Running Man: Episode 316

by gummimochi

A seemingly ordinary train ride will derail into a one-way ticket to prison this week, as our cast finds themselves locked into an unwanted destination. Escape will be the primary objective for our prisoners, who will need to stay on their toes and grab the opportunities to break free hidden just under their noses. Will they be able to walk free or land themselves behind bars?

EPISODE 316. Broadcast on September 11, 2016.

We kick off today’s episode at Suseo Station, where our cast is told that they can choose any destination they wish on this train route. Although suspicious at first, each of them call out an option—seafood in Mokpo? The food in Jeonju?

Just then, a line of attendants stand behind them with open tickets. But before they can write anything down, more men bust through the set behind them and force our cast members to all write down the same destination: prison.

Angry and in disbelief at these turn of events, the guys step forward ready to grab Myuk PD by the collar. As our new prisoners change into their striped uniforms, Jong-kook whines: “Couldn’t you have given us some bigger sizes?” Aw, is the uniform too small for those huge guns of yours?

All is not lost, though—there will still be chances for escape both on the way and from prison. However, if they DO permanently end up behind bars, the punishment is highly inconvenient: reporting live for the news during the Chuseok holidays.

Gary: “But I’ve already bought my ticket (for the holidays)!”

Each of our prisoners are given a seat number upon boarding the train, where more prisoners are already waiting. An announcement explains today’s rules: Each car houses a different mission (four in total); the members must work together to succeed or else they’ll move up the train, thus decreasing their chances of escape.

It’s eerily quiet in the train car until Kwang-soo finally breaks the silence by asking Jong-kook to stop shaking his leg. He turns to his burly neighbor for help, and the guy puffs up at Jong-kook: “This your first time here?”

It’s not long before the speakers announce the start of the first game where our prisoners need to accurately follow the spoken instructions. Starting off simple, the orders become more complicated, and at one point, all the prisoners except Kwang-soo’s neighbor, 10A, are told to sit down…

… But then 10A sits down too. Kwang-soo sits agape as he watches his neighbor taken away. Jae-suk’s neighbor is next to be escorted out, which has everyone thinking that the other prisoners are messing up on purpose.

But what’s important is that the seven of them don’t mess up, so they keep their ears perked up to the instruction progression. When “the one behind 10B” is told to stand up, everyone freezes, including 9B: Jong-kook.

Since they’ve failed the first mission, the prisoners advance to the car ahead of them. Each of them are given a fanny pack along with vague instructions to pass the car without “baek”. Huh?

They wonder what kind of “baek” it could be—the bag? The word “back”? Or “baek”, as in 100 in Korean?

This car is filled with decorations, pretty ladies, and a surprise guest: SISTAR’s Hyorin. As soon as Jae-suk recognizes her, the light goes out and the train car turns into a party car.

Nearly everyone starts dancing while Gary is happy to see his former teammate. The music suddenly cuts out a minute later, at which point the attendant removes a hidden pedometer inside Jae-suk’s fanny pack.

Now we learn what the real mission was: do not exceed the 100-step limit. Jae-suk surpasses that with 173 steps and blames his failure on Hyorin, who had told him to keep moving. SpartAce are the only ones who barely moved, and the mat hyungs take particular issue with Jong-kook’s four steps.

Hyorin: “All he did was move his hands!” Suk-jin: “Even tossing and turning in one’s sleep would log more than four!”

After dropping Hyorin and her dance crew members off at the next station, the prisoners are filled with determination. Their third mission takes place at another stop, where a group of prison guards await them. Is that… GOT7?

Here, our seven prisoners will have 20 minutes to stamp a total of 10,000 envelopes. That’s around 1,500 per person, and the GOT7 guards bark at them (in jondae, ha) to work faster and stay on task.

Jackson immerses himself in his newfound authority, yelling at Suk-jin for talking too much, only for Suk-jin to bark back: “Did you just use banmal to me?!” Hehe.

