Running Man: Episode 252

by gummimochi

It’s time to go back to school in a card battle between the jocks and music students to see who’s the bigger bluffer. A few of the hiphop artists who give badass performances on stage turn out to be quieter than you might expect despite laughing and playing alongside our cast members. But then again, appearing on variety is no easy endeavor, and they’ll all have to use their noggins to try and outsmart the other team.

Yet for a select few, being yourself is the best kind of variety show performance you can give, especially when you turn out to be a lovable heodang. We love that.

EPISODE 252. Broadcast on June 21, 2015.

Welcome back to Running Man High where our sorta cool cat students meet the true hip-hop artists (led by Jae-suk): Jessi, Eun Ji-won, Jay Park (aka Jaebeom), San E, and Verbal Jint.

When Jong-kook wonders why Gary wasn’t the rapper crew’s leader instead, Gary defends, “I can’t be on the same team as [Jessi]!” Carrying the large boombox with the speaker facing him, Suk-jin says it’s because he’s hard of hearing now. Ha, nice save.

After running down the line for intros, Jessi still looks like the most formidable opponent. Gary: “These other guys are nice guys!” She tries to help Jae-suk adjust his hat so he can fit in among his teammates, but it only makes him look even dorkier.

Ji-won suggests that Jae-suk take off the glasses, but the effect leaves much to be desired. Even Taek PD can’t introduce today’s High School King of Bluff Race between the athletes versus hiphop crew without cracking up.

The teams will be choosing two number (between 1-6) and operation cards (addition, subtraction, or multiplication) after each period, and the final mission will take place up on the rooftop after school.

Time for first period study hall, but none of our rappers understand what the rules are. Here, four people will play offense trying to write the other team members’ names on the chalkboard while two people will play defense with erasers. If a name stays written on the chalkboard for longer than three seconds, that person is eliminated.

The Athletes gripe that Verbal Jint’s stage name is four characters (Ji-won: “You have to write it in English!”), arguing to use his legal name (Kim Jin-tae) instead. Jessi gets riled up when her Korean name (Ho Hyun-joo) is tossed in there to, which clams Gary up.

Interesting—the Athletes have given Kwang-soo both erasers to defend, and Jong-kook gives his opponents an early warning. Best two out of three, wins. Everyone starts jotting down names at the start, but it’s Suk-jin who successfully eliminates San E first.

Kwang-soo is knocked down with a kick to his side, and Jay Park writes Jong-kook’s name in the chaos. One by one, people are knocked out left and right until Ji-hyo writes down Jay Park’s name to win Round 1.

Jae-suk checks in with Jong-kook’s victims, who cite physical attacks made against them. Jessi only now understands the rules and asks why Jae-suk didn’t explain them to her. What… did you think everyone else was doing? And now Ji-won understands why Jessi was trying to stop him from writing down names earlier.

Jay Park calls himself an MVP this round, to which Jae-suk points out, “We lost this round!” Things are just as crazy in Round 2, but Suk-jin gives an impressive performance playing defense.

Jong-kook has two guys pinned but gets eliminated anyway. So does San E and Ji-won, and poor Verbal Jint is caught between whether to attack or defend. Thanks to Ji-hyo who keeps writing one name after another, the Athletes win Round 2.

Jong-kook’s having so much fun that he wants to play another round… if Jae-suk bends down and begs, that is. Kwang-soo takes out his phone to document this moment of Jae-suk bending down to tie Haha’s shoelace.

Jong-kook makes sure Jae-suk does it properly, milking this moment for all it’s worth. So they get ready for a final round to give the Rappers a chance to turn the tables. Jae-suk is left to defend on his own when Ji-hyo closes in.

He gets pulled into a dogpile while Ji-hyo jots down everyone’s name to win it anyway. Untying all of their sneakers, the Athletes goad their opponents, all, Wanna go for another round?

Jae-suk says they can all expect a diss track about them to be released next week. Haha teases that the title must be “Shoelaces.” Both teams pick their cards and move on.

