Run BTS Rewatch Episode 51: The Arms of the Angel
50회 특집 2, 50th episode special 2
We are in a sort of part 3, sort of part 2 situation here, but I’m calling it part three of the trilogy, which means that there will be an exciting battle and resolution if movies have anything to teach us. Which they don’t, honestly.
This episode is quite famous in the fandom for the way several people are scared out of their ever-loving minds, and I’m quite excited to revisit it as I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever watched it once!
Setup:
Bangtan is divided into 3 teams to ride 3 amusement park rides at Lotte World and do challenges. At stake is an unspecified prize worth 500,000 won so everyone’s competitive fires are stoked at maximum levels. Will they survive this harrowing journey? Maybe Jungkook will…
The Moments of Pure Love:
As a reminder of the teams, they are denoted by the merchandise headwear they’re sporting as such:
Team Bunny - Jimin and Jin
Team Frog - Taehyung and Jungkook
Team Shiba Inu - Namjoon, Hoseok, and Yoongi
The first game is on the pirate ship ride, where one member sits on one side and gives clues in a sort of Catch Phrase fashion and the other sits on the other and guesses the word
For Team Shiba, one person will describe and the others will take turns answering
Jimin is devastated that he will have zero people’s help when describing or guessing, as he is the consummate teammate
Hoseok quickly grips Yoongi around the whole shoulders and declares he has a friend to rely on
Jungkook is pessimistic that anyone will succeed, presumably his team because they will be bad at guessing and the other teams because they are kind of weenies about this stuff
Jin says that he’s good at describing, so he will take that role while Jimin guesses
Taehyung asks, slightly plaintively, if any of the words are hard
Namjoon is forced to describe by Sope, who absolutely will not take that responsibility on
They RPS to see who has to go first, and Jungkook takes a few seconds to realize he lost for Team Frog; Team Shiba are second and Team Bunny are last
Jimin wishes they were the middle one so that he can learn from the first without being subjected to the long wait of the last
When the producers ask who will describe for Team Frog, Jungkook sheepishly raises his hand and prepares for the roast
Hoseok asks if Taehyung is afraid of heights, and Taehyung lies his ass off when he says no, though he claims that he’s only scared of looking down from high places not riding pirate ships
Jungkook tells him to just look at him and it will be fine
Namjoon decides it’s very important to put Taehyung’s frog headband on his head instead of around his neck, though he puts it on backwards
Jimin takes a moment to ask the director if he rode the ride, which he has, and if he was scared, which he wasn’t; Jimin is like “you were totally scared don’t lie”
Namjoon claims that Taekook are the strongest team
Taekook choose this moment to begin popping and locking to Taehyung’s acapella cover of Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas
Jungkook announces on his way to the ride that he’s gonna do great at the riding and terrible at the game
As the ship starts, Taehyung stares forward in his seat like a man being led to the guillotine, though the frog eyeball lend a touch of levity
Jungkook has to immediately pass his first word, yodel, because he’s not allowed to yell “yodelaheehoo” and that is a crime
They get a rhythm going as Taehyung is able to focus in very well and Jungkook finds good description methods
The five on the ground watch the ship go, and Hoseok is particularly freaked out by the entire experience
They can hear snatches of Taekook talking; Jin mocks them lightly and Namjoon tries to guess the words along with Taehyung
At one point Jungkook yells “Ah!!” as he’s trying to think, and Jin finishes it out with the rest of the intro to the Lion King, which really cracks Namjoon up
Hoseok looks at them as though he is about to vomit
Taekook disembark with 4 right answer and feel great about themselves
No one else feels that great about themself
Jungkook asks the staff if he can ride the ride again with the next team, and when they say yes his face lights up like a Christmas tree as he scampers off
Taehyung follows eagerly, as does Jin, leaving Jimin as the only one on the ground
As the ride starts Jin yells out encouragement to Hoseok, who’s not even on his team, but all of them are psychically supporting Jung Hoseok in this difficult time
Jungkook claps excitedly from his place next to Yoongi, while Yoongi and Hoseok have a sort of funereal pallor
Jimin realizes this means he can ask Jungkook to sit next to him when he goes to give him strength, and this is very pleasing
Hoseok is now sitting basically sideways in his seat with his back pressed against Yoongi; I’m not sure if this is for courage or so that he doesn’t feel like he’s looking directly at the ground
As the ship starts to move the tiniest bit Yoongi yells that he doesn’t like it
Namjoon, bless his heart, tries very hard to describe a food, and Sope also do their best, but as the ship rises so do their pitch levels until it’s mostly just shrieking
Jimin, from the ground, cracks up as Hoseok screams “Beeeeeeeeeeeeef!!!!!”
