Running Man: Episode 219

by gummimochi

Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder in this episode, because only a group of guests who are willing to go above and beyond (and even literally bend over backwards) is what makes this episode that much more memorable. The Birth of a Beauty cast comes to play with our guests this week, and it’s up to one woman to figure out who’s on her side and who isn’t.

EPISODE 219. Broadcast on November 2, 2014.

On this rainy morning, an antique train pulls into the station carrying today’s guests—the cast of the recently premiered Birth of a Beauty: Jung Kyeo-woon, Wang Ji-hye, Han Sang-jin, Joo Sang-wook, and Han Ye-seul.

After the boys pick up their dropped jaws off of the ground, Kwang-soo transfers his jacket from his best bud Ji-hye’s shoulders to cover Ye-seul.

Today’s race is a battle between the White Knights vs. the Black Knights, where our two teams will engage in various missions. After each game, one member of the winning team may find out how many white knights are currently on their team, and also trade off a teammate.

At present, our cast and guests are split into two teams (Red vs. Blue) and have already chosen their identities via cards, so no one knows each other’s identities in the mix. All five White Knights must stand together by the day’s end in order to win, but even if one Black Knight member finds oneself on the podium, then it’s a victory for the Black Knights.

Current team lineup: Red (Ye-seul, Sang-jin, Jae-suk, Haha, and Kwang-soo) vs. Blue (Sang-wook, Ji-hye, Kyeo-woon, Suk-jin, Jong-kook, Gary, and Ji-hyo).

While the Blue Team throws suspicion at each other right away, the Red Team looks like they’re having a jolly ol’ time. Apparently it’s been seven years since Ye-seul has been on a variety program, and Jae-suk realizes that they’ve never worked together. Haha: “Then why are you speaking to her informally?”

Sang-jin informs his teammates that Ye-seul just speaks in banmal to everyone, something the guys find endearing. Her habit even extends to the PD: “PD-nim, have you eaten?” I personally find Ji-hye’s semi-gruff Masan satoori a bit more adorable, however.

In this first Musical Kiddie Train, only those whose butts are seated inside the cars may rest at the snack station. Jong-kook asks if the representative of the winning team can move over to the other team themselves if they’re a Black Knight. That question pings everyone else’s suspicion radars—could Jong-kook be a Black Knight?

The PD’s off-hand remark questioning Haha’s identity throws suspicion onto him, and it isn’t long before the Red Team starts pointing suspicious fingers at one another. Like how Kwang-soo’s choice to remain silent is uncharacteristic of him.

Before dance time, Jae-suk requests that Turbo’s “Twist King” isn’t on the playlist anymore, which ruffles Jong-kook’s feathers. But that soon goes forgotten when the music starts and Ji-hye tumbles on the mat and Haha dances with Ye-seul.

Kyeo-woon has a few hidden dance moves up his sleeve, and the whistle blows soon after Ye-seul’s dance. It’s a mad dash and struggle for a seat in the teensy car, and I love how no one is thinking of tackling SpartAce, who sit comfortably together in the other car.

Maybe the guys all wanted to be next to Ye-seul or they thought of sending the stronger competitors out of the way. In any case, SpartAce technically gets to move on, and asking for a do-over prompts Jae-suk to yell: “It’s less entertaining if you two are around!”

Over at the snack station, Jong-kook asks if Ji-hyo’s a White Knight, citing that she proclaimed that she has to help “our team.” Ji-hyo counters that that isn’t the case, but the music puts their argument on hold.

After another fierce round for a seat on the train, Ji-hye is still in shock when she softly asks Ji-hyo if this show is always this brutal. Oh honey, it is. She seems to have an honest friendship with Kwang-soo, as she tells her buddy that he’s ugly in his wet hair and lets him check himself with her mirror.

Sang-wook thinks that all five White Knights might be the guests, an idea Jong-kook refutes since he still thinks Ji-hyo’s one of them.

