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Running Man: Episode 207

It’s hard to believe that our beloved Big Nose Hyung has only won twice in the past four years, but today he’s got some extra help from a few close(ish) friends to hopefully score another win. With muddy fields, playground games, and running giraffes afoot, it certainly won’t be easy, but will they be able to come together to pull off something miraculous anyway?

EPISODE 207. Broadcast on August 3, 2014.

On another blistering hot day, our cast gathers together for the opening—minus one: Haha cries, “Suk-jin isn’t here and I didn’t realize!” Aww, apparently no one did either.

MC Yoo is tasked with the mat-hyung’s introduction, and boy is it looooooooooonnnnngggg. Then it’s time to meet Suk-jin & Friends, including: MCs Nam Hee-suk, Park Soo-hong, Kim Jae-dong, Super Junior’s Kim Hee-chul, and actress Lee So-yeon. Ha, they even prepared their own cheesy cheer.

From the way the rest of the cast exchange warm hugs and greetings with the guests, one might think that they’re closer friends with today’s guests than Suk-jin is. “I’m the one who called them over here!”

As such, Suk-jin explains each of his longstanding friendships with our guests to everyone, though Hee-suk notes how Suk-jin called him for the first time in four years. Apparently Hee-chul had dropped the hint to Jae-suk that he isn’t on jTBC’s talk show Sseol Jeon anymore, and saves face by saying how it’s such an honor to appear in such an excellent show. He wouldn’t be the first nor will be the last who wants to be part of the Running Man family.

And while Suk-jin clearly recalls that Hee-chul appeared on the KBS variety show “Heroine 6” prior to Super Junior’s debut, his memory is hazy with So-yeon (she was part of the cast, ha).

Our guests are here to help Suk-jin secure his third victory in this show. Each team starts off with six gold bars, then Suk-jin picks up a big advantage applicable to all of today’s games if his team wins: double the gold. Niiiccce.

Curious, Soo-hong asks if they can check whose name on those fans was a dud. It’s his. LOL.

How cute—the logo on Suk-jin & Friends’ t-shirts says “JSJ” for Ji Suk-jin. In the car, Team RM agrees that they must win to put an end to any possible Suk-jin-centered episodes in the future. Jong-kook: “Those thoughts of raising Suk-jin’s spirits… let’s not have them.” Jae-suk: “We have to finish them off so that [Suk-jin] doesn’t form another team.”

Our cast hilariously sounds like muddy field connoisseurs when they generally agree that this one “isn’t that bad.” That’s more than can be said for either Hee-suk or Soo-hong, as this is the first time the hosts are getting down and dirty for variety. Jae-suk even says that Hee-suk sent him a text after seeing him in a muddy field: “Did you have to resort to that?”

In this warm-up relay race, the men will twirl the ladies around them once without dropping them. Haha: “Even if we tried to drop her, Ji-hyo won’t fall. She’ll whip around herself.”

Both women crawl around the guys at first; that just can’t be an efficient way of completing this task, but it gets the job done. But then Hee-suk does the smart thing by letting momentum do the work for him and whips So-yeon around.

It’s impressive to say the least, and also effective—Team Suk-jin is already down to their final competitor Jae-dong while the Monday Couple falls over and over again. Unsurprisingly, Suk-jin & Friends win it and score their first gold bar.

Then it’s time for the first game, where team members must find numbered rings in the muddied waters and toss them to their teammates. The first team who gets a bingo on their board wins the round. I foresee lots of stealing and interfered tosses in the near future. HEE.

Nobody’s afraid of getting dirty and digging through the water, and Jong-kook is the first one to toss one over… but Haha fails to catch it, and it ends up in Suk-jin & Friends’ hands. It cracks me up that So-yeon’s the first one to take Kwang-soo down whenever he finds a ring, and she isn’t afraid of taking on Jong-kook, either.

A little later, Soo-hong plops down in the water, exhausted: “Let’s do this in a studio!” Jae-suk looks like he’s having the time of his life, and Jae-dong exclaims, “No matter how hard we work, it looks like we’re just having fun!”

Jae-dong finds a ring caught on his foot moments later—it’s 9, the number both teams need to win. He tosses… but it misses, and Jong-kook takes off with it and Team RM wins the first round.

It turns out that So-yeon is a former track athlete, which explains her dogged athleticism. Both teams get a ring on the board pretty quickly, and Gary takes Suk-jin down to wrestle another ring away. He steals another one from Suk-jin a minute later, only that one flies up into the air.

