Running Man: Episode 174

by gummimochi

It’s a numbers game for our cast as they use their noggins to decipher the clues that lead to The Number. Kwang-soo learns that leadership is more than just a title; it has to be earned. But with so many numbers flying about in one day, it’s hard enough keeping one number straight, let alone a seemingly infinite number of possibilities.

EPISODE 174. Broadcast on December 1, 2013.

We dive right in as Spartakooks ventures a guess at a five-digit combination… and disappears right through the floor. Whoa. This numbers game looks like it’ll be a doozy with the string of clues linked to one number stamped on their hands: 14357.

Thankfully we waste no time to introduce today’s guests: Heodang 007—er, Lee Seung-gi gets accosted by the hyungs, who all want to touch his muscles. Can’t say I blame you. And hee, Ji-hyo pinches Gary in comparison and calls him soft. Gary: “So’s my heart.”

I love how no one believes for a second that the variety prince is nervous to be here, and he admits that he STILL doesn’t know how this show works. No worries, neither do we sometimes, and it’s only now that I recall that his last appearance ended with a bang.

Another guest runs in with a wide smile: SISTAR’s Bora, who calls out cheerily: “Hey, it’s Kwang-ja!” Puhaha, then Kwang-soo says his alter-ego is more popular than he is.

Seung-gi nips the cast’s musings that the two singers must be dating in the bud, explaining that she’s helping him out for his year-end concert. Which is when Jong-kook quips, “You’re going to dress up as a woman, aren’t you?” Seung-gi: “I gave that up, hyung!” HA.

It’s true that Jong-kook’s dance with SISTAR was all kinds of awesome, to which Seung-gi asks if he usually likes that sort of thing himself, and Jae-suk adds that Jong-kook has come a long way since the X Man days.

Last but not least, actress Han Hye-jin (Warm Words) rounds out today’s pack and the cast congratulate her on her recentish marriage to national soccer player Ki Sung-yong.

Instead of a traditional introduction, our cast is led away to a pool where a pair of flying chairs await them. Needless to say, they aren’t amused. Haha: “I got my makeup done!”

It’s a survival rock-paper-scissors tournament where last person standing wins. Up first is Seung-gi versus Jong-kook, and when they both throw out the same gesture, Haha asks if both of them can go flying. Ha.

But it’s Jong-kook who loses, and then gets dragged away without explanation. Something fishy is definitely going on here…

Pfft, Kwang-soo slips and falls into the water despite Seung-gi’s helping hand. Jae-suk warns him about the giraffe’s unfair tactics, which Kwang-soo displays right away. He glosses right over his loss, and though Seung-gi insists that he technically won, Mr. PD sweats before saying it doesn’t count.

At least Kwang-soo admits that he doesn’t fight fair, and they agree to play mook-ji-ppa instead. This time Seung-gi loses and he goes flying.

When it’s Hye-jin’s turn, the cast remarks on how demure she seems now that she’s married, and she softly answer that she does have a family now. Then with Kwang-soo’s loss comes the return of Toad Kwang-soo.

Meanwhile, the eliminated get stamped with the five-digit number we saw earlier (14357) and simply told to remember it well today since it’ll come in handy. Gah, this is going to involve math, isn’t it?

They’re then instructed to choose one of five marked doors, and it looks to me that this is how we’re going to divide teams today. Meanwhile, Suk-jin sends off four more cast members until it’s down to either him or Haha for the win.

They don’t even look at their gestures, which is even more nerve-wracking in my opinion, and then Haha finally breaks the mat-hyung’s winning streak and drinks in his victory. Happy to be dry, he gives a big hug to his coordi.

Kwang-soo takes a long, dramatic moment before choosing the green door where Seung-gi already is. They’re both perplexed about today’s game and their tools, and Seung-gi says he tries not to think too hard to figure it out anymore. Ha, that’s probably smart.

Bora joins Jong-kook behind the purple (bora) door, to which Jong-kook says in awe that he must have some kind of fate with SISTAR. I love how the team’s allowance of 20,000 Won ( about 20 bucks) gets two very different responses: Seung-gi: “Isn’t that a lot?” Hye-jin: “Didn’t they give us too little?”

Ha, the Monday Couple are paired up together, and with the two to a team rule, Haha is forced to choose the last door, where Suk-jin is.

Now Jo PD finally explains today The Number Race where the teams will play games to acquire keywords to get to the final mission location. The Monday Couple and Suk-jin and Haha pair are given hints that point to a bus stop.