Taekook put their hands in the air in excitement
Jin begins moaning in fear next to Namjoon
Hoseok’s answers are now all long, drawn-out screams
Yoongi’s face is a rictus grin as he tries to hold on to his immortal soul
Both of them are still wearing their huge Shiba Inu helmet hats and it makes the whole scene even more surreal
Namjoon tries to do hand gestures to show the size of a kiwi, but Yoongi and Hoseok can barely open their eyes at this point
Yoongi screams so high that it might be a medical problem
Jimin again laughs his ass off
Yoongi recovers his senses and tells Namjoon to pass
As the ship begins to slow, Namjoon gets a word that prompts him to say “You don’t have this right now”
Sope, in unison, say “Courage”, which is wrong, but they repeat it over and over until the ride stops and Hoseok tries to faint onto Yoongi’s shoulder
Jungkook’s face has looked like :D for a solid three minutes
Yoongi wipes tears from his eyes and everyone laughs at him
Jimin asks if they were scared as they disembark, and Hoseok is like bitch please, I almost died
Sope decide not to ride again, but everyone else gets on; Taehyung switches seats to be beside Jimin
As the ride starts Jin and Jimin moan at each other lightly
Jimin then screams that he’s scared and that he wants to be let off the ride; he is not
Namjoon, from the other side, is like hey Jimin you need to listen to Jin instead of just screaming and screaming
As the ship reaches another peak Jimin screams like he’s having his appendix removed without anesthetic, then keeps screaming over and over again
Jimin has Taehyung’s hand gripped in his own, pulling it to his chest and squeezing with every yell, and now this is like childbirth scenes on TV
Taehyung and Namjoon find the entire experience hilarious
Jin tries to give the clue of a painting without eyebrows, but Jimin has not heard a single word of this
Hoseok, from the ground, Shiba Inu head cocked in consideration, says hey, isn’t that painting the Mona Lisa?
Jin gets the word scissors, then simply says scissors and does the hand gesture
Jimin screams “scissors what????” and Hoseok cackles
Jin apologizes for simply saying the word, but Jimin is mostly screaming again
A pattern emerges where Jimin gets his shit together every time the other side of the pirate ship is going up, and demands that Jin say something to him, but by the time Jin is speaking Jimin’s side is off the ground again and he’s screaming into the void
As the ship slows, Jin says he wants a new team please
Jimin says he almost died
Sope laugh empathetically
Jungkook laughs and claps without any empathy at all
Yoongi asks Jimin if he cried, and Jimin says no because he wasn’t scared at all
Hoseok gives a score recap, which is Frog with 4 points, Bunny with 0 points, and Shiba with 1 point
Jimin can’t believe that no one else shouted from fear, and Yoongi is like “our coping mechanism was to weep”
Hoseok says there are still two rides left and Taekook do a happy dance party that zero other people join in on
Game 2 is the flume ride / log ride, which is one that takes your picture on a drop, so everyone on the team has to be blowing a bubble in the picture; for team Shiba, only Sope have to do it because Namjoon lacks the ability
When the producers ask who will go first Jimin volunteers them right away
Jimin then wonders what if it’s scary; Yoongi says that it will be, and Jimin turns around and points at him, saying that he’s gonna have to do this too, buddy boy
Namjoon does a word-perfect impression of a ride attendant at breakneck speed and everyone is quite impressed
Hoseok has decided that his new catch phrase is “what do you need now? Courage!” and yells it after them
Each team gets a chance to practice to learn where the camera is, and Jinmin are already a little worried as they enter the dark tunnel; the editors apologize for the lack of lighting but it was a safety issue to install them
Taehyung, inspired by Namjoon, is now inhabiting an even more ingratiating ride attendant
Jinmin are getting wet on their test ride, and are so thrilled by it that they don’t even notice where the camera is or that this is a practice ride
Jin warns the rest of them when they get back that the ride will remove their makeup
Sope and Taekook get in one log flume for their own test experience before Team Bunny go again
Because of the lack of light, a lot of this is done in darkness with captions, which makes it even funnier when Hoseok asks nervously why the log is leaning so much and Taehyung simply laughs at him
Jimin begins doing impressions of people in the other log, as follows
Hoseok: Ah, this isn’t even scary!