Now it’s second period, where they’re all met with Gary’s mantra for music: “Feel, soul, my life.” The teacher is absent for this class too, telling them not to make a ruckus and definitely not leave to go buy snacks.

But that’s exactly what they’ll be doing: one teammate must succeed at a game before their five other teammates go and buy various items in turn. The first keyword is “chair” which has Suk-jin’s mind think back to when they had to try and balance sitting on a traffic cone.

It’s the “invisible chair” where their butts will hover over a balloon while having a textbook on their laps. If either the book falls or the balloon pops before the others return, they lose. Haha and Jay Park are first up, and then Jessi pushes Gary out of the way so she can climb up the stairs.

Each passing second feels like a century, and as Gary walks down the stairs, Ji-won tries (but fails) to swipe the ramyun. Kwang-soo gets revenge by wrapping Ji-won in a hug, then steals the pair of chopsticks from his hand.

Kwang-soo frees himself, and while the others run up and down the stairs, Haha and Jay Park wonder if they should both give up simultaneously. Neither do of course, and there’s this rocking guitar riff as Verbal Jint starts sprinting. Please oh please be a heodang…

… and we see him hop up the stairs at a snail’s pace. Heee, I love it. A little later, Jong-kook is the last one up for his team when he hears a deafening pop! — it’s Haha, whose knees have finally buckled.

San E runs upstairs while the Rappers cheer Jay Park on, as the show builds up his personal MVP moment earlier (though given all the longish throwbacks and in-between game graphic sequences, one wonders if the staff felt a need to fill in airtime).

Jay Park pops his balloon before San E returns, however, collapsing onto the ground. Amidst all the scolding, Gary wonders why no one’s taking care of Jaebeom, who gets asked to show off a lil’ b-boying. Jay Park: “Maybe in 10 minutes.”

Verbal Jint is volunteered for the next game against Suk-jin. Now they must suck in their breath to keep a cup stuck to their faces. Verbal Jint last all of three seconds. The others try teach him the proper method, but that doesn’t quite work out.

After switching out contenders for Ji-won, Kwang-soo lunches for (but doesn’t quite grab) Jessi’s hair as they run up the stairs. She has him in a chokehold as they return, then the next pair dash upstairs.

Not that Suk-jin nor Ji-won look at all uncomfortable. Until Gary complains about how slow the store manager is, which makes Ji-won hold onto his stomach to stop himself from laughing.

Soon it’s down to the final sprint between Verbal Jint vs. Jong-kook… and it’s Spartakooks who comes flying down the stairs first. Jae-suk wonders how the tables were turned, and a flashback teaches us that Jong-kook managed to swipe one and run back first.

After picking their cards, Jae-suk tries to lift his team morale. Realizing that Verbal Jint runs at the speed of molasses was an important moment, but his teammates are impressed when Jae-suk tells Jong-kook to bug off since they’re on rivaling teams.

What does Jong-kook do about that? Pull Jae-suk aside for a chat. Jae-suk: “Kwon-ryul, film this!” To offset this moment, it’s time to see Jay Park’s b-boying skills. They give Verbal Jint the floor… and he sticks the cup to his face.

They wonder if he’ll be a master at it in a year’s time or perhaps they’ll see that image of him for his next album cover.

Then it’s time for their last class — a free period — and the Athletes are leading 2:0. For their first game, the teams will try to see who can chuck the school supplies in their backpack the farthest.

Since the motion looks a lot like bowing, Kwang-soo shows off how he can do a 180-degree bow. And just in case we wanted to know what a fail would look like, Jae-suk does it for us: his backpack rolls up over his head, and the supplies fall towards him.