Both teams need one more ring to win now, and both Hee-chul and Ji-hyo find one within seconds of one another. But then Haha intercepts Hee-chul’s toss, giving Ji-hyo enough time to toss the final ring to her teammates. With that, Team RM wins the game and three more gold bars.

Ha, I love that the trash talk is literally about playing dirty; Team RM calls for some fair play or “I’ll show you what playing dirty really looks like,” Haha warns.

Clean and dry on the bus, Suk-jin asks Soo-hong if he thinks their team can win today. Jae-suk argues that of course not—you can’t beat four years of teamwork. Soo-hong bets his filming appearance fee and oddly, his phone number if their team loses.

They play Ideal Type World Cup with So-yeon, and when she choose Jae-suk over Jae-dong, the latter cries peevishly, “Why do you have guests if you’re going to do this?!” Curiously, So-yeon eliminates Jong-kook out of the running, and ultimately picks Jae-suk.

Jae-suk’s the only one elated at this win, so he immediately saves the mood by putting Ji-hyo up to the same game. Jae-suk pits himself against Gary in the first round, and it’s no contest—Gary advances.

Haha is just as happy when he gets picked over Soo-hong, and the latter shows off his shorts for everyone to see, claiming that he’s got pretty legs, exclaiming: “Married men can’t wear these!” Jae-dong quips: “My noona’s got a pair just like those.”

Soo-hong is still upset when they arrive at their next destination. When the others tell him that his shorts are just too short, he rolls them further up his leg, threatening, “I’ll wear ’em like this!” Ackk, please don’t.

He goes tit-for-tat against Jae-suk, who says that Soo-hong always ignored him when he was popular way back when. Jae-suk (to Hee-suk): “You saw that, right, hyung?” Hee-suk: “I did!”

Here at the playground, the teams must collectively climb up and slide down a slide… 100 times. What. Hardly anyone can believe what they’re hearing, then point out Soo-hong’s shorts—what’s he going to do? Soo-hong: “Can’t we make it ’embarrassed’ slide?” and adds some coyness for good measure.

Whichever team that completes the task the fastest will win, and whereas Gary complains that the crew is really testing their physical stamina today, gym rat Jong-kook sees it as another opportunity to exercise.

Everyone quickly realizes that task is deceivingly strenuous, judging from how Gary looks plenty exhausted despite his speediness. He’s completely spent after the seventeenth slide. Haha’s small stature proves to be an advantage, though Jae-dong claims that the exhaustion will kick in after the fifth slide.

Sure enough, Haha looks exhausted by that point, so Jae-dong starts feeding him lines: “You can stop now. What’s the point?” Hahaha.

As expected, Kwang-soo’s tall height works against him in tackling the teensy kiddy slide. At one point, Suk-jin & Friends drag him over just so So-yeon can ask, “Wanna go out for coffee sometime?” It effectively distracts him, but then Haha grabs onto Kwang-soo’s hair to keep his head in the game.

Just when Kwang-soo starts getting sluggish again, he gets a second wind when he’d told that he’s probably a famous-enough celebrity to date now. He sends So-yeon a heart sign with his hands. Hahaha.

Jae-suk brings up the count to 80, then leaves the rest to Jong-kook. And while Spartakooks climbs up and down the slide with ease, Jae-dong remarks that it’s Jong-kook’s dream to be paid to exercise one day. That… might actually be true.

When Soo-hong and Jae-suk crowd the slide on account of their bickering, Jong-kook slaps each of them in turn. He then pushes them both out of the way when they crowd him again. Ha.

But even the athletic powerhouse is fatigued by the final slide, so Suk-jin & Friends suggest they throw in the towel.

When Hee-chul’s worries are met with opposition, he announces to complete the total 100 sets, and goes as far to joke that he used to compete in slides in school.

Hee-chul keeps talking despite the exhaustion, though, saying just how fun and dignifying it is to climb up and slide down this slide. Hee-suk takes over after the twentieth slide, and although he starts off strong, he starts to slow down after just a few sets.

After six slides, Hee-suk passes his turn to Suk-jin, who gets six in himself before pushing So-yeon ahead. Suk-jin & Friends are down to three more competitors with at least sixty more slides to go. So-yeon: “How many do I have to do?” “50!”

It looks like Suk-jin & Friends are in luck because So-yeon used to be long-distance runner.
That may have been in high school, but her endurance is still there, as she puts in twenty more sets for her team.

Just when she’s about to wind down, Jae-dong jokes, “D’you wanna run it once more or d’you wanna go out with me.” She runs.

