Running Man: Episode 261

by gummimochi

Nothing like chills and thrills to cool you off in the summer as we jump back in for Part 2 of this five-year celebration. The music theme flows into the second half of this episode because that eerie piano melody playing in the distance is guaranteed to make anyone’s hair stand on end.

Our cast will need to venture inside an abandoned school with their VJs to recover their own nametags. Will loyalty prevail or will the dark be enough to try and escape on their own?

EPISODE 261. Broadcast on August 23, 2015.

Before we pick back up with Part 2 of the five-year celebration, we’re given a sneak peek of the horror special “Please Find Me,” which looks like it’s filled with ghost stories, spooks, and chills for the cast and crew alike.

Following a lengthy recap of Part 1—where the end goal is to be the first to hit ten million album sales—our current score is Blue (6.4 million) and Red (4.29 million). Even with the gap, anything can happen in the next few games.

And so we resume with the tie-breaking ddakji showdown between Jong-kook vs. Jae-suk. Whaddaya know—Jae-suk continues to dominate, Jong-kook struggles to keep up. Haha, what a reversal from the other tile game where Jong-kook can just lift Jae-suk into the air instead.

To add to the momentum, the noraebang alarm rings… because someone is singing g.o.d.’s “One Candle.” That brings the Red Team up to 5.29 million, and then their surprise guests arrives: DJ DOC’s Kim Chang-ryul.

Hahaha, it’s pure coincidence that his wardrobe looks eerily identical to the Blue Team, but Chang-ryul is here to help the Red Team out. Furthermore, he lives in the same apartment complex as Gary.

Now that he’s here, the team will attempt a separate game: successfully jump rope 10 times as a group. They’ve got three tries and this could earn them 1.95 million album sales.

But the Blue Team won’t just stand by and do nothing: Gun-mo gets on the piano while the rest of them sing off-beat as a distraction tactic. It totally works. Gun-mo stays on the piano and ups the tempo right before Chang-ryul joins in and trips. Aww, that’s two attempts already.

Embarrassed, Chang-ryul asks if his son can’t take his place. Gun-mo takes up the guitar for the Red Team’s third attempt. All of them manage to hop inside and jump ten times together. Woot!

Now the Red Team is in the lead with 7.24 million, all thanks to Chang-ryul. Peeved, Haneul tells him to get going if he’s done. But that frown turns upside down when the alarm signals that someone is singing a DJ DOC song, and the idea makes both Haneul and Chang-ryul happy. Aw, they even buy Chang-ryul’s son a little gift from the shop, which nearly evens up the score.

Back to the Pop-Up Pirate Game that was put on hold (a luck-based game where you insert sword pieces into slots, and whoever inserts the one that launches the pirate is the loser) , where the winner earns 800,000 album sales.

Suk-jin still remembers the day the pirate launched into the air on his first try, but history doesn’t repeat itself today. The teams go back and forth until it’s Haneul’s turn…

… and the pirate pops up into the air. Even if the Red Team picks up the win, the Blue Team earns a cool half-million with someone singing one of Gun-mo’s singles in the noraebang. Just outside, we see another guest arrive: Cool’s Kim Sung-soo. Did he come to help out the Blue Team after all?

They get right into the group jump rope and allow Sung-soo to get some practice in. As soon as he jumps in, the rope whips up into his family jewels. Hahaha, he’s barely said a word and already bringing on the laughs.

When he actually goes in for his first attempt, he jumps like a flopping fish. The others jump in first on their next try, and then Sung-soo gets caught by the rope upon entry. With 1.07 million album sales on the line, they need to succeed in this final attempt.

Haha pushes Sung-soo in, and that seems to do the trick until Sung-soo steps aside for some random reason. Even though the Blue Team blew their chance, they’re grateful for Sung-soo sparing some of his free time.

Meanwhile, the Shinchon Noraebang continues to rack up album sales for both teams (Blue: 9.3 million vs. Red: 9.24 million). For their next game, they’ll be transferring CDs from one basket to another using only their feet. If both teams manage to successfully hit 10 million this way, the staff will count whichever team has the most albums as the winner.

The Red Team goes first and works quickly together. Hee, Jae-hoon has trouble reaching the basket, so Gun-mo helps him out. Even in that short minute, the Red Team picks up 2.3 million, bringing their final total to 11.54 million.

