Variety Review: Running Man Episode 608

Jul 15

Jul 15 Variety Review: Running Man Episode 608

Guests: None

My Entertainment Score: 9 out of 10 laughs

This was a great episode. The format was a little different, but it worked well and I loved seeing them doing only group missions for a day. It would be a 10 if I thought it had more replayability. Definitely worth watching once at least.

What Happened:

Theme: I’ll Get Off Work First Race

Opening (start of episode- 24:32)

The PD calls each member and tells them they are welcome to arrive at the new SBS building any time between 8 and 11 am and to please bring a housewarming gift for the new office. We watch them arrive and take in the shiny new office. It looks really nice!

The early arrivals play pranks on the later members.

Race Explanation (6:45- 8:24) (22:10- 24:32)

The rules were explained to the first two members that arrived here and then again at the end of the segment.

The race for the day is all based on a flexible work hours concept. They kept track of all the arrival times of the members. The first person to leave, will leave 8 hours from the time of the first arrival. The last person to leave will leave 8 hours from the time of the last arrival. Everyone else will leave 8 hours from the average arrival time of all seven members. However, the first to arrive will not necessarily be the first to leave. The order of departure will be chosen through random games.

The other games they play could reduce the time left if they do well. They will all be group missions.

Present Reveals (21:08- 22:10)

First Mission: Fill the Map (24:32- 35:44)

The members are given a map of the variety department (15th floor of the new SBS building). They have to fill in all the blanks from memory. They get 2 chances to go out and check on the rooms. To determine how much time they have to look around, they play the pop up pirate game. Each successful sword placed gives them 10 seconds. And the member to do the search is chosen randomly.

If they fill in the map 100% correctly, they will reduce the departure times by 90 minutes. For each incorrect space on the map, the 90 minutes will be reduced by 10 seconds. So if they were to have 3 spaces labeled incorrectly, they would reduce the time by 60 minutes.

Lunch (35:44- 53:28)

Mini-game (35:44- 44:59) The staff offers to take time off if the members come up with a game while they wait for the food to be ready in the cafeteria. They play a twist on pictionary where each member draws for 5 seconds each. The last member has to guess the idiom.

Lunch Game (44:59) Lunch is a full 6 course meal. For each course, they will plate 8 dishes. One dish has been rigged (super salty, super spicy, etc.). Each time they eat one of the rigged dishes successfully, they will reduce their time by 20 minutes. Since there are only 7 seven members, there is a chance no one will get the rigged dish.

Second Mission: Today’s Staff, Tomorrow’s CEO (53:28- 1:13:01)

This is a series of small missions. Between each one, the members will randomly draw a tag with a position in a company from CEO down to intern. The difficulty of the mission changes based on their position, CEO having the easiest time and intern the most difficult. Any mission completed successfully removes 20 minutes of work time.

First Mission (56:25) The members wear a blindfold and march in place (within a square). The CEO stops and takes off the blindfold after 15 seconds. Every 5 seconds, the next person takes off their blindfold. The intern has to last for 45 seconds. If everyone is in their square, they succeed and remove time.

Second Mission (58:45) Jegi kicking. The CEO plays first and each person has to better the score of the person before them. So, if the CEO does one kick and each person after does only one more, the intern would need to do 7 kicks.

FIRST DEPARTURE!! (1:00:30) They play the random ladder game to determine who goes home. After that departure, they continue with the second (jegi) mission.

Third Mission (1:08:30) Elephant Spin-Circle Drawing. They have to do 5 elephant spins then draw a circle on a board around an R logo. Each member has to draw a successively larger circle so as not to overlap with the member before them. They have only 3 seconds to draw their circle. Any overlap will create a failure.

Other Missions Montage (1:12:33)

Second Departure!! (1:13:01- 1:19:55)

A door is brought in. Each member randomly chooses a keycard to open the lock on the door. Only one keycard does not work. Anyone that is able to open the door gets to go home. The person with the wrong keycard has to stay for another hour and a half.

Overtime Work (1:19:55- end of episode)

Most of the staff also gets to leave. The remaining person can leave early if they receive signatures from people with specific qualifications such as a ‘front desk worker’, a ‘cafe worker’, and a ‘woman with a last name Lee’. There are 18 possible signature slots. For each signature, his work time will be reduced by 5 minutes. He’s not allowed to get Running Man staff signatures.

Preview: The 1st Running Man Vacation Service. It looks like the show got recommendations or wishes from the fans about summer vacation and the members will have to spin a roulette to determine what they will do on their ‘vacation’.

!!!Spoilers!!!

Arrivals

Sechan- 8:02 (air fryer)

Jaesuk- 8:07 (air purifier)

Somin- 8:39 (flowers)

Jihyo- 8:50 (beer…a lot of beer…lol)

Haha- 9:11 (bouquet and teddy bear bouquet)

Seokjin- 10:02 (nice trash can)

Jongkook- 10:43 (cafe certificate)

That means the departure times are:

4:01pm for 1 person

5:04 for 5 people