Variety Review: Running Man Episode 588- (most of) 589
Guests: Joo Woojae (model), Lee Irene (model—not Irene from Red Velvet), Lee Hyunyi (model), Song Haena (model)
My Entertainment Score: 6 out of 10 laughs
Episode 588 was a 6 for me. The first game was hilarious, but the introduction time was too long for my taste.
Episode 589 was an 8 for me. Both games were really funny and I enjoyed the final results’ revelations.
What Happened:
Theme: New Year Fashion Battle
Opening (start of episode- 9:15)
The members arrive in their new year trends clothing and have some discussion.
Guest Introduction (9:15- 35:88)
Four guests are hidden behind a curtain with their voices disguised. They each evaluate the members’ outfits.
21:42- The curtain falls and the members finally get to meet the people that have been judging their looks. They take some time for introductions
30:38- The guests officially rank the members' fashion.
Race Explanation (35:18- 38:34)
Because height is everything in fashion *sighs*, the teams are split up based on height, with Woojae choosing between normal or short to keep things relatively fair.
Team Tall: Hyunyi, Irene, Jaesuk, Jongkook (Wears Pink)
Team Average: Seokjin, Somin, Sechan, Woojae (Wears Tan)
Team Short: Haha, Jihyo, Haena (Wears Purple)
The teams are going to compete to be the tallest team. This will be measured at the end of the race by seeing which team can reach the highest in a standing jump. The winning team will get a prize and be exempt from punishment.
Over the course of the game, the teams will earn coins that they can spend to purchase one of two things. The first is blocks that will raise their starting position for the ending team jumps. The second is shoe platforms to raise their individual height. Individual heights will determine who gets the punishment at the end of the game. The two shortest people on the losing team and the shortest person on the second place team will be eligible for punishment. Two of those three will randomly get a flour bomb.
First Mission: Holding Out (38:34- 53:09)
A padded platform is set up for the game. The teams will send out pairs (not male-male). For two minutes, they will attempt to have both members of the team up on the platform. They will time each couple to determine which team held on to the platform as a couple for the longest. There were two rounds.
I laughed unnecessarily hard at this.
Buying Time (53:09- 57:29)
As mentioned earlier, the members use their coins to either purchase shoe lifts for themselves or blocks for the team. The results of these purchases are not revealed until the end.
Second Mission: Sechan Game (57:29- 0:56 of ep 589)
There is a long section of chatting at the start of this. It goes from 57:29 to 1:03:56.
One member of each team comes forward to play. They are given a name (real or fictional) of a person to wear on their forehead. They must guess their person after asking the other two players questions in a 20-questions type way. They play 3 rounds.
Buying Time (0:56- 1:51)
Third Mission: Frightening Quiz (1:51- 25:35)
This was a hoot, start to finish.
Three rounds are played with 5 questions each. In each round, a different team is in the hot seat. They will not have to answer the questions. Instead, they will face a random flour bomb punishment if the other two teams, working together, are able to answer the questions. The answering teams must answer one character (syllable) per person with no more than two passes on each question. If they manage a correct answer, they get one point (for each team) and the team in the hot seat loses a point–on top of choosing a number at random that might give one of them a flour bomb.
Buying Time (25:35- 25:53)
Fourth Mission: Acorn War (25:53- 53:33)
This was a name tag ripping variation and I loved it. Name tags couldn’t be ripped randomly. Members had to find and turn in acorns that had been hidden in the area in order to have a ‘ticket’ to take off a chosen target’s name tag. Five acorns would buy an individual ticket. Fifteen acorns could buy an ‘open ticket’-which meant the target could be ousted by anyone that was still playing. Fifteen acorns could also resurrect an ousted player from your team. You can see how this could make for many twists and fake outs, right?
Last Buying Time (53:33- 56:02)
Members were given additional coins for each person they eliminated in the Acorn War.
Final Height Battle (56:02- 1:06:38)
The results of the buying up to this point are revealed. Then the members do the jump challenge to determine the winning teams. The winning team received beef sets. Lastly, the members in the losing teams compared their adjusted heights to see who would face the random flour bomb as the day’s punishment.
Preview: The rest of episode 589 is the opening, guest introduction, and game explanation for the next race. My plan is to briefly recap that at the start of my next article but not rate it separately. It was amusing. The next race is the Legend of the Tiger race. The members, with guests Eunhyuk, Bae Seulki, and Hong Sooah, will be a part of the tiger or the bear team, but two poachers are hidden among them.
!!!Spoilers!!!
Fashion King Ranking
Haha- 3 coins (short)
Sechan- 2 coins (average)
Jihyo- 1 coin (short)
Somin
Jaesuk
Jongkook
Seokjin
Holding Out
Round 1:
Tall (Jaesuk and Irene): 1 minute 6 seconds
Short (Haha and Jihyo): 56 seconds
Average (Sechan and Seokjin): 18 seconds
Round 2:
Tall (Jongkook and Hyunyi): 1 minute 58 seconds
Short (Haha and Haena): 1 minute 15 seconds
Average (Woojae and Somin): 2 seconds
Team Tall wins overall and gets 3 coins each.
Team Short gets 2 coins each.
Team Average gets 1 coin each.
Sechan Game
Team Tall wins- 3 coins each
Team Short- 2 coins each
Team Average- 1 coin each
Frightening Quiz
Short (4 points)- 3 coins each
Tall (2 points)- 2 coins each
Average (-1 point)- 1 coin each
Acorn War
Average (because of Seokjin!)- 3 coins each
Tall- 2 coins each
Short- 1 coin each
Final Results
Team Tall:
Jaesuk- 7 blocks and 3 shoe lifts
Jongkook- 10 blocks and 2 shoe lifts
Hyunyi- 9 blocks and 3 shoe lifts
Irene- 7 blocks and 3 shoe lifts
***33 blocks for the team***
Team Average:
Seokjin- 5 blocks and 3 shoe lifts
Sechan- 5 blocks and 5 shoe lifts
Woojae- 7 blocks and 2 shoe lifts
Somin- 3 blocks and 3 shoe lifts
***20 blocks for the team***
Team Short:
Haha- 7 blocks and 4 shoe lifts
Jihyo- 5 blocks and 4 shoe lifts
Haena- 7 blocks and 1 shoe lift
***19 blocks for the team***
Team Tall has the highest jump–They win the beef sets and are exempt from punishment.
Team Average is second. The ‘shortest’ with shoe lifts is up for punishment.
Somin takes the punishment spot
Team Short- The two ‘shortest’ with shoe lifts are up for punishment
Jihyo and Haena take the punishment spots.
***The random flour bombs go to Jihyo and Somin.***
