Running Man: Episode 298

by gummimochi

Get ready for an episode full of screams, splashes, and squeals as our cast hunts down the No Man hiding in their midst. With an expert profiler, a sassy college student of yore, and the neighborhood ajusshi, our teams will need to work together to deduce who is on their side and who is trying to sabotage them. Even when it seems like the answer is right in front of you, there’s always a last-minute twist that could throw you for a loop.

EPISODE 298. Broadcast on May 8, 2016.

We pick back up with the cast meeting Argus, aka David McInnis, in front of the Vikings ride. Whether they’ll end up on the ride or not depends on this Yes/No question. David presents the question in English, and Suk-jin says “no”, and is told that he’s safe.

Haha can only pick up on the word “choice”, and whispers “yes”. He has the wonderful pleasure of… going for a Vikings ride. A few more people choose “no”, which is the correct choice.

Both Kwang-soo and Gary get to join Haha for the ride, and all three of them scream in terror.

It’s a new day when the cast arrives at a pool to see a row of flying chairs waiting for them. Today’s theme is entitled “Find the No Man Race”, and Suk-jin apologizes for being the only one wearing sunglasses because his eyes are too sensitive at his age.

Today’s guests are behind a curtain, and it’s up to our cast members to ask them a question. If the guest answers “yes”, they’re safe; “no” and they get dunked. However if the cast correctly guesses as to who their mystery guest is, then the guest will take a ride in the chair.

Haha starts off by asking if the guest is an actor (“yes”) and Jong-kook asks if he’s in his 30s (“yes”). Jae-suk thinks that, given the garbled voice, their guest isn’t attractive. So he asks if he’s had a project that surpassed the golden “10 million ticket sales” mark. Answer: “No.”

After Jae-suk takes a splash, he suggests Kwang-soo ask if their guest is “meddlesome”. Kwang-soo: “Are you trying to get me dunked?!” He goes with the question: “Have you been on RM before?” Answer: No.

Suk-jin catches Jae-suk approach when he’s about to test the water, then as soon as his back is turned, Jae-suk taps him in. Ji-hyo is saved by her question of “you’re not married, right?” and Suk-jin asks if he’s either a Kim, Lee, or Park. Answer: Yes.

Now it’s down to Gary, and Haha says he should ask whether the actor is here to promote an upcoming film. Well, yeah, this show is a promotional launchpad. He gets a resounding “Yes!” for the recently released Detective Hong Gil-dong: Missing Village.

Haha asks Kwang-soo what movies are coming soon, to which Kwang-soo says: “Captain America Civil War.” D’oh! They wonder if it might be Lee Je-hoon and Haha hollers that the crew’s faces have darkened. “It also means that Go Ara is the female guest.” He points to the crew: “Look! They can’t laugh!”

Then from behind the curtain: “I’ve failed…” Heh. Eee, it’s Lee Je-hoon. Ahhh! Signal feels! Je-hoon greets the viewers and then splashes into the water.

It’s… a wet Lee Je-hoon. *fans self* As he gets out of the pool, they scream, “Don’t get him a towel!”

Everyone expects Go Ara from the high-pitched voice, but they’re thrown for a loop when the answer to the first question (“Are you a woman?”) is met with a deep “no.” They toss one question for Je-hoon to ask, only to gripe when he asks if the guest is a comedian.

The answer is obviously “no”, which means everyone gets dunked. Je-hoon can’t stop giggling and even pretends to give Haha CPR. The others have fun with his wet crimped hair, like how Jae-suk pretends they’re those room divider beads: “Are you open for business?!” or that they look like spaghetti. Gary: “Quick! Coin him ‘spaghetti’ so I’m not alone!”

When Jae-suk worries about the VJs in the water, Suk-jin bluntly says that it’s a part of their jobs. So when Suk-jin gets dunked in the water again, Jae-suk says, “Are you cold? It’s a part of your job.” Karma’s a bitch.

Jae-suk guesses it’s actor Kim Sung-kyun, and he’s right. Sung-kyun is greeted with his trademark Answer Me 1988 greeting “Nice to see you!” and Haha is quick to remove his mic.

Actress Go Ara is taken aback when everyone greets her by name. They tease her with obvious questions, but when Jae-suk asks, “Beautiful one… you’re beautiful, aren’t you?”, she answers, “No.”