It’s eventually down to Jae-dong at the eighty sets mark, who throws his glasses away for the final few sets. Before the staff can announce the results, Hee-suk asks that they fiddle with the results so that Suk-jin can win.

Suk-jin & Friends can hardly believe that they’d been climbing up and down a slide for 15:23 minutes, and Jae-dong threatens the crew to air every minute of it (to show the viewers just how difficult it was) or else he’ll sue. Hee-suk: “Can’t you edit my portion out?”

Still, Team RM manages to beat them with 15:12. Hee-suk holds out Jae-dong’s broken glasses frame and asks, “Can you give us 11 seconds for this?” He then shifts the blame on the crew, citing that they’re broken “Because we did what you told us to do.”

If all of these playground games have something to do with the number 100, I don’t know if anyone’s going to make it to the end of the day. Jae-dong: “I’ll just go to the nearby optical shop! I just won’t see is all!”

Aw, everyone searches for the missing screw in Jae-dong’s glasses together. Seeing this, Jae-dong honestly admits that he’s moved. “Take a look at these celebrities doing this.” Only the group wraps up their search moments later. “That’ll do! Moving on!”

For their second playground game, the teams must collectively pick up 100 gonggi (think of jacks), though these look more like rocks. If both teams succeed, then the fastest team will be declared the winner; likewise if both teams fail (i.e., there are still stones left over), whichever team picked up the most gonggi will win.

Coach Kookie wastes no time to start nagging Jae-suk about how he should distribute the rocks, and Soo-hong chirps in, “How does it feel to be scolded by your dongsaeng!”

Jae-suk starts his team off and gets into a comfortable position, though it blocks Soo-hong from the cameras. Ha. Despite Jong-kook’s nagging, Jae-suk starts getting into a groove, but then drops one.

Suk-jin & Friends get particularly sensitive whenever Team RM drops a stone, like when Haha accidently moves an adjacent stone at the start. That leaves Kwang-soo to pick up nearly 30 stones on his own, but he slips up short of their goal.

When Team RM points out the small stone mountain, Hee-suk pleads that they have to do something to make sure Suk-jin wins today. Still, the Team RM gets a little revenge of their own by building their own little mound.

Hee-chul starts his team off, but slips up on his very first try. Soo-hong picks up the slack, and Suk-jin’s feeling pretty confident by his turn. When he says they can win, though, Jae-dong remarks, “…then you shouldn’t have invited us.” Lol.

Jae-dong tries to gain some sympathy points from his broken glasses when he nearly slips up, but it doesn’t matter since he slips up moments later. So it’s down to Hee-suk, who admits that he wants to go for the variety moment. As in, mess up for the laughs.

His teammates immediately disagree, and then Soo-hong starts barking orders at Hee-suk in banmal. Is Soo-hong the hyung? He is. (Soo-hong’s a 1970-er whereas Hee-suk’s a year younger.) Still, Hee-suk comes out on top, picking up just enough stones to win it for his team.

The score’s now tied 1:1 prior to their third playground game, where each team must endure 100 seconds in a relay arm-wrestling game against the other team. Why do I think that Team RM is going to choose Jong-kook?

That’s exactly what Team RM does, despite Suk-jin & Friends’ protests. As expected, Jong-kook takes down three men easily. Maybe too easily because the staff announces the record time of four seconds, amused. Suk-jin cries, “I thought you were going to make sure I’d win today!”

Poor Hee-chul barely lasts a second, and Jong-kook slams his hand on the button repeatedly. Clack, clack, clack. Haha: “I thought I was listening to castanets!”

When Jae-dong steps up, Jae-suk introduces him as the gym’s deungshin. Ha. Although he clarifies it as someone’s who has great back (deung) muscles, the other meaning (fool) is still implied. Especially when Jae-suk teasingly chants the word repeatedly.

Jae-dong looks like he could be a dark horse… but then Jong-kook overtakes him pretty easily. Clack, clack, clack. And though it was his hand that was hit, Jae-dong points to his heart: “It hurts here.” HA.

With the rest of her teammates out of the running, So-yeon has to withstand at least 94 seconds on her own. But if I know Jong-kook, it’s that we can count on his weakness towards woman.

This time is no different when So-yeon starts letting out piteous cries, and Jong-kook can barely bring himself to overtake her. Annoyed, his teammates start yelling at him, and Haha shouts, “Are you going to date her?!”

