Episode 001: World Meet Running Man

Broadcast Date: 11 July 2010 | Filming Date: 25 June 2010

Guest(s): Hwang Jung Eum, Lee Hyo Ri

Location(s): Times Square, Seoul; Seoul's Young Dong Po Gu's "T" Shopping Mall

Episode Format: Series of small games to unlock a code to escape

Teams: 2 (Expensive vs. Cheap)

EPISODE SUMMARY

World, meet Running Man! The episode opens with the arrival and introduction of the Running Man cast. Lee Kwang Soo, Kang Gary and Song Joong Ki make introductions as newbies (or relative newbies) to the world of variety.

Lee Kwang Soo is immediately cast as an unlucky person when the rain begins to pour as soon as he starts to make his introduction. "St. Agnes and the Burning Train" (abbreviated to "St. Agnes" here on out) becomes his theme song less than nine minutes into the show.

The cast is then locked in an empty mall for the night and divided into two teams:

Cheap Team (Red)

HaHa

Ji Suk Jin

Lee Hyori

Kang Gary

Expensive Team (Blue)

Yoo Jae Suk

Kim Jong Kook

Lee Kwang Soo

Song Joong Ki

Hwang Jung Eum

Mission 1:

Locate the most expensive place in the mall to find the first number of the passcode.

Lee Hyori on the Cheap Team immediately starts a search for jewelry stores, while Hwang Jung Eum tells the Expensive Team that the most expensive stores are usually on the lower level(s). With the Cheap Team starting on Level 3 and the Expensive Team starting on Level 1, the Expensive Team reasons that the target store is probably between the teams, on Level 2. As soon as they arrive on the second level, Yoo Jae Suk and Kim Jong Kook stall their team as they detour to the bathroom. Hwang Jung Eum chats with the two via walkie talkie while they are in the bathroom.

The Cheap Team makes their way down to Level 2 and immediately spot a Swarovski shop. Hyori goes to the shop as Gary and Suk Jin spot the Expensive Team milling about near the bathrooms and attack their name tags. Gary attacks the timid Kwang Soo and Kwang Soo becomes the first ever eliminated member of the Nametag Elimination Game.

Meanwhile, Hyori finds the first container with the code 6, ending the first mission.

Advantage Game:

Clothes hanger race.

The teams must put on a jacket hanging from a clothes hangar on a rolling clothing rack and, wearing the jacket, run with the clothes rack down and around a cone and bring it back. The next team member must then join the previous in the jacket hanging behind them before, together, they run around the cone and back. And so forth.

Kang Gary starts the race for the Cheap Team and Song Joong Ki starts the race for the Expensive Team. When the Director calls "cue" to start all cameras rolling, Gary takes it as the cue to start the race and Joong Ki panics and follows right behind. Jae Suk calls them back and explains to the relative newcomers how to take their cues to start races on variety.

Once the race is officially under way, it is fairly civil until Hyori enters the game and begins the hair pulling and foul play. Despite this, the Expensive Team wins the first round, as Kim Jong Kook powers up and the rest of the members ride the clothing rack to victory.

The final round it is between Hyori and Jung Eum only. Hyori smiles at Jung Eum and Jae Suk says that he knows that smile and that Hyori must have a good foul play in mind. Sure enough, when the race starts chaos ensues as Hyori attacks Jung Eum's coat rack, attempting to force her off course. Jung Eum learns quickly, however, and matches Hyori foul for foul. After much spinning, shoving and hair pulling, Jung Eum manages to win the round, giving the Expensive Team a head start for the next mission.

Mission 2:

Solve the riddle to find the location of the second code canister.

The Expensive Team receives a clue via SMS about the location of the next code digit. The Cheap Team must drink a large bowl of liquid before getting the clue to the canister. The Expensive Team spends the entire advantage discussing the clue and possible locations. During the discussion, a timid Kwang Soo attempts to speak up several times and is cut off. His fate as a pitiful character is sealed in the very first episode.

The Cheap Team finishes their punishment and receives the clue. They immediately solve the riddle and head to the roof. Seeing them move confidently, the Expensive Team hurries to follow them in their search. The second code canister is found hanging from a tall structure. Members scramble to jump and climb the sculpture to reach it with no luck. Kwang Soo steps in and uses his height advantage to snag the second code for the Expensive Team. They find number 3.

Advantage Game:

Mouth Kai Bai Po (Rock Paper Scissors) while wearing hats connected at the brim.

As the next game is about to be introduced, Jae Suk turns to Kwang Soo to ask how he is doing. Twice, as Kwang Soo attempts to answer, the walkie talkie in Joong Ki's hand erupts with static and cuts Kwang Soo off. Cue "St. Agnes."

For the Mouth Kai Bai Po (Rock Paper Scissors) game, the players must wear hats attached at the brim to keep them merely inches apart and make eye contact. Round 1 is Suk Jin vs. Jae Suk, which Jae Suk wins. Before the battle, they have a verbal sparring in which Suk Jin accuses (then thanks) Jae Suk for introducing him to his wife and Jae Suk chatters about the early days of Suk Jin dating his future wife.

Second round is Gary vs. Joong Ki. Hyori tells them to comment on each other's appearance, and Gary simply states to Joong Ki, "You are very good looking." As Joong Ki is about to take his turn, Gary puts his finger to Joong Ki's lips to shush him, which HaHa states is a go-to move of Gary when he's putting the moves on women. The two throw out the same play for the first several rounds of Kai Bai Bo and are teased that it's not a matching couples game but a competition. Gary eventually wins the round.

