Running Man: Episode 301

by gummimochi

The 7 vs. 300 Games continue in Part 2 this week, as each of our members try to defeat the enthusiastic youth on their own turf. But the sheer number of students can easily be overwhelming, so the cast will need a little luck on their side if they hope to pick up more puzzle pieces that will lead them to safety.

EPISODE 301. Broadcast on May 29, 2016.

We jump back into the university gymnasium where 299 student cheer on their classmate in this ddakji battle. Jae-suk fails to flip over No. 1’s paper square, and the youth revs up and slams down his ddakji… and fails.

Second time’s a charm, but Jae-suk still has a long way to go. He’s got his work cut out for him ’cause Student No. 2 is a sports major. Jae-suk gets nervous before the student throws down his ddakji… but it weakly bounces off the other square. Wow, that was hilariously anticlimactic.

But Jae-suk succeeds on his second try here too, and the third competitor has broad shoulders. Haha asks if he can do a “mosquito dance” which the student does on the spot. Haha, he could give Kwang-soo a run for his money.

Jae-suk takes down this competitor too on the second try. Student No. 4 steps up with bravado, and like before Jae-suk’s first try is a miss. And to everyone’s shock, the kid’s good.

Both the student and Jae-suk flip the other’s squares twice over, and then the student wins it on his third attempt. Jae-suk’s small victory barely makes a dent, since the remaining 6 still have to win against 297 students.

It’s Jong-kook’s turn to engage in an arm-wrestling battle. Jong-kook stays humble about it, mentioning that there’s too many people. Suk-jin: “Just take down 230 of them.”

No. 4 steps up, whom Jong-kook takes down easily. He tenses when the next competitor is a young lady, and Haha says the ladies can just think of it as holding hands with Jong-kook. She interjects: “I want to hold hands with Gary.” Can’t say I blame you.

Asked if she wants to say anything to Jong-kook, she answers: “No.” Ouch. Jong-kook: “I don’t have anything to say either!”

Jong-kook is met with a wave of boos when he takes her down instantly, and she still has nothing to say to him. No. 7 has nothing to say to Jong-kook; he just wants to hold Ji-hyo’s hand.

Jong-kook says he’ll finish this round in one second, which he does. The next young woman is a fan of Kwang-soo’s, and Kwang-soo jokingly twirls her around when she goes to take his hand. Twice.

He gives her a thumbs down, and Gary is shocked that the girl still likes him. Hey the heart wants what it wants. Needless to say, he wins that round easily, but the next one’s a bit tougher.

When No. 10 with his short shorts is a fan of Jong-kook’s, he embraces the young man. Just as the match is about to start, Kwang-soo chimes in: “But don’t his shorts look like boxers?”

He beats No. 10, and we skip through the numbers, as Jong-kook is gentlemanly to the ladies while defeating the young men. No. 38 is an energetic fellow, who screams as Jong-kook defeats him. HA.

No. 42 is another athlete, and he puts up a good fight until Jong-kook beats him. Jong-kook’s strength decreases with each round, and now he’s faced with a string of four male competitors starting with No. 58.

Both struggle, but in the end, it’s No. 58 who’s victorious. Gary and Ji-hyo are our next contenders, and they’ll be playing a couple airplane game, where he’ll need to do squats while holding Ji-hyo in the air.

This is a good opportunity to cut down on the remaining 245 students, and from the very first squat, Ji-hyo tells him to take his time. We’re told that 10 pairs are eliminated from the first few squats, and soon only 30 pairs of student remain.

Time to speed things up, but the youths stay in sync with the whistle. Ji-hyo keeps talking to Gary, and later only 15 pairs are still in the game. Somehow, Gary is still able to squat and Jae-suk says he’s getting breathless from blowing the whistle.

It’s the final spurt of 20 more squats for the remaining nine pairs, and Gary pushes each squat out. So do the other eight pairs of students. Wow.

Including the others who didn’t participate in the game, the cast still needs to defeat 63 students. It’s Suk-jin’s time to shine in a rock-paper-scissors battle, where he’ll say what he’ll throw out… but it’s up to him as to whether or not he’ll stick to it.

Suk-jin claims to throw scissors… but he chooses paper, which is defeated by the first student’s scissors. LOL.

Then it’s Haha’s turn to see who can steal the towel in the middle the fastest. He and No. 71 are back-to-back, and why do I get the feeling that Haha will just bump him out to grab the towel?

But Haha’s quick, and the next student lightly taps him on the butt. Hehe. Haha reciprocates by grabbing both cheeks.

