*2 Days, 1 Night is a show where 6 regular cast members take themed trips around Korea to show off its charms. Each trip has a theme designed to highlight an area or else to create cohesion for the games they play. The general formula for a trip is a lunch game, a dinner game, and a sleeping inside or outside game. Half of the members (in teams or as individuals) will win lunch. The same will be true of dinner and the right to sleep inside instead of in a tent. Trips often cover several episodes.*
This Trip’s Theme: To The House In a Rural Area
My Entertainment Score: overall 8 out 10 laughs
Episode 84 was an 8 for me. The games for the first part of the episode were entertaining.
Episode 85 was an 8 for me. I liked all the games and the chit chat that came between them.
Episode 86, part 1 was an 8 for me. I found the whole process fascinating and the men worked nicely throughout.
What Happened:
Opening (start of ep 84- 7:51)
The members start at the Gunwi Train Station, considered the prettiest in South Korea. They are doing a trip to bring about the feeling of taking a train to visit grandparents during the upcoming summer break.
They break up into teams of 3 (Jongmin, Seonho, and Ravi vs Junghoon, Seyoon, and Dindin) and walk a little bit around the town to get to a museum (renovated out of a shut-down middle school).
Lunch Game: Acquire the Map (7:51- end of episode)
In the museum, the staff have set up 5 games from a while ago. Teams challenge the games. When they win 3, they get the map and address for the next location. The first team to finish can take the car parked right in front of the museum. The other team has to take the car parked all the way back at the opening site. They leave immediately when they finish and the first team to get to the site gets lunch.
This section of games is really funny. It made some of my family members that were just walking through the room stop and giggle.
The five games they can challenge are: word chain, making dalgona, piling matches!, spinning tops, and hitting the stone slab.
Hitting the stone slab is a simple game where stones are placed upright at a distance. The members choose (roll a die) to decide what body part they use to carry a different stone (between the knees, chest, stomach, for example) over to the upright stone. They then have to drop the stone onto the upright stone to knock it over. This is a completely hands-free game. If they fail, they must wait 10 minutes before attempting again (they can stay and practice or go try another mission).
For spinning tops, one member has to keep the top spinning for 15 seconds in order to get a stamp. If they fail they must wait 10 minutes before attempting it again.
For the word chain game, the members are each given 10 slogans from the olden days. They must all get 5 or more correct in order to get the stamp.
Dalgona is a sweet treat made by melting a small bit of sugar and baking soda until melted and then pressing it flat. It can be eaten that way, but it’s more fun to press a shape into the warm mixture. Once it cools (very quickly), you can attempt to break the cookie around the pressed in shape to get a shaped cookie. For the guys in the show, they must make a star to move on to another mission.
For stacking matches, the guys must take turns putting on matches to build a 30 cm tall tower with no collapses. They cannot move on to another mission until they finish this one.
58:50--All the members arrive at the location and meet up with actress Kim Youngok who specializes in playing grandma roles. They spend some time chatting with her before lunch.
Lunch (1:09:18- end of episode 84)
Youngok and the winning team enjoy a ‘country meal’. The losing team is given baked potatoes and kimchi.
Snack Game (start of episode 85- 16:44)
To take advantage of having Youngok with them, they play one last game with her involved. The members all lie down and close their eyes. Youngok tells them stories from her youth. The team whose member is able to fall asleep (or not react) for the longest wins a snack.
They had a grand time listening, messing with each other, and snacking.
Dinner Game (16:44- 1:05:08)
Water Soccer (16:44- 43:53)
The members move on to a creak nearby where they play a game of mini-soccer for the right to eat dinner.
It looked super tough, but the members played hard the entire game because dinner was pork belly. Yum!
Dinner (43:53- 1:05:08)
The winning team eats first. The losing team discovers that their fare is marsh snails! When that didn’t satisfy them, they played gonggi using the snail shells to see who could have a bite of the pork belly. That game was fantastic! (starting about 53:00).
Sleeping Game (1:05:08- 1:30 of episode 86)
For the sleeping game, there is an added incentive. The winners will get old-fashioned fried chicken and beer as well as getting to sleep inside. There will be three luck based games to decide who gets the prizes.
Game 1: Mosquito Coil (1:08:20- 1:12:39)
The members each get a mosquito coil. For those who don’t know, a mosquito coil is a tool to keep bugs away. It looks like a stove coil. You set the outermost part on fire and it slowly burns down, giving off a smoke that repels insects. For this game, they all set theirs alight at the same time. The member who has a piece (ash) fall first wins the right so sleep indoors along with the beer and chicken.
Game 2: Piggy Bank Pull (1:12:39- 1:14:20)
Each member pulls a coin out of a piggy bank without looking. The member whose coin is the oldest sleeps indoors and feasts on chicken and beer.
Game 3: Bowl in the Basin (1:14:20- end of episode 85)
The last 4 members sit around a basin filled with water. Inside the basin, a bowl is set to float. The bowl is spun. Whomever it is pointing at when it stops spinning wins the round.
Sleeping (start of episode 86- 1:30)
The winning members enjoy their chicken and beer and everyone gets some sleep.
Morning Mission (1:30- 24:20)
Twist and Travel (1:30- 8:45)
The members are told everyone will be participating in the morning mission, no game. They are also given a rice ball to eat on the way to employment agency work. They are, understandably, wary
Along the way, the members begin to have a suspicion about where they will end up. Two members had done an employment agency morning mission before making hemp cloth. The lady they worked for had lamented that they hadn’t come during the marijuana harvest season.
Employment Agency Work (8:45- 24:20).
The men work to harvest the marijuana for hemp. Civil servants have to be present at harvest to ensure no one steals the plants for illegal drugs.
Preview: Elegant Eating Trip Begins in Episode 86. I’ll cover that part of the episode in my next article.
*****SPOILERS*****
Lunch Game
Dindin, Junghoon, and Seyoon completed spinning tops on their first try. They completed a dalgona star after many many tries. They completed the hitting stone slabs on their second try and were the first to leave...by a lot.
Ravi, Jongmin, and Seonho failed the word chain mission and then got stuck in the stacking matches mission. It took them 50 minutes to escape. When they finally made it to the car, they had no idea how to read the map, so they stopped for directions! Good men.
In spite of getting lost, Dindin, Junghoon, and Seyoon arrive at the lunch location first. Ravi, Jongmin, and Seonho go WAY off course. It was so bad that the staff contacted them to turn them around and then started giving them correct directions if they had trouble.
Snack Game
They all ended up eating, but Jongmin DEFINITELY won the game. He even snored.
Dinner Game
They were tied 0-0 at the end of the 2nd ‘half’, so they went to penalty kicks. Seonho was the only one to score, so Ravi, Jongmin, and Seonho were the winners and got dinner!
Sleeping Game
Game 1: Mosquito Coil Game- Junghoon wins!
Game 2: Piggy Bank Pull- Dindin wins!
Game 3: Bowl in the Basin- Ravi wins!