After a hilarious dance break to DJ DOC’s “Run To You,” all the guys are practically sprawled on the slippery mat when the whistle blows. After Kyeo-woon is forced out of the game by getting plopped into the car, the PD congratulates Suk-jin for having the advantage as the sole member left on his team.

Suk-jin: “You call this [4:1 ratio] an advantage?” I’ll say, especially after the Red Team guys made sure to create that “advantageous” situation. Ye-seul sends her teammates an aegyo-filled cheer in banmal. As for Ji-hye? “Take care of your health [Suk-jin]!”

After another round, Suk-jin is left to tackle Sang-jin and Kwang-soo on his own. Well, not before another dance break (4 Minute’s “Hot Issue”) led by none other than Ji-hyo. Curiously, Sang-jin sends Kwang-soo off alone, and it’s only after time is up does he mention that Suk-jin’s really strong.

But Sang-jin’s words and actions stir suspicion in the others: “The entire world knows that Suk-jin is weak!” Could he be a Black Knight?

In this final 1:1 battle, the first one to sit in the car wins the game. Ye-seul warns her teammate that failing here means that he really is a Black Knight, and like before Ji-hyo tells Suk-jin to think of his health.

It’s Sang-jin who gets their first, giving the Red team the win. As the White Queen, Ye-seul is told that there are three White members on her team including herself. Which means she’s got two Black Knights hiding in her presence.

So Ye-seul asks who was initially confused by their card, though the others are distracted by her natural high-pitched voice. Jong-kook: “You’d be a perfect fit for my songs!” She trades her teammate Haha for Jong-kook.

It’s a series of 1:1 games for their second mission, and the losing team will get hit with a blast of air. When Jae-suk teases Ji-hye about her past, Kwang-soo fans the flame by adding how she’ll accept anyone who confesses their feelings for her in the wintertime.

But two can play at this game ’cause she reminds Kwang-soo that’s she’s got dirt on him, too. He immediately back down, stammering in response. Hahaha.

Jae-suk and Kyeo-woon face off in a butt wrestling match, where the first player to knock off their opponent using their butt, grab the radish and lift if over their head wins the round. It’s an all-kill tournament, so last team standing wins the game.

I love how the PD cracks up off-screen before the match actually begins, but when it does, both men collide so hard that they’re both propelled forward. HA.

Jae-suk wins the round, so he calls out Ji-hye. He juts out his butt first, but she falls backwards a half-second later and takes Jae-suk down with her, allowing her to scoop up the radish instead. That’s hilarious.

As per her team’s advice, Ji-hye challenges Jong-kook and tries to butter him up by saying she’s a fan of his. She asks if she can only use her butt, and Gary makes a hand gesture, asking if she plans on poking his rear with that instead.

But this time, Jong-kook takes her down in seconds, much to her surprise. Heh, with Ye-seul’s presence here today, the use of the Fantasy Couple OST has never felt more appropriate.

One blunt force literally knocks Sang-wook off of his feet, and that has the others wondering whether or not Jong-kook is working extra hard because he’s a White Knight trying to impress his queen. Jong-kook verbally admits that he is a White Knight, but who knows for sure.

Before the following game begins, Jae-suk suggests that Kwang-soo and Ji-hye engage in an impromptu game of Dangyunhaji (where one must answer “Of course,” to their opponent’s questions or statements, no matter how absurd. If one doesn’t, they lose).

Kwang-soo starts off strong by asking if she’s dated any celebrities before, a question she turns right back at him. It’s pretty great how Jong-kook yells out criticism from the sidelines, like how you’re supposed to start off easy and then build up to the tricky questions.

So Kwang-soo keeps going, asking whether or not she considered her costars as a man, not as colleagues before. Ji-hye in turn, rephrases the question: Has he ever started as “oppa” to a costar that eventually turned into “honey”?

Kwang-soo starts sweatin’ in protest: “I haven’t had a lot of younger costars who called me ‘oppa’!” And that answer basically means Kwang-soo throws in the towel.

