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Synopsis[]
The lights go out at the players' first break. They begin to share stories behind Soul Tree and how they came to participate in Running Man.
Plot[]
Lonky enjoying his massage.
The episode begins with Lonky sitting on a massage chair inside his room, sighing pleasantly when the machine turns on and complaining to himself about Kuga's strength before increasing the chair's power, causing it to overheat and break as a black square overtakes the screen.
Popo with his lightning card.
In another room, Popo places a box on a table, excitedly rubbing his hands together and loudly pondering what card arrived in front of him before opening the box to reveal the lightning card. He gleefully grabs the card from its box, hugging it before getting interrupted by a ruckus from outside. He angrily assumes it's Lonky and asks what he's doing when the light suddenly turns off. Confused, Popo asks what's happening while holding the now glowing lightning card near him.
Kuga's paws glowing.
Meanwhile, Kuga is seen doing push-ups in his room, his gloves placed beside him when the lights suddenly go out. He looks up in confusion and the underside of his paws are shown glowing. It then cuts to the other Running Men before the blackout; Gai steps out of a hidden compartment of the statue in his room, aiming to get more snacks, Pala is mixing up a new concoction with his staff, Miyo is nowhere to be seen, and Liu is placing a GPS tracker inside Mr. Suitcase, commenting that he'll finally be able to track where it is now that the tracker has been installed when the lights go out.
Liu asking the Running Men what they're doing.
Scared, Mr. Suitcase jumps into Liu's arms and the latter asks what's happening, stepping out of his room to investigate the cause of the blackout. He looks around the hallway, using Mr. Suitcase as a flashlight when he spots a mysterious amalgamation with tentacle-like structures on its back. It looks at Liu and instantly crawls closer, scaring the grasshopper; who runs away immediately puts Mr. Suitcase on his back and runs away. The amalgamation gains up to him with surprising speed, eventually tripping and throwing Liu to the wall; the grasshopper falls to the ground and accidentally activates the emergency lights in the hallway. As Liu recovers from the adrenaline, the lights reveal the amalgamation's identity to be Lonky, Pala, Gai, and Popo tied together with the wires of Lonky's massage chair. While they're on the ground, Liu walks up to them with an annoyed expression, hands on his hips as he questions what happened to them. Popo huffs, explaining the story.
Lonky and Popo begging for help.
In a flashback, Popo walks out of his room due to the blackout with his lightning card, strutting over to Lonky's, assuming that he was the cause of it. While walking, Popo stumbles upon a black silhouette with glowing yellow eyes, staring down at him. Fearful, Popo throws his lightning card at it to no avail as it misses the creature and shines a light on the area behind it. Popo begins to run away, the creature hot on his heels until it falls on him; making him scream. Gai and Pala come out of their rooms at the sound of him and Gai squints his eyes, trying to make out the creature in front of them. Both Gai and Pala scream when the creature chases after them as well, this time having two sets of glowing eyes. As they run, the creature ends up capturing them both, tying them up with it until Liu spots them. As Liu runs away, Popo screams at him to help them, ending the flashback.
The Running Men, sans Miyo and Kuga, in the lobby.
In the present, Popo finishes his explanation sitting along with the rest of the Running Men in the lobby while Liu wonders how they managed to themselves in such a mess. The speakers then announce a city-wide blackout due to an electrical overload in the dormitories, which prompts Popo to blame Lonky for it due to his massage chair. Lonky scoffs at him, informing Popo that the chair is a necessity. Their squabble is interrupted by a sudden crash from outside and Lonky, who had just noticed Kuga's absence, asks where he is.
Kuga tries to get his gloves from under the bed while the others are distracted.
Kuga is shown inside his room, frantically searching for something until the door opens, causing him to freeze as the Running Men peek inside suspiciously; with Popo walking inside casually while Kuga orders them to leave. Popo ignores him, nonchalantly commenting on Kuga's decorations before noticing the training dummy beside his bed. He playfully hits one of the poles, causing the dummy to spin and smack Popo back. Popo stumbles forward, hitting his face on Kuga's bed and pushing his gloves under it. Angry, Popo runs up to the dummy once more, hitting it multiple times before the dummy slaps him back; Popo falls unconscious from the hit. Kuga chuckles at him and orders once more to get out. As he turns around, however, he sees the Running Men staring at him suspiciously; with Liu asking why he isn't standing up. Lonky teases that Kuga might have a cramp and he begins toying with him more; tickling him, pulling at his ears, and finally making faces at him from below. Kuga is about to punch his face when he suddenly restrains himself, warning Lonky to leave instead. The giraffe teases Kuga once more, asking why Kuga is so insistent on them leaving and when Kuga is about to snap, the lights turn on abruptly. He looks up and sees the other Running Men staring at the glowing materion from his window in awe; Lonky getting interested and finally leaving Kuga alone as he watches the materion. Kuga, who realizes that they're too distracted to notice him, attempts to grab his gloves from under his bed.
Popo argues with Liu.
As the Running Men watch the materion glow and dim repeatedly, Liu comments how the Soul Tree is upset, which prompts Lonky to ask if the Soul Tree is his friend, scoffing at the idea. Liu retaliates and smugly informs Lonky that it wasn't for his people, then the Soul Tree wouldn't have been created. Popo dismisses him, thinking he's being overconfident and Pala, disinterested in their argument, walks over to Kuga's bed; sitting on it and making the tiger freeze in his spot. Kuga angrily tells Pala to get off his bed and then addresses the rest of the group, ordering them to leave once more.