Suddenly, Suk-jin takes a closer look at one envelope and silently tucks it away. Kwang-soo does the same a minute later. Hm, what’s going on?

Ah, those envelopes have written instructions for escape: get to the escape car parked outside without getting caught and eliminated by a guard. One can evade escape for a short time by ripping off a guard’s nametag, which will put them out of the action for one minute.

So Kwang-soo waits for an opportune moment before making a run for it. Suk-jin follows suit, which has the other prisoners totally confused. Unfortunately for Suk-jin, he’s eliminated soon enough and placed in solitary confinement.

Kwang-soo zooms down the platform, but soon finds himself surrounded by the guards, so he starts running back towards the train. He later pops out of the train, trying to keep the guards at bay.

He’s outnumbered 3:1 now, but he manages to rip off Yugyeom’s nametag. He puts up a strong fight, pinning JB to the ground to take his nametag. Two down, one more to go.

While the last guard Jinyoung calls for backup, Jackson is busy keeping the peace and everyone else distracted with the busy work. Somehow, Kwang-soo makes it into the station, but that’s where Jinyoung rips off his nametag. Ack, so close!

Kwang-soo laments at the opportunity that slipped through his grasp, though Jinyoung attributes the guards’ advantage to the young blood pumping through their veins. Kwang-soo: “I’m the maknae in Running Man too!”

Everyone but Jong-kook become aware of the getaway car with just five minutes remaining. Ji-hyo and Gary are first to act, throwing the envelopes into the air before zooming down the platform.

Once the guards give chase, Jae-suk starts running too. Gary is taken out even before he gets to the escalator while Jae-suk finds himself cornered. He takes out two guards easily enough to join Ji-hyo… as Jong-kook keeps stamping away.

There’s one guard standing in Jae-suk and Ji-hyo’s way, and when Ji-hyo is caught, Jae-suk runs. He’s just a few hundred yards to freedom when there’s a definitive rip. It’s BamBam who caught up with him, and then it’s back to the train for everyone except Haha, who had successfully evaded capture.

Now everyone tears into Jong-kook for staying behind doing the busy work like a fool while the rest of them ran. He could’ve easily taken out the guards if he’d caught on to the idea of escape sooner, likening his strength to Ma Dong-seok’s character in Train to Busan, which today’s theme is loosely based off of.

But Jong-kook misses the whole point of the hidden mission, arguing that they all could’ve left after stamping all the envelopes. His obvious blind spot in that game only frustrates everyone else. As for our first escapee, Haha? He’s busy chowing down on lunch.

When Jae-suk tries fishing for information from the staff about how many more chances they’ll have to escape, Jong-kook says they should take the opportunities as they come. Jae-suk counters, “Escape is possible for those who act on the opportunity.”

He disagrees with Jong-kook’s logic that breaking out of prison will only be more difficult with fewer numbers, saying that the whole game about “team effort” is masking the concept that it’s every prisoner for themselves.

Soon it’s time for the fourth mission: successfully traverse through a web of ropes in silence a la Entrapment. Gary is the first one to approach the task, and gapes at the complicated mess before him.

He’s given his first warning when he bumps into a rope, but then we cut away to Jong-kook who slips over and under the ropes. He realizes that his athletic build isn’t ideal for this task, just as the others grow impatient in the other car, thinking the same thing and waiting for the “Muscle Pig” to hurry up.

Jae-suk starts stretching in his seat, but the posture resembles a chicken pecking at the crowd. HA, there’s even a mission persons flyer graphic that pops up onscreen.

Jong-kook eventually makes it to the other end of the car, where he’s faced with a tough decision: either take a remote that can help everyone escape (by controlling the prison’s surveillance cameras) or take the “get out of jail free” card right now.

We learn that Gary was also presented with this offer since he completed the web too. So did they choose to stay or leave? Ji-hyo accidentally triggers her first bell whilst worming her way through the ropes. Another ring of a bell solidifies the failure.