With that, they move onto the actual game, where Kwang-soo has to guess if the number of kernels in Ji-hye’s hand in either odd or even. He guesses odd, and when Ji-hye gives him an opportunity to change his mind claiming that she really wants him to win, he does.

And then Ji-hye shows her hand: 3 kernels. Pfft, the Betrayal Icon just got betrayed. Hehehe.

Kwang-soo and Haha enter the ring for the next round: a hand-slapping game. Haha slaps his hand down on the table to show off his strength… then retracts it from the pain. As soon as the whistle blows, Kwang-soo retracts his hand, afraid.

When Kwang-soo tries to move his hand as fast as possible, Haha decides to wait until he tires himself out. Unfortunately for Haha, he misses.

But the Blue Team has another shot when Sang-wook is up next and chooses to attack. Kwang-soo decides to use the same “speedy hand” approach, but he quickly grows weary, to Sang-wook’s favor. Slap.

What’s hilarious is that Sang-wook tests out Kwang-soo’s approach with Jae-suk; he initially starts off slow, then gradually speeds up. But despite his efforts, Jae-suk traps him anyway.

Therefore the Red Team wins it again, and Ye-seul steps forward for her clue… only to hear the same words from the previous round. There are still three White Knights vs. two Black Knights on her team. Ah, did she exchange one Black Knight for another then?

In any case, she turns to her teammate and asks who isn’t on her side, which is met with professions of loyalty. Sang-jin says he’s not that great at games, and that’s reason enough for Ye-seul to switch him out with Haha.

In the car, Ye-seul wonders which side Ji-hyo must be on, confused. The guys reply that there’s a great possibility she could be a Black Knight. Meanwhile in the other car, Sang-wook tells his teammates that they can trade him away. Hmm.

Everyone arrives at an outdoor market, where they see the establishments stamped with R stickers. A group of kind ajummas offer them food in gratitude for traveling so far, and aww, Kwang-soo hands a hot pack to one of the ladies in return.

For this third mission, the winning team may trade two teammates. Sang-wook says it’s fine since everyone on the Blue Team is a Black Knight. Sang-jin proclaims that he really is a White Knight, and Haha encourages him not to lie when the cameras aren’t rolling. Ha, the captions tell us that Sang-jin had been chatting with Ye-seul during their break.

So for this game, one team must hide among the various restaurants and strike poses in order that the other team won’t be able to emulate. Kwang-soo sits undecided whereas Ye-seul smiles, saying that she has something up her sleeve.

The Blue Team is on a time-constraint at the start, and Gary stumbles upon Haha, who has a finger up his nose, a sock in his mouth, and his legs crossed. Lol. But that’s nowhere near as difficult as what Ji-hye has to emulate: a break-dance position. She hands it off to Suk-jin.

Sang-wook bursts laughing when he sees his costar sprawled on the floor: “Think of your image!” But Ye-seul is determined to do whatever it takes to win, even if that means twisting her arms to look like pretzel.

When time’s up, the Blue Team must strike the poses they saw. It’s cute how Kyeo-woon rolls off-balance, and Suk-jin’s back cracks when he throws his legs over his head. Sang-wook makes this long argument about why a guy can’t imitate Ye-seul’s pose, so Ji-hye steps in.

Unfortunately both Ji-hyo and Suk-jin are wrong, and now it’s the Blue Team’s turn to think of some unique poses. Remember that b-boy move Jong-kook struck earlier? Gary does him one better and Kwang-soo gapes in awe.

While Ye-seul studies Ji-hye, Jae-suk feels confident about Sang-wook’s three-fingered plank position. By the time the teams reconvene, the guys strike the other twisty poses with ease, but Ye-seul initially has trouble striking Ji-hye’s twisty yoga-like pose.

They even strike Gary’s b-boy pose, but then the Red Team realizes that none of them went to check on Kyeo-woon. Whoops. Aww, he looked so weirdly adorable, too.