Unfortunately for him, the student is quicker this time around. Which means Kwang-soo has to take down 62 students on his own. He’ll face the students off in an egg cracking contest—a raw egg means a victory while a boiled one means defeat.

We all know of Kwang-soo’s winning streak in this category, and all the students take an egg. Kwang-soo takes a deep breath before picking up an egg, and Jae-suk counts it off… and asks for a round of applause.

He starts over, and Kwang-soo, along with 62 students, crack the egg on their foreheads. And would you believe it if I told you that Kwang-soo’s egg is raw? LOL, wow.

That first round takes out 37 students, and Kwang-soo chooses his next egg. It’s raw.

Kwang-soo is up against 14 students in Round 3, the silence sets in… and someone from the seats cheers him on. Again, it’s raw.

Seven students remain, including No. 72. Kwang-soo cracks the fourth egg… but it’s cooked. There are two female students who had raw eggs, which means the 300 students take the win.

Afterward, the cast pull up to a house on the mountain in the rain. Here they’ll play a warm up game where the rankings will be applied to their final mission. So it’s time for an old-fashioned pillow fight, tournament-style.

SpartAce is up first, and Jong-kook takes her down with one hit to the head. Haha and Jae-suk are next, and both agree to hit each other once.

Haha gets one good hit in, but then he ducks when Jae-suk twirls his pillow. Hahaha. With that, Jae-suk unleashes his fury, and then Haha hits him in his family jewels.

After Jae-suk loses, Haha figures that Jong-kook’s right arm is weak. Jong-kook responds by hitting him full in the face with the pillow.

In an unexpected twist, Kwang-soo faces Jong-kook in the final round. He steadily gets hits in until Jong-kook sideswipes his face, leaving him shaking. “You sure you didn’t put something in your pillow?”

Jong-kook blocks Kwang-soo’s hits and slams him with the pillow until he finally rolls off. Everyone stops to eat some ramyun, then they’re separated to different rooms where a t-shirt and a nametag awaits them.

Everyone climbs into bed, and then some time later, an alarm sounds to announce the final mission: 7 vs. 300 kilograms, where they’ll need to scour the grounds to find the hidden scales with their names on it.

At that point, they’ll need to weigh themselves at their destination. The total weight limit of the escapees cannot exceed 300 kilograms, and the deadweights will be left behind.

Suk-jin steps out into the darkness, but then starts running when he sees a shadow. He isn’t the only one running, as one hunter tracks Jae-suk down. His nametag is ripped off and he’s given sandbags as extra weight.

Ji-hyo chats with a few of the guys after her close encounter with a hunter. She hems and haws when Suk-jin asks how much she weighs, as he says it’s important. He guesses that she might be around 50 kilograms, and that’s when she murmurs: “It’s a little more than that…”

She remembers the puzzle map just then, and how their few puzzle pieces pointed to a destination. Haha finds a scale in the bushes.

It’s Jong-kook’s and Haha sets it back where he found it. Elsewhere, Jae-suk has been caught three times now. Kwang-soo finds a scale behind a curtain, but says nothing. He tells the hyungs that they should probably leave, which only pings Jae-suk and Suk-jin’s suspicion radars.

He tries acting all innocent, but the hyungs aren’t buying it. Jae-suk finds the box, and it turns out the scale is his. Gary finds his own scale, but it’s Jae-suk who gets to the bottom of the hill first.

Jae-suk and Gary’s total weight amounts to 152.2 kg, and soon everyone else finds their own scales. Kwang-soo is next to arrive, and he wonders if he should take off his bag so that Ji-hyo could potentially leave too. Gary: “You may as well take off your pants then!”

By the time Haha arrives, he can’t weight over 69.2 kg. He hurriedly takes off his shorts, bag, and shoes, but he’s still 0.6 kg over. So off comes the t-shirt, but he’s still over.

He’s stepping into dangerous ratings territory when he contemplates taking everything off, but it’s the sandbags on his wrist holding him back. Jong-kook arrives bearing four sandbags, and it crushes Haha to let Ji-hyo try instead.

She clears with 53.4 kgs, and then both Gary and Jae-suk belatedly realized that they could’ve unloaded their gear first. So Gary, Jae-suk, Kwang-soo, and Ji-hyo climb into the van, while the others have an eight kilometer trek ahead of them.

Jong-kook tells Suk-jin that the distance is no biggie, and Suk-jin chuckles that it’s always nice to have company. It’s also nice to look forward to seeing Yeo Jin-gu as one of next week’s guests.

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