San E goes first and his supplies fly way past the mat. Impressive. Then Kwang-soo chucks his supplies, and a rogue pen rolls juuuustt past San E’s. The Rappers argue that he must’ve thrown it with his hand, so they roll the tape…

… and there the pen is, in Kwang-soo’s hand. Ha, I have to say it was pretty natural, but the point goes to the Rappers in the end. Kwang-soo revs up for his next attempt…

… when Jae-suk steps in front of him. And then in his third attempt Kwang-soo slams his forehead against his knee. Owwwwwww. For what it’s worth, at least one of the pens flew pretty far? Kwang-soo: “I was seeing stars!”

On his turn, San E gets blocked by the Athletes, who claim they were just trying to be funny. It quickly turns into an quick brawl, and once the dust settles, Jae-suk points to Jay Park and Verbal Jint for being so passive. Which is when Jessi says she’s been the passive one, though really she’s trying to play off the moment without understanding the word.

Finally San E chucks his backpack and a pen that goes just off the mat wins the first game for his team. After skimming through the ping pong match the Athletes win, the score is tied 1:1.

The third game requires the teams to flip to a random page; whoever ends up with more people on said open pages, wins. Verbal Jint musters up the courage to ask if there are pages without any images of people, to which Jae-suk says he should just be more active and participate in the game anyway.

Ji-won starts prepping his book vertically, so Haha taunts him by doing it his own way too: blatantly looking through the pages. Lol. Haha goes first and ends up with six people, and Suk-jin jokes that this one woman looks like she’s pregnant. Haha adds, “With twins!”

Ji-won ends up with three, which gives the first point to Haha. Verbal Jint is up next, and Haha remarks that it’d be great to beat a Seoul National University alum (Verbal Jin earned a degree in economics there).

Luck is on Verbal Jint’s side with 15 faces, beating Haha’s four. Up against Jong-kook’s three… Verbal Jint turns the page to one boy wearing a mask. Aww. So it’s down to Gary vs. San E.

Gary ends up with eight, and San E opens up the textbook page to an old photo with lots and lots of people. That evens up the score again to 2:2, and Lady Luck Ji-hyo steps in.

Sure enough, Ji-hyo turns to a page filled with 16 people and San E turns… to the page with the boy wearing a mask. Ahahaha, what are the chances? The teams pick their cards, and when Jessi follows Verbal Jint’s gut feeling… she ends up with a minus 3. LOL.

So the Athletes enter the final arena undefeated for a Card Battle. There will be six rounds in this battle: each person will carry in a number and an operations card, and the team with the greater number will win the round.

The numbers cards for each team are announced, and the teams break up to strategize. Verbal Jint believes that the other team will pull out their bigger numbers for the tail-end of the game, which is exactly what they’re planning to do.

And so the game begins with Jong-kook vs. Ji-won. The number cards are drawn (3 vs. 2) followed by the operations card (minus one versus plus one), which gives the Rappers a win of 3 versus 2.

Next up, both ladies reveal a “4” card, and the Rappers win it again with 7 versus 1. But it’s all part of the Athletes plan to get the Rappers to use up their strongest cards and take the hit.

Jay Park reveals a total of 5, which is short of Haha’s 7. The Rappers take another loss, followed by another. Now the Athletes only need one more to win it…

Kwang-soo reveals a 5 to Verbal Jint’s 3, but we know that the Rappers have a multiplication card (even if the Athletes don’t). And this is when they use that “times 3” card to beat Kwang-soo’s total of 5 with a 9. Now that’s what you call a reversal.

Since the game is tied, there’s an impromptu sudden death round. Both ladies choose a random operations card for their teams, which are then used with each team’s highest number card.

So Jessi enters the arena with a “4” card to Ji-hyo’s “5,” and it turns out they’ve both picked up a “minus 2.” Which leaves Ji-hyo with 3 to Jessi’s 2, and winning today’s race. Wow, they don’t call her Lady Luck for nothing.

The Athletes are given snapbacks with a little golden bling, and Jay Park finally gets in a few words at the closing. He doesn’t mind that he didn’t do a lot of promotion because “a lot of people know who I am already.” Well we know you all got swag, is what.

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