Suk-jin is next to enter, and he decides to go but first when stepping over the camera… which means his butt is facing the camera when the bells rings twice. Hahahaha.

Jae-suk also messes up twice and looks to the crew for mercy. But it’s a no go, and later on, Kwang-soo is entangled in the web when he too fails.

He joins the others in the next car, which is when they all learn about Jong-kook and Gary’s tough choice. Turns out they both chose to stay to the end, a decision Jae-suk scolds them for: “Why didn’t you choose to just escape?” Ha, so much for loyalty.

While Jae-suk and Kwang-soo try (and fail) to mess with a napping Suk-jin, the monitor lights up with another mission: whoever rips off someone else’s nametag first, wins. And when Jae-suk bends over for a moment, Kwang-soo casually tears off his nametag.

Kwang-soo chooses to go home, cheerily telling everyone that he’ll see them tomorrow (ah, they must’ve filmed the episodes back-to-back because of the national holiday). He hadn’t hesitated in that decision in the slightest, and since the train is still moving, the others sit him back down, telling him that he can’t get off this train.

He still gets dropped off at the next stop, though, where he buys a ticket home in his prison uniform. He tries taking the top off, but it doesn’t make it any better, and when he’s told that he must wear it home, he argues that he’s not obligated to. And then he puts it back on.

Our five remaining prisoners move up to the next car, where they’re told to choose a box. Thirty percent of these boxes are R boxes while the rest are duds, so they must choose wisely lest they’re given a disadvantage in the final mission.

One by one, they all choose and reveal their choices. Gary gets an R box while one leg of the Unlucky Trio, Jae-suk, gets a dud. Jong-kook gets an R box whereas Ji-hyo gets a dud.

It seems luck is on Suk-jin’s side today as he shows off his R box. The three who have succeeded this round are offered the chance to leave or stay and help their fellow prisoners. It’s possible that everyone could avoid working over the holidays if they work together as a team, which is when Jae-suk says they can just send Suk-jin home then.

Myuk PD asks for their final decisions a few minutes later, and Suk-jin whispers that he’d like to leave. Ji-hyo pleads with Gary, who declares that he’ll get off the train.

Jong-kook looks prepared to leave too, and now Ji-hyo and Jae-suk are mere minutes away from possibly working over the holidays. It all comes down to this final mission: Pop-Up Pirate.

Since the other three opted out, the chances of failure have increased to 75 percent. Ji-hyo and Jae-suk’s fates are tied together— they must successfully insert 18 swords into the barrel. Well, here goes nothing.

Ji-hyo encourages Jae-suk to just stick ’em in, since it’s all over for them anyway. Jae-suk gets increasingly anxious as they insert more swords in, and soon they only need to stick nine more in order to avoid prison time.

It looks like Ji-hyo’s luck as returned as she places more swords in—they’ve only got five more to go. Now there’s only 90 seconds left to either punishment or freedom, and they only need three more swords. Jae-suk yells at the other three: “We would’ve been home free if you guys had chosen to help!”

Jae-suk leaves everything to Ji-hyo’s hands. She inserts the third to last sword… and nothing happens. Phew. She sticks in the second to last sword, and again nothing happens.

One sword left, and now all the guys are beside themselves. Just as she inserts the final sword into the battle, we cut away to a minute later as the train pulls up to its final destination.

Our five prisoners line up as Myuk PD explains that the final mission would’ve involved them hunting down and deactivating the prison’s surveillance cameras to escape…

…but Ji-hyo had stuck in that final sword of freedom. Jae-suk gives her all the credit because he knows his string of bad luck would’ve spelled doom for them both. She inserts another sword just to see, but nothing happens.

When Jae-suk tries, the pirate pops up into the air. Pfffffffft.

Now our cast members can walk out free into the open world with lighter hearts to spend the holiday weekend with their loved ones.

 
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