Suk-jin & Friends place 42 seconds on the board, which has Suk-jin wondering if he’ll actually win today. Soo-hong: “We’re going to lose anyway, so how do you guys want to win? Give us some ideas!”

So Team RM wins the playground games and picks up two more gold bars. Current gold count: Team RM: 11, Suk-jin & Friends: 8.

Ha, these animals masks look awfully familiar. I love how all of the RM cast members choose their respective animal likenesses, like how Suk-jin chooses the impala, Kwang-soo picks up the giraffe, and Jong-kook decides on the tiger.

Basically, it’s animal dodgeball where the goal is to eliminate the “king” animal of the opposing team. The team who wins two out of three rounds wins. Kwang-soo: “Are masks fair game [for elimination], too?” Answer: Yes. Jae-suk: “We better not choose the giraffe as king!”

Not that Team RM has a choice since Suk-jin & Friends choose Kwang-soo as king anyway. And at Soo-hong’s pleading, Team RM chooses him as king.

Hee-suk gets a prime opportunity to eliminate Jong-kook not too long after the whistle blows. He misses, however, and then Jae-dong hones in on Kwang-soo’s mask. It hits him smack in the head.

The kings remain the same for the second round, and this time Kwang-soo stays down. One by one, Hee-suk and Hee-chul break down the wall around Kwang-soo, until only Jong-kook remains to protect him.

There’s some near-misses from both teams, and then the ball rolls past Kwang-soo into Hee-chul’s hands. He hits Kwang-soo on target for the win—Suk-jin & Friends pick up six gold bars (thanks to that double gold advantage).

Suk-jin & Friends are declared the winners with their total of 14 gold bars compared to Team RM’s 13 gold bars. What’s even more astounding is that only the winning team can participate in the final mission. Jae-suk: “But we only lost once!”

A group of burly men arrive to take our victors away, who are then separated into various rooms. This final mission will test the team’s telepathy: Will they all choose gold or money? Choose the same answer and everyone wins, and one differing answer means they go home empty-handed.

Hilariously, Jae-dong mentions that Soo-hong would need cash to hit the clubs. “He can’t go in with gold.” Hee-suk claims to be clairvoyant and predicts: “Two people will answer differently.”

Looks like Team RM hasn’t gone home yet, and they light up to hear that they’ve still got a chance to win gold. They try the telepathy test out on themselves, but then Jong-kook and Gary answer differently. Guess it doesn’t work on them, either. Ha.

Suk-jin & Friends are led to the platform one by one, and it looks like their punishment is worse than just going home empty-handed—they’ll be in for a little drop. Once everyone arrives, Jo PD explains that they’ll win double their winnings (28 gold bars in all) if they all provide the same answer.

Again, if even one person answers differently, their 14 gold bars are handed over to Team RM. They start with Suk-jin, who’s written “Gold.” Will the others have written the same?

But so has Soo-hong, to their team’s relief. Jae-dong has written the same, and now it’s Hee-chul’s turn: Gold.

Scaredy cat Hee-suk can barely stand, let alone reveal his answer. Would he be one of the two people who answers differently? It’s a long, unnerving minute before Hee-suk musters up the courage to show his answer: Money.

Down they go, where the team immediately scolds Hee-suk. Soo-hong: “We spent the entire day hunting for gold! Why’d you write money?!” As for So-yeon, she had also written down “Money.” Wait, does this mean that Hee-suk’s clairvoyant after all?

Even though Team RM grabs the gold, they concede the (gold-less) win to Suk-jin, giving him one more victory in his belt. Furthermore, they hand over two gold bars for Suk-jin & Friends “to share,” though Suk-jin asks if he can take them for himself. Gold > Friends, then?

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The concept and the actual setup of this week's episode was a bit confusing. The writers created this episode to help SJ win but the games were more advantageous for the RM team. Most of the games required stamina and strength- which benefited RM more because the cast is younger than team JSJ. The arm-wrestling? C'mon, there was no question which team would win! I think if they really wanted to highlight SJ, they should have had more games that played to the strengths of SJ and his friends.

Aside from that, I did enjoy this episode, especially the 100 slide segment! Just watching them made me feel tired! But the barbs each side traded with each other made me laugh.

My favorite part was when JH chose Gary over JS in the dating roulette. "DAE HAN MIN GUK!!"

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Yeah, i'll never get tired of their banter and the way they have fun aaand make fun of one another! Still my favorite variety show! :-D “DAE HAN MIN GUK!!”

