Stray Kids Theory - Time Loop
And why Jeongin is Left Behind

Let’s start in District 9, in the trailer for I Am Not - where Jeongin sees his own self waiting for him at the bus stop.
This isn’t his clone, it’s himself, from another time. A leftover memory. The glitches were never stray kids, the glitches are in the universe.

For the longest time I thought Seungmin was painting a climber - but the neon green paint shows not mountain, but grass. Somebody on their knees, a deformed figure with inhuman proportions, like under hallucinogenic effects falling onto grass.

What Seungmin was seeing was Side Effects - Through his own eyes, under the influence. But how would he have seen this, unless it’s happened before, and he’s recounting fragments of his own memory?Among other iterations of that same piece, how many times has this happened before?

The map SKZ gave us isn’t a physical recreation of their journey - We see the Hellevator dip down, and stretch all the way to where Levanter takes place at the bottom, completing the loop of events.

Changbin is watching his past selves through the TVs in District 9, reminiscing back on their lives - M.I.A isn’t on the timeline, it’s their self reflection, that’s what they want to reach. Their old happiness.

The Hellevator field is the same place in Levanter, though the grass is worn with tire tracks and seemingly dying out -It’s not the first time they’ve been there.

Jisung is the first one to emerge onto the hellevator field, he's the one to find the 'perfect place' to break the loop. he's the X we've been missing, our captain, and "X marks the spot., following his broken compass to lead him to their dream like Jack Sparrow.

Let’s look at the Final Piece trailer - If we’ve gone past Miroh and Yellow Wood, why are we trying to reach this door?

Because that’s where Stray Kids make their decision, to abandon the city or overthrow it. The right string of decisions breaks the loop and frees them.

Each decision SKZ make, changes the course of their timeline. From Miroh, to getting on the bus in Side Effects. As we near the end, these choices pile up - their repetitive actions pulling apart space and time, like between Changbin and IN in Levanter, where we see space.

Will you be where I am? In the same space, in the same time?
IN knows about their constant attempts to free him, leaving him sad and dejected through their journey - he doesn’t see it ending well. The two moons in IAY by his reflection are the moons we see later, from SE to Lev.

Astronaut is another failed attempt. Though Chan and IN try to communicate via radio, in the end Chan knows this timeline too didn't work, taking the other boys with him while Jeongin remains. It's also where Hyunjin accepts their mission, despite being reluctant from the start.

Hyunjin never wanted this. In D9 he throws Chan hateful glances, in IAY he's distracted and not even trying to pay attention - something that builds up all the way to SE, where we see him break down and run away before giving up his resolve to join Chan.

Chan and Jeongin communicate via radio waves, the one thing constant between all timelines. By INs head, we see 'KRQ', a radio station in Arizona, among other hints - the Sky Dome D9 is hidden by and the 'Fare Sphere' Hyunjin finds in Astro.

But if they've escaped before, why aren't they being hunted? Nobody tries to stop them - Because they're supposed to escape. The govt. is watching their every move all the way to Double Knot via drone surveillance.
They want to see which decisions they make.

The men on the Miroh podium and the bus driver are the same person - it's all orchestrated, and here we see another split, where they decide whether to board the bus or find their own transport and lead their own way. Here we also approach the 'gate' IN can't pass. The break.

What they were actually looking into tin this scene, isn't the inside of the bus - there's plants inside, meaning this is one of the hellevators - the same one later filled with dead foliage they find in Levanter and burn it down. One of their past, failed attempts.

I say 'Hellevators' because there are, multiple entry points. We already know the Hellevator exists beyond the physical plane, from it's ability to reach disconnected locations and later on, materialize out of thin air. So let's go a bit science, and how they travel through it.

SKZ Lyrics often mention red - we see it in the colour of their D9 pills, to Miroh, and the red/blue lights in Levanter, Changbin says 'Under this blue sky, our song burns red hot."
Red and blue are on opposite ends of the rainbow, the colour spectrum. We can see it via a prism.

