ROOMMATE Episode 12

Episode Title: It's Always Darkest Before Dawn

The time is 5:50 PM and the roommates are setting up camp and prepping dinner. Chanyeol and Ga Yeon go off to clean their catch of the day - trout. As guide, Chanyeol teaches Ga Yeon how to descale and gut the fish all the while struggling himself. On the other hand, Ga Yeon takes up the teachings quickly and performs with ease. She even takes it upon herself to behead one of the trout, which causes Chanyeol to cringe. They take their fish back to the team for Se Ho to salt. Se Ho takes notice of how Ga Yeon has been behaving, commenting that she is cute. He tries to have her say "why, oppa" in a cute manner. Sung Woo warns him he can get beaten up this. Se Ho still tries to egg her on. He tries to also get Nana to say it, but she speaks to him in a chic manner. Not to be beaten, Se Ho tells Kang Joon to asks the ladies. Nana answers him in a cute manner. When he has a try with Ga Yeon, she attempts to answer cutely, but it seems unnatural.

Dinner tonight is a total feast. As the roommates eat deliciously, they make a skit out of it. Sora plays the role of home shopping network host. She stumbles a bit in the first take. In their next take, the skit takes a turn. Chanyeol plays the role of a hard working student who is eating the trout deliciously as he reaps the nutritional benefits. Se Ho comes in and they argue over the fish. He feeds some to his spouse, Bom. Se Ho tries to prolong the skit and Sung Woo complains how full he is to continue on.

After dinner, the guides prepared games. The first game is hacky sack. The losers have to wash the dishes. The teams disperse to their trailer. Kang Joon's team is too distracted to strategize. Chanyeol's team, on the other hand comes up with an order, with the best players first and last. Before the games, Kang Joon asks for a handicap since the other team had more males. Chanyeol agrees and takes the handicap of only using his left foot. Chanyeol's team yells out their slogan: Park, Park, Park! Who do you think you are dealing with? Fighting! Kang Joon's team slogan is "We are the mean kids. Punch!" Up first is Sung Woo. Se Ho appoints Nana as team cheerleader. Sung Woo gives it a go and kicks 7 times. First up from Kang Joon's team is Bom, who only scores 1. Sora is up next. She struts her way pass the other team and waits for Nana's cheer. Flustered, Nana performs the first thing to come to mind. After struggling with how to hold the hacky sack and getting into a comfortable position, Sora only scores 1. Soo Hyun and Chanyeol are up next and both score 2. Kang Joon is next and Soo Hyun performs a cheer, complete with splits. He kicks the hacky sack 6 times. The score is 10:9, with Chanyeol's team leading by 1. Kang Joon's team cheers after realizing they still had a chance. Nana is up next. She shows off her fancy footwork. She gives it a try and fails. Ga Yeon is next for her team and Min Woo is pushed to do a cheer.  Because of her strength, Ga Yeon was only able to kick twice before sending the hacky sack off into the distance. Last up for Chanyeol's team is their ace, Se Ho. He is really good. Defeated Kang Joon's team quietly go off to clean. Se Ho kicks 30 times for a grand total of 40. Min Woo gives it his best, but doesn't score enough. Chanyeol's team breaks into a celebration. Chanyeol announces a prize for the MVP - one wish. He jokingly says he can only guarantee the wish will be heard, but may not be fulfilled. The MVP goes to Se Ho. He wants to give the wish to Nana, but she says he won't have this kind of chance in the future. So he proudly shares his wish - a movie date with Nana.

After the losing team finishes cleaning up, the roommates gather for dance time. Se Ho acts as DJ, but before he does, he strips down to his silky pajamas. Nana springs forward to the center after being called out. When she tries to approach Se Ho playfully, he stops the music. Next up is Sung Woo, who shares he never danced. But this doesn't stop him as he tries to follow the dance to Orange Caramel's Catellena. Kang Joon is called out and does the signature Kang Dash Man dance move. Soo Hyun gets a slow jam and lets down her hair. She proceeds to wilding whip her hair around.

Dong Wook arrives just in time from his drama shooting. He takes Chanyeol's place in the next game, balloon popping. Each pair has to pop as many balloons in between their bodies in 1 minute. The ladies choose their male partners. The teams are: Se Ho/ Nana, Kang Joon/Ga Yeon, Min Woo/Sora, Soo Hyun/Sung Woo, and Dong Wook/Bom. First up are Se Ho and Nana. They start off bad, but get a hang of it. Not soon after they struggle again. As much as they hug each other they can't get the balloons to pop. They only pop 3 balloons when time runs out. Kang Joon and Ga Yeon show off their strategy, which is to pop the balloons by charging and using their shoulders. In 1 minute, they pop 6 balloons. Min Woo and Sora seem to have a height advantage, but once the game begin, it doesn't even matter. Sora screams out of fear of the balloons popping in her face. They move the balloons lower, but can't pop them. They end their round with 5 balloons popped. Soo Hyun and Sung Woo take a different approach in their turn. Soo Hyun charges at Sung Woo with the balloon. She grabs two at a time to save time. By the end of the game, Soo Hyun is dizzy from all the running. Their team wins after popping 10 balloons.

Chanyeol and Kang Joon specially prepared the next activity on their agenda: Kang Yeol's Dark Past Theater. The first victim is Sora. They play her win from the first modeling competition. Next is an exercise video she starred in. As her roommates cheer, Sora gets up in horror and tries to block the screen. To end the segment, a hair dye commercial starring Sora is played. She gets up and struts her stuff. She ends things with the line from the original commercial. Dong Wook is the next victim. An old school picture is shown before they start playing famous scenes from his dramas. Funny thing is the scenes are all kissing scenes. Sung Woo's debut stage is shown and the roommates are in awe. His famous jeans commercial is played. Everyone remembers how popular the commercial was. To end things, a kissing scene from one of his dramas is shown. Chanyeol notes that everyone had kissing scenes. Dong Wook jokes that everyone kisses just about everywhere. Another debut stage shown was Se Ho's. In the scene, he shows his beat box joke. Se Ho still looks the same after all these years. 

