Running Man Episode 163 recap

Today’s race is all about stealing princess Song Ji Hyo’s heart featuring well-known k-pop idols – Big Bang’s Seungri, GD and Daesung.

OPENING

The episode starts with Running Man members except Ji Hyo gathering together on sunny day in late summer.  All of them look unusually handsome – they are dressed in their finest. HaHa is even wearing lifts to look taller. Gary is drowning in his dad’s(?) suit. It looks like he came to his wedding (Monday Couple wedding?).  Jae Suk is dictating fashion with his marching band uniform (I have to admit he looks like one of After School members during “Bang” promotions). All of them correctly guess that today’s theme of a race is somehow related to “princess”.

Suddenly Jessica(car) shows up and three nice looking guys debus and head towards fashionably dressed Running Man members. It’s none other than Big Bang’s Seungri, GD and Daesung.  

All three of them are handsomely dressed as well, which makes one guy feel frustrated. The one, who is still drowning in his big suit. After greetings, without stoppages, PD announces teams:

GD team: G-Dragon, Yoo Jae Suk, Gary.

Daesung team: Daesung, Kim Jong Kook, Lee Kwang Soo.

Seungri team: Seungri, HaHa, Ji Suk Jin.

Everyone straight away declares that Daesung’s team is the idiot team. (I thought Jong Kook is considered as one of the most intelligent members? But oh well, he doesn’t know how to use his muscles!). Putting Kwang Soo and Daesung in one team was a wise choice. It means we will be able to see a fight for the most stupid(?) person award. Kwang Soo understands it and makes his move first.

But suddenly pumpkin carriage interfere their conversation. There is a princess sitting in the carriage – Song Ji Hyo. She looks exceptionally stunning today! FD Dong Wan escorts her nearer to Running Man members. To everyone’s astonishment Ji Hyo’s dress and Gary’s suit match them. It looks like both of them came to their own wedding (I wish).

FD Dongwan states, that today’s prize will be gold, something that our princess has a lot in possession (she has the highest record for winning the most gold prizes as a sole victor).

PD adds up, that team who wins a mission will get a chance to escort princess in a luxury car, while the other two will have to move in a very old classic car. That’s where the first battle starts – who will escort princess to the first mission’s location?

GD’s team decides to steal princess heart by doing body waves while leaning on her. But somehow Ji Hyo doesn’t look happy. “You guys are too heavy” she states.

The second team (Seungri’s team) tries to do cool dance. But sadly Suk Jin does exactly the same moves as Seungri, which leads him to be in his shadow(?).

Before even starting their dance, Daesung states that his team is the worst and it’s already clear who will come in last place today. Maybe he tried to make Ji Hyo sorry and choose his team to escort her? Instead of doing cool dance, Daesung team goes with “stupid” dance making our princess laugh. To make a bigger impression Jong Kook even lifts her.

There is one guy looking at the scene frustrated. And once again it’s the same guy, who is drowning in his suit. But! He has a secret weapon prepared.  PD gives GD’s team second chance and this time Gary is way more serious. He heads towards Ji Hyo, throwing glares full of love. He pretends to be dancing funnily, but suddenly he puts his hands on princess face and moves his lips towards her cheek. CHEEK KISS! Ji Hyo is full in astonishment. She can’t hide her smile, (Maybe Monday Couple is real?????) while Gary is proud and embarrassed at the same time.

Without any doubt Ji Hyo chooses KANG GARY (not GD’s team) to escort her. Sweet! Team GD comfortably takes seats in their luxurious car, while other two teams start boiling process in old cars.

First mission – “gather up Princess Blank’s flags”

First mission location – rice paddy field purposely filled with water. You can guess right way that something bad is waiting for them. In first mission teams will need to gather all three Princess Blank’s flags and stick them in the stand. But all of teams’ members will be tied to the bungee jumping rope.

I will be honest, I didn’t expect to see something like this right away after Ji Hyo whistled to announce mission start. All teams start to run as fast as they can, but there is one guy falling right away. Not without Haha’s help.