Ji-hyo bursts into laughter when she discovers Ye-seul wearing a cross-eyed expression. Ha, there’s really nothing this girl won’t do if it means winning. Ji-hyo hands the pose off to Gary. Once they’re alone, Gary whispers that he’s a White Knight, and he’ll make sure to lose. Oho.

A little later, Gary does strike a slightly different pose than Ye-seul’s, though the cross-eyed bit leaves everyone in shock. He was the only one who messed up, so could he have been telling the truth?

Then it’s the Red Team’s turn again to emulate the Blue Team’s poses, and holy crap—Ji-hye’s pose looks like something that came straight out of a horror film. Then there’s Sang-jin, who actually has a toe in his mouth.

But there’s more because Kwang-soo finds Kyeo-woon with an upgraded version of his original twisty-legged-face-grabbing position. When time is up, Ji-hye crumbles over the horrific move she pulled and cries, “I play an announcer on the show!”

So it turns out that Sang-jin wasn’t the only one with a toe in his mouth—Suk-jin did, too. Too bad Jae-suk is too stiff, but a little extra effort enables him to get his foot in his mouth. And with Haha imitating Sang-jin’s final toe-in-mouth touch, the Red Team wins it.

Ye-seul sneaks in a whispered conversation with Ji-hyo for tips while the staffs sets up. Then it’s time for Ye-seul to find out how many of her White Knights are on her team: two. Aha, so did she made the wrong choice by sending Sang-jin away?

We rewind a bit to hear Ye-seul’s deductions prior to listening to her latest hint: her first switch yielded nothing, which means she switched out a teammate of the same color. But then bringing Haha back onto the team reduced the number of White Knights.

So Ye-seul kicks both Jong-kook and Haha off of her team. But Kwang-soo and Jae-suk aren’t off the chopping block either because one of them is a Black Knight. She looks to Kyeo-woon for an answer, and he argues that he lost all the games, therefore a White Knight. Sang-wook: “That’s because you’re awful at them!”

In that same vein, Sang-wook argues that he’s awesome at the games in this show—why, she can see his past appearances. Ye-seul thinks that Ji-hyo might be a White Knight for providing her with some tips earlier, but honey, that’s just naive thinking there.

Ji-hyo states that there’s “something” she did to help the White Knights, but that’s also when Gary allegedly outs himself, too. And Ye-seul brings the Monday Couple over to her team.

In the car, the Blue Team can only hope that there’s a Black Knight within the Red Team, and they’re pretty sure that it must be Kwang-soo. Sang-wook volunteers himself again, but told to stay out of it.

Once the Red Team arrives at the final mission station, they stand at their respective podiums and look nervously at the balloons filled with flour hanging above them. When Kwang-soo continues to insist on his innocence, Ye-seul tells him, “If you behaved as usual, you wouldn’t have become the Boy Who Cried Wolf.”

The Red Team isn’t easily persuaded when the Blue Team offers suggestions like how the setup now looks fine, or that Ji-hye could be a White Knight. Ye-seul is given one last chance to trade one more member, and even if one Black Knight is among them, the flour-filled balloons will burst.

Sang-wook asks what happens to the Black Knight member(s) who ends up in the White Knight mix, to which he gets the matter-of-fact answer: “They’ll get flour on them, of course.”

Interesting—Ye-seul chooses to oust Jae-suk, to everyone’s surprise. At least she figured out that moving Haha and Jong-kook manipulated the numbers, which means they’re both Black Knights. Now who to move?

Sang-jin did sound pretty desperate and frustrated whereas Sang-wook stated that he was losing on purpose. Ye-seul brings Sang-jin back on her roster.

Now’s the moment of truth, and it turns out that, yes, Gary was telling the truth—he’s a White Knight. Whoa, Ji-hyo is also a White Knight member, too. What about Kwang-soo, then?

What—he’s a White Knight, too. And now it’s down to Sang-jin… who’s also a White Knight. So the White Knights grab the win, and in reference to her sudden departure years ago, Ye-seul makes one last promise: “I won’t run away again.”

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