Yoongi: This is fine this is fine this is fine
What they are actually saying is this
Yoongi: Let’s chill out. Yeah, let’s open our eyes. *screams* I can’t open my eyes!!!
Hoseok: *Nervous laughter*
Namjoon is in his own solo log flume, sadly, because he can’t blow a bubble, and he sighs in resignation
Jinmin very calmly do their bubbles, but Jin’s pops halfway down and he doesn’t know if it will count
Namjoon talks to himself as he drifts along, a little freaked out by how dark it is at night
Jungkook, who is at the front of the four-man flume, has gotten extremely splashed on their journey
Jin covers up his face to preserve his makeup on their second drop, while Jimin blows another bubble just in case it’s needed
Jimin is angry at his past self for being so afraid of the pirate ship when this is a piece of cake
Namjoon is now laughing and having fun even though his pants are extremely wet and he gathered no useful intel about where the camera is for the bubbles
As Team Frog starts their real run, Taehyung yells in a panic that he needs time to chew the gum properly, but the ride cannot be stopped
Jungkook turns around from his place in the front and helpfully notes that Taehyung should try using his teeth to chew
Jimin wants to go again, so he gets in behind Namjoon, and Jin joins them so they can all get a picture together
Taehyung suggests a coordinated pose with Jungkook, one that shows they’re relaxed and not scared and aware of the camera
Jungkook then holds his arms out like he’s on the front of the Titanic to receive the whole splash
Hoseok is delighted by the chewy quality and tastiness of the gum
Namjoon, from the back, asks either them, the universe, or God why he can’t blow a bubble
Yoongi, for his part, says he has no idea, but he demonstrates how to do it at Namjoon’s request
Namjoon, very excitedly, taps Yoongi on the shoulder to show him a bubble that he blew, but this bubble his mostly just him sticking the piece of gum out of his lips; Yoongi is not impressed
Taekook decide to go again, mostly because Jungkook refuses to get out of the flume
Rapline reach the camera and try to blow their bubbles, but Yoongi screams into it and pops it
Namjoon warns Hoseok he’s going to get wet at the second drop
Hoseok, no longer occupied with the task of blowing a bubble, screams his little heart out and gets soaked
As they arrive at the end, Hoseok asks who he is and where he is while Namjoon laments his failure and Yoongi sighs about his popped bubble
The pictures are back, and the production team hilariously declares that they showed zero bias in their evaluation of a successful bubble
Jinmin succeeded, and Jin especially looks flawless even though he’s hurtling down a water chute in a log
Team Shiba Inu also succeeds, and Yoongi shrieks in happiness that the picture was before the popped bubble
Taekook are hoisted by their own petard when Taehyung’s idea for a pose makes it hard to see if Jungkook had a bubble or not, even though the video footage showed that he did, so they fail
Jihope point out that Taekook are now at the bottom of the rankings
Rapline are winning and they get unreasonably excited about it; Jimin finds that very cute
The next game takes place on a roller coaster called the French Revolution, which Koobi both try to say with varying degrees of success
This roller coaster features an upside down loop (which goes around the place where people wait for the cars) and a death spiral at the end, so it’s a fairly serious one
The game is that while riding each person has to memorize a series of characters that, when said in series with each other after they’re done, will make a sentence (the example they give doesn’t really translate in English but it would be like one person getting RNT and the other getting UBS to alternate to RUN BTS)
Jungkook volunteers to go first since they’re last at points
Namjoon declares that Team Shiba Inu are the heroes and they all do a mix between gang signs and superhero poses
Taekook get set up, and Hoseok is suddenly like wait we have to ride in the front of the roller coaster I’ve never done that in my whole life
Namjoon, gallantly, says he will sit in the front no problem, but Yoongi is very silent so Sope play RPS for who will sit next to him
