Ironically, one of the MV Analysis I wanted to do was of BTS’s I Need You considering there were so many theories about the members in the uncut version. Well the 화양연화 On Stage – Prologue saved me some trouble and answers the question of what happened to the members at the end. But before that, here are some titles of the theories I had before and/or came across before the prologue debuted:
All the members die.All the members except Jin and V die; maybe Rap Monster(?).All the members except Jin dies.
You’ll want to watch BTS’s I Need You if you’re not familiar or just for a refresher. Then read through the theories before you watch the prologue. By being a prologue, it is meant to come first. But remember, their album was called The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1. So this is a prologue to part two and possibly an epilogue to part one. You have to close one chapter before continuing to the next.
I remember reading a comment somewhere (probably YouTube) that Rap Monster confirmed that all the members died in the end. Funny enough, I couldn’t find anything on that claim. No message, no interview clip, nothing. Skimming through the other comments on YouTube, there were a lot of theories of the members dying. Some went to point out the lilies (meaning of death) and Jin was holding six petals to represent each member. So to go with this theory:
– Rap Monster is killed via the cigarette falling on the money at the gas station.
– J-Hope overdoses on his medication.
– Jungkook meets his end by getting hit by a car after a run in with a short tempered individual.
– Jimin drowns himself in the tub.
– Suga burns down the motel room, himself included, by pouring gasoline over everything.
– Jin commits suicide not being able to handle the others’ deaths.
V… uh… well he kills someone by stabbing them to death, so….
2. All the members except Jin and V die; maybe Rap Monster(?)
I couldn’t agree with all the members dying… even RapMon is a stretch. I couldn’t see Namjoon dying at the gas station. A cigarette falls on money…which is unlikely to cause a fire, but even if it did, the fumes at the gas station would have had to have been concentrated and high for it to cause an explosion. At no point was the money doused in petroleum, so I can’t wrap my head around that’s the way he died.
V is seen killing his ex’s lover. But at best, unless he killed himself (which there were no implications of), he’s going to jail or living life on the run. And I don’t see Jin just jumping out of a window. His scenes had no build up to support that theory. So the theory that wins is…
3. All the members except Jin dies.
One plain thing that supports this theory in the prologue video is none of the members show up in any of the pictures except for Jin. One scene that supports this theory is at the end of the video, when he takes the film out of the glove compartment box that RapMon put there earlier, there’s only Jin. There’s confusion and a sense of “what the hell…” that settles on his face because his memory isn’t matching up with what he believes happened. But if you remember that scene, Rap Monster took a photo of Jin andSuga. Suga is nowhere to be found in that photo. If you actually look closer, the photo isn’t the one that Namjoon, but Jin did. Yes, what Jin is looking at is a selca he took himself.
Still the idea of V dying lingers. At the end, he jumps off the structure in front of everyone. But I have a feeling like the other members really aren’t there. Or if anyone is there, it’s Jin. There’s a sense of distance when he looks at everyone else and they’re interacting with each other and not him. But even before that, he climbed the building next to them instead of sitting with the other members. He gets down the first time, but not the second. The second time, Jin is the first one to notice that V has gone missing and looks up in his direction.
In relation to I Need You, Jin holds a picture in the prologue and asks J-Hope, “Should we go here?” Where is here? The end of the video should tell you exactly where Jin is talking about.
Jin is the one desperately holding onto the memories. In I Need You I believed him not to have died but to have lived to be strong for everyone else who couldn’t be. He’s the oldest, so there’s a natural sense of looking for those who are younger. You see him with the camcorder and the Polaroid camera. Actually, even though the focus seems to be on Taehyung, the person you really need to be watching in 화양연화 On Stage – Prologue is Seokjin.
At the end of I Need You, Jin and V are alive. The camera focuses on them right at the end of the video. Furthermore, I think the video even preludes to V dying because if you see the lineup at the end, Jin is the only member that’s standing sideways, facing all the members while everyone else has their backs to the camera.
I believe the person V called was Jin. The oldest is the first one to notice that V isn’t with them in the second to last scene when he starts to climb the scaffolding. He looks back at RapMon questioning as to why he put the picture in the glove compartment. He’s not interacting too much with the other members, but recording their interactions. Jin doesn’t initially meet up with everyone at the beginning until Jungkook points him out. Granted it might debunk on who V called but still if the other members had died, either V called Jin or called a member who was already dead. There was no confirmation of a dial tone, someone picking up, or a voicemail. But to support the theory of who V called, when the scene of everyone meeting up with V, all of the members push him around except Jin. He’s the only member V embraces, taking in the meaning that he was the ‘hyung’ he wanted to see.
At the complication of everything, even though the sadness, I only have good things to say. Someone give these boys an award and an offer to act in a drama, especially Jin and V. The only negative thing would be that I felt the video lacked Jimin lot… My attention was rarely drawn to him. I did notice how the group settled off into smaller groups. I guess it might have been a sense of which members are close and/or really look out for each other. Jungkook is seen with Suga most of the time and J-Hope and Jimin have scenes together as well. As mentioned before, V isolated himself the entire time (which should have been a red flag to everyone else; it was for me), and Rap Monster and Jin watching over everyone else.
This has definitely made me excited for their comeback and their upcoming tracks. I think I heard two separate ones (I feel like I might have heard three in total, and no I’m not counting Love is Not Over). Obviously Butterfly (if that is the name of the track) was highlighted, so I hope that happens to be a song they promote.
Even though this entire video messes with my feels, I’ll be watching it over and over again until their comeback arrives. I miss these boys.
There might be things I missed and may go back into edit later. Did you catch something I didn’t? Share your thoughts!