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I think the reason they chose games that helped the RM crew was to show that Suk Jin was capable of still winning in the end even with the disadvantages. However, I was kind of disappointed. Although I like the fact that Suk Jin FINALLY won again it didn't feel legit. The RM crew said they were gonna win for sure but it just felt like they unanimously decided to allow Suk Jin to win. It didn't feel like 100% which is kind of them but I'm sure if Suk Jin knew he wouldn't feel very proud or happy anyways. All in all, a Ji Suk Jin episode could have gone better if they chose to play games that played to his strengths so he could still win without it feeling like the other team wasn't trying all that hard. Hope Running Man changes that in the future :)

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It's time to change the format and the concepts, stop the minigames who are really stupids and borings.

This episode it's so boring c'mon

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Thanks for the recap :)

It wasn't the most spectacular episode regariding the games but I enjoyed the interactions so much =)

It's always nice when cast + guests = friends/people who know each other well! And it definitely was a bonus that the guests were mainly variety veterans :)
The bickering cracked me up so much and I could watch all those variety veterans together for a long time!

There also were some sweet moments in the mud field when they were helping each other like Kwang Soo, I think, helping Ji Hyo get up and cleaning her face after Monday Couple fell down :) It's those small gestures in the background that always warm my heart bc it shows how comfortable they are with each other!

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You said it best, it is the interaction between
the people involved that make me the faithful fan that I am. Even when standing waiting for SJ's team saying "gold" and "money", I saw that JK put his arm on JH's shoulder. How comfortable are they with each other for JK to do that? Especially since he is sooo awkward with pretty much all of female guests.

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Agree. Love it when veterans are on the show. Their battle of wits are very funny and entertaining! It doesn't really matter if the games are a little poor. I miss the interactions and bickering and I will always look out for the veteran guests to appear.

Suzy? please. She does nothing.

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i lol so hard

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I really love an episode when the guests are really entertaining. Plus, it's way more awesome when the guests are close friends with the cast members because you usually get a lot of inside jokes between them and you just can feel the closeness and all.

First of all, it's really cool from Running Man crew to make an episode centered around Big Nose Hyung. God knows how little screentime he can get sometimes so it's always nice that they still take care of him that way.
I am seriously amused that we had a lot of episodes where the members are againt one team and that one team has as captain one of the members. From quick memory, Jae Suk in episode 138, Haha in Episode 146, Jong Kook in episode 184 and Gary and Jiho in Episode 127 (I don't know if this one counts because this is a duo but Monday Couple is considered as one, right ? LOL) Kwang Soo is the only one missing and I am really going to anticipate it when he would be the leader of the rival team XDD.

Although the games were kind of simple and already used for most of them, I thought they were hilarious especially because the players are so good at making it entertaining.
Seriously, I would love to try the 100 slide game. You would think it's pretty easy and all but damn it, it's hell. The way they changed their expressions after a few slides, it was really funny. Especially Jong Kook who I have never seen that exhausted.
I really adored those little comments and actions thrown randomy. It really makes the show more fun.
I was freakin' out at the reversal when Suk Jin's team could have won the gold with only one win during the whole day so it was pretty refreshing that they were a reversal. Btw, does Running Man have something with Deli Spice - Chau Chau when it comes to telephaty game because everytime there is the latter, it's always that song although I don't complain. I have loved it since I first heard it on RM and Answer 1997 !

I was a little anxious with Heechul guesting on the show after his comment on War of Words. It's not the childish part that I minded but the fact he said something like "I watched a bit and didn't think it was funny until I saw an elementary school student laughing out lot". I don't know but that sentence implied that RM could only be funny with little kids which is kind of rude for the cast, crew and viewers. But whatever.
It seems that the members didn't mind and even joked about it but it's worth noticing that the two times he guested on the show, he was kind in the background although this time, he was more active and added a lot of funny comments.

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Kwang Soo Vs Running Man will be great, he has a many famous friends, will be fantastic.

Kwang Soo Team:

Bae Soo Bin
Song Jong Ki (when he returns from army)
Jo In Sung
Joo Jin Hoon
Lee Dong Wook
Han Hyo Joo or Park Ha Sun

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wah...yeah. we always forget that he is also an actor. His team could also include Moon Geun Young. They were in one drama together!

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What a dream line-up that would be!

Could they film a segment of him inviting all his guests with a mixture of:

"I'll call you Hyung" and "I wouldn’t say I love you. But you know my feelings, right?"

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Heechul stays in the background in these types of shows because he really can't do much physically because of the leg injury he had years ago. The fact that he's been on this show twice is mindboggling to me.