The further teams are from starting position, the more bungee cord is dragging them back. Kwang Soo is the first one to grab the first flag. But he doesn’t seem satisfied. Bungee jumping rope dragged him back right after he grabbed flag and he was taken down. The second team to grab the flag is GD’s team. But they experience the same fate as Kwang Soo did. But this time all of team members fall down. GD tries to get up, but he falls over and over again.

Meanwhile the third team pulls out the first flag meaning that all teams have an equal amount of flags. Daesung’s team tries to go for the second flag, but that’s where Haha starts his cheating plan. He grabs their cord and pulls them back. It leads to Daesung falling on the ground.

All teams struggles to get the second flag. GD’s team starts crawling while Jong Kook starts running like crazy. Surprisingly, both teams reach their flag simultaneously. But they fall down simultaneously too..  Without waiting team Daesung races for their third flag. This time Haha and Seungri decide to cheat once again and put them back. But Daesung’s team isn’t even worried about it. They make their second attempt right away and succeed. They win the first mission.

Well, that’s what they thought. They didn’t know that it is only first round and mission continues. Second round starts with all teams running crazily. All of them adapted to conditions, so they succeed getting first flag in their first try. As the Seungri’s team struggles to get back to the starting point, the other two succeed in grabbing second flag. Few moments later Seungri’s team succeeds as well, making it a tie again. All team runs for the third flag simultaneously. It’s Jong Kook who grabs flag first, beating other two by a split of second. But GD’s team makes it first to the starting point and wins the second round.

It means that now two teams, team GD and team Daesung, have one point, while Seungri team has none. Seungri team struggles in the third round again, meaning, that team GD and team Daesung are fighting for a victory. GD team grabs the last flag first and swims back. Sadly for them, team Daesung runs faster than they swim. In the end Kwang Soo stacks the last flag first. It means team Daesung victory.

Victory for team Daesung means, that they will have a chance to choose one car from three highest cards you can get, while GD’s team will choose from next three best and Seungri’s team from the worst three. Ji Hyo kindly helps for first two teams to pick the highest card – 9 and 6, while she misleads the last team. They get 2.

Teams start moving to their second mission location. On the road teams have to drive through the toll. Jae Suk takes the toll ticket and stick it up to the visor. But later, toll ticket falls from the visor and flies through the opened window. What can I say? Variety God is helping him to make us laugh!

Second mission – Princess Jihyo’s everything

Second mission location is gas station in Gyeunggido. In this mission teams will have to find and bring the answers of questions related to Ji Hyo. Even before starting mission, teams starts boasting about how much they know about her. But it looks like Kwang Soo knows more than the others. “57.8kg” he states. Sadly he didn’t think about consequences. Princess just laughs out of anger.

In the first round teams have to guess and bring the food that Princess Ji Hyo is craving for the most. Once again Jae Suk boasts that he knows what kind of food Ji Hyo likes. “Ji Hyo, do you want the same thing that we shared together last week?” asks Gary. Definitely he knows Ji Hyo better than Jae Suk. All teams begin their mission. None of them run straight forwardly to buy something, they carefully discuss. Team Daesung decides to bring back steamed potatoes. Teams Seungri and GD go with nangmyun. Both teams fight to be the one to bring nangmyun first. Seungri’s team delivers it first, but in the end it’s not important. All three teams answered incorrectly. This time Ji Hyo says that she will give a hint for one person. GD even without waiting heads over to the table Ji Hyo is sitting at, gets down on his knees and starts making cute expressions. It earns team GD a hint.

