Running Man Chaser

Episode 107:
Location: Incheon (various locations).
Guests: Jang Shin Young, Kim Sang Joong (actors), Gaeko (Dynamic Duo); Gary absent but has a cameo.
Episode "plot": Kim Sang Joong has just been released from prison after 8 years on a corruption conviction. His aide, Jang Shin Young meets him at his release and tells him she has prepared for his comeback into politics and they have to get to a press conference at Yonsei University by a certain time with a "gold pin". The gold pin was supposed to have been delivered to them by courier at the prison, but was mistakenly delivered to someone else on the courier's list of deliveries, who all happen to be Running Man members. They must get the gold pin from the Running Man member and make it to the press conference on time. The items the Running Men receive lead to the first mission, including a car, keys to the car, GPS, a flashdrive with mission instructions, Running Man clothes and nametags.
Incheon parking lot mission: The Running Men search through unlocked cars to find a black box, which holds instructions to the next mission site.
Songdo elementary school mission: Find the car keys for the car prepared for them from amongst citizens in a street market by getting a correct response to their password. It is implied (and figured out by the Running Men) that one person will not be able to get into the car at the end of the mission, but it's not stated in the instructions that it's a competition.
Yonsei University (Songdo) mission: Kim Sang Joong and Jang Shin Young take the two members they've . . . acquired and make them hostages. With the Running Men witnessing, Kim Sang Joong whispers something in each of the hostages' ear, one being an important clue for the Running Men, and the other being something false and misleading. The Running Men then choose which hostage they want let go and the other is eliminated. Then everyone competes to figure out who has the gold pin, and while avoiding the security forces that are deployed, obtain it and get to the press conference by the given time and if this isn't complicated and muddled enough, there's a spy.
Comments: This episode is derived from the 2012 drama The Chaser, in which Kim Sang Joong played a corrupt politician who in the end is served justice and sent to prison for 8 years, and Jang Shin Young played his aide. The courtroom scene at the beginning of the episode is ostensibly a parody of a key scene from The Chaser, and includes a cameo by Jo Jae Yoon "reprising" his role as Park Yong Sik in the drama. Skull, Haha's partner in a recent music collaboration, cameos as "PK Skull", perhaps parodying the role of PK Joon in the drama (I haven't seen it). It was possibly shot to lay the stage for the episode for people unfamiliar with the drama, but was probably more likely shot because deep inside, the production team really, really wants to work on a drama, but is stuck with working on silly and frivolous Running Man. Haha & Skull's song Busan Vacance is used as BGM.
- After several episodes of getting back to Running Man basics, this episode brings back drama elements and likely staging and direction with a complicated "plot", which at many points doesn't make sense and subverts the idea of figuring out and completing missions. If they were straight-forward Running Man missions, I wonder if they would have been able to figure out what to do next given what is shown on screen. There is nothing shown through mission instructions about members disappearing or being abducted, and it seems unlikely that Running Man members would arbitrarily and independently leave a member behind at a location without being told it was fine to do so. While searching for the black box in the cars, they just give cursory looks into the cars, but in the car where they just happened to find it, they searched pretty vigorously. Aside from a mention of "gold pin" in a mission instruction, the Running Men are never told on screen what the objective is, so when they are given 5 seconds to make a getaway from the security forces, unless explained to them off-screen by the PD, they have no idea what it is they're supposed to do (further evidenced by Gwang Soo asking what the mission is). The security forces they are supposedly evading eventually disappear and become irrelevant.