Yoongi loses instantly and makes an expressively resigned face as Namseok laugh
Hoseok is impressed at how relaxed Taekook are on the death machine
Jin is worried about his lack of ability to memorize things
Hoseok helpfully says to read the paper carefully
Taekook mutter syllables to themselves as the coaster does the going up part, very calm but a little manic
After the drop, Jungkook is torn between his desire to be great at memorizing and his desire to enjoy the roller coaster, and eventually Taekook both give in to the fun, though they chant their syllables over and over again as they go
As the roller coaster loops the rest of the members, exactly zero of them seem comfortable
Jimin looks up with his mouth open, mute
Jin is startled by how loud it is
Namjoon cackles, mostly at Jin
Yoongi crouches down on the platform and won’t even look at it
Hoseok touches the ears of his Shiba hat for comfort as his eyes get progressively more freaked out
As Taekook finish, the rest of them realize they’re chanting their syllables, and that the syllables they’ve been given are different (which I don’t think was understood before)
Taekook stand on the platform and try to alternate their memorized syllables, which is way harder than just saying them really fast in order, and it makes gibberish
Jimin encourages them to go very slowly, and they do, and Namjoon thinks that they said they have a bomb
They give them another chance, but Taehyung has already forgotten his syllables which forces Jungkook to grab him by his leather jacket lapels and lightly shake him
Jinmin go next, and Hoseok accuses Jimin of cheating almost instantly
Jimin, pouting, says he is not cheating
Jin shows them that they have 10 syllables to memorize, which Hoseok thinks is a lot
Hoseok also realizes, with an air of great discovery, that if every other team loses they automatically win because they’re in first, and this makes him very cheerful
The ride starting bell goes off and Jinmin sigh heavily in unison before Jin starts a bolstering chant
As they start Jimin says, “hyung I’m scared” and Jin commands him to read
Jin is very focused on memorizing while Jimin continues to be distracted by all of the coaster activity, until the first major drop when Jin screams loudly enough that they can all hear him on the platform
Everyone but Taehyung laughs, because Taehyung is staring stoically into space, I think because Taehyung is mad at himself for his non-successful memorizing
On the upside down loop Jin screams like a dying goat for the entire thing while Jimin is mute in terror, leading Namseok to be concerned that Jimin is dead
As soon as the loop is over Jin’s scream abruptly ends and he goes back to calmly memorizing
Jungkook imitates the scream with uncanny pitch and accuracy
Hoseok compares it to Tarzan, which isn’t wrong
On the death spiral both of them scream a perfect 5th step apart from each other, with Jin taking the higher note, and it sounds almost lovely outside of the fear
When they finish Jimin is so affected that he begins doing an endorsement for Lotte World at least partially in Japanese
Taehyung springs back to life and begins reciting his memorized syllables to Jimin, either to screw Jimin up, to prove Taehyung still remembers them, or both
Jinmin start their recitation firmly but falter as they go along; this time Namjoon is able to pick out at least a few words of it so they seem a little closer
Taehyung helpfully yells out his own syllables again
Jimin wants to try again but Jin erased the syllables from his mind as soon as he says them and bails
Namjoon, that kid in the class, raises his hand in the back and says the sentence he thinks they were given; he is correct
Jin thinks Namjoon should get three points for guessing it, but Jimin is like “you realize he is not on our team, right?” and leads him away gently by the hand
As rapline strap in, Jimin tries to comfort Hoseok by saying it’s not that scary
Taekook have strapped into the very back of the coaster to have another go; they decide to do weird voices that sound like robots
Jin has also strapped in next to Hoseok, leaving Jimin the only one on the platform doing an attendant impression
Hoseok is already yelling as they leave the station