“It’s red”. “Dukkbokki” guesses Gary right away. They rush to buy Ji Hyo one serving of dukkbokki. But even before they came back, episode editor reveals us, that the right answer is Jjamppong. Bummer! GD’s team happily comes back, thinking, that it’s the right choice. “Ddaeng”.  But they get their second hint right away. “It’s a noodle dish”. Gary quickly figures out that it is Jjamppong but team is still not sure. At the same time team Seungri brings Jihyo buckwheat noodles. “Ddaeng”. “Why are you so picky?” breaks down Suk Jin. Thankfully, Ji Hyo still gives them a hint. They rush back, while repeating “Jjampong”. It means two teams are right about what kind of food Ji Hyo craves for. It’s all down to who will bring it to her first. Jae Suk blocks Seungri and didn’t let him go through. GD succeeds in bringing jjampong first. His team wins first round.

In second mission, every team member has to choose one of ten different types of dogs in a playground. One of them Ji Hyo chose as her favourite one. All teams set to playground. Well, to choose one isn’t the problem. But to catch one of them – is. Suk Jin is the first one to catch dog. Well it’s not a surprise. I would say he caught the laziest one out of bunch. Haha decides to go with Yorkshire terrier. Seungri chooses dachshund. In the end all members succeed in catching one of the dogs. The question is who is right. It looks like Jong Kook chose a dog whose character resembles his own. His bulldog blocks the way for other dogs to get some water. Bad dog! But it is the one Ji Hyo chose! Daesung’s team gets a point.

Editing team decides to skip third round, but we are informed that team GD takes a victory. Teams choose cards once again and situation after second mission looks like this:

Third mission – “Serve Princess Blank your rose”

Third mission takes place at waterpark in Yicheon. This time each team member will have to take a turn and do a total of 30 jumps with jumping rope, then one person will have to run the length of the mat and throw their rose to Princess Blank basket. Ji Hyo can choose either to catch rose or not.

Yellow team (Daesung’s team) is first to take turn. But turns out it isn’t easy to jump through rope on the mat full of water. It leads to Kwang Soo falling to the water on his first try.

But this teams problems doesn’t end on this note. Jong Kook break a jumping rope. Fail! Blue team (Seungri’s team) is the first one to go till the last stage – throwing a rose to Ji Hyo’s basket. But he misses. To everyone’s astonishment red team succeeds with their first attempt. Gary shows his good jumping skills, GD does body gag and later on gets his rose into Princess basket. Sweet!

But other teams protest (coach Kook) that GD’s acrobatic jump wasn’t really a jump through rope because he didn’t land on his feet. PD lets Ji Hyo to choose, whether to make their attempt invalid or announce the victory of Red team. To their disappointment Ji Hyo makes their attempt invalid, so mission continues.

That’s where all fun things start. Each team tries to cheat and make it as impossible to succeed as they can. Yellow and Blue teams combine their cheating skills and pulls back mat on Red’s team second attempt. But cheating doesn’t stop here. Kwang Soo wraps the end of the mat on Blue teams attempt and makes it impossible to succeed.

Teams continue cheating and it feels like it is going to take forever to succeed for one of them. But finally teams agree that they will stop cheating. Blue team uses this chance and takes a win after ALL THREE members succeed in getting their roses to Ji Hyo’s basket.

Teams take remaining cards. After third mission situation looks like this:

Final mission

At the moment each team has three cards. Ji Hyo is given four highest cards in the game – from 10 to 13. At this final mission, every team will swap cards with Ji Hyo three times. Team with highest total will be the winner of this race.

After first round of swapping cards:

After second round of swapping cards:

After third round of swapping cards, Gary had a chance to discard one of Ji Hyo’s cards, since she had four of them. But as it turned out, it didn’t make any difference.

Seungri’s team – 19

GD’s team – 25

Daesung’s team – 9

Ji Hyo - 32

So it means that although guys were fighting for Ji Hyo’s heart and gold all day long, Ji Hyo becomes a sole winner again and wins gold. And she didn’t need to do anything. What a nice win!

I totally enjoyed this episode. I think it’s the best episode this year. Guests made this episode lively and missions in the rice paddy field and on the mat in the waterpark were totally hilarious (DAEBAK!). Sometimes I just wonder, how creative you must be in order to think of missions like this.