Running Man: Episode 292

by gummimochi

Never could I have imagined there would be a day that being a walking bad luck charm would come in handy. But that’s exactly what this episode is all about: hoping that misfortune and misery can lead to victory. Listening to everyone’s woes tears at my heart, but at least everyone is a good sport about testing just how out of luck they really are.

And if you thought that no one that unlucky in this world, well, you’d be wrong.

EPISODE 292. Broadcast on March 27, 2016.

Looks like we won’t be answering more questions this week because the preview takes us straight to the first annual Unlucky Festival. In fact, today’s theme is based off of the viewer question about who exactly is the unluckiest cast member. Wouldn’t that be Kwang-soo?

After briefly explaining how Jae-suk kept his word on allowing his manager to turn music on in the car as soon as filming wrapped (and that his manager politely declined afterwards), Kwang-soo gets picked on for looking dandier than the others. Again, they remind him that he and his actor buddies Jo In-sung and Song Joong-ki are on completely different levels of celeb status.

Returning to the matter at hand, everyone agrees that Kwang-soo, Suk-jin, and Jae-suk are the three unluckiest of the group whereas SpartAce is usually the luckiest. And then Haha points out that Gary’s misfortune is his ugliness.

Time to determine today’s three team leaders whereby the four candidates (Kwang-soo, Suk-jin, Jae-suk, and Haha) will select three floors—out of ten—and hope that their usual misfortune works in their favor.

Kwang-soo chooses the second, seventh, and tenth floors, and the fact that the inside of the elevator is covered in plastic can’t possibly bode well. And it doesn’t, because waiting for him on the tenth floor is a cloud of chalk dust.

There’s another punishment on the seventh floor as a crew member draws on his face with a marker (Kwang-soo: “It’s been less than an hour since I’ve had my makeup done.”). On the second floor, there’s one last punishment(?) because he’s showered with kisses. Ha.

Down in the lobby, Jong-kook busts a gut when he sees Kwang-soo, who wears his marker and lipstick-stained face with pride. Suk-jin’s first choice is the ninth floor, where he’s greeted with flowers. He heads down to the seventh floor where gets a marker mustache, then gets another lei on the third floor.

He worries that he’s not unlucky enough to become a team leader today, but Haha has two leis too (his unlucky floor was the fourth floor). As for Jae-suk, he was hit with two punishments including a marker mustache, which definitely makes him a team leader today.

Suk-jin and Haha are given boxes as a tiebreaker. Haha switches boxes, which works in his favor because Suk-jin ends up being the third team leader. He’s forced to wear the stocking inside the box, but it rips because it’s too small for his head.

The luckiest members get to choose their team leader, and when the Unlucky Three Musketeers turn around, Jae-suk sees no one behind him. Aww. However, Kwang-soo is happy to see Jong-kook and Haha while Suk-jin is ecstatic to see Gary and Ji-hyo lined up behind him.

This means Jae-suk is left to recruit four people for his team while the others only need two more. Team Kwang-soo thinks of Lizzy (who was briefly a Running Man cast member from Eps 18-25) who readily admits that she’s still in bed and not working.

The guys feel bad for inviting her to an episode dedicated to misfortune, then feel even worse when she mishears their offer to participate in filming for going out for drinks. Aww.

Gary knows of a singer out of her luck: Wax (Cho Hye-ri), whom MC Shin Dong-yup suggested that she change her stage name to “Waxing” in hopes that would bring her more luck. He and Suk-jin know of another person, Park Myung-ho, whom they describe as a frail man in physicality and in his rap lyrics.

Jae-suk arrives at his first recruit’s house: actor Nam Chang-hee who played Red Tracksuit in You From Another Star. Chang-hee agrees that he’s pretty unlucky since it’s been seventeen years since his debut and his fellow comedian Jo Se-ho has found more success.

He recounts a time when he was invited to be the sole MC on a MBC quiz show—but that episode was never aired, and they even stopped halfway through filming. To this day he still doesn’t know why.

Jae-suk’s next choice rings familiar to Chang-hee: Chung Jung-ah, a comedienne who was infamously bitten by an anaconda back in 2005. (In short, she was bitten while filming Challenge! World Expedition Team in Colombia and wasn’t treated until she returned to Korea).