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Anything with Kim Jedong is funny to me. I mean, he can stand there doing nothing and I'd be rolling on the ground laughing! Him and his eyeglasses then when he said "It hurts here." HAHAHAHAHA.

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Lee Kwang Soo & Lee So Yeon are friends from the drama Dong Yi

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Thanks for the recap gummimochi!

I adore RM and had high hopes this week, but I actually found myself honestly really disappointed by this episode (I think I might be in the minority here though). Even more so considering that the past few episodes have actually been really active and fun, despite starting with premises far less interesting than this one’s.

They pretty much had a surefire recipe for success—it’s the classic underdog story, nearly all of the guests were entertainment veterans supposedly guaranteed to be funny, and hardly anybody hates on Suk-jin, unlike when other members get special episodes--except it felt like the production team just did not think this episode through at all. I went in expecting advantages for Suk-jin to help him win (and we did sort of get it eventually, when Kwang-soo picked the giraffe mask as expected and the game allowed the teams to pick their targets)— instead, we watched Suk-jin’s team get consistently beat down for most of the episode. And then, when they finally got their victory, they were presented with a final game they were basically statistically guaranteed to lose (even if I totally agree with their commentary as they were scolding each other afterwards: “dude, we just spent an entire day running around after GOLD— why would you pick anything else?!”). Yes, RM has members gambling all of the time as a final game (the previous couple game that they borrowed this telepathy idea from, or the Wolf/Sheep episode)— but I think the staff really made a big mistake when they decided that only the “winning” team could participate in the (near impossible) final game, but then if they lose, instead of their gold just being taken away, it goes to the previously losing team. So basically the RM team lost the main games, didn’t participate in the final game… and yet still came out as the real final winners in an episode that was supposed to be dedicated to Suk-jin. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me. Why couldn’t they have both teams participate in the telepathy game, but give an advantage to the final team, like the leader being able to contact one teammate to confirm their selection, or something along those lines? And the final game really was disappointing here, because come on— we had the /perfect/ set up for a name-tag ripping or hide and seek game at the end. Instead, we had unwinnable telepathy and watching the poor cast members go down a slide two hundred freaking times.

Also I almost never say this, but this time I feel like the cast members and guests were also really at fault for a lacklustre episode. I love Running Man because it always feels like the cast members are genuinely HAVING FUN with whatever crazy games and themes they’re given to work with, and that beneath all the bickering is real friendship— and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. This is why, even if the premise falls short (see: Snow White; Avengers) I can usually still have a good time watching the cast members interact...

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(con't whoops cut off)

with each other and having a great time onscreen. In this episode, however, I wasn’t feeling the fun— because it didn’t feel like the cast members and guests were genuinely having very much fun. This is doubly disappointing because the guests are all super experienced and good friends, but I didn’t feel like the guests/members had their hearts 100% in the filming at all. It was such a stark contrast to the part time worker episode just a few episodes back— where we had a crowd of female guests new to variety and with images to preserve, but ended up with totally awesome conversations and behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

I think tonally, this episode was just off. There was an undercurrent of borderline meanness that just felt really jarring throughout— because even if all the members/guests are close and they probably don’t take the insults too seriously, it felt like the snarkiness was being used as a replacement for real humour here. I felt (disagreements welcome, I’d love to see a discussion about this!) like part of the reason was Heechul’s appearance. I had thought, considering his “RM is so childish” comment was a while ago, that this was going to be addressed with sort of a conciliatory “haha, RM didn’t take Heechul’s comment seriously; and just because Heechul thinks RM is childish doesn’t mean he doesn’t like the show!” perspective. Instead, it didn’t feel like Running Man—cast and production team alike—had quite forgiven Heechul for his dig at the show. :/ They referenced his one comment too many times— even Jae-suk made a couple of joking jabs to the effect, despite his normal rep for playing nice with guests—and he got picked on a bit, like being the first to have his hand slammed repeatedly. (I’m way more of a RM fan than a Heechul fan, so I’m more inclined by far to give RM the benefit of the doubt, which is why this episode felt so… meh to me.)

Rant over, lol. Here’s hoping that Running Man can really find its footing in the upcoming episodes, as it enters its fourth year of being awesome!

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The next week the most boring guest in Running Man Suzy, who only laughs in all the episodes.

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I wouldn't be surprised if she wins.

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whoa whoa whoa there. at least she could be active... not like some of those female guests out there that could only laugh, act cute, and do aegyo all the time.

