This article contains spoilers for Physical: 100 season 2 episode 1, "Run to the Limit". Physical: 100 season 2 sees 100 more competitors put to the test as the uber-tough Korean Netflix challenge show returns for a bigger and bolder set of trials.
Episode one of the hit challenge show begins with the contestants arriving and meeting one another, comparing their plaster physiques statues.
And then the competition began in earnest, with Quest 0, a new endurance test devised to rank all 100 competitors. Here's a full recap of Physical: 100 season 2 episode 1...
The First Test
As before, the show begins with the competitors arriving and standing beside the casts of their respective torsos. It begins with professional swimmer Jung You-in, who is the very first person to enter the hall. As more and more contestants arrive, we get to see their reactions, which are usually a mix of good-natured trash talk and genuine admiration.
The penultimate competitor makes a big impression when he walks in. That's because he's no stranger to the show: it's former firefighter and Physical: 100 season 1 cast member, Hong Beom-seok! He got knocked out of the competition in the first set of one-on-one duels last year, but he's back with a vengeance. He tells us he's been training fiercely ever since he bowed out, and has a "do-or-die attitude" for season 2.
The 100th competitor makes just as big an entrance. It's MMA Fighter, Kim Dong-hyun. When he entered, the room erupted into a round of applause from his fellow competitors, all of whom seemed at least a little intimidated by his arrival. If you're not familiar with Dong-hyun, we learn that he was the first Korean UFC competitor, and he has an impressive record of 22 wins and only 4 losses under his belt.
With all 100 competitors assembled, the mystery game master asks the contestants to change into their new uniforms for the competition ahead, and introduces the colossal amount of money that the last contestant standing will walk away with: 300 Million Won.
Afterward, the competitors head into a room for the Pre-Quest Mission, a first test that is designed to rank the competitors from 1 to 100. Last year, this brutal endurance test saw all 100 stars trying to hang from a monkey bar structure for as long as possible.
This set of contestants faces a new challenge. The contestants entered a giant room full of 100 manual treadmills. Unlike the machines you might typically find at your local gym that use electricity, these are entirely powered by the person running on them. And most of them weren't too thrilled to lay eyes on these machines!
The game master explained that they faced three rounds of competitive running, which lasted 10 minutes, 7 minutes, and then 5 minutes, respectively. At the end of each period, the contestants' distances were recorded, and these distances were used to calculate their rankings, though no one would be removed from the competition at this time.
As before, those who were ranked highly were granted an advantage in the first mission, but as an added bit of pressure, the contestants learned they would have their ranking from Quest 0 stamped on their shoulders.
The first challenge decided the bottom 50 competitors and the second round eliminated 40 more stars, leaving only the top 10 runners to face the final 5-minute race. Those ten stars were Kim Dong-hyun, Ha Moo-kyoung, Park Moo-jin, Chong Te-se, Andre Jin, Kang Ki-jun, Amotti, Ku Sung-hoe, Kim Jee-hyuk, and Hong Beom-seok.
After a final push from all ten runners, the episode ended just as we were about to learn which of these final competitors had ranked number one...
Physical: 100 season 2 is now streaming on Netflix. If you can't wait for more episodes to drop, check out our guide to the Physical: 100 season 2 release schedule.
