Running Man Episode 638 Review
Guests: Kim Shinrok (actress)
My Entertainment Score: 8 out of 10 laughs
I enjoyed the games on this episode and the guest was able to shine throughout. In the end, everything came down to luck, but I was alright with the ending in spite of that.
What Happened:
Theme: Lucky Inheritance Race
Opening/Guest Introductions (start of episode- 11:00)
Race Explanation (11:00- 21:50)
The members are gathered as the children of the late owner of a huge company with 8 (what a coincidence!) subsidiary companies. He wants his entire fortune to go to the child with the best luck.
Therefore, each will choose a subsidiary company without knowing its worth and then play luck games to determine who will become the ultimate heir. The shares owned by the various subsidiaries adds up to 70%.
I’m going to put which company each person takes as there is no game for it and it is entirely luck based. They also don’t tell us the starting share for many of the members. They are given 1 coin for each share they have.
The subsidiaries are:
A rental car company - Seokjin
An investment firm - Sechan
Electronics company - Shinrok
A cultural foundation - Haha
A pro soccer team - Jongkook (no surprise there)
An entertainment agency - Somin
A newspaper - Jihyo
A bed and breakfast - Jaesuk
Each share that they control at the end of the day will get them a square on a big board. 2 numbers will be randomly drawn to determine the president and vice president. Those members will get prizes.
For each game, the winning team can take 4% worth of shares from the losing team. The person on each team that has the most shares will be the major shareholder and will get to choose who to steal shares from if the team wins. They will also get to distribute the shares however they wish (but they must share with at least 2 other people).
There is also a “general shareholder meeting” area between games where members can ‘earn’ some of the remaining 30% of shares.
First Mission: Form a Team with the Most Shares (21:50- 27:22)
Teams: Jaesuk, Shinrok, Haha, Somin vs Jongkook, Sechan, Seokjin, Jihyo. These teams continue throughout the game.
I’m going to call them Jaesuk Team v. Seokjin Team from this point forward.
General Shareholders Meeting (27:22- 36:39)
This is essentially a random game where the members pull strings to open a container above their head. Some containers will give them shares. If they get one of those, they can keep going or choose to stop. Others will have flour in them. That will end their attempt to gain shares and they will get 0 new shares and will have to forfeit 2 shares to the general shareholder fund. Anything they had earned up to that point will get added into other good containers’ amounts.
In order to enter the general shareholder meeting, a member or group of members must have 15 shares. The eldest son (Seokjin) gets one free pass to attend.
Second Mission: Conglomerate Family Quiz Class (36:39- 55:40)
One member of each team will need to guess a word. The other three members will give a hint…by writing only one related word and showing it. The team with the most correct answers wins.
**Note: The major shareholders of each team were able to order whatever food they wanted for lunch for the entire group before the game began.**
***Note: They do not show the next general shareholder meeting except as a montage at the end of this section.***
Lunch - 53:37
Third Mission: Deflated Heir (...I see you, writers. Very punny) (55:40- 1:06:34)
Before this mission, the teams switched. Jaesuk, Seokjin, Somin, Sechan vs. Jongkook, Haha, Shinrok, Jihyo. I’ll call them Jaesuk Team and Jongkook Team.
Each team had to deflate a giant swan pool float and put it into a plastic container (with the lid closed).
Last Shareholder Meeting (1:06:34- 1:20:38)
The members test their luck again…and again…and again until they have distributed all the shares.
Final Results (1:20:38- )
The members place their names on the board-one square per share, as a reminder and two winners are determined by random draw.
Preview: Guests IVE join the Running Man crew next week for a special year of the rabbit race. Someone is the rabbit without a liver (This goes back to a traditional Korean story that I do not know…I’ll try to research and make it clearer for the 639 article.) They must find the imposter rabbit by the end of the day!
!!!Spoilers!!!
Starting Shares
Jaesuk - 18
Shinrok - 11
Haha - 10
Somin - 9
Jongkook - 8
Sechan - 6
Seokjin - 5
Jihyo - 3
Form a Team with the Most Shares
Jaesuk steals 4 from Seokjin. He keeps 2 and gives 1 to Shinrok.
The ranking shown here are:
Jaesuk - 21
Shinrok - 12
Haha - 10
Somin - 9 (makes sense up until here for me)
Sechan - 9 whaaaat?
Jongkook - 8
Jihyo - 3
Seokjin - 1
That doesn’t add up to 70…it adds up to 73, so I think there must have been a typo for Sechan.
***At this point, I will stop keeping track of the shares individually, because it becomes incredibly complicated on paper.***
Conglomerate Family Quiz Class
Jaesuk Team wins.
Jaesuk takes 1 from each member, but Jongkook generously gives an extra to keep Seokjin in the game. Jaesuk gives 1 to each of his teammates.
**Note: at the end of this round, Seokjin’s combined shares is only 10%. Jaesuk’s is 57%**
Deflated Heir
Jaesuk Team wins.
Jaesuk takes 4 from Haha.
Final Shares Result
Jaesuk - 45
Shinrok - 16
Jihyo, Sechan, Seokjin - 8
Somin - 6
Jongkook - 5
Haha - 4
**Note before revealing the ultimate winners: The numbers above represent the odds each person has of being drawn. So Jaesuk has a 45% chance of being chosen…**
Final Results
Chairman - Sechan –Prize of Hanwoo Beef
Vice Chairman - Jaesuk –Prize of luxury honey (that’s a thing?)