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You wouldn't believe who won on Running Man Episode 208. -_-

I wish they would invite Park Bo Young or Shinhwa. I really enjoy their competitiveness.

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Haha I really enjoyed Lee Bo Young but Park Bo Young is good as well! Lee Bo Young was hilarious with SpartaKooks cuz her coaching style was really surprising.

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Thank you for the recap Gummi! I just wanna say, you're on a roll, girl! So much recapping to do, so little time! And you deliver awesomely! :D

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Thanks for the rapid recap, Gummimochi!

This ep was kind of a toss-up for me. A lot of mini games crammed into the show ended up just kinda of being 'meh' to me. Everything just seemed a bit off and I really don't know why. Maybe RM deserves a nice, several week summer vacation to let everyone recharge batteries and get the creative juices flowing again.

One thing that totally bugs me tho, is both teams working to win games all day long and t.hen the PD throws in the last minute game of win-this-one-and-you-get-it-ALL!!!!
That just sucks and it really is unfair to the winning team.

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Really surprised Heechul didn't stand out more. I have read that he has a good variety sense and I looked forward to his appearance. However he seemed to just fall into the background. I wonder if it was due to the others on his team being so senior to him that he deferred out of respect.

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It's because he's not really into physical activities since he injured his leg years ago and has never fully regained full use of it. He can hardly run for long periods of time.

But yeah, he tends to defer to elders/seniors a lot, except if it's Kang Hodong or Kim Gura or Park Myungsoo. LOL

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Oh didn't know about this leg injury :( I've read he's quick-witted so looked forward to some sharp and funny banter with the RM cast. He may very well have had fun interaction with them and they edited it out. Nonetheless I was hoping for a little more.

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I enjoyed the episode. Running Man has really picked up lately, though they haven't been seeing the results in the ratings. I thought the concept and guests for the episode was pretty good--lots of variety veterans who could hold their own with their mouths. It did seem like Suk Jin's team was at a physical disadvantage which was a little odd given that many of the games required strength and stamina but they were able to use the double gold advantage to "win" even if they lost it all because of failed telepathy. It was really shocking to me how little big nose hyung wins. 2 wins in 4 years. Well now he has 3.

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For the past several episodes I really was only able to enjoy it due to the members fun interactions and banter. Turned out this episode was no exception. I really like how the members are still able to create funny moments through simple games but I am missing the episodes where more exciting moments are created. Here's hoping the PDs would come with an episode that's more filled with excitement

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Yea. I completely stopped watching after 10 minutes in. My desire to watch RM had decreased drastically now. Past episodes were quite a bored. And this episode proved no exception. The only thing I love about RM is the cast itself. Maybe they should just do a new show.

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I didn't particularly have a problem with this episode, because like most people, I'm in this for the cast - but I agree it could've/should've been better. For a theme set around helping Suk-jin win, the odds strangely felt stacked against him, though the ending was clearly manipulated to make sure they were the ones to play the final game.

Basically, I loved the concept, but I think the writers and producers should've done a better job of thinking and planning it out. In that regard, I was very disappointed.

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I feel that the entire production team wasn't sincere in providing a fair playing field for Suk Jin to showcase his ability to win.

The ending was more like since they don't really think he deserves to win, let us make it so that he wins but he doesn't get the prize. But that's so unfair to the rest of his pals who came on to help him out and they were a rather hilarious bunch! Not right.

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Thanks for the recap, gummimochi!

To be honest, I'm disappointed with this episode. It felt like the PDs just handed Ji Suk-jin freebie win, I love Ji Suk-jin's other wins because he won them through pure effort but this one was just handed to him. I understand why the PDs felt compelled to do that because the episode was basically a Ji Suk-jin special but it would have been nicer if he won through effort like he did with his other two wins. I also felt the games were boring. My hopes for the next episode are not high, as I find Suzy very mediocre in everything she does.

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It didn't feel like a freebie win to me. He was trying pretty hard while everybody was making so much fun of him and complaining. Maybe I don't see it because I'm not witness to their friendship but all their jokes felt harsh. And he got cheated with the final game. It was such a weird ending - you "win" technically but you lose the prize. It's such a losing deal. Even when they kept emphasizing that JSJ won, it seemed like a consolation prize, akin to those participation ribbons kids get when they're young D=

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I've always avoided female idols who are guests on RM. So, I'm going to skip the Suzy episode, unless it's a fun theme (for example: the Alice in the Wonderland episode starring BoA. That was a fun theme and the genie was hilariously entertaining.)

