Variety Review: Running Man Episode 560

Guests: None


My Entertainment Score: 8 out 10 laughs


This was pretty good. The second game was less fun for me as a viewer than it seemed to be for the Running Man members. It was a good game and one that I think could easily be turned into an awesome party game...I’m not sure it translated well to the screen though. Maybe that’s just me. The take away from this episode is that ‘OKAY!’ is a super dangerous expression. 


What Happened


Theme: Running Man Game Lovers Club


Opening (start of episode- 7:48)

The members’ characters are introduced and they have a group chat to set up their first game lovers meeting. Hilariously, Somin was the president of the club. Normally, I would tell you that it was completely safe to skip the opening, but in this case, I recommend it. Their chatroom nicknames were……...special. 


First Game:Options Snakes And Ladders without English  (7:48-29:40)

 Explanation (7:48- 9:12)

The members, in paired teams, play a game of snakes and ladders with two minor adjustments. First, each team is given a roulette numbered 1 to 7 with a ‘lie’ space to make 8 spaces. Other teams close their eyes while one team spins. That team can move the amount on the roulette or lie and try to fool the other teams. If they get caught in a lie, they go all the way back to the start. If they are falsely accused, they are allowed an additional spin that everyone sees. The second adjustment is that they are not allowed to say ANY English words, to include “Okay!”


The teams were Jaesuk and Jongkook vs Jihyo and Seokjin vs Haha and Somin and Sechan.


Game (9:12- 29:40)

Talk about a mess of epic proportions. They played for an hour and never got close to the end. In the end, they had to resort to saying the game would end after one more round. 



Second Game:  (29:40- 1:19:02)

Explanation (29:40- 34:33)

There was a little funny banter in here. They decided the set looked pretty because they had used the money that would normally have gone toward Kwangsoo’s salary to decorate.


This game wasn’t named, so I get to be creative...hmmm...Catch the Outlaw...or A Crooked Sheriff Always Wins? 


In any case, the game has several elements and the show does an excellent job of describing the game with handy pictures to make things clear. It is also an easy enough game to understand as you watch it.


First, there are cards worth 5 points, 7 points, or 10 points. These cards have a cost of some amount of beer, jewels, and cash written on it. When a member purchases one, a new one of the same value but with a different cost is revealed.


Each member begins with 1 of each item: beer, jewel, and cash. One member is randomly chosen to be the sheriff. The sheriff’s job is to catch the outlaws in their attempts to rob 1 or 5 rooms. The rooms are set each round with a different reward.


Outlaws enter the rooms one at a time. Once all the outlaws have chosen a room, the sheriff can choose two rooms to search. If he catches the outlaws in a room, there are several things that the outlaws can do: bribe the sheriff, stay quiet, or betray any members with them. To bribe the sheriff, the outlaw gives him one beer and keeps anything else he got from the room and that member is immune from the other members’ choices. If all the outlaws stay quiet, they keep everything. If one betrays, the others lose everything to the sheriff, but the betrayer keeps what they had. If everyone betrays, the sheriff takes everything except the cash.


They played 8 rounds of the game. The first two had Sechan as the sheriff. The second two had Jaesuk as the sheriff. The fifth and sixth round sheriff was Haha. The seventh round’s sheriff was Somin and the last round’s sheriff was Jihyo. For the final 2 rounds, the rewards in the rooms were doubled.


Game (34:33- 1:19:02)

I’m only going to cover the results of this game overall in the spoilers. It would be insane to try to cover what each person had at each point. 


It was interesting to see how the betrayals and alliances were rearranged by Kwangsoo’s absence. 


Closing (1:19:02- end of episode)

The reward for first place was tomahawk steak. The reward for second place was melons.

The penalty for the bottom two was to play a quickdraw game with water guns. One gun had water but the other had black ink. 



Preview: Guests Han Chaeyoung (actress) and Heo (or Hur) Youngji (singer, formerly of girlgroup Kara) join the Running Man for a vacation. It seems an Unpleasant Man is out to ruin the trip. 


















!!!Spoilers!!!


First Game: Snakes and Ladders

Jaesuk and Jongkook won...amazingly.--They each get 5 points

The other teams were both at the start for speaking English, so they each spun the roulette and the team with the higher number was in 2nd.


Jihyo and Seokjin get 3 points each.


Sechan, Somin, and Haha get 1 point each.


Final Results

Haha came in first with 39 points.--Gets tomahawk steak.

Sechan came in second with 35 points.--Gets melon.

Jaesuk came in third with 23 points.

Jongkook came in 4th with 22 points.

Somin came in 5th with 20 points.

Jihyo came in 6th with 10 points.--Gets penalty

Seokjin came in 7th with 4 points.--Gets penalty



Jihyo got inked by Seokjin in the end.

Variety Review: Running Man Episode 561

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