Haha and Suk-jin try to slip away unnoticed in a taxi, but the Purple Team is right on their heels. Meanwhile the hint-less teams collectively rack their brains, and Seung-gi notes that his appearances tends to correspond with the more difficult show concepts. I’ll say.

The foursome (Kwang-soo, Seung-gi, Jae-suk, and Hye-jin) inquire at an information’s desk, pointing them in the right direction. Kwang-soo and Seung-gi run off ahead and decide to run to the bus stop.

Kwang-soo points out that Seung-gi has a way with the ladies after his trip with the Noonas, to which Seung-gi replies that he was only met with criticism there. Hehe, after watching the premiere for that show, I can agree with that.

Seung-gi’s tendency to frequently ask for directions appears here too, to the point Kwang-soo asks if his leadership is being questioned. At the same time, Gary connects the dots that their number is a bus stop number, and later gets a call that it’s a community center.

Which is where Haha and Suk-jin are headed now and they create an alliance with Jong-kook and Bora. Equipped with their next clue (“Add 11”), they decide to travel together and find the corresponding bus stop number… which doesn’t exist. And their other possibility directs them across town. Yipes.

The Monday Couple is in bright spirits despite ending up in the completely wrong area. They stop for some fruit (and the local ajusshis tell them to get married already, ha) and run into Jae-suk and Hye-jin. They follow via taxi.

Meanwhile, Kwang-soo and Seung-gi get off somewhere nearby, but they’re still lost so Seung-gi yet again asks for help. A nice passerby helps them out and Kwang-soo asks why he’s only paying attention to Seung-gi. Because he’s actually looking into where you need to go?

They head off, which is when Seung-gi notes that the red-bean snack they gave the guy in thanks had a lot of filling in it, and Kwang-soo actually runs back to ask for half. Ack, I’m cringing in secondhand embarrassment.

They’re joined by the Monday Couple and Kwang-soo shares a clementine with Seung-gi… with his mouth? Ha, okay then.

The three teams finally acquire their first hint, and after Seung-gi stops to ask for more help, he follows Jae-suk and Hye-jin on to the bus. Jae-suk laughs at their analytical methods whereas they’ve decided to go with the flow.

But both methods land them at the same spot at that same time, to which Seung-gi wonders, “Does that mean we’re at the same intelligence level?”

Meanwhile, Jong-kook and Bora pull up to another stop where their next clue lies waiting. Turns out their logic (along with Hye-jin’s) to travel another eleven blocks is right, and as expected, they blow past Haha and Suk-jin, alliance be damned.

They end up at the stop at the same time, where they’ll have to correctly guess how many passengers will get off at the bus stop. If they get it wrong, they’ll have to squat while carrying their teammate. Ow, that sounds painful.

Both teams get it wrong, and it’s no surprise that Jong-kook has no trouble whereas Haha is already struggling.

On the bus Jae-suk notes that Hye-jin was already dating the soccer star during her last appearance (the Macau/Vietnam trip), waiting for everyone else to fall asleep to talk to him. Aw, that’s cute.

They tease Kwang-soo for possibly harboring interest towards her at the time, but Seung-gi slightly changes the subjects, saying that he played soccer with Ki Sung-yong was and that he was really good. They’re all like, Duh, he’s on the national team!

Then they laugh over Jae-suk and Kwang-soo’s participation in the Asian Dream Cup, which her husband also played in. And ha, that picture of Kwang-soo is totally classic.

Back at the bus stop, both teams guess correctly and acquire their next hint: Haha’s restaurant.

The Christmas themed teams aka Red and Green ready themselves for the squatting task. Both teams get it wrong… as the Monday Couple and staff members file out of the next bus. HA, what are the chances?

Lucky for them, the Monday Couple guess correctly on their first try and move on.

Haha and Suk-jin read their mission at the restaurant where they’re tasked to peel and eat hot potatoes while holding hands. It’s also cute how the Purple (Jong-kook and Bora) and Yellow (Haha and Suk-jin) have joined forces to create the “Bono Bono” Alliance.

Haha and Suk-jin gape to hear that they have to consume five in a minute, but that’s still not as bad as Jong-kook and Bora who get stuck with seven. Well now that’s just impossible.