The last round is Hyori vs. Jung Eum. After a brief exchange about each other's looks, they start to play mouth Kai Bai Po. After several rounds, Hyori interrupts to accuse Jung Eum of being overly cute during game play. They get back to the game, where Hyori starts acting cute and the game becomes an aegyo showdown. After many distractions, Hyori is declared the winner of the third round and the Cheap Team claims the advantage for the next mission.

Advantage Game:

Chicken fight with 50 people of the citizen corps. The team to take down the last citizen wins the mission.

The teams take turns ousting as many citizens as possible. Many go down in the early rounds during the confusion. Jong Kook becomes a chicken fighting machine and decimates the citizen's numbers. Kwang Soo charges in for a one-to-one combat with super short and erratic bounces and becomes the speedy chicken. In a one-on-one combat, Suk Jin charges a citizen bravely and ends up knocking himself off balance. Hyori uses her aegyo charm to oust a citizen fan with a mere knee tap. In one round, Jae Suk takes a knee to the tailbone and plays up his suffering to a camera on the ground, but is then quickly embarrassed when he catches one of the citizen chicken fighters observing his antics.

In the end, the last citizen faces Suk Jin, HaHa, and Gary in a 1:3 battle and the citizen eliminates them in short order. The citizen then faces the Expensive Team in a 1:5 battle. He eliminates Joong Ki, Jae Suk and Kwang Soo before Jong Kook eliminates him, winning the advantage for the Expensive Team.

Mission 3:

Find the cheapest item sold in the building to locate the third code canister.

The Expensive Team gets a head start in searching for the third code canister. They head to an accessories shop, where Jung Eum gets distracted shopping. Meanwhile, the Cheap Team already knows the clue and is strategizing from the rooftop. They decide to target the stationary shop as soon as they enter; Hyori and Suk Jin will search for the canisters while HaHa and Gary attack the Expensive Team's name tags.

As the Cheap Team puts their plan into play, Gary quickly finds Kwang Soo and eliminates his nametag for a second time, as Jong Kook watches from around the corner. Kwang Soo becomes the first and second person ever to be eliminated on Running Man. A melee ensues a Jong Kook and HaHa enter the fray and Kwang Soo, Jong Kook and Gary are all eliminated.

Both teams make their way to the convenience store, but the Expensive Team is a little too slow. Hyori finds the canister for code number 1 and sneaks out of the convenience store as the rest of the Expensive Team surround Jae Suk.

Mission 4:

Undisclosed.

The next advantage game and mission are not aired in the edit, but a quick clip shows that Jong Kook found the fourth code canister to reveal number 5.

Final Mission:

Photoshoot mission. The team with the most visible faces showing when the picture is taken wins the round.

Round 1 goes to the Cheap Team with 3:2 visible faces. Kwang Soo's "God's hand" blocks Joong Ki's face, losing them the tie.

Round 2 goes to the Expensive Team. Everyone is amazed at Hyori's visible smiling face when she was the main target for having her face blocked.

Round 3 goes to the Expensive Team, though no one is interested in counting the amount of faces visible, since Jae Suk was targeting Hyori and determined to have her blocked in this round. The final picture, however, shows her visible smiling face as the picture was snapped in the one instant where she wasn't blocked. The attention then turns to Gary, who managed to get his face in the bottom left of the frame despite being kicked off the block. The expression on his face looks set and calm, heralding the birth of Peaceful Gary.

The members have to jump for the final round. The only member of the Cheap Team to have their face captured is Hyori, smiling from the left edge. Hyori is the only one to get their face captured in every round.

The Expensive team wins the mission and gets the final code canister for the number 2.

Escape Mission:

Enter the correct code at the lobby doors to unlock the door and escape.

Both teams rush to the lobby and must enter the digits in the correct order to escape. The Expensive Team wins with the final digit and are free to go.

Punishment:

The Cheap Team decides to play Kai Bai Bo to select two members for punishment. Suk Jin and HaHa lose while Gary and Hyori are free to leave.

As the shopping mall opens for the morning, HaHa is dressed in drag and becomes an elevator attendant. Suk Jin becomes a mall guide and direct people to their destinations.

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Highlights & NOTES

• 1st RM Member Out in a Name Tag Elimination: Lee Kwang Soo

• 2nd RM Member Out in a Name Tag Elimination: Lee Kwang Soo

• Birth of Kwang Soo's pitiful character

• Birth of Peaceful Gary

• 1st appearance of Kwang Soo's "God's hand"

• Verbal sparring about the past between Jae Suk and Suk Jin

• Song Ji Hyo is not yet a member of the Running Man Family

• Jae Suk and Jong Kook are on the same team

Win Count

Yoo Jae Suk

Team: 1 | Individual: 0

Kim Jong Kook

Team: 1 | Individual: 0

Lee Kwang Soo

Team: 1 | Individual: 0

HaHa

Team: 0 | Individual: 0

Kang Gary

Team: 0 | Individual: 0

Ji Suk Jin

Team: 0 | Individual: 0

Song Ji Hyo

Team: 0 | Individual: 0

Song Joong Ki

Team: 1 | Individual: 0

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