Variety Review: Running Man Episode 603
Guests: None
My Entertainment Score: 10 out of 10 laughs
The first section of this episode was a 15 for me…literally nothing else mattered to me after that. There was only one game that was a teeny bit lackluster as a viewer, but it was short.
What Happened:
Theme: 1st Division Game
First Mission: Distracted Instructions (start of episode- 25:00)
The members arrive one by one and are told to pick a color for their team uniform. Each color triggers a different funny skit to start while they hear the race explanation for the day. They are timed to see who is distracted for the lowest amount of time. The most distracted person is out for the rest of the race, along with any staff members that voted for them. The distractions possible are…
Purple: Dancing Security Guard (It’s the Zero Two Dance and he is so good at it)
Pink: Worst foreign contortionist ever
Mint: Lovey Dovey Couple
Race Explanation/Results of First Mission (25:00- 29:14)
Thank goodness, they gave a clear explanation for both the members and us poor viewers who laughed our heads off.
Games with a strong luck element are going to be played. Each game, one member will be eliminated and the last member standing is the winner. When a member is eliminated, they get a penalty ball for the final drawing at the end of the day. They still participate in the following games to try to avoid getting more penalty balls. Eliminated members will get an additional penalty ball for each game where they do not rank in the top 3.
100 staff members are joining in. They will wear caps with a sticker of the person they expect to win the round (or at least not get eliminated that round). They will be eliminated if the person they pick gets eliminated. Any of the staff remaining at the end will split a prize.
Second Mission: Luck Across the Cylinder (29:14- 56:23)
…Or as I mentally termed it: “Balancing Name Roulette”. The game is simply to write their own last name. The problems…they must spin a roulette to determine which language they write it in and they must cross a spinning cylinder and stand on the far end while they write. The language options are Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, English, and Greek.
Third Mission: View Count of Fate (56:23- 1:04:17)
Each member has exactly one chance to type their name and one other word into the youtube search bar. The first video result determines their fate. Least views is eliminated. This particular game seems like it was fun for the members, but it didn’t do much for me.
Fourth Mission: Lunch Mission (1:04:17- 1:09:58)
They called this 7 people, 7 colors. Each member randomly chose a color. They had to go out and buy a food that was that color (not the packaging). The fastest to return wins and the slowest member still in was eliminated. This was a quick game.
Haha-black
Jongkook- yellow
Jihyo- red
Seokjin- green
Jaesuk- pink
Sechan- blue
Somin- white
Fifth Mission: Balloon Bursting Race (1:09:58- 1:17:18)
A course is set up for the three remaining members. There is an easy, medium, and hard difficulty (mostly pertaining to the number of balloons in each part. There are parts to sit on balloons, parts to pop with their hands, parts to stomp on balloons, parts with balloons on mini trampolines, and the last section has big balloons that must be hit with the darts. The slowest member to finish is eliminated.
The other members did not have to run the course. They had to guess correctly the order of the winning in order to avoid another penalty ball.
Somin- easy
Sechan- medium
Jaesuk- hard
Final Results (1:17:18- end of episode)
One final round was played to determine the winner. A roulette began with only two spaces filled. They took turns spinning the roulette. If it landed on an empty space, they would add their opponent’s name to a space. As soon as the roulette landed on a name, that person would be out.
The number of remaining staff determined the prize everyone got. The more remained, the lower the prize. In this case, they each got a luxury perfume.
I’ll list the number of penalty balls each person had in the spoilers. The penalty was whipped cream cannon to the face.
Preview: ASTRO visits for a ‘War of Roses’. The white roses battle the black roses in missions both physical and mental.
!!!Spoilers!!!
Distracted Instructions
Sechan- dancing security guard- 52.4 seconds
Jaesuk- worst foreign contortionist ever- 46.3 seconds
Somin- dancing security guard- 1 minute 5 seconds
Seokjin- worst foreign contortionist ever- 37 seconds
Jihyo- lovey dovey couple- 23 seconds
Haha- dancing security guard- 1 minute 27 seconds
Jongkook- lovey dovey couple- 12.45 seconds
Haha is eliminated. 9 members of staff are eliminated. (91 remain)
Luck Across the Cylinder
Somin- English- Completes it in 4 minutes
Jihyo- Arabic- time runs out but she wrote most of her name.
Haha- Japanese- not even close
Seokjin- Chinese- nope
Sechan- Arabic- Completes it in 1 minute 40 seconds.
Jaesuk- Korean- Finished in 4 minutes 55 seconds.
Jongkook- Japanese- Barely can stand on the cylinder…
Jongkook is eliminated. 42 members of staff are eliminated. (49 remain)
Haha was not in the top 3, so he gets another penalty ball.
View Count Of Fate
Jongkook- 22.87 million- safe
Jaesuk- 17.8 million- safe
Jihyo- 16.01 million- safe
Somin- 12.07 million -safe
Haha- 1.11 million- safe
Sechan- 260,000-safe
Seokjin- 220,000- eliminated
Seokjin eliminated. 4 members of staff are eliminated. (45 remain)
Jongkook is in the top 3. He did not get an additional penalty ball. Haha DOES get an additional penalty ball.
Lunch Mission
Jaesuk (pink) - strawberry milk
Haha (black) - kimbap
Somin (white) - rice
Sechan (blue) - blue candy
Jihyo (red) - ramen
Jongkook (yellow) - pumpkin soup
Seokjin (green) - weird kimbap (wrapped in perilla leaves instead of seaweed)
Jihyo was the slowest member still in and is eliminated. 12 members of staff eliminated. (33 remain)
Haha was in the top 3 and does not get an additional penalty ball. Jongkook and Seokjin DO get an additional penalty ball.
Balloon Burst Race
Sechan
Jaesuk
Somin
Somin is eliminated. 6 members of staff are eliminated. (27 remain)
Jongkook, Haha, and Jihyo guess correctly and do not get an additional penalty ball. Seokjin DOES get an additional penalty ball.
Final Roulette
Jaesuk wins! Congratulations! 13 staff were supporting him. Splitting the 100 R coin prize between each of them earned them a J perfume.
Penalty Balls:
Seokjin- 4
Jongkook- 3
Haha- 3
Somin- 2
Sechan- 1
Jihyo- 1
Somin is chosen for the penalty.