It’s horrible of me to want to see them suffer through eating hot potatoes, but we cut back to the Christmas teams. Kwang-soo slips but holds on to dear life, which hardly matters since they get it wrong anyway. When Kwang-soo promises to do better next time, Jae-suk pipes: “You’re better off hoping that you’ll do better in the next life.”

Favor is on their side because Kwang-soo and Seung-gi pass the next round, and in an effort to exact a little revenge, they miss their first taxi.

Back at the restaurant Haha deduces that the five cards correspond to their five-digit number, which means there has to be a ‘1’.

We do get to watch the Monday Couple try to down the hot potatoes, which makes for a hilarious watch. They fail, however, but Jong-kook and Bora choose one potato and pass.

Kwang-soo really does make the funniest facial expressions, doesn’t he? He instinctively recoils at the burning sensation in his mouth and the cast likens his jerky movements to an actual giraffe.

He and Seung-gi end up with one potato on their next turn—oh, how smart! They smash the potato for it to cool quicker before they eat it, and it works.

Haha and Suk-jin along with Jae-suk and Hye-jin finish last, so they sit down for a proper meal. It’s not long before they ask her about her married life in England (where her husband plays for Sunderland) and Suk-jin smiles warmly, saying they can keep each other warm.

Haha tells him to do the same with his own wife, to which Suk-jin answers: “It’s hot in my house!”

It starts to snow and when Ji-hyo makes a wish for the first snowfall, Gary tells her: “I’m a bachelor. Don’t wish that you want to marry me.” Ji-hyo: “I’m a bachelorette.”

It warms up again just in time for their next game, where they’ll all need to jump over a hula hoop. They get some audience participation, and it looks like Jong-kook is about to pass when Kwang-soo interferes.

Kwang-soo does the same for Gary, whose hula hoop gets caught in his family jewels (owww), but karma comes to hit him like a boomerang and he suffers the same.

You would think he would have learned his lesson by now, but when the Monday Couple is up again, he grabs hold of the hula hoop, sending Gary into another painful spell, and Ji-hyo grabs a fistful of hair.

Jong-kook and Bora finish first as they have all day, which Jong-kook points out that all of that is pointless if they fail the final mission. They’re met with a math problem when they arrive to add 1.4 with 3.57 and Jong-kook’s facial expression matches mine.

He gets it right, however, and rubs in that being a gym rat doesn’t automatically make him dumb. Here they’ll have to chuck their shoe into a basketball hoop exactly 4.97 m away to gain entry.

That’s when Kwang-soo and Seung-gi arrive, and Bora prevents any interference by sending Kwang-soo to the ground. Then with The Last Match soundtrack aptly playing in the background, Jong-kook succeeds. And like a miraculous stroke of luck, Kwang-soo does too.

There’s a door with nine buttons inside where they’ll need to guess the correct number for said door to open. Catch is, each person has only got one shot. The Number, as they call it, has something to do with today’s mission.

After a pow-wow strategy session, Jong-kook and Bora step up first, armed with one of two possibilities. We already know from the start that Jong-kook’s guess was wrong, but their logic made sense: Add eleven, the five squat punishment, the minute time limit in the food mission, and lastly, the three audience members who helped out.

The other teams have an advantage to use their deduction skills to eliminate any possible wrong guesses ahead of them. But it’s still scary to watch the floor fall out from under Jong-kook, whose disappearance spooks everyone.

Bora climbs up with a smile anyway and gets it wrong. And no worries—they fall into a ball pit.

Hye-jin steps up next and uses the first number in each mission… which she gets wrong. Jae-suk decides to rehash his answer, and Seung-gi says that they only have one answer. Kwang-soo suggests that he try to think up another answer if they get it wrong then, to which Seung-gi responds: “I’ll just go home.”

Kwang-soo’s been trying to establish himself as a leader all day, and Seung-gi says if they get this right, this truly makes him a leader. Kwang-soo: “Are you trying to shunt responsibility on to me?”

He presses 14358, a combination that confuses everyone, and the dramatic buildup is making me nervous. The lights go bright and Kwang-soo turns the door handle… and it opens. Yayy!

Kwang-soo leads Seung-gi inside where their gold prize awaits, and now he explains how he arrived at his answer: the first characters in each clue spelled out “Add 1.”

Seung-gi praises his team leader, saying that Kwang-soo pulled through at the last second, but Jae-suk runs with it to mean that this is his last appearance on the show, and offers up mock sympathy.

Bora: “Does this mean a spot has just opened up?” Aww, I hope not! Way to go, Leader Kwang-soo!

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