**Note: News came out that Kwangsoo will be retiring from the show. I don’t know when they’ll film his last episodes, but it wasn’t yet mentioned in the show. Prepare your hearts for a whole new dynamic.**
Guests: None
My Entertainment Score: 8 out 10 laughs
Haha stole the show this week and I’m 100% on board for it.
What Happened:
Theme: Return to 1991
**The first two minutes are a recap of what happened in the last episode for anyone that missed it.**
As a recap of the rules: The members are going to be able to pick prizes from a board that shows things that were popular in 1991, such as a walkman. There are 20 possible prizes and no prize can get picked twice. They will play games to decide how many people will get a prize before each round and then a game to decide who gets prizes. At the end of the day, the number of prizes that are unclaimed will be the number of people that get a punishment. Members with the least number of prizes will get the punishment.
Pool Hall Grand Prix (2:00- 10:24)
The members play in teams of two. They play a fairly standard game of billiards (stripes v. solids) after a ball goes in. The eight ball has to be put in last to end the round. They breeze over a lot of this. The show a lot of Haha and Jihyo vs. Jaesuk and Somin...because Haha Jackson was hilarious and Somin was typically weird. And then Jihyo was adorably confused. She was shooting left-handed at first.
Prize Mission (10:24- 17:48)
One at a time, the members are picked to go down one floor in the pool hall to a new room. The door swings both out and in. The first person to go has to choose who comes next and guess whether they will push or pull the door open. For each correct guess (plus one for the first member that no one could guess on), a prize will be given in the next game, for a potential total of 8 prizes awarded in the next game. Kwangsoo was sent down first by the staff members.
I don’t know about you all, but I like psychology and I found this absolutely fascinating. I would love to get some opinions on if you think there might be something to this test about the personalities of the members involved.
Top Spinning Game (17:48- 31:50)
Changing Locations (17:48- 24:00)
The members chatted on the bus and arrived at a rooftop location that’s nostalgic. They enjoyed some refreshments before the next game started. Jaesuk and Seokjin shared more stories from the 90’s.
Top Spinning (24:00- 31:50)
Each member is given an old-school top and a length of string to wrap around it. When you throw out the top, pulling the string back makes the top spin. With some practice, the string can be used after the top is spinning to direct the top, to make it spin more stably, or to make it jump and attack. They spent a decent amount of time practicing since several members were completely unfamiliar with the skill. Then they played in two groups of four (oldest members first). Three from each group were allowed to play in the final round. In the last round, only the first member whose top fell would not get a prize.
Second Prize Mission (31:50- 38:35)
In the same general way as the last mission, the members were sent down 1 at a time. Seokjin was sent down first. He was directed to a snack bag (like a potato chip bag). They would get a prize for each member that opened a snack bag the same way that Seokjin did.
Lunch (38:35- 46:30)
Because there were no prizes to be had, the members were allowed to eat freely. Haha Jackson and Seokjin carried this segment completely. I’m so glad they were at opposite ends of the table. There wasn’t a dull moment.
Third Prize Mission (46:30- 54:33)
Everyone had to stand in front of a camera in the little restaurant where they had lunch. They set a 3 second timer on a camera and then had to hide completely within that time in order to get 8 prizes. Each failed attempt meant one less prize. After the first shot, they moved to the alley outside to do the same mission. That was supposed to be an easier location...I’m not convinced. The crew let them change it to a 5 second timer after several failed attempts.
This was where even the STAFF started calling Haha ‘Jackson’...lol. He was so good this week!
Comic Book Store (54:33- 55:58)
This game wasn’t covered at all except to show the members’ excitement at the comics (manga) and to show who won.
Record Store (55:58- )
There are a couple minutes of travel and admiring the store/music.
Bonus Game (58:30- 1:13:55)
One prize-The members are told to write out a personal story to request a song of the store’s DJ--imagine the old radio shows. After they finish, Jaesuk reads them out loud and the store DJ chooses one of the requested songs to play. The person that had their request accepted will get a prize.
