Running Man: Episode 314

by gummimochi

Get ready for an epic brawl over who gets to be the next monarch. Our cast and guests will battle it out both on land and water, traveling through time and space to impress the king and their future subjects. This series of tasks will test their judgment, quick thinking, loyalty, and compassion—or lack thereof—because only one of them will get to sit on that grand throne.

EPISODE 314. Broadcast on August 28, 2016.

Today’s historical tale begins in varietyland, where the royal Running Man family is embroiled in a dispute over who gets to be the next king. Yoo Jae-bin declares that everyone will have a respectable position once her sibling rises to the throne. Kim Jong-bin’s and her brothers’, Haha and Hong Jong-hyun eyes narrow with suspicion.

Yoo Jae-bin has two brothers of her own, Ji-ho and Kang Haneul, but we’re also introduced to Lee Kwang-bin and her orabeoni, Gary. Lee Kwang-bin is a target of ridicule for being too tall for her hanbok, and Yoo Jae-bin isn’t afraid of (literally) kicking people out of her way to secure her place beside the king.

Speaking of which, Eunuch Ji announces the king’s arrival: meet King Lee Jun-ki, who immediately calls for silence. He’s a royal ahead of his time, calling upon his subjects to “make some noise.” He says it’s time for him to designate his successor, in which he’ll send his sons to the future to battle it out.

The new monarch will be declared at the next solar eclipse… and then we’re transported to present-day where Jae-suk tosses back the scroll to the PD.

Before any game begins, we meet our three beautiful princes, co-stars of Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart: Goryeo. Mat hyung Jun-ki reads out the mission: Procure public sentiment by enlisting the help of a citizen who can identify them and participate in a telepathy game together.

There’s a range of reactions from immersing oneself into the story (Haha) to plain stupefied (Suk-jin). Jun-ki falls into the former category, but all three princes are given a mysterious special advantage to be used before the final mission.

He does a spit take when Haneul asks if that “special item” is another appearance on the show, but he’s completely serious about his determination to win—as evidenced by his various attempts to delay his dongsaengs.

Jong-hyun greets Ji-hyo with open arms, though his real intention is to try and recruit the girl she has in tow. Jun-ki turns on the natural charm to enlist a passersby, but unfortunately their answers don’t sync on the first try.

Haneul adorably can’t remember what the question was, and to make matters worse, the random guy he stops doesn’t know who he is. He tries his best to help him (“It’s… not Kim…”), and unfortunately the next guy doesn’t know who he is either.

Third time’s the charm, though, and while everyone else is in a hurry, Jun-ki stays calm when recruiting his teammate.

But the game isn’t quite over yet because in order to pass through the solar eclipse time portal, our royals must catch two moons—thrown by their teammates—in their crowns.

Prince Jong-kook is the first to pass, whereas Prince Kwang-soo deliberately intercepts the ball thrown to Prince Jae-suk. (The referees witness everything.) One by one our princes complete the mission to travel through the portal, including Jun-ki who’s the very last face the present-day people see.

Everyone’s baby pictures are on display when they return, and upon hearing that the new princes were given a special advantage, the cast members argue that Suk-jin may need it more than the young’uns.

Now time for the first task: Each prince will run around with plastic hammers trying to take two hearts from the others. The top four will pass through the Sun Door whereas the other six will pass through the Moon Door. And since Ji-hyo and Jun-ki came in last in the present-day, they must procure their own plastic hammers.

We’re told that this 4:6 divide is important because each group will later play different games. To rub salt in the wound, the prince who comes in dead last will no longer be in consideration for the throne. There’s an added incentive to placing within the top four, though Suk-jin doesn’t seem to mind the idea of being eliminated and going home early.

The resounding gong signals the start of the game, and Jun-ki quickly finds himself surrounded. He manages to slip away, leaving Gary and Kwang-soo reluctant to take the first step.

After Ji-hyo finds a hammer of her own, Suk-jin suggests to Kwang-soo to take one of each other’s hearts. But neither are willing to trust one another, so they just end up hitting one another.

Everyone agrees to go after Jun-ki, though when Haha jokingly approaches Gary, he’s more than willing to return the favor. They make swipes at one another, and then Gary happens to walks away with one of Haha’s hearts.

