This article contains spoilers for Physical: 100 season 2 episode 8, "Friend or Foe". The uber-tough Korean Netflix challenge show is back to put the Physical: 100 season 2 cast through their paces.
The show's penultimate episode begins with the results of Quest 3's final bout. With one more team eliminated, the final 19 competitors — one star has to bow out to take part in another competition — learn what's in store next: they'll be competing against their final teammates in another endurance test where they'll be pulling huge, heavy rollers across a course.
The stakes are high as ever, too, as there are only four spots up for grabs in the final Quest. Here's a full recap of Physical: 100 season 2 episode 8.
Physical: 100 season 2 episode 8: The intrateam challenge
In the first few minutes, we see how the final race between Jo Sung-bin and Ko Jong-hun played out. Both players scrambled to get back on the monkey bars for the final sprint to the other side. Despite sustaining a leg injury (Sung-bin hit the platform when he lost his grip on the monkeybars the first round), he managed to power through the pain and win the round for Team Lee Jae-yoon, meaning Team Kim Dong-hyun was officially out of the race for good.
The surviving four teams were treated to a banquet of high-protein foods, before being taken back to the main hall. There, the remaining contestants found out that Chang Yong-heung had chosen to withdraw from the competition. He was captain of the national team, so he stepped away to play rugby for South Korea at the 2022 Asian Games (held in October 2023). He was part of Team Andre Jin, and we're informed the team would be moving forward as a group of four.
The teams won't have too much more bearing on the contest anyway, as the competitors are shocked to learn they'll now be competing within their groups in Quest Four; all eyes fall on Jung Ji-hyun's team as the hardest group (they were dubbed "The Avengers", after all).
The contestants step into the arena and lay eyes on a course split into five lanes, with two huge, heavy rollers set up at one end of each of them. Quest Four tasks the surviving stars with pulling the rollers by hand from one end of the track to the other. Then, they have to run back to the other end, bring the other roller with them, and sprint back to the starting line. The slowest competitor will be eliminated.
What's particularly challenging this time is that there won't be any big breaks between the rounds, and only one member from each team will make it through to the final round.
Team Hong Beom-seok are up first. Compared to the rest of her team, Park Ha-yan struggles to keep up the pace and she's eliminated. Hong Beom-seok and Gibson stay practically neck and neck in Round 2, but Hong Beom-seok pulls ahead through the round. Seol Young-ho bowed out this time, as his leg cramped up on the final run to the finish line.
The third round saw Kang Chyeong-myeong crashing out; from the off, he was running with stiff legs. Meanwhile, Hong Bong-seom describes the first two rounds as 'a warm-up', and pushes ahead. Despite leaving the competition, Kang Chyeong-myeong admits he is very keen to be called back up for season 3, if it happens!
Round 4 of this particular bout was particularly tense: Gibson managed to get his first roller moving first and maintained a narrow lead, but Hong Beom-seok dug deep and found the strength to run it back faster, securing a place in the final (a vast improvement on his season 1 performance, considering he crashed out in the first quest!)
The second team to face the challenge was Team Lee Jae-yoon (Lee Jae-yoon plus Justin Harvey, Jo Sung-bin, Lee Hyun-jeong and Joo Min-kyung). With his leg injury, everyone is convinced that Jo Sung-bin will be forced to bow out of the race first. He's the slowest from the off, but he manages to fend off Lee Hyun-jeong, who is eliminated first.
In Round 2, Jo Sung-bin gives it his all, but simply can't keep up with his teammates. When he's eventually confirmed to be out of the running, he admits he was disappointed, as he felt he could've gone farther in the competition if he'd not sprained his ankle during the previous challenge.
Round 3 kicks off, and the three remaining stars kick things up a notch, with a much faster starting sprint. Lee Jae-yoon gets his first roller's straps tangled up, making him slow to get going. He manages to close that gap, but he fumbles the straps when he returns to grab the second one, in a moment he later says was when he lost his composure. The team leader did his best to catch up, but on the final sprint back to the starting line, he slipped and fell, ending his run in the competition.
In the final run, Justin Harvey surges forward, outpacing Joo Min-kyung from the off, setting a pace that Min-kyung isn't able to match. After bagging his place in the final, Justin promises to play for his defeated teammates as well as himself.
Team Andre Jin (Jin plus Park Woo-jin, Power Who YAMI and Jung You-in) face the challenge next. With one fewer teammate, their race is more of a sprint from the off. Park Woo-jin finds the challenge the easiest, whilst cosplayer YAMI struggles to find the correct form to get the rollers moving. Both manage to outpace Jung You-in, though, and she's eliminated first.
Round 2 is another competitive race, but it's YAMI who's out second. The final round was intense, thanks to a few slip-ups. Park Woo-jin started by accidentally putting both straps around the same side of his body, throwing off his balance, and then he tripped over at the turn to dash back for roller #2. However, Andre didn't have much of a lead; he stopped a little early and his roller was stuck before the finish line. Luckily, the team captain fixed his mistake just in time to dash to the finish line, bagging a spot in the final.
Then, we turn to our final group: Captain Jung Ji-hyun, Amotti, Kim Min-su, Kim Jee-hyuk and Lee Jang-kun. Bodybuild Kim Min-su crashed out in the first round; his leg cramped up trying to leap across the pool of water in the middle of the course, meaning he couldn't run at his full pace during the final run.
In Round 2, Lee Jang-kun made a fatal error: he got the strap stuck underneath his roller, and fixing this cost him so much time that he wasn't able to make up the gap.
In Round 3, rower Kim Jee-hyuk's run came to an end. The episode then ended with Jung Ji-hyun and Amotti setting off for the final round of Quest Four... which of them manages to claim the last place in the final?
Physical: 100 season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
