Contains massive spoilers for Season 2 of “Squid Game,” including the ending.
It is an understatement to call Netflix’s “Squid Game” a smash hit. The show became a global phenomenon, helping gear anticipation for a follow-up season promising to continue a tale of intrigue and pathos. The first season ended with Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) vowing to dismantle the titular games at the cost of personal happiness, and season 2 picks up two years later, with him expending every effort to corner the ddakji salesman (Gong Yoo) who started it all. On the other end, Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) is now a traffic officer, having been saved after being shot and falling into the water. Gi-hun and Jun-ho leave no stone unturned to search for clues that might get them closer to the ones organizing the games, but things seem bleak in a world where evil masquerades as a part of nature.
After The Salesman blows his brains out after two really tense games of Russian Roulette, Gi-hun finds himself cornered by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who demands to know why he didn’t get on that plane to see his daughter. Gi-hun, who is driven by rage and survivor’s guilt, firmly states that the blood money earned weighs heavy on him and that the price of winning the games is the deaths of many, many lives. The Front Man counters that these deaths are necessary sacrifices and that their lives did not amount to much anyway, considering their accumulating debts.
This ideological stalemate between the men is shattered once Gi-hun challenges The Front Man to put him in the games again, knowing that it is his best bet to stop them forever. Thus begins yet another foray into this world of pink-hoodied guards and kids’ games turned macabre, with 455 oblivious players competing in an intense deathmatch (you can read my spoiler-free review of Season 2 here).
The fresh faces in season 2 make for colorful characters, some familiar like Jung-bae/Player 390 (Lee Seo-hwan), who give Gi-hun more reasons to put an end to these games. However, the established pattern of the games is disrupted after the third game, as Gi-hun leads a revolt against the system itself, and fails.
Gi-hun’s Failed Revolt In Squid Game 2 Paints An Unpredictable Future
In the previous iteration of the games, Player 001 became emblematic of lies and betrayal, and this tradition continues with the Front Man entering the current game as 001. Calling himself Hwang In-ho, the Front Man positions himself as Gi-hun’s ally, snaking his way into his innermost circle to help steer the direction of his resolve. Gi-hun comes frustratingly close to learning about his true nature, but plot contrivance prevents him from suspecting anything, which directly contributes to the failed revolt.
This time around, players are given the choice to stay or leave after every game round, with the condition that if the LEAVE players win the vote, the accumulated prize money until that juncture (as opposed to the grand total of 45.6 billion won) will be divided amongst players. After the third game, the vote results in a tie, which prompts a re-vote the next morning. However, during the same night, a violent bathroom brawl diminishes numbers on both sides, tipping the odds in favor of the players who chose LEAVE. Anticipating a bloodbath after lights out, Gi-hun decides that it’s time to break into the facility’s control room, and the best way to do that would be to overpower the guards once they come to retrieve the bodies of the casualties.
Several factors contribute to the failed revolt. More than half of the remaining players refuse to join Gi-hun, leaving only a few brave people with little to no experience in wielding weapons willing to take the risk. Hyun-ju/ Player 120 (Park Sung-hoon), who used to be a sergeant in the special forces, does her best to train them within minutes, but a combination of limited numbers and dwindling ammo makes it difficult for them to stand their ground. Factors like navy seal Dae Ho (Kang Ha Neul) getting traumatized mid-combat and failing to retrieve ammo on time do not help matters, and the final nail in the coffin is hammered by Hwang In-ho, who captures Gi-hun and kills his friend, Jung-bae, after donning the Front Man’s mask.
With No Winner So Far, Squid Game 3 Will Decide What’s To Come
Season 2 ends with a massive cliffhanger. Gi-hun is captured and is seen screaming in grief and rage after the death of his friend, and also the fact that he might have doomed others along with him. Back in the common room and the corridor staircase area, the rest of the revolters are brutally killed by the guards, while the non-participating players are surrounded by the rest of the guards.
Dae Ho and Hyun-ju are among this crowd, with the latter armed with guns taken from the guards before, but she is not in a position to attack them, as they would just end up shooting her. As Gi-hun has not been killed for some reason, it would make sense for the Front Man to force him to continue the games as punishment for his revolt. Or, he may have something even more nefarious in store for the person who worked so hard to dismantle his regime.
Season 3 of “Squid Game” will continue the games, with the remaining participants playing games 4, 5, and 6 until a winner emerges. This is a likely scenario, although nothing is written in stone yet, as the story can take unexpected swerves with a break in the expected pattern. The outside intervention also feels unlikely, as detective Jun-ho and his men have been deliberately led astray by the game organization, as they’re last seen running from island to island and contending with bomb-rigged traps. Moreover, the fisherman (Oh Dal-su) who was seen helping Jun-ho is revealed to have unsavory intentions, as he kills one of the detective’s men and sabotages the team’s drone.
It is possible that he is an organization recruit hired to keep a close eye on Jun-ho, as the detective had come extremely close to exposing them last time. The VIPs have not been introduced this around, but we will have to wait for season 3 for them to show up, as they will undoubtedly salivate at the prospect of a previous winner returning. This directly ties in with Gi-hun’s fate, and how the rest of the game will unfurl in the near future.
Stray Observations and Lingering Questions About Squid Game Season 2
- Throughout the revolt segment, we are never shown guard no. 11 No-eul (Park Gyu-young), who has been posited as somewhat of a wild card so far. Her reasoning for becoming a guard is deeply personal, as it was part of a deal that promised a search for her daughter left behind in North Korea. Earlier in the season, she was seen thwarting the black market organ-selling dudes (for which she is threatened and harassed), and her presence could turn the odds in the favor of some players, provided that she chooses to revolt.
- No one can figure out Hwang In-ho’s true identity, or even hint at his true nature at this juncture of the story. With Jung-bae dead, who was the only person who saw Hwang In-ho kill another player without remorse, Gi-hun can never figure out that he has been betrayed. The only way he can connect the dots is if there’s a slip-up by the Front Man, or if he chooses to reveal the truth sometime in the future.
- If the games continue as intended, the players will have another chance to vote, and reason dictates that most people should press LEAVE after such a wide-scale bloodbath. However, this freedom of choice may be revoked after the revolt, forcing everyone to continue until they are eliminated.
- The season 2 ending of “Squid Game” consists of a mid-credits scene that offers a glimpse into a new game that looks very much like Red Light, Green Light, but with a male doll next to the female one. This could be the fourth game, hinting that everything will continue as before. The stakes could be raised even higher, as punishment for the players daring to question the authority of those who see themselves as ridding society of “trash” and giving everyone a “fair” chance to win.
Season 2 of “Squid Game” is currently streaming on Netflix.