Her already high voice screeches as she pleads for mercy: “I don’t wanna go in the water!” When Je-hoon notes that Jae-suk is usually the gentleman MC-type, Jae-suk replies that that’s not the trend nowadays. But he does contemplate getting Ara’s name wrong on purpose…

… and Ara asks if she can request someone to take her place. Suk-jin: “Be quiet.” That’s when Jong-kook tells Jae-suk not to dunk her, which only riles up the hyungs even more. Ara tells them to hurry up, and Jae-suk deliberately gets her name wrong: “Gu Hara” (which also works in the wordplay: “Save [her].”)

Finally, the rules of today’s race: Find the hidden No Man. If they do, then the Yes Men win; if they don’t, the No Man wins. Their punishment? A mud bomb.

Before each mission, the group will divide into groups of five, and the group with the No Man will be designated as No. The winners of each mission will be given a chance to exchange up to three teammates.

Everyone will select a cell phone from inside a bungalow, and the person who ends up with the No sticker is our No Man. One by one, they all choose, and then they’re presented with the first question: Would you wear humiliating clothing?

It’s the return of the photo statement T-shirts, and Sung-kyun’s bears his Answer Me 1988 character and reads : “Younger than Haha.” Jong-kook: “His nostrils are bigger than his eyes.” Ji-hyo: “I… sometimes… cry…” Haha (with his notorious first-pitch photo): “Trying to follow in Gary’s footsteps.”

Kwang-soo is of when he was both Kwangvatar and a Martian: “Is this Earth?” Je-hoon looks adorable in his: “Come at me, come at me.” The crew says they couldn’t find anything humiliating for him, to which Kwang-soo says, “Let’s find one today!”

Sung-kyun and Je-hoon choose their teammates… and Team Je-hoon is the Yes Team. Meaning, they’ve got to wear the T-shirts. Once they’re changed, they’re asked the second question: You hate eating delicacies, right?

The reward for the next game: the No Team will be eating a full spread whilst the Yes Team will feast on rice and fish. However the winning team will be given the chance to switch three teammates. If the No Team wins and don’t switch up their lineup, they can eat their feast. Alternatively, they can use that exchange to gain clues about the No Man. Jae-suk: “A man has to eat first!”

Suk-jin: “Isn’t the purpose of today’s mission to find the No Man?” Jae-suk: “It’s to eat!” Touche.

In the car, the Betrayal Trio tries to gauge whether Je-hoon is the type to bend the rules a bit in competition. Je-hoon: “Someone like Chelsea’s Diego Costa?” The guys know that Ara isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty too, so they’re confident that they’ve got a good team.

Once they arrive at their location, the teams are told that the team who completes the mission and gets to the restaurant first, wins. The game: an eight-person hacky sack relay race. Each team recruits three people… and the No Team gets it done on the first try.

Ara is the first to kick on her team… and then the hacky sack drops to the ground. Whoops? Even when Kwang-soo drops it for her, she misses. Maybe the third time’s a charm, but nope—she kicks it out of their ring.

So she decides to go last, and when the hacky sack flies toward her… she succeeds.

The No Team are already on their second mission, and they pull aside a woman who recognizes Jong-kook but needs a reminder from Answer Me 1988 to recognize Sung-kyun. As for Gary? “Dae-ri! Dae-ri!”

They have 30 seconds to collectively draw an image the woman can figure out (an overhead crane). She gets it right. The Yes Team is busy trying to draw a night owl, but the store owner gets it wrong. Ara quickly recruits another passersby, and she correctly answers with “Anchovy!”

The teams rush to the restaurant, and Team Je-hoon tries to guess who they should recruit to become the No Team. They whoop when they see that they’re the first to arrive at the restaurant, and when they decide to play rock-paper-scissors to see who should be traded, Kwang-soo catches Haha trying to trick him.

Both he and Kwang-soo send a secret signal, and everyone but Kwang-soo choose paper, which means he’s gettin’ traded. Then while he whispers into Suk-jin’s ear, he signals the others to choose rock. It works.

Je-hoon tries to secretly signal to Haha to use scissors, then stabs him in the back by choosing rock. Muhahaha, he apparently used that on Ara, too. The man has an evil side.

When Team Sung-kyun arrives, they quickly decide on who will go. Haha prefaces the trade by saying that if that team is still able to eat post-trade, the No Man is definitely Jong-kook or Sung-kyun.

Now it’s time to find out where the No Man is… and the newly assembled Team Sung-kyun and Je-hoon contains the No Man. So even though it’s a 50-50 shot between Jong-kook and Sung-kyun, they still get to eat.

Annoyed, Jae-suk asks why Suk-jin’s sitting in the center instead of their guests, so the mat hyung gladly trades places with Je-hoon. And then Jae-suk realizes that he’s sitting in the center.