Jong-kook takes one of Suk-jin’s hearts when he’s not looking while Kwang-soo surreptitiously hits Ji-hyo on the back of her head before disappearing moments later. Kwang-soo announces about Jae-suk’s deflated hammer, which allows Haha to hone in on the attack. And then Kwang-soo makes a run for it, keeping his head moving to avoid getting hit.

Jun-ki, however, roars excitedly when he finally finds a hammer of his own. Haneul finds himself between a rock and hard place when Kwang-soo asks him to help but both Jae-suk and Ji-hyo discourage that decision.

While Jun-ki tries to sneak up to another group, he’s in for another surprise: Jong-kook. That prompts a different scuffle where Haha is eliminated, thanks to Jong-hyun.

Meanwhile, everyone agrees that Kwang-soo needs to be eliminated. Ji-hyo takes one of his hearts, only for Haneul to eliminate her out of the game. To make matters worse, Suk-jin runs up to her to hit her again.

After Jae-suk is eliminated, Kwang-soo whispers that their three guests still have two lives remaining. So he lies to the others that he’s already been eliminated in order to get Jong-hyun and secure the top spot.

There’s much more bopping of each other’s heads until Suk-jin’s headband falls off of his head. Jun-ki picks it up to send Suk-jin to jail.

A little later, Gary picks up his second heart from Jun-ki, and now the remaining four battle it out for the other two spots. Jong-hyun beats Haneul to secure third place, whilst Jun-ki gently wins out his battle with Jong-kook.

Each group passes through their respective doors leading to their next mission. The Sun Door leads to water archery where the first person to eliminate their opponents’ dolls wins the game and receives a secret weapon.

Both Jun-ki and Jong-hyun claim that they didn’t do any archery in this sageuk, though Jong-hyun’s character poster begs to differ. He holds several arrows in his hands when he climbs on the platform…

… and then knocks out his own doll. Smoooth. Kwang-soo accidentally hits one of his own too, and he’s soon down to one when Jong-hyun knocks out another. Gary accidentally eliminates himself, and Jae-suk remarks how Jun-ki is trying to look cool while shooting arrows. Well, can you blame him?

Jong-hyun eliminates Kwang-soo just as the latter’s bow breaks, and after shooting more arrows, Jun-ki eliminates himself. As Jong-hyun drinks in the victory, Jun-ki declares that he’ll use his special advantage now.

He chants, completely serious: “The sun and moon, let time be free!” That effectively turns the clock back by 30 seconds, giving Jun-ki a second chance. Too bad Jong-hyun comes out on top, anyway.

The resounding gong signals the losers’ game: mud pit wrestling. Everyone climbs on the platform and tries to stand their ground for thirty seconds. Haha and Suk-jin are eliminated in the first round, but only one of them can be the true loser.

There’s lots of pushing and shoving in the pit, but time is running out. Haha slips off, giving Suk-jin a chance to climb on. But it’s too high, and it’s draw. So Myuk PD changes up the rules: the first to slip off will be their loser.

So they both climb on the platform to wrestle but it quickly becomes clear that they’re evenly matched. Eventually, Haha takes hold and pushes Suk-jin off.

It’s nightfall by the time the final mission rolls around. It seems that despite his elimination Suk-jin still has a role to play. When Jun-ki fails to catch the mission scroll the first time, he asks the staff to throw it once more to, yunno, capture the cool shot.

He hilariously misses the second attempt, but finally catches it on the third try. Suk-jin: “You know they’ll just air this entire segment, right?” Yes, and we loved it.

Now for the final battle: One must collect two nametags themselves by either the traditional nametag ripping method or sit upon the golden pillow, call out someone’s name, and stay put for three whole minutes.

However, that cushion can only be used once. Myuk PD provides some added information, such as that there is a safe zone surrounding said cushion and the person inside may tear off others’ nametags.

Jae-suk gets increasingly annoyed as everyone keeps asking the same question. Then before the game begins, Jong-hyun is privy to his special advantage which we don’t get to see.

Everyone except Suk-jin is allowed entry through the portal, but then we hear his voice booming through the speakers. Once the game begins, Jae-suk spots someone down the hallway.

It’s Jun-ki, who zooms down the hall and slyly asks for some hints. Ji-hyo joins them near the stairwell, arguing that they have to keep moving lest Jong-kook finds them and eliminates them.