One prize-They listened to the songs all the way through and sang/danced along. The emotional rollercoaster of the group was fantastic. At the end, the store owner came out to pick who did the best.
Crew Story Game (1:13:55- 1:19:55)
They didn’t show much about the prize game, but 4 people will get a prize in this game.
The members were split up into an old boys team and young boys team. After hearing a concern written by a member of the crew, the teams had to find a song to play that would help that crewmember. The winning team members would all get a prize.
Final Results (1:19:55- end of episode)
The members with the lowest number of prizes are chosen to get the penalty. This is based on how many prizes did not get chosen. They have to make a one-minute commercial for Running Man made in the 1990’s style.
Preview: Credit Card Payment Race, When You Go To The TV Station. The members will compete to not pay for various activities at the TV station for a day. These ‘pay for it out of your own pocket’ episodes always make me slightly uncomfortable, so we’ll have to see how it goes.
!!!Spoilers!!!
Pool Hall Grand Prix
Haha Jackson and Jihyo beat Jaesuk and Somin.
Jongkook and Sechan beat Kwangsoo and Seokjin.
Because only 2 people could get prizes (per the game at the end of last episode), the winning four played rock, paper, scissors to determine who would take prizes. Haha won, so Haha and Jihyo picked prizes. 4 out of 20 prizes are taken now.
Door Prize Mission
Kwangsoo entering is an automatic success since no one could guess--1 prize.
Kwangsoo calls Jongkook and guesses he will push the door--Correct--2 prizes.
Jongkook calls Seokjin and guesses he will push the door--Correct--3 prizes.
Seokjin calls Jihyo and guesses she will push the door--Correct--4 prizes.
Jihyo calls Somin and guesses she will push the door--Correct--5 prizes.
Somin calls Sechan and guesses he will push the door--Incorrect--still 5 prizes.
Sechan calls Jaesuk and guesses he will pull the door--Incorrect--still 5 prizes.
Jaesuk calls Haha and guesses he will push the door--Incorrect--still 5 prizes.
Side note on my psychology of the door fascination: That means only Haha and Sechan pulled the door open. Weird!
Top Spinning Game
First round: Haha, Jongkook, and Seokjin pass.
*because his top hit Haha immediately and never started, Jaesuk was allowed to compete in round 2 as well.*
Second round: Sechan, Somin, and pass.
Final round: Haha is out in a random move of Jaesuk. The rest of the members kept playing to decide the order for picking prizes.
**9 out of 20 prizes are taken now.**
Snack Prize Mission
Seokjin used the sawtooth cut at the top of the bag to tear it vertically down.
Sechan used scissors that were nearby to open the bag--Fail--0 prizes.
Somin used scissors to open the bag--Fail--0 prizes.
Jaesuk used scissors to open the bag--Fail--0 prizes.
Jongkook used scissors to open the bag--Fail--still 0 prizes.
Haha Jackson *figured out the mission* pulled the sides apart to open the bag--Fail--ZERO.
Jihyo used scissors to open the bag--Fail--Nope.
Kwangsoo used scissors to open the bag--Fail--A perfect 0. Lol.
Camera Prize Mission
They failed, in some cases spectacularly, a total of 5 times--3 prizes at the next location.
Comic Book Store Game
Seokjin, Jaesuk, and Somin won prizes. **12 out of 20 prizes are taken now**
Record Store Games
Bonus game #1-Jongkook is chosen and gets a prize for his song request story.
Bonus game #2-Somin gets a prize for her enthusiastic dancing. **14 out of 20 prizes are taken now.**
Crew story game- Young boys team wins the first round. Old boys team wins the second round. The teams play rock, paper, scissors to choose 2 members of each team to take a prize. Jongkook, Jaesuk, Kwangsoo, and Somin get prizes. **18 out of 20 prizes are taken now**
Penalty
2 prizes didn’t get taken, so 2 people must get the penalty. Jihyo and Sechan have only one prize each (the lowest number among the members), so they get the penalty.