They say fear reveals our truest selves, and the Run BTS production staff are eager to test this hypothesis. In this episode, the first true attempt to make someone swear on camera (the one where they made Hoseok go on a roller coaster was kind of an accident), the boys are faced with a long drop, a hard choice, and their first on-camera liability waiver.
Setup:
There’s a very tall bungee jump in Korea, and these guys have to leap from it. That’s it, that’s the episode! There is a thin attempt to make this into a game, one where the jumping team has to guess a song the non-jumping team is charading nearby, but mostly this whole thing is an excuse to film them getting freaked out for our entertainment.
The Moments of Pure Love:
- 1.
As the staff explains the concept (jump), Jungkook does metaphorical happy backflips while the rest of them argue that they don’t want to
- 2.
Namgi discuss facts and figures to self-soothe, and Namjoon opines that a 22nd floor apartment would be hard for them to get financially, which is retroactively hilarious
- 3.
Taehyung is wearing a shark-head hoodie that zips around his face that is surely cool but looks a little like a babushka
- 4.
Jungkook CANNOT sit still, so eager is he to leap through the air
- 5.
The staff explain that the losing team will have to jump again and you can see Taehyung and Hoseok seriously consider quitting BTS and never coming back
- 6.
Namkook quote Hamlet at each other for fun
- 7.
Jin has to go first because he’s the oldest and when the staff tell him to relax as he jumps he looks at them like they’re idiots
- 8.
Hoseok begins the bargaining process with the staff
- 9.
Jin begins the bargaining process with the staff
- 10.
Jimin sweetly assures Jin they’ll make the game easy
- 11.
Jin leaps, screaming "Eat Jin!", then shakily congratulates himself for the excellent job he did
- 12.
Taehyung begins the bargaining process with the staff
- 13.
Jungkook is very worried the sun will set before he can fall 22 stories
- 14.
Taehyung jumps HYYH-era style, lays down to recover with dead eyes, then informs us it was super easy
- 15.
Jungkook dances incessantly as Namjoon goes, yelling “Rrrrrrrrap Monstaaaa!” in heart-melting fashion
- 16.
Taehyung tries to convince Jin that he had no problems at all, until Jin feels his rapidly beating heart and laughs in his face
- 17.
Namjoon tries to explain the experience clinically to comfort Hoseok; it does the opposite
- 18.
Jungkook leaps before the countdown is over and everyone thinks he’s nuts, especially when he says it was kind of boring and he wants to go again
- 19.
Hoseok begins the bargaining process with us
- 20.
Yoongi says that he’s too sleepy to be scared and the rest of them immediately call that total bullshit
- 21.
Namjoon recounts with great drama Taehyung’s frantic pleas to the staff not to jump, much to Jin’s delight
- 22.
Jimin and Yoongi try to make reassuring small talk with Hoseok as he waits in line to go, but there is simply no input getting into that brain space anymore
- 23.
Jimin sweetly visualizes the Bangtan faces to get the courage to jump
- 24.
Hoseok is slated last for maximum peer pressure, and it works even though he’s basically crying
- 25.
Namjoon self-roasts them as well-known weenie idols, though Taehyung continues to insist he was very brave and normal
- 26.
Taehyung is heckled mercilessly
- 27.
They discuss what they yelled for energy when they jumped, and everyone laughs at Jungkook for saying nothing and Namjoon for saying his own name
- 28.
No one cares about the game results literally at all
- 29.
Jimin takes it upon himself to be the ceremony officiant for the certificates of bungee jump completion, and he takes great delight in pretending Yoongi didn’t get one
The Finish Line:
This one lacks the competitive aspect that makes for the best Run episodes, as it devolves into a sort of team-building corporate activity by the end. But looking back it’s very sweet how they all care about each other so much, while also being so acutely aware of everyone else’s bullshit and unafraid to call it out. The sheer amount of internal roasting was both impressive and revealing of how much time they’ve spent together by this point even though they’re still so early in their journey.
Most importantly, Taehyung proves that the worst thing you can do in Bangtan is pretend to be cooler than you are, because they simply will not allow that sort of propaganda on their watch. They may not be cool but they know what cool looks like and are unafraid to Name You!