2016.

It’s been a long road, but we’ve finally reached the 300th episode of Running Man. The cast can hardly believe it either as they step into the Hall of Episodes and reminisce on episodes of yore.

Today brings a new challenge, 7 vs. 300, which will span over two days. Completing each mission will earn them necessary puzzle pieces for the final mission, so they’ll need to work together. Not only that, the prize money is three million won (about 3,000 USD).

The very first mission will put that money on the line—a trivia relay game where seven correct answers about the past 299 episodes are needed to win. However, they’ll lose 10,000 won with each passing second, meaning they could lose it all within 300 seconds.

Haha chooses first, with Episode 87: Who was Han Ga-in’s first love? He screams: “Me!” Gary chooses Episode 81, but he forgets that he was at King’s Cross Station. Ji-hyo picks Episode 150, the Running Man Avengers Special, and Suk-jin can’t remember what happened in Episode 79, the Sherlock Holmes Special.

Jae-suk tries to look for his Yoomes Bond episodes, but the clock’s ticking, so he chooses Episode 138. Jong-kook is tasked to recall how many cameras Jung Woo-sung was monitoring in Episode 151 and gets it right (108).

Kwang-soo can still remember the “Happy Kwang-soo Day” Special, when they caught him mid-brushing. Gary tries to remember who they threw in the pool in Australia two years ago (Rain and Kim Woo-bin), but it’s Jae-suk who has the most trouble recalling what happened. And who can blame him when he’s got so many shows to juggle.

They’re down to one million won now, but he keeps peeling one episode after another. He can’t remember what shape the rice balls were in last week, and soon the money dwindles to 200,000 won.

There are only a few seconds left, but soon it’s a big fat zero. Haha can’t believe that Jong-kook would remember something so specific from so long ago whereas Jae-suk can’t remember a thing. Suspicious, everyone asks if there’s some secret mission today.

Jong-kook gives Jae-suk a hard time about how he dealt with that stress-inducing situation, but no one can believe that he couldn’t remember anything about all the missions they’ve done over the years.

Their second game takes place outside where they’ll have 30 minutes to fill out 300 meters of text. That divvies up to about 430 characters per person, and the punishment here is a popped flour-filled balloon over their heads.

SpartAce starts off at opposite ends of the 300m long piece of paper, and the guys compliment Ji-hyo for being able to write so well. Ha, you’re not trying to push the task off entirely to her, are you?

While she’s scribbling names and future hopes, Jong-kook writes a meaningful letter about the past 300 episodes. Jae-suk: “Hurry up!”

Kwang-soo takes over and both Ji-hyo and Jae-suk yell at him for not skipping spaces. He starts taking down their dictation, and by the end, his handwriting looks like chicken scratch.

Jae-suk continues off of the “500 episodes” text to keep counting in hundreds. When the PD says he’ll only accept to 1000, Jae-suk counts in ones.

He then starts listing the production crew’s names, and asks for the all the names he doesn’t know. Jae-suk finishes writing around the 20-minute mark while Suk-jin is busy venting about the Sherlock Holmes episode. They finish with flying colors by the 23-minute mark and pick up a puzzle piece.

Their third mission is a food relay race where the cast will face off against their VJs in eating 300 dishes. Kwon-ryul VJ has nothing to say because Jae-suk still hasn’t forgotten what he said last time.

There are puzzle pieces and tickets to the lunch buffet on the line, it’ll be a race against the VJs to see who will clean up down the line.

Suk-jin’s VJ, Yoo-suk, takes his sweet time, and Haha switches out with Kwang-soo. Suk-jin complains about the food even before his first bite. He barely gets through a few more before passing it off to health junkie Jong-kook.

Jong-kook wonders how many calories the tart has before eating it, and Ji-hyo mixes in a few dishes before downing it. Gary’s VJ doesn’t even use his chopsticks, and Suk-jin gets yelled at for trying to stop right before the chocolate muffin.

The human garbage disposal Kwon-ryul VJ is up, and it looks like the RM cast is lagging behind when time is up. In the end the cast stops at dish 221… only five dishes behind the VJ team at 226.

Since they’ve lost, they must to cover the cost of the crew’s lunch bill of 1.14 million won between them. They cite that it wouldn’t have been an issue if they still had that 3 million won to burn, but ultimately decide that any given person could pay anywhere between a dance for the audience to one million won.

Haha has to pay 30,000 won whereas Gary need only pay 3,000 won. Ji-hyo is off the hook with a dance, and Jong-kook… has to pay the most: a million won.

