Set Me Free Pt.2: on Mazes, Lies and Setting Yourself Free
Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt.2 is a powerhouse of a masterpiece. It is well anchored in BTS’ discography all while going beyond it and being fresh, unexpected and unique to Jimin and his journey. A perfect official solo debut for Jimin. ❤️
Read on if you’d like to explore these topics with me:
Set Me Free Pt.2 being anchored in BTS’s discography
Jimin’s journey from Lie to Set Me Free Pt.2
Anchored in BTS’s Discography
Set Me Free Pt.2 is anchored in BTS’ discography firstly because of the title itself: a nod to, as well as a continuation of sorts of Agust D’s Set Me Free. In Jimin’s words:
There isn’t a connection, and we weren’t trying to divide part one or part two. But since it turns out my song talks about freedom and moving forward, and SUGA’s song talks about some of the stories that come before, I thought it would be good to come after that.
Just like BTS’ Airplane Pt.2 is linked to J-Hope’s solo track Airplane, Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt.2 is linked to Agust D’s Set Me Free.
Next up comes the maze. Set Me Free Pt.2 uses the metaphor of the maze twice:
The metaphor of the maze is scattered across BTS’s discography:
Every day a maze
Wonder if this is my place
Suga in Answer: Love Myself:
Our lives are long, trust yourself when in a maze
When winter passes, spring always comes
Without forgetting the song Love Maze itself! Jimin’s maze lyrics in this song:
Trapped in a maze of decisions
Exhausted by all the different chaos
We’ve wandered around, looking for the answer
Lost in the maze, in the darkness
We love a motif that keeps popping up throughout various songs. It creates strength to the overarching storytelling of an artist and instantly brings meaning without having to go into detail each time. (See this post which talks a lot more eloquently about BTS motifs across their albums!) I love that Jimin ties his solo song into the BTS maze motif by bringing the maze in his own way. Not only does it create links between this solo song and BTS songs, but it also means army immediately knows the maze means difficulty.
Indeed, the metaphor of the maze signifies darkness, being lost, going through hardships, etc. It can be nuanced in different ways depending on the context. (This powerful metaphor has not been lost on other k-pop artists. See for example Stray Kids’ Miroh (miroh, 미로, meaning “maze” in Korean) and Maze of Memories, TXT’s Maze in the Mirror, and (G)-IDLE’S Maze.) The maze in Set Me Free Pt.2 signifies hardships too. Jimin said the song wanted to express the ideas of “determination, passion, and overcoming”, and the maze represents the hardships that required determination and passion to overcome.
BTS explored darkness, hardships and overcoming them extensively throughout their discography, most recently and impressively through ON. This song has similar vibes to Set Me Free Pt.2, confirmed by Park Jimin himself: “I think you can feel the same vibe watching the “ON” performance as you will watching this performance. You’ll feel that feeling once again.” There is also clearly a shoutout to ON’s “Gotta go insane to stay sane” lyrics in Set Me Free Pt.2′s “Going insane to stay sane” lyrics. Parallels between ON/other BTS songs talking about overcoming hardships and Set Me Free Pt.2 are clear.
(Sidenote: see RM’s El País interview in which he talks about why overstraining/“working fucking hard” is such an important theme within k-pop/Korean culture.)
Darkness was also very much explored in Suga’s Interlude: Shadow. I can’t help but think that the voice distortions in Set Me Free Pt.2′s second verse may be a reference to Shadow’s third verse, which contain similar voice distortions.
The voice distortions in Set Me Free Pt. 2 come when Jimin is talking about hardships:
I got feel low
Still in a maze
But I got no time to break soul
Just let me flow
Hey fool, just get out of my way
Shut up, fuck off
I’m on my way
These are the darkest lyrics of the song imo. They show the darkness, dare I say the shadow, that Jimin has lived with and through. When Jimin addresses the “fool,” he could be speaking to his shadow, to his own self-doubts. The voice distortion accentuates the fact that he is talking about darkness, a dark side of himself.
Suga’s biggest voice distortions in Interlude: Shadow appear over these lyrics:
Yeah I’m you, you are me, now do you know
Yeah you are me, I’m you, now you do know
We are one body, sometimes we will clash
You can never break me off, this you must know
Yeah yeah can’t break me off, whatever you do
Yeah you’ll be at ease if you admit it too
Yeah succeed or fail, whichever way you flow
Yeah you can’t escape, wherever you go
This is also the darkest part of the song. Rather than talking to his shadow like Jimin, Suga is speaking from his shadow’s perspective. He is talking about how it’s impossible to escape his shadow always being part of him. Suga’s shadow is greed and ambition, whereas Jimin’s may be more akin to self-doubt, a self-doubt that has made him pretend to be someone else. This would explain why it would seem that while Suga is trying to accept living with his shadow alongside him, Jimin is working on setting himself free from his shadow.