Chang-hee suggests they recruit actor Lee Wan because he was unfortunate enough to be born as Kim Tae-hee’s little brother. It gets kinda awkward when he says Lee Wan’s the only one who can’t get involved with the actress, but Jae-suk takes the suggestion in mind.

Team Suk-jin arrives at the hair salon to sit down with singer Wax, who confesses that she hasn’t had much luck in the love department. Her closest guy friend? Hong Suk-cheon, the openly gay entertainer and restaurateur.

They test her luckless status by playing rock-paper-scissors with a set of cards. She switches with Suk-jin when he says he was eying her card (Gary: “Does it matter if unlucky people trade cards with one another?”) … and she loses.

She goes up against Gary, who isn’t surprised when she refuses to switch cards because he claims that she’s always trying to beat him at everything. And then she loses again. Adding insult to injury, she chooses among three spoons and chooses the one dud spoon.

Team Jae-suk finds Chung Jung-ah standing outside of her house waiting for a driver because her car’s in the shop. As for the badminton bag, she says she has time to kill before getting together with singer Lee Moon-se later that day.

She invites them into her home, where Jae-suk asks if her puppy is starved for love because it loves him right now. She and Jae-suk were once part of the same agency, and Jung-ah says she used to give him rides to the video store, but never asked what he borrowed.

Chang-hee is pleasantly surprised when actor Lee Wan cheerfully takes his call. Lee Wan’s voice tenses when Jae-suk takes over, and when he’s told he’s the only guy in the world who can’t see his sister as a woman, he admits that he never thought of his sister Kim Tae-hee as pretty. Jae-suk: “Should I show you a picture of my noona cousin then?”

Wan gives in, and Jae-suk thinks of another obscure singer, Kang Hyun-soo. They catch him in the middle of getting his car tire fixed, but recruit him, too.

After Team Kwang-soo picks up former pro-gamer Hong Jin-ho, they head over to Lizzy’s place. She had misunderstood today’s running theme of “unlucky” (bool-woon) as “underprivileged” (bool-woo). When they’re in the car, she confesses she’s happiest at night because there’s nothing for her to do during the day.

Park Myung-ho comes running out in sweats since he woke up five minutes ago. He still raps on the spot when told, though, and adds that he lost some weight after being scammed recently.

His life sounds even sadder when he shares that he doesn’t have swag like Gary does nor does he own a TV. They try a luck test on him too between two cards… and he picks the dud.

Team Jae-suk picks up Kang Hyun-soo before heading to pick up Lee Wan. It just so happens his noona Kim Tae-hee calls at that moment, so cue that Stairway to Heaven OST!

Jae-suk wonders if they can ask her about “that” (meaning her boyfriend, Rain), then when he takes over the call, he’s all casual about how Lee Wan just happens to have a megastar sister.

Asked if she considers herself fortunate, she giggles and considers herself quite lucky. To that, Jae-suk replies that if she didn’t think that, they would’ve gone to pick her up right now. Ha.

They talk about siblings in the car, as Jung-ah says she feels bad for her own younger siblings. Chang-hee has an older brother, and Jae-suk has two younger sisters. When asked if they’re pretty, he sidesteps the question, saying that they lead happy lives.

Lee Wan admits that it was nice having a popular sister like Kim Tae-hee around because that meant he was never beaten up at school… since all the bullies liked her. Jae-suk pays him a compliment too, because Lee Wan grew up well too and with such awesome hair.

Once all the teams gather together (Turbo’s Mikey switches places with Hong Jin-ho, who still joins them on stage), and Mikey says he’s been staying at home ever since the concert tour wrapped. Though it was his wish to appear on this show, there was no hot water at his house to wash up.

The intros continue to Chang-hee, who insists that he’s Jo Se-ho’s roommate, not a freeloader. Everyone knows who Lee Wan’s sister is, and when they learn he was supposed to walk her dog tonight, Haha’s all, “Shouldn’t we be heading over there then?”

Even though it makes sense Lee Wan wouldn’t share in the popular opinion about his sister’s beauty, it does hilariously annoy everyone else to hear it. Haha: “My sister looks like me, just with longer hair!” Kwang-soo: “My little sister grows a mustache!”

Moving on to Jung-ah, she recounts how the anaconda’s fangs were still lodged in her arm when she pulled away. Suk-jin doesn’t understand how that’s possible, so Jong-kook offers to show him.