The new No Team has trouble figuring out who might be the No Man in the car, and then Je-hoon wonders if the crew will radio the No Man if he’s quiet for too long. Then Je-hoon speaks into the walkie-talkie: “Do you hear me, Detective Lee Jae-han?” Ahhhhh Signal feels!

The teams arrive at their next location that houses two bars above a foam pit. Jae-suk already has a pretty good idea of what will take place here and knows that Jong-kook has a clear advantage.

Time to reveal their third question: Would you piggyback the other team? What that means is that after this mission, the Yes Team will piggyback the No Team to their final mission location… one kilometer away.

Jae-suk: “Think about it—if you don’t exchange players afterwards, how will you figure out who the No Man is?” Kwang-soo: “Then we won’t look for him.” So to make things interesting, the crew adds an incentive: every time the passenger’s foot touches the ground, they’ll give the carrier’s face a beauty mark.

Here the teams will battle it out with different footwear and try to knock each other down. Suk-jin chooses slippers with leeks while Ji-hyo must wear slippers with rubber gloves attached.

Ji-hyo climbs within seconds after the whistle blows and gets a firm grip on Suk-jin’s neck. Suk-jin tries to lift a leg, but it just flails and he falls.

Je-hoon and Ara face off in Round 2 where the former has attached feathers while the latter has flowers attached to her slippers. Je-hoon asks if she’s okay, then Ara apologizes… and taps him on the leg. Just five minutes ago, Ji-hyo had pulled Suk-jin down to the pit.

And then Ara falls into the pit. The picture-in-picture teaches us that Kwang-soo beat Gary, then it’s Round 4 with Jae-suk vs. Sung-kyun. Jae-suk shows his athleticism by swinging himself on top of Sung-kyun’s bar.

Sung-kyun retaliates by sticking his stinky feet in Jae-suk’s nose, then immediately starts tickling him. So Jae-suk chomps down on his heel, then Sung-kyun gives Jae-suk a wedgie. Owwww.

With a 3:1 lead, the PD asks if they’ll bet two points on this last round. Suk-jin: “We’ll go for ten. Jae-suk: “Didn’t you lose?” The ante keeps climbing to about 2.5 trillion points in this battle between Jae-suk and Jong-kook, who grabs the Grasshopper’s neck with his feet.

Jong-kook keeps massaging his face until Jae-suk finally falls. The No Team wins by a huuuuuggge margin (2,500,000,000,405:1), but are reluctant to let either Jong-kook or Sung-kyun go, in case they have to piggyback the others to the final mission location.

It’s lose-lose situation for them, but Ara can’t believe that they all went through this ridiculous foot wrestling game to find out who the No Man is. Then Kwang-soo incites Ji-hyo’s anger when he suggests that they all face the mud punishment.

The No Team weighs the pros and cons of their decision, and ultimately decide not to exchange members. So the Yes Team carries the No Team members, and Kwang-soo has a marker at the ready every time his feet touch the ground.

Ara only needs to carry Je-hoon for 100 meters, and the other guys make it to the end. Now it’s time to cast in their final ballots: the No Man will receive the punishment if they correctly guess who it is. If not, they’ll be muddied.

Suk-jin notes that the real No Man won’t write his name, and Sung-kyun says he’ll write Jong-kook’s name down. He’s given the floor to defend himself, but then stumbles over the last few words.

Jong-kook plainly says it isn’t him, and everyone casts their votes. Kwang-soo votes for Jong-kook, arguing that Jong-kook always defaults to the “it isn’t me” argument when it is. Je-hoon votes for Jong-kook to, whereas Jae-suk and Ara vote for Sung-kyun.

Ara shoots lasers at Sung-kyun as she’s coming out of the booth, and awww—Je-hoon wraps his arms around both of them and bounces, all, Hey, hey. Why you guys fightin’? We’re all friends!

And Jong-kook can’t help but be impressed with Sung-kyun’s acting abilities. The final votes are cast, and everyone waits with trepidation in their respective stalls. The final count is 6 for Sung-kyun, 4 for Jong-kook. They all brace for impact…

… and everyone except Jong-kook gets a healthy mud shower. Everyone admits that they fell for Jong-kook being impressed with Sung-kyun, but Kwang-soo won’t let him get away with it and pours a jugful of muddy water over Jong-kook’s head.

Jong-kook stands frozen in place for a couple of seconds, and Kwang-soo tries going in for an apologetic hug.

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