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I agree with the comments above. For an episode dedicated to Ji Suk Jin, the odds were really stacked against him. And when people were insulting each other and complaining about the games, it felt more real then usual. The JSJ team did not seem to be enjoying themselves. They were putting up with it for JSJ. I ended up kinda feeling bad for him in the end even though the episode intent was the opposite :/

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This episode was awesome. Between this one and the one with the female guests like Baek Ji Young, Gook Joo, et al, I feel like RM has found its fundamental tone once again.

It's all about the bickering, bantering, and just plain goofy fun times. I don't really care who wins and if Suk Jin had won this one, it wouldn't have felt...special. I feel like his personal wins, as few as they are, are so memorable and hilariously touching. Despite bringing his "A-team", his losing, winning, and ultimately losing is the joke. That's our big-nosed Impala.

As usual, thanks Gummi for the recaps!

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can anyone help me?? does anyone know the background music that is playing when the file JSJ aired in the early minutes? and also when his teammates comes. I feel curious about that......:D

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Sorea Band – One to Five and Sing (i think that is the song)

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hi does anyone can tell me the bgm they were playing while all the members were sitting n looking for the sketchbook mission found by ji hyo. it was a really nice instrumental song. appreciate for your help…

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hi does anyone can tell me in the episode 165 the bgm they were playing while all the members were sitting n looking for the sketchbook mission found by ji hyo. it was a really nice instrumental song. appreciate for your help…

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whats the song in the starting ? the one where they show suk jins clip

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Sorea Band - One to Five and Sing

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wait a minute, JSJ definetly won more than 2 times

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What is the theme song on the final round of friendship psychopath test... Could any one tell me pls...

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What bothered me the most about this episode is the final mission. How is JSJ's team supposed to win that one? Poor by the PD's!

Apart from that though, I really liked this episode. Really funny!

A shame that Heechul wasn't as active as he can be. The only time he was his witty self was during the slide game when he was sliding and making one funny comment after another while sliding down.

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Late comment because I just watched this, but I felt very disappointed at this episode, though it was undeniably hilarious at times (those shorts!!). For an episode intended for JSJ's friends to aid him in clinching a win, surprisingly it felt like the odds were not in his favour at all. The missions required a lot of physical strength (arm-wrestling, really? who did we really expect to win here?) and endurance, qualities which you would not attribute to JSJ's team at all in comparison to the RM team - strategic or mind games would possibly have provided more laughs and created an equal playing field for both teams.

Furthermore, like the above comments have mentioned, I did feel like there was a mean undertone to it all. Jae-dong, albeit jokingly, kept repeating 'so why did you invite us to then if you were going to do this?' It did seem like the guests were uncomfortable and even humiliated, especially when team RM and KJK spared them no mercy. I'm a big KJK fan and I thought that was a bit overboard, particularly with the protest of the guests and the humiliation that followed. The interactions were lined with snarky nuances despite being funny, such as between YJS and Soo-hong ('he ignored me when he was popular!').

Also the final mission - why????? It is so hard for six people, one RM member and five *guests* to agree on the same thing - money and gold are so similar as well, and there are no hints or lead-ins which may have helped in deducing an answer - an advantage of any sort would have been useful. It didn't seem fair that once team JSJ lost, team RM would get the gold as well.

I really like So-yeon though, and am glad JSJ got more screentime than normal, but this episode left a bitter taste in my mouth. Hope the next few episodes will be better!

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I agree.. I enjoyed most of the episode, but the ending left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. It was ridiculous. I was a bit annoyed because I would have chosen "gold," it seemed the safer answer, but still, I can't blame them. Six people? That's hard. Even RM couldn't do it. I don't think there was that mean of an undertone with his friends because that's how close friends sort of joke around, but I did feel like Ji Suk Jin wasn't given the proper spotlight when it was supposed to be an episode on him. The games were quite to RM's advantage, and didn't let the guests shine because they're not ones to shine on a physical level. I did really like Soyeon. She was such a good sport and team player, and pretty good at the games, too. And her "flirting" with the RM members was so cute! Haha. I was so surprised that the short-pants guy was so old! He's older than Yoo Jae Suk and Heeseok! And he looks so young compared to them, haha.
Not the worst episode but it did take me a few tries to finish it through. Wish they'd actually cater to Ji Suk Jin's strengths next time, although I'm not even sure what those are xD haha

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love this episode!❤️❤️

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The ending was definitely thrilling!

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