Bros on Foot: Episode 4

by stroopwafel

The word of the week is “big.” Big hearts, big appetites, and Bigfoot. Well, not Thee Bigfoot exactly, but a cast member’s giant shoe size and tough exterior belies a guy who’s just really in touch with his feelings. This week’s mission is especially challenging in a surprising way and nearly brings our Bigfoot to tears.

 
EPISODE 4 WEECAP

The cast awakes to a bright and sunny morning, and despite being as exhausted as ever, they begin cooking a giant brunch for themselves. It’s all hands on deck and once they finish they eat out in the open air, with a ring of ice-capped mountains surrounding them.

Their plates are heaped with sausages, steaks, and veggies cooked with heaping spoonfuls of butter. It looks good but something seems off and it looks like all the butter may have made the food a little too greasy to stomach this early in the day. Ji-hoon quietly pulls out his beloved kimchi seasoning and shakes out generous portions for them to use as a dipping salt, reasoning that the sharpness of the kimchi flavor will help cut the grease.

Heh, it makes a big difference and the guys go from picking at their food to wolfing it down. Ji-hoon looks pleased, and without another word tucks the seasoning back into his pocket (I really want him to land a kimchi seasoning ad after this). Lee PD even comments on it and he shrugs, “What? It’s mine. I eat this with red wine too.” It’s like he doesn’t trust the staff not to confiscate his seasoning so he’s just keeping it close, and now I’m imagining him as the kimchi seasoning fairy, just traipsing around New Zealand with pockets full of flavor.

Bellies full, they leave to walk the famed Hooker Valley track in search of their next mission. It’s surprisingly busy, or at least busier than I was expecting it to be. The guys people-watch as they stroll and when an adorable toddler walks by energetically with his pants sliding down, Ji-hoon dubs it “Justin Bieber style” lol.

The first of three swing bridges looms in front of them and Jung-woo and Jin-gu both look uneasy but they manage to cross without much issue. Unlike Jung-woo, Jin-gu doesn’t have a fear of heights per se, but he hates things like suspension bridges or things with glass floors. The second bridge is a bigger issue as it’s much longer. Jung-woo walks across at a snail’s pace and he lets out a tense, “I don’t feel good” before breaking into a run.

His sprint makes the bridge shake even harder, which freaks Jin-gu out completely: “Hyung! Calm down! Hyung!” Ji-hoon reassuringly says, “Since it’s scary let’s hurry off the bridge” and starts an exaggerated running skip that, of course, shakes the bridge again. Poor Jin-gu (he’s adorable when he’s scared) just yelps out, “This hyung’s weird too!” while making his way across the bridge.

They continue on the trail, getting closer to Hooker Lake, and the four of them marvel at the beauty all around them. Ji-hoon and Jung-woo start to talk about how often they’ve traveled together, and that in all their travels this is their first time camping. It’s cool seeing them talk about each other, and you can see how tight their friendship is. They first met while filming Along With the Gods and Ji-hoon says they hit it off right away.

Jung-woo speaks fondly of Ji-hoon, calling him more family than friend. Specifically, Ji-hoon is kind of like a young girl cousin or maybe a niece. Ji-hoon in turn describes Jung-woo thus: Tall, dark, and handsome with a husky voice. Korea’s leading noir actor. And, a girl with big feet. Ji-hoon shares that they’re basically kindred spirits who recognized each other.

The peaceful atmosphere is interrupted once again by the third swing bridge. It’s possibly the worst of them all since they can see it in motion even at a distance. Jin-gu tries to convince Min-ho to go ahead without him, but Min-ho isn’t interested in leaving him alone. Jin-gu starts talking into Min-ho’s camera, “Hello everyone, I’ve overcome my fear—” but bursts into big, nervous laughs when Min-ho starts jumping in front of him. Ji-hoon joins in on the fun and jogs past Min-ho, joking that he left his wallet behind lol. Despite his hyungs, Jin-gu walks across steadily and reaches land.

The pièce de résistance of the track is Hooker Lake, a glacial lake complete with mini icebergs. On the shore of the lake, Jung-woo’s excited to see the mission note and he rushes ahead to read it. There are even photos along with the note this time, but Jung-woo stands in silence and just shakes his head. Jung-woo says he can’t bear to read the note out loud so he passes it to Ji-hoon, who also can’t bear to do it, and Jin-gu gets the job in the end. Today’s mission: For every body part that they dip into the literal glacier lake, they’ll earn Dream Tickets. Half a ticket for dipping your feet or washing your face. One ticket for pouring lakewater across your back and neck, and three tickets for full-body immersion.