Yoongi is focused on memorizing his syllables
Namjoon is having the time of his life, seemingly having memorized his syllables in a single glance at the beginning
Jimin, sitting on the platform floor, asks us why these idiots would ever want to ride that ride again
Namjoon explains how the game works to Sope because that’s how he works out his nerves
Hoseok, dead-eyed and vacant, memorizes his syllables
Jimin, now standing again, explains to us that he’s not scared at all, in fact he would love to ride the roller coaster an infinite number of times, but he’s very tired so he can’t
As he further expands that it wasn’t scary, the editors superimpose a memory of him screaming his ass off on his turn
Jimin says he’s only scared of the pirate ship and the haunted house, not roller coasters, then leans on a nearby possessions bin and sighs that he’s lonely
As rapline approach the peak, Yoongi begins chanting his syllables to himself as he grips the handles, eyes squeezed shut
Hoseok hoots in the back, knuckles equally white as he squeezes the restraint
Jimin explains that the reason the roller coaster isn’t scary is that it doesn’t drop all at once, while the editors bring back another memory of his terrified face
The rest of the ride is much the same, with Hoseok screaming his head of as he tries to shrink into the seat, Yoongi’s eyes tightly shut as he yells, panicked, and Namjoon having a great time with his Shiba hat slipping off the back of his head
Jin is also having way more fun on this pass, partially because he’s not quite as scared as Hoseok
Hoseok’s energy is entirely depleted as they finally end the ride, but he accuses Jin of hitting him in the chin; I think it’s actually that he turned his head to the side in his seat and his chin bounced off of the restraining harness over and over again
Jungkook hits them with a super fast rap as they exit to try to confuse them, but they ignore him entirely
Rapline step up to deliver their syllables
Hoseok stares at the production team with his hands clasped in front of him like he’s in a spelling bee
Namjoon stares directly at camera with an intimidating yet sexy glare
Yoongi closes his eyes and doesn’t acknowledge anyone
They nail it, first try, because these guys are pros at memorizing sounds, and Jimin is legitimately impressed
Yoongi, suddenly back from the dead, is like this is so easy how could anyone ever fail it
Hilariously this means the cowardly rapline is number one while the brave Taekook are number three
Taekook claim they are winners in the real of fun, and Taehyung has his arm around Jungkook like the leader of a biker gang holding onto his main squeeze, launching hundreds of fics
The winning team gets the prize, which is a box wrapped in red paper that contains a ramen cooker
The reaction to this is wild excitement from everyone except for
Yoongi, who is like, you can make ramen on the stove? Right?
Namjoon, very sincerely, says that this is faster and easier
Yoongi is not convinced
Namjoon says it will taste better, and Jin says he likes it
Hoseok, practically, says they can use it when they’re traveling and don’t have a kitchen
They show the members using the cooker at some point, maybe in a green room, and Jin is very satisfied but Taehyung is unhappy that it only makes one serving at a time so he has to wait
With that mixed review, we’re out!
The Finish Line:
This episode is a testament to the fact that just because you’re afraid that doesn’t mean you can’t also be good at other things like blowing bubbles and memorizing things, which is a lesson we can all take with us in our day to day. It is always very satisfying to watch Bangtan be scared, and Yoongi in particular was really the MVP of this particular outing because he HATED every single activity in a fun way.
I said this last time but it is quite interesting how big they already are to do something like this while knowing 2018 wasn’t even close to the peak of their fame. These guys are FAMOUS famous now, and could probably shut down almost any theme park in existence if they chose to. Really wild to think about!
I don’t remember what’s coming up next for once, but I’ve learned to expect banger after banger so I’m hopefully for another really good one. See you there!