Bin finds a prism in his stand-off with IN in Lev, discarding it. If we consider red/blue to be two extremes, the Hellevator passes along this rainbow depending on their choices.
Que chan saying 'Stray Kids is Rainbow!' The Hellevators we see are just entry points to a network.

The only constant is the frequencies - Jeongin is the only one immune to the high pitched ringing in Levanter, as he talks about on the promo poster, and through Miroh and Astro, thats how they communicate. The ringing is SKZ's sign they're getting closer to the break through.

Lets go back to explain some things.
like Jisung is the captain, Felix is the key. In IAN, we see him toy with his reflection, and the 'FAKE' billboard above. He's slowly discovering his talents, summoning the Hellevator and manipulating his reality. He's the trigger to Levanter

This part of DK choreo pits Felix in the centre, as the boys turn around him back and forth - recreating a combination lock, where you turn a dial to input a number sequence to open.

In D9, the pills SKZ are under the influence of are made form Poinsettia flowers, a painkiller and sedative meant to suppress their memories - in SE they're experiencing withdrawal symptoms, which happens often when coming off an addictive substance.

The crystals Chan spots in SE before their van stops are a crystallised version of that substance, implying they're still inside the system they're trying to escape from, still near District 9 and under control.

But why is Jeongin stuck?
He's the only one that can't move on from their past, from M.I.A, hung up on his childhood - All of them were, at first, giving us the anger in Grr:Beware, their determination to find their own district and Miroh, the seemingly flawless riot.

Young Wings, his line 'live my age naturally' through to 'Stop' we see them struggle in accepting their adulthood - and IN, youngest, refuses, ending in a trap. SKZ know it's a necessary step. If you stay a child, only bad endings come, like their many failed timelines before.

Tickets from all the times they made this choice before, exhausting all options to lead them to this timeline, where every element from the past is in it's correct place, and all their bridges are burned - quite literally.

To their 'Voices', which are actually their own memories trying to guide them, bitter past selves still set on reaching their own end.
'Step out of them voices' - 'Step out of 'Cle'.
The only way to be free is to give up their vengeance, all slowly realise - apart from Innie.

This is why we never saw Jeongin step through the Astronaut door, why he's left waiting as others go into the next loop, why Chan is so happy to see Hyunjin - HJ had to let his anger rest, too.

As Hyunjin and IN battle their demons, Felix came to fully understand his ability - in Lev, we see him inside a tesseract, playing with atoms. A tesseract is a 4D shape, existing in time/space. He's entirely at ease, in full control of the space around him.

As Hyunjin runs through Astronaut, he sees pieces of their past - Felix in Miroh, their SE truck - they're getting closer to breaking free, and reality is glitching around them.
Everything has led them up to this point -
To be brave and ready. That's the end condition.

But then, what's with the red?
This timeline is ending soon, as they near escape - Like a black hole, sucking you in. You cross the point of no return, 'Event Horizon' time slows to a stop as gravity sucks it all in, even light, until only red remains - last on the spectrum.

Jeongin, too, finally lets go - He looks back one last time at the world he leaves behind, for the first time being able to step through the gate with his brothers. Stars begin to fall, their prism disintegrates as they give up the other possibilities.

Jisung makes the contact, bridging their other timelines - the worlds collide, and every choice they made boils over to give us this finale. Han reaches out to his old self, the first time he found the lilac field - in Hellevator. Gravity starts to fail as In and Bin meet.

Jeongin takes Felix's hand off, letting him know he doesn't need his guidance anymore. He steps through the gate, out of the time loop and into the new world with his brothers - It's all good now.

Time for me to accept Pablo was the end. Pablo's elements are what skz need to find to escape the loop.
X -Ideal place
△- the different, extreme paths in a spectrum.
▢- Felix mastering his abilities.
These pieces together, make them Pablo Picasso, drawing their own futures.

thank u for ur attention