I might be making parallels where no parallels need to be made. Playing with voices is common in the music industry in general, and very much in k-pop too. At the same time, both Set Me Free Pt.2 and Interlude: Shadow have both Pdogg and Ghstloop as songwriters and Ghstloop as a producer. And I think it’s interesting to think of discussions with one’s demons as being highlighted by voice distortions.
Lie, Set Me Free Pt.2 and Jimin
I cannot help but interpret Set Me Free Pt.2 as being linked to Lie. Musically, they both have a grand orchestral feel. Meaning-wise, they seem very linked as well.
Lie is all about the suffering that comes with having to live a lie. Here are the lyrics of the chorus, as a quick refresher:
Caught in a lie
Find the me that was pure
I can’t be free from this lie
Give me back my smile
Caught in a lie
Pull me from this hell
I can’t be free from this pain
Save me, I am being punished
The lie in question is not specified and is left up to interpretation, which is amazing. Lots of people can find themselves in the lyrics in various ways.
At the same time, thinking about Jimin, the first thing that comes to my mind is this quote of his from this video when he talks about/to his younger self:
I think I wanted to appear like a strong man. Now… I don’t have to pretend. I can just be myself. Talk about myself without pretending anything. I realised that I was such an aspiring person and I realised how I’ve become better. I don’t look like I’m about to weep anymore. I don’t. That’s the difference as per my appearance goes. You were trying very hard. I was impressed and moved by you. I could feel how hard you were trying. I mean… Your eyes looked eager to show something. I felt somewhat sorry for you too. I was shocked a bit. Hurry up and be me soon. You will learn and realise so many things. Fighting.
The lie may indeed have been about him not being himself, him trying, pretending to be someone else, a “strong man”. This is something he has overcome, and Jimin affirms that he now feels free to be himself without having to pretend. With this in mind, let’s have a look at some of Set Me Free Pt.2′s lyrics:
Ah, yeah, ah, yeah
I’m standing at the edge
Not yet, not yet
I won’t look back
Now yeah, now yeah
Fly away, butterfly-y-y
Finally free-e-e
Look at me now (Me now)
I won’t hide anymore, even if it hurts
Going insane to stay sane
Raise your hands for the past me
Now, set me free-e-e
Tears in my eyes at “Finally free”, “I won’t hide anymore” and “Raise your hands for the past me” (especially as in the MV Jimin is actually raising his hand while he sings this).
To me, one interpretation of the song is definitely about setting yourself free from the expectations you have bound yourself to (bearing in mind that these expectations are very often hammered into you by society). Setting yourself free from pretending to be someone else, from hiding yourself, from being blocked in your own prison, your own lie. Jimin has very much done this, as he clearly feels a lot more comfortable with allowing himself to be who he wants to be compared to the first years after debut. (I highly recommend reading these two excellent posts that go into great detail about this about how Jimin is the personification of the whole Love Yourself concept: “Jimin and his Journey with Gender Presentation” and “Jimin and his Journey with Food and Body Image”.)
The journey from Lie to Set Me Free Pt.2 is striking. In Lie, Jimin cannot seem to be able to escape the lie. He is crying for outside help, unable to save himself. “Pull me from this hell,” “Save me, I am being punished.”
In Set Me Free Pt.2, he has agency, and he has overcome his hardships himself.
Finally free
Look at me now
I won’t stop, even if they mock me.
Jimin has said that that’s what the song is all about:
“Set me free” means setting myself free, so I thought it was important that I be the one to set myself free — not someone else. In the end, I’m the one who has to set myself free.
The MV visually shows that he has set himself free as he ends up in an all-white outfit after having been in a black (and somewhat naked) outfit up until the end of the video.
Visually representing a light in the darkness, as he said is this song’s energy:
I would say the song has the energy of a light in the darkness. I wanted to express that kind of picture everyone has in their head — a ray of light coming into the darkness is the only thing you can see. If I had to say specific colors, I’d say black and white.
It’s one hell of a powerful message. That we can set ourselves free on our own, no matter the darkness of the maze, of our shadow. That in fact, we are the only ones who can set ourselves free. I don’t have the words to express how inspiring it is, how much of a privilege it is, to watch Jimin express this in such a musically and visually striking way as Set Me Free Pt.2.
In conclusion, Jimin places the song firmly in BTS’s discography by using the motif of the maze, talking about similar themes (overcoming hardships) and referencing ON and Interlude: Shadow (maybe). At the same time, the song is uniquely his at it is very personal to his own journey of setting himself free from hiding and pretending to be someone else.