The roommates gather around the fire for a more serious talk. Se Ho asks about moments where everything felt hard. Sora says there were many. She breaks into tears. Instead of talking about specific moments, she gives advice on the things she learned from the experiences. She advises the roommates to step out of their comfort zone since their worlds can be confining. She tells them to surround themselves around people who are good influences and who are good energy. Se Ho expresses his gratitude for the roommates. Everyone approaches him to talk and he knows they'll be there for him when he needs someone to listen to his stories. In the past, no one took him seriously. This caused him to be more concerned with his actions and appearance. Sung Woo and Chanyeol thanks Se Ho for being their source of laughter. Se Ho expresses his thanks for the roommates and for Nana specifically. He also feels sorry for her because he thinks he is partially at fault for her misunderstandings. Sung Woo expresses his appreciation for Nana. For the family, she is their energy source. He calls her their precious little sister. This brings tears to Nana's eyes. Se Ho jokingly tells her sorry for liking her. In his interview, Sung Woo wished the viewers would just enjoy the show and not take it so seriously.

Se Ho points out Min Woo. He appeared down all day. Min Woo explains his problem with expressing himself. He knew he had to just say sorry, but he couldn't look anyone in the face. Sung Woo assures him it is okay and that all he has to do is express himself. Min Woo says he'll take the criticisms to heart. Se Ho corrects him, saying they weren't criticizing him. Min Woo explains that he is more open to criticisms if he is in the wrong. Sung Woo tells him not to be like this. He says they can't be a family if they build a wall.

The next morning, Kang Joon and Chanyeol prepare breakfast. They fail at cooking rice, but aced making curry. The agenda for the day isn't mandatory. For those that want to, they can go bungee jumping. Sora, Soo Hyun, and Sung Woo head home first. Se Ho leaves for work. Those going bungee jumping are Chanyeol, Kang Joon, Ga Yeon, Bom, Nana, and Min Woo. They are off to Inje where the highest bungee jumping site in Korea is located.

Right before the first jump, Chanyeol nervously stumbles through a speech. Once heading up, Chanyeol starts to think over why he volunteered first. Once at the top, he becomes speechless. The others are watching and cheering from below. He steps onto the platform. He yells out "Exo, Roommate. Let's Love" before jumping. His legs are still weak as he makes it to land. 

Nana is up next. Bom accompanies her to film and provide morale support. To get rid of her nervous jitters, she dances as Bom sings. Once at the top, Nana asks if she'll fly away because of the wind. Bom tells her she is too heavy. Nana takes one step on the platform before coming back. She asks Bom if she was going to push her. Bom promises she won't. Bom starts singing again, which causes Nana to nervously dance. Once on the platform, Nana says a message to the viewers. She says she is trying her best and that she'll work even harder in the future. She promises to show a different side to her starting from now on. She thanks her parents for helping and raising her. With everything said, she jumps. After the jump, she feels like she can do anything.

Min Woo is excited. He wastes no time and is already on the platform. He thanks his roommates. He learned a big lesson on the trip. To his team, he expresses his sorry and gratitude for them. Before his jump, he yells out "I love Roommate."

Ga Yeon and Kang Joon change their minds and decide to jump. Earlier, it was decided that Kang Joon wasn't going to jump because of fear and Ga Yeon had an injured shoulder. They sign the waiver. Ga Yeon is excited, but Kang Joon looks like he instantly regretted it.  Ga Yeon explains how she was moved by everyone's jump. During her turn, she jumps with ease.

Before going up, Kang Joon has a special request for the editors. He wants a sunset edited in and the song "You Raise Me Up" playing in the background. Bom joins him for morale support and to film. Once on top, his legs go weak. To calm his nerves, he sings the Korean national anthem. He takes one step out to wave, but goes back in. He explains to Bom this jump is for Min Woo to strengthen their relationship. From the platform, he starts yelling. The others jokingly yell out for Kang Dash Man's help. When he does jump, the others laugh. Instead of jumping, it looked like he just fell over. Once on ground, he explains it is a new move called Kang 1. 

At work, Se Ho is filming a commercial with Kim Bo Sung. After filming, Se Ho asked how Bo Sung approached his wife. Bo Sung gives him advice. Make sure you won't get sick of seeing her face for the rest of your life. Once you've decided, bet your life on it. He points out the most important thing is if she is the one.  Bo Sung gives him more advice: don't play games, convey your feelings in a true manner, and the best tactic is no tactic. Se Ho admits to liking one of the roommates. He whispers the name to Bo Sung, who spills that it is Nana. Bo Sung approves and sends a video message to her. He pleads with her to accept Se Ho's feelings. He offers to be the MC at their wedding if they marry. Once Se Ho is back from filming, Bo Sung shares a poem he made for them.

Thoughts:

I called it...the editors hyped up nothing again.

It was nice that they had a serious moment despite being on vacation. Thankfully, their serious talk didn't effect the mood of the rest of the trip.

I loved the bungee jumping scenes and how they all jumped. I wished they showed Bom's jump. I noticed they cut some of her scenes in this episode.

Chanyeol and Kang Joon did a great job organizing and leading the trip. Despite the unexpected happenings, the trip was a success.