The trio agrees to find the moon cushion and recruits Jong-hyun and Haneul to their cause in eliminating Jong-kook. Speaking of the Tiger, Jong-kook appears in the hallway.

Just then, Suk-jin announces the location of the first moon cushion. Jun-ki is the first one to arrive at the lobby, where he’s quickly joined by Kwang-soo. The latter rushes to the cushion, and soon everyone is in the lobby.

In a loud voice, Kwang-soo yells out Gary’s name. Gary, who has been observing the situation on the second floor runs down to prevent his own elimination. Jun-ki tries lunging for Gary’s nametag and spins around to avoid anyone else getting a hold of his back.

Eventually Gary is pinned to the floor, but there’s a definite rip. Uh oh, is that Haha’s nametag? Kwang-soo seemingly comes to his rescue, but then he holds Haha’s nametag high above his own head.

In order to prevent Kwang-soo getting an automatic victory (since he’d also get Gary’s nametag if he holds out for another 30 seconds), Haha calls upon everyone to rip off Kwang-soo’s nametag.

Jong-kook easily pulls Kwang-soo out of the safe zone, and as Jun-ki bends down to eliminate him, Jae-suk steps forward to rip off Jun-ki’s nametag.

Now that Gary is out of the danger zone, he catches his breath before going after Haneul. Just as he’s about to turn the corner, an arm reaches over the divider. Aha, it’s Haneul!

But once Haneul has his back turned, Gary sneaks up behind him and rips off his nametag. As Gary apologizes, a brawny arm reaches for his back. Yep, that’s Jong-kook, who quickly tears off his nametag.

Just as Gary told Haneul that his method of elimination is how this game works, Haneul comes to comfort him with redeemed satisfaction.

Over in jail, Haha finally lights up when he hears of Kwang-soo’s elimination. Turns out Jong-hyun had eliminated him, and Haha welcomes Kwang-soo to jail by spritzing him with water.

Haha confronts Kwang-soo about that moment of betrayal—how could Kwang-soo do that to his ally? But Kwang-soo counters that he couldn’t help it and Haha’s nametag was in his face.

Jun-ki shares that he had a young family member (whether that’s a niece or nephew is unclear since Korean uses the same term “jokka” for both) who was looking forward to him staying in the game till the end. Gary jokes that Jun-ki will post that ripping off nametags is no easy task.

Suk-jin announces the location of the second moon cushion, and this time Jae-suk is the first one to spot it. He declares Jong-kook’s name and the timer begins. All Jae-suk has to do now is hold out for three minutes, and the game is his.

Jong-kook’s name is announced through the speakers, and Jong-kook finds Jae-suk lying on the ground soon enough. He pulls Jae-suk out, as the latter pleads for mercy. Won’t Jong-kook go easy on him, just once?

Another moon cushion is announced, and Jong-hyun is first to arrive. He calls out Jong-kook’s name AND uses his advantage: everyone must stay in place for the two-minute music break. Ah, which means that Jong-hyun only needs to hold out for an additional minute afterward. Smart, smart.

Too bad for him that Ji-hyo, Jong-kook, and Jae-suk are all within eyesight though. The timers teach us that Jong-hyun only needs to hold out for 30 more seconds after the music ends.

But 30 seconds might be more than enough for Jong-kook, who barks at him to get off the cushion. Jong-hyun immediately abides.

Since all four of them have one nametag each, they all need to secure just one more. Jong-kook grabs hold of Jae-suk while Ji-hyo tries to find an opportune moment. Jong-hyun joins in, we hear a rip, and then we fade to black.

We cut back in when it’s time to announce the new reigning monarch… who slips on the stairs. Everyone recognizes Eunuch Ji, who then begrudgingly hands over the royal authority to Jong-kook.

Ten minutes earlier. Jong-kook rips off Jae-suk’s nametag, which makes him the new king. He gets to wear the actual kingly robes used in Moon Lovers, as Jun-ki pouts, “Those were mine.”

King Jong-kook feels awkward about sitting on the throne alone, and Jun-ki vows that he’ll keep practicing his nametag ripping skills to win next time. Although there’s no need since you’ve already captured our hearts.

 
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