Min-ho steps up to make the first attempt, and he wades ankle-deep. He stops and turns back to the shore, and you can see the fire in his eyes burn out in real time lol. It turns out the one thing Min-ho can’t handle is the cold, and his burning charisma meet its end (temporarily) at Hooker Lake.

The hyungs decide to test the waters too; Ji-hoon opts for a face wash, while Jung-woo says he’ll dip his feet in to see if full body is possible. Jung-woo’s cool as a cucumber when he walks in, even saying, “It’s not that cold.” He stands for a second, then blurts out, “Hold on” before full-on scurrying out. Aw, Jung-woo later explains he felt foolish rushing out like that and it might have been his most humiliating moment of the year lol.

But with only one and a half tickets earned, the gears in Min-ho’s head turn and he starts to lay it on thick, saying that for full immersion a measly three tickets isn’t enough. While he advocates for upping the prize to four, you can see from Jin-gu’s face that something is running across his mind. Jin-gu makes a demand: “Five and a half tickets.” Since they only have one and a half, he wants to earn an even total number of tickets. Lee PD: “Call!”

Jin-gu takes his jacket and mic off. Interestingly, he deems it best to go in fully clothed and all I can think is that he’ll be walking back in soaked, icy clothes. Anyway, he explains he needs to keep his socks on because he wears inserts for his flat feet, and then walks in slowly. And then, for the youth, Jin-gu actually dives in and swims out to touch an iceberg. The hyungs are in awe, and Jung-woo looks like he might cry. Jin-gu gets a standing ovation and a round of mamma mias.

In separate talking heads, Jin-gu tells us that he wanted to experience the lake for a few reasons. This was his first trip abroad in a long time and the glacier lake would be a unique experience, but above all there were Dream Tickets on the line. The boy’s got grit.

Jung-woo, for his part, started to tear up because he was so moved by Jin-gu accomplishing the mission. He had only known about Jin-gu’s flat footedness at the lake and it hit him then that what Jin-gu did for the walking mission must have been doubly hard, but Jin-gu did it all the same. The hyungs wrap him in towels as Jin-gu gets out, and Jung-woo says that whatever money they win the next day, half should go to Jin-gu to get whatever he wants. (I’m also very glad someone packed a lot of towels and a dry change of clothes lol.)

There’s a slightly unsatisfying transition from Hooker Lake back to the campsite, and it’s already nighttime. The guys are in the kitchen getting started on dinner, and tonight it’s suyuk (boiled pork). Normally you’d boil the pork for hours with a lot of different ingredients including doenjang, but they make do with what they have on hand. With the suyuk set on the gas range to boil, Lee PD uses the downtime to share letters from two Dream Ticket winners.

The first is from a man with a dream, Dong-yeol. He’s a recent college grad and despite having landed a job right out of college, he found himself stressed out and unhappy. His mom saw how unhappy he was and encouraged him to pursue his dreams, so he decided to quit his job and revisit his dream of becoming a film director. Ever since he saw Lord of the Rings he’s wanted to go into cinema, so you can see how a trip to New Zealand would be especially meaningful. Dong-yeol’s letter resonates with Jung-woo and Ji-hoon in particular as they both had bumpy paths to success.

Ironically, for Ji-hoon the turning point in his life turned out to be a failed audition. He’d made it to the last round after beating out thousands of other candidates, but ultimately lost the role. Instead of being disheartened, he looked at how he’d managed to make it to the final round and he thought that his dream was achievable. Ji-hoon cheers Dong-yeol on and tells him to stay strong and persevere. We see Dong-yeol reach New Zealand and he even does the Hooker Lake Track; the entire clip is so precious and he seems super happy.

The second letter is from a college judo athlete, Seung-min. Because she’s always had training sessions, she’s never been able to take time out to travel. Now that she’s about to graduate, she’ll finally have the time to see the world. She includes a special note for Jung-woo, saying she’s a huge fan, and that she hopes he’ll complete the mission for her. As soon as he hears that, Jung-woo jumps to his feet. He looks both very guilty and apologetic lol. He blames the bike helmet from the first day on his failure to win a ticket for his fan, and laments only having dipped his feet in lol. He’s both dramatic and apologetic (a hilarious combination) about his meager contribution to the glacier mission and he has everyone cracking up.