The Soul Tree's story getting tangled.
They ignore Kuga's demands and Liu tells them to gather around, explaining to them the 'real' story of the Soul Tree; According to him, the Soul Tree was created due to the Bug Tribe praying to the God of Earth for a livable land, causing the God of Earth to turn into the Soul Tree and give them the materion. Lonky interrupts the story and accuses Liu of lying as he tells them the 'true' story of the Soul Tree; In Lonky's words, the sharp tongue of the Giraf Tribe caused the creation of the Soul Tree. This angers Popo, who begins to explain his version of it; According to Popo, the Peng Tribe's keen negotiation was what cause the creation of the Soul Tree. Gai and Popo interrupt him next and they start explaining their versions; with Gai explaining that it was the Mong Tribe who created the Soul Tree and Pala explaining that the Impa Tribe created it by weeding out the Soul Tree. Kuga then interrupts all of them by demanding they get out of his room repeatedly as the Running Men begin fighting over which story is true.
The Running Men fighting.
Liu attempts to calm them down, scolding them for acting the way they are when they're supposed to be a representation of their tribe. Popo stops his temper tantrum and scoffs at him for trying to discipline them when he isn't even a tribal champion. This confuses the rest of the members, who abruptly stop fighting. Lonky asks him to elaborate and Popo replies by informing the others that Liu came in second place. Gai then asks what happened to the Champion and Popo shrugs, nonchalantly tells him that he doesn't know.
Liu looking down guiltily.
Liu, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, speaks up; confirming to the others that he did come in second place and informing them that the champion died, shocking the players. He then confesses that the champion was his sister, which makes the group step back. Liu looks down with a guilty expression, slumping his shoulders with a sigh, and Pala steps in to lighten the mood, telling the others that he was forced to join after everyone in his tribe refused to. He then points to Kuga, wondering why he chose to compete when his tribe hasn't competed in years. Kuga, who was trying to get his gloves when Pala pointed at him, freezes and continues doing push-ups, getting interrupted once more by Lonky. The giraffe starts teasing him, asking why he's being so passive today and sitting on his back, pestering him about his reason for joining the competition. Kuga snaps as soon as Lonky sits on him and stands up in a rage, punching Lonky through the ceiling. As he's calming down, he sees Popo looking up at his paws curiously. Fearful that Popo might notice what's in his paws, crosses his arms together while the penguin comments that there's something in his paws, curiously walking forward to take a look. Kuga, in a desperate attempt to get them out, angrily declares that he came to win, pushing Popo away.
Gai smiles confidently, informing Kuga that he'll be the winner of the games; this prompts Lonky to tell the others that they're no match for him, telling them that he'll be the winner and become king of his tribe. Popo happily chimes in that the winner will get not only the materion but fame and fortune as well. When Lonky realizes that they have similar goals, the two players high-five. The lights start to flicker, indicating the power outage to be resolved, and Gai perks up, sniffing the air and happily calling out Miyo once he recognizes her scent. Miyo, who was walking through the hallway, looks at the Running Men before dismissing Gai, walking away.
The Running Men hug Liu as they prepare for Kuga's attack.
Meanwhile, Kuga retrieves his gloves while the others were distracted and wears them, standing behind the Running Men. He begins to threaten the Running Men, who look up at the tiger fearfully before bracing for his attack.
Charming Gold orders Mala to inject the Soul Tree.
While Kuga is punishing the Running Men for coming into his room, Charming Gold is seen inside a smoke-filled laboratory below the stadium, coughing and swatting the smoke away as he angrily addresses the impala in front of him as 'Dr. Mala'. The impala nervously explains that the system overloaded, which caused the blackout. Charming Gold, dissatisfied, walks towards him and asks him who would take the blame if the materion explodes. Dr. Mala nervously admits that it would be Charming Gold's fault and freezes when the peacock grabs him by the head and orders him to inject the tree. The impala obeys and pulls a lever; injecting the soul tree with a mysterious substance and causing the materion to glow brighter before abruptly snuffing out, causing another blackout that Popo mistakenly blames Lonky for.
Cast[]
Main[]
- Kim Seo-young/Rachel Slotky - Liu
- Kwon Chang-wook/Daniel J. Edwards - Kuga
- Eom Sang-hyeon/Daniel J. Edwards - Lonky
- Nam Doh-Hyeong/Matthew Ip Shaw - Gai
- Kang Si-hyeon/Syndi Szabo - Popo
- Jeon Tae-yeol/Mark Szabo - Pala
Side[]
- Park No-sik/Daniel J. Edwards - Charming Gold
- Nam Doh-Hyeong/Mike Pollock - Dr. Mala
- Kim Yeon-woo-I/Carrie Savage - Miyo (Cameo)
Trivia[]
- Popo reveals that Liu came in second place in the preliminaries.
- Liu reveals that the Bug Tribe's champion not only died, but they were also his sister.
- Charming Gold is revealed to be experimenting with the Materion in secret.
- Miyo is not shown in the rest of the episode, which makes sense considering she's the only person who knows the real story of the Soul Tree.