Right before the Blue Team’s turn, the noraebang alarm sounds again because of Gun-mo’s song. Kwang-soo appears to be the black hole of the group during practice with CDs in danger of slipping out of his feet.

So the hyungs suggest a better method, but trying that out overextends his toes. During the game, things looks good for the first and second pass apart from a couple of close calls. All they need is 1.9 million to win it, and Jae-suk is reluctant to hand over the CDs.

But they hit that mark and exceed it (with 12 million), making the Blue Team the Million Seller Race victors. Gun-mo cries happily at receiving Golden Disks (with a bit of actual gold), and the others give a final few words about today’s game.

A few days later, the cast walks into a five-year celebratory night time outdoor carnival. There’s games, food, and rides, and the cast hesitates when told to enjoy themselves. Oh man. that deep-fried squid looks delicious. I knew I should’ve had lunch before writing this recap.

Aw, Ji-hyo shares a peanut “heart” with Gary, and I just bust a gut at seeing Spartakooks on the world’s smallest merry-go-round. Little do they know that all these fun and games will soon be replaced with spooks and chills.

Something horrifying approaches just then… a cake to celebrate August birthdays (Jae-suk, Ji-hyo, and Haha) and the show’s fifth anniversary. And then everything goes black.

Now the party is over and the next event will soon begin, and the cast points out the adjacent building lit up in a spooky red. It’s an abandoned all-girls high school founded in 1934, where their real mission awaits: two members, along with their respective VJs, will venture inside the building, retrieve their own nametags and their VJs’, and escape. Easy peasy, right?

Here’s the twist: the cast member and VJ can either stick together to retrieve both of their nametags OR one person can pick up their own nametag and leave the other person behind. Haha: “What if the VJ finds theirs and leaves?” PD: “He can hand the camera over to you and escape.” AHAHAHA.

Additionally, the staff is keeping track of the VJ’s heart rate, and the most rapid pulse will go first. But at least they’ll be able to take along another team with them, which means the very last team will be exploring that building all on their own.

That sends chills down everyone’s spines, and Haha says that if one were to head inside with Ji-hyo, just running into her by coincidence would be frightening in of itself. She’s been in plenty of high school horror projects, and the mere mention of “Toshio” (the boy from The Grudge) has the guys jump in alarm.

Everything makes them jump, from a weed to Jong-kook grabbing onto mat hyung’s ankles. The most anxious VJ in the bunch is none other than VJ Kwon-ryul (Jae-suk’s cameraman) whose heart rate keeps climbing to 130. “Shouldn’t you go to a hospital for that?”

Jae-suk believes that he should bring along another scaredy-cat with him, basically one of the Betrayal Trio. The three plead their case, but no one believes Kwang-soo’s argument of undying loyalty.

Haha and his VJ Sung-yong get to accompany Jae-suk’s team, and the four make the dark walk to the school building. Jae-suk and Haha jump at anything even before going through those doors, and Jae-suk swears that a small object hit his shoulder. Now that’s creepy.

Eventually, the four gets past the creaking doors and into the spooky building itself. Both Jae-suk and Haha jump at the distant sound of a piano melody, but Jae-suk slowly and surely makes it into the bathroom.

He sees something in the first stall, but then backs away because there’s actual poop in the toilet. Lol. Haha sees a door with a R sticker, which flies open when he screams. There’s a creepy mannequin inside with a chest in its lap, and Haha hits the mannequin to check that it isn’t animated.

It’s what sitting on top that grabs Haha’s attention: a flashlight. Jae-suk checks a cabinet and jumps five feet when he finds something creepy inside. And then he runs when he tries touching a chest and a pair of arms try to grab him.

Just looking down the hallway freaks him out, and VJ Kwon-ryul asks if Jae-suk will stick it out with him even if he finds his own nametag. To that, Jae-suk says Kwon-ryul has yet to walk into a room, always staying by the door with his camera.

There’s a spooky ballerina in the dance studio, and when she comes twirling towards him, Jae-suk runs out with his VJ. Unfortunately for them, another ghost comes flying through, and Jae-suk and Kwon-ryul trip and tumble over one another. Hahaha.

The funniest part is that the others can hear Kwon-ryul’s screams from a mile away, which spurs them to share ghost stories. Ji-hyo teasingly pokes Kwang-soo with a stick, and the latter says the frightening moment nearly made him curse out loud.