Kwang-soo, Jae-suk, and Suk-jin open up their remaining cards, but are given multiple chances to blindly change their cards. Are they trying to get Kwang-soo to pay 100,000 won? Yes, yes, they are.

In the car, the cast puts a positive spin to Jong-kook’s rotten luck by saying that he’s super generous. Soon, the cast pulls up to the Han River, where so many cold memories were made.

But today, there’s another mission waiting for them—300 boxes… with special guests BTS: Jin, Rap Monster, V, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, and Jungkook. The casts fixates on the swag from Rap Monster, then turns to ’90s idol Jong-kook to show off the retro swag.

Here the cast will race against BTS to see who can pile more boxes onto their given trucks within the time limit. The boxes of ramyun will be donated under the winners’ names. Haha: “And if we lose? Do we have to pay more money?”

Ha, not in this case—the losers will donate another 300 boxes of ramyun, paid from their own pockets. Once the whistle blows, Suga races ahead to load the first box, while the others load up the wheelbarrow.

J-Hope shouts when he sees Kwang-soo trying to steal their boxes, then the boys have to deal with Suk-jin. Soon, the place turns into a warzone as Jungkook unloads the Running Man cast’s wheelbarrow, and Jae-suk accidentally adds to BTS’ total count.

Jimin’s got a tight hold on Kwang-soo, even climbing on his back to render him useless. Hee. Finally, Jong-kook has had enough and pins down two, no three of the BTS boys.

The final score is 157 to 143 boxes in favor of BTS, which means the Running Man cast will donate an extra 300 boxes. So they decide to divvy up the portions again, but then their jaw drops upon hearing that whoever pays for 250 boxes will set them back five million won. Whoa.

They reduce that number to 200 boxes all the way down to no boxes and a little dance. Their fate lies within the hands of the BTS members, and Haha gets 50 boxes. Gary lucks out with a dance, and Ji-hyo must pay for 15 boxes.

Again, it’s Jong-kook’s turn, but this time he’s blessed with a zero. Only Jae-suk, Suk-jin, and Kwang-soo remain, and we can see that it’s Kwang-soo who initially has the 200 boxes burden.

Like before, the trio is given a chance to switch cards, and Suk-jin switches with Kwang-soo. Oh man, I’m suddenly getting old-school Running Man flashbacks to the Catch the Thief card game when someone would try to get rid of their Thief card.

Cue more dancing, and the 200 boxes card slides into Jae-suk’s hand. And then Kwang-soo offers to switch cards again. Noooo, but you have five boxes! Don’t do it, Kwang-soo!

But they exchange cards, and Kwang-soo’s original card ends up back in his hands. Everyone agrees that whoever needs to pay for the most boxes should do so gladly… and then Kwang-soo takes one shocking look at his card before breaking down in a dance.

Kwang-soo (to Jimin): “How could you do this to me all day?”

Right now, the cast is feeling the pressure since they only have one puzzle piece. They brainstorm on what other “7 vs. 300” games they could play, including a 300-person nametag-ripping game.

Beating 300 people wouldn’t be easy, and Jae-suk gets nervous as they head towards Yonsei University. They can hear the noise even before they enter the gymnasium, where 300 energetic college students are waiting for them.

But only one of them will be facing the 300: Jae-suk in a game of ddakji. He needs to flip the students’ paper squares before his is flipped over to win. Jong-kook points out that Jae-suk might have an advantage since not many young people play ddakji anymore.

Unfortunately for him, they have. The first student steps up to the plate, and then Suk-jin rips off his nametag when going in for a hug. Seconds later, the student rips his nametag off, too.

The mat hyungs wonders how old the student is when he uses the older form of “grade school” (since the younger generation would more commonly use an updated phrase of elementary school), only to be taken aback that he’s a ’96-er. Suk-jin: “1996? I met my wife in 1997.”

Jae-suk can feel the crushing burden of all eyes on him, so the others pour on the praise. Jae-suk throws the ddakji down, and the other paper square flies into the air, but falls on the same side.

Ha, the guys buy a few seconds to firmly step on Jae-suk’s ddakji, then try to distract the student as much as possible. But the young man throws down his ddakji…

…and we’re left to find out what will happen next week, in Part 2 of the 7 vs. 300 Special. Just from the preview alone, there’s going to be plenty of blood, sweat, and tears shed on that gymnasium floor. And that’ll just be the beginning of the horrors ahead.

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