Seung-min’s waiting to be connected via video and Jung-woo regrets not having a hanbok on hand, and his choice of wearing a casual beanie for dinner. Jung-woo in fan service mode is hilarious and the other guys can’t get enough of this side of him. When the call connects, he throws his beanie off but in the middle of saying hello he starts worrying about his tousled hair. On the other hand, Seung-min looks thrilled to be speaking to him. He lets Seung-min know that they succeeded in earning a Dream Ticket for her, but that Jin-gu was the key player. She thanks them all for the ticket and it’s really cute to see Jung-woo dedicate himself to getting the best camera angle for everyone during the call.

Dinner commences right after, and despite some initial worries that the suyuk would disappoint, it looks super appealing. To accompany the suyuk they make ramyun with the pork broth. There’s a ton of food and they decide to share with the staff as well. In the spirit of sharing, Ji-hoon even doles out his precious kimchi seasoning too, and Lee PD can hardly believe her eyes, “You’re sharing this with us?!”

They dig in, and they eat with such gusto that I’m getting hungry. Jung-woo says he’s done a lifetime’s worth of mukbang in the past three days lol. Conversation turns to Jin-gu’s flat feet and how it’s practically impossible that he managed to do the walking mission despite that. Ji-hoon chimes in that Jin-gu managed it through sheer force of will. Jung-woo jokes to Min-ho that the next mission involves walking into a pit of fire. Min-ho has no problem with that, “I don’t like the cold but I like the heat.”

Jung-woo gives goodnight hugs to Ji-hoon and Min-ho, and with a final “Goodnight babies” from Ji-hoon, they settle in for the night. Down in the car, Ji-hoon gives Min-ho a “good job” pat and they grasp hands. Min-ho comments, “Hyung, your hands are so cold.” He replies: “It’s okay that my hands are cold, my heart is warm.” So silly, but sweet.

The next morning it looks as though the physical toll of all the missions has caught up to them — everyone just looks beat. Lee PD sounds determined when she says they’ll be playing the “Ha Jung-woo game” for their allowance, as proposed by Jung-woo. He’d figured that since the staff have schemed against them to deprive them of money, it was time to level the playing field and play a game the cast suggest.

What is the Ha Jung-woo game? It’s basically a variation on the 3-6-9 clapping game, which is a game that pretty much all Koreans are familiar with. During their Hooker Lake trek, Jung-woo had explained to the guys that there are lots of tactics they can use to win, like using an unusual number combination to make the game more difficult for their opponents. They sit by the trail to do a practice round and they all do well.

Why is Jung-woo so confident about this game? He plays 3-6-9 as a drinking game all the time. Ji-hoon’s an old hand too; once played with a bunch of actors and they made their way through 50 bottles of soju (I hope for their livers’ sakes that there were 50 actors playing).

Back to this morning, before they start, Minho says something that sounds ominous: “I think I heard the staff practicing 3-6-9 this morning.” And indeed they were — they even got up early to practice because they were scared by Jung-woo’s confidence lol. It’s the staff vs. the cast and they’ll play five rounds with a total spread of $185 up for grabs. They sit down, and a staffer starts the count, but it’s a strange variation — one that Jung-woo had mentioned in passing as a surefire winning tactic, but not one they anticipated the staff using. Ruh-roh.

Epilogue
There are separate vignettes to close the episode. Jung-woo runs out of the lake after getting his feet wet, and after he’s dried off he describes the water as being frigid to Min-ho. It’s not that bad if you can handle the cold — it’s like how people can handle varying levels of spice. The morning after the lake mission, Ji-hoon grabs Jin-gu for a giant hug, nearly knocking Jin-gu over in the process. Min-ho is grumpy about his bedhead (it looks great though) and he puts on a balaclava and a baseball cap over that saying, “I need to cover myself up. I won’t show myself.” Lee PD tells him his style now looks hip hop so Min-ho breaks into a languid dance before he stumbles and stops.

 
RELATED POSTS

• News bites: January 4, 2023
• The Fabulous: Episode 1 (First Impressions)
• News bites: December 7, 2022
• News bites: September 10, 2022
• News bites: September 3, 2022
• Narco-Saints: Episodes 1-6 (Series review)
• Link: Eat, Love, Kill: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)
• News bites: June 4, 2022
• Searching mountains with Jeon Ji-hyun, Joo Ji-hoon in tvN’s Jirisan