Speaking of which, Haha actually does curse when exploring the second floor. When VJ Sung-yong finds VJ Kwon-ryul’s nametag, Haha tucks it in his back pocket. At the same time, Jae-suk discovers VJ Sung-yong’s nametag.

Gah, I hate the long-haired ghosts wearing white hanboks the most, and there’s a whole room of them in this school. That’s where Jae-suk and Haha share about their discoveries but refrain from exchanging the nametags lest their VJs leave them behind.

In a different room, a long-haired female ghost pops her head from the corner and another runs across the room. Jae-suk’s desperate cries can be heard from across the field, but at least Jae-suk has found his own nametag.

They aren’t out of the woods just yet since Haha still has VJ Kwon-ryul’s nametag. They make the exchange, and Haha keeps his VJ’s nametag on his person. Jae-suk and VJ Kwon-ryul finally make it back, their faces pale from surviving a living hell. Jae-suk: “[Kwon-ryul’s] the worst!”

Poor Kwon-ryul, though—he might have to go back inside because Kwang-soo’s VJ’s wife just had a baby. On the grounds that the baby’s father should probably go and shed some tears too, he and Kwang-soo head on inside with Jong-kook and his VJ, Ki-jin.

Inside, Haha pushes a walking zombie aside to acquire his nametag, but then freaks out when another ghost chases him on all fours. He finally returns, breathless, and then apologizes that none of his material is usable because he cursed way too much.

While Jong-kook acquires a flashlight, Kwang-soo freaks out to see that there’s something inside the boxes. He screams at the sight of the zombies, and then we see that VJ Ki-jin has escaped first without Jong-kook (because he slipped out soon after finding his nametag, ha!).

Aw, so Jong-kook is inside filming the spooky ballerina on his own. He discovers Kwang-soo’s nametag, then asks the ballerina to scare the living daylights out of Kwang-soo when he drops by later.

Kwang-soo guards his VJ Yoon-sang’s nametag with his life when they stumble upon it. Nope, they’re going to see this through together. Most of the long-haired ghosts in the classroom appear to be mannequins, but I bet you that at least one of them is real.

And when Kwang-soo checks the desk drawers, one of the ghosts bolts up and he collapses to the ground in shock. But at least the scare was worth it because the ghost was guarding Jong-kook’s nametag. And then Kwang-soo gives his VJ his own discovered nametag.

Outside, Gary is told to pick between Ji-hyo and Suk-jin to accompany him inside. He chooses Ji-hyo, which means Suk-jin will be left to go inside on his own.

Kwang-soo freezes outside the dance studio, then belatedly realizes that his VJ is gone. HA. He ventures inside, which is when Jong-kook closes the door and the spooky ballerina keeps her promise by twirling towards Kwang-soo.

Kwang-soo promises to give Jong-kook his nametag in exchange for freedom. They promise to hand each other’s nametags over as they leave together, but then Kwang-soo drops Jong-kook’s somewhere in the hallway.

Jong-kook grabs it, then runs up the stairs into the dance studio, where he chucks Kwang-soo’s nametag inside. Oh man, and if it couldn’t get any better, we find out that Kwang-soo’s nametag is no long on the floor… because it’s in the ballerina’s mouth. AHAHAHA.

Ji-hyo screams to keep her fear away, at times even louder than the actual ghosts. She finds Gary’s nametag inside the stroller and screams yet again when the ghost turns around to face her. “Have you lost your mind?!”

Gary is spooked before acquiring Ji-hyo’s nametag, which he places on her back per her request. She has him promise not to betray her before giving him his nametag, and they both escape the building together.

The literal horror stories put Suk-jin on edge, and the mat hyung has his VJ promise him not to leave him behind. Even a PD accompanies them, but the crew remains a few steps behind.

Everything makes Suk-jin and the PD scream in terror, and Suk-jin runs out when the ballerina twirls towards him. Hah, I also love how she momentarily breaks character after he runs down the hallway.

He discovers his nametag though before getting chased down by the ghost with the stroller. And then we hear him mutter to his VJ: “I’m sorry, man,” just as dawn approaches.

They say one can still hear the whimpers of the VJ left behind in that old abandoned school.

RELATED POSTS

• Running Man: Episode 260
• Running Man: Episode 259
• Running Man: Episode 258
• Running Man: Episode 257
• Running Man: Episode 256
• Running Man: Episode 255