Gary had invited Myung-ho to the 100 vs. 100 special, but he’d declined because his health isn’t great. But when he spits out rap lyrics just fine, Jae-suk says he seems all right. He even freestyles on the spot, ending his lyrics with a hilarious “why would that be?”

Then it’s finally time for Round 1: Flour 31, where each person can count up to three numbers, and the one who gets the unlucky number the staff chooses, loses. Or in this case, wins with a cloud of flour.

Gary, Hyun-soo, and Mikey step up and cautiously call out numbers. They start slowing down near the 17 mark, and Gary sweats after Hyun-soo calls out 23. Realizing he should want the flour shower, he boldly calls out three more numbers, but nothing happens.

So it’s Mikey who gets that burst of flour (for calling out 28), and then we’re randomly told that the score—of who remains—is as follows: Team Suk-jin, 3; Team Jae-suk, 4; Team Kwang-soo, 5.

Onto Round 2, where we’re told the elimination is as follows: 0 for the first place team, 1 for second, and 2 people for third. Three teammates from each team step up, where they’ll smash wooden sticks on their heads. Out of 9 total, three are weak, and getting broken ones mean that they lose.

Everyone chooses their sticks down the line, and they all smash at the same time. Ji-hyo, Suk-jin, and Jung-ah are among the eliminated, and then the remaining six choose between six swords. Now the odds are 50:50—three contain something embarrassing and choosing that means they win.

Wax “wins” when her sword is a leek that also hits Wan. HA. He’s a good sport about it, though looks disappointed when his sword is an actual one. So does Chang-hee when he has a toy sword too, and among the remaining three, Lizzy freaks out at her rubber snake and Kwang-soo has a dried octopus leg. Wow, that guy’s really unlucky.

In any case, this next battle is between Wax, Lizzy, and Kwang-soo, where they’ll smash eggs on their faces. Two out of three are raw, and we know that the variety gods look kindly upon Kwang-soo in this game.

The ladies choose first, and as misfortune would have it, Kwang-soo and Wax end up with the raw eggs. Wow, you can’t make this stuff up.

Wax says this might be the first time she felt so good about being luckless, and Kwang-soo says that his own streak of misfortunes today scares him. He and Wax choose water guns (in the hopes that they’ll get wet)… and it’s Kwang-soo who gets inked.

It’s a sad win for Team Kwang-soo, and after Jin-ho rises to do something—and then promptly told to sit down again—the team leaders face off. Whoever gets the non-actual drink gets to recruit Jin-ho to their team.

They all drink… and Kwang-soo gags because he got the sophora root tea. He gets Jin-ho on his team, and Suk-jin points out that it would be the cherry on his misfortune cake if Kwang-soo worked this hard and didn’t win today.

After Suk-jin wins the next round, Jae-suk and Kwang-soo pick between two plates to get the wasabi-filled chocopie. They bite down on their choices, and no way—Kwang-soo grimaces. He just can’t catch a break.

Even though this is technically good news, everyone feels sorry for Kwang-soo. Team Jae-suk is out of the running now, and Mikey jokes that maybe he shouldn’t become friends with the walking bad luck charm.

Now only two members of Team Suk-jin remain to battle five members of Team Kwang-soo, and Wan selects Jin-ho as her opponent. The objective here is to rub a cushion on their face, with one filled with ink.

Wax gets the inked cushion, then chooses Mikey for the next game. Here, the lighter that doesn’t work wins. They both click… and Wax’s works.

Suk-jin is the only one left for his team, and steps up to play the pie face game against Mikey. Suk-jin gets the higher number, which puts the terrible odds in his favor.

Unfortunately for them, both faces come out clean on the first turn, and on the 27th rotation, it’s Suk-jin who gets pie face. He also wins(?) against Haha, and in the fart cushion game, Jung-ah wonders if someone can actually fart if they think that they’ve lost.

Suk-jin survives that battle too, and his final match is against Kwang-soo. The others are relieved that today proved that they’re luckier than these two. There are two thrones, and whoever sinks into the mud bath below is the unlucky winner.

They sit down simultaneously… and it’s Suk-jin’s throne that gives way. Kwang-soo can’t believe that he’s so unlucky that he can’t even a win a losing battle.

Suk-jin is crowned the Unluckiest King of the first era, and we can only hope that Kwang-soo’s luck might change for the worse next time.

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