SPOILER ALERT: This story will violently spoil season two of Squid Game so only read if you have finished all seven episodes or want to know how it ends.
The second season finale of Squid Game is likely to infuriate some viewers with a classic TV trope: the cliffhanger.
The first season of the dystopian Korean drama series – Netflix’s biggest ever series – was essentially a self-contained story of how Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-Jae was able to navigate a series of deadly challenges to win ₩45.6 billion.
Season two, however, does not offer viewers, who are likely plundering through the seven-part series right now, the same level of closure.
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After it was revealed that Squid Game was to end with season three, it emerged that seasons two and three would be written and produced at the same time by creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk. They are ostensibly two chapters in the same story.
Director Hwang told Deadline, “When I was writing the script for the two seasons, I felt like there was a big turning point or an inflection point, and that was the end of episode seven, so I thought that it would do it justice to have a separate season after that. That’s why I had first seven episodes as Season 2 and then the rest of Season 3.”
Hwang has been telegraphing the fact that there is no resolution to Gi-Hun’s vengeance quest with the season two finale. “The fierce clash between [Gi-hun and Front Man’s] two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3, which will be brought to you next year,” he wrote in July.
Regardless, there is plenty of drama throughout season two’s seven episodes and numerous violent deaths.
The season begins starts with Gi-hun, otherwise known as Player 456, searching for the people behind the game, three years after winning it. He’s using the ₩45.6 billion prize to fund this search, helped by a large group of ne’er-do-wells and underworld figures, from the safety of a disused motel that he’s turned into his HQ fortress. Gi-hun is initially searching for The Recruiter, played by Gong Yoo, a slender figure in a sharp suit that lured people into the game by playing ddakji in the subway. This all leads Gi-hun to returning to Squid Game in order to attempt to end it. Once he’s back inside, he is introduced to a new cast of characters, many of which help him in his quest, while some die trying.
The season finale begins with the aftermath of a major fight in the Squid Game bathroom, moments after Thanos, a retired rapper played by Choi Seung-hyun, who often mixes English in with his Korean, is murdered with a fork through his head by Myung-gi, played by Yim Si-Wan, a former cryptocurrency influencer who enters the games after losing a hefty sum of cash.
At this point there are 95 players left in the game, split broadly even by players who want to continue to participate to win the money and by those who want to leave, as shown by the show’s new voting system.
After a brief sojourn to the boat, where Hwang Jun-ho, played by Wi Ha-jun, the former police detective (and brother of Lee Byung-hun’s The Front Man) is leading the aquatic search for the Squid Game island, which is being derailed by a pesky, killer boat captain, it’s back to the Bloody Big Brother house, where bullets start flying.
After a number of the contestants who want to leave are killed by the contestants that don’t, Gi-Hun and a small group, including The Front Man, who has been hiding in plain sight in the game as player 001 (a nice nod to season one’s Oh Il-nam), hatch a plan to steal guns from the guards that come in to break up the internal battle.
From there, this group take on up the stairs in search of The Front Man and his charges, with the episode turning into one big gun fight, centered largely around what appears to be a Barbie dream house if it was designed by M. C. Escher.
Under attack, Hyun-ju, played by Park Sung-hoon, a transgender character who was previously a first class sergeant in the ROK Special Forces, helps fend off the guards and eventually returns to the living quarters to find more ammunition.
Gi-Hun and his friend Park Jung-Bae, otherwise known as Player 390, played by Lee Seo-hwan, who briefly appeared in the outside world in season one, head up to the control room with the aid of guard mask. “Why did you have to bring me instead of Young-Il?,” Jung-Bae asks Gi-Hun, who replies, “Because you’re my friend”. “You only say that when you’re in a jam,” he responds.
To say the pair are in a jam is an understatement: inevitably, after a stand-off that feels very Star Wars: A New Hope, the pair run out of ammunition and start to surrender to The Frontman (who has now stopped pretending he’s playing the game and is back in his usual, metallic attire). Obviously, Jung-bae is shot and killed by the game’s leader.
“Player 456, did you have fun playing the hero? Look at the consequences of your little hero game,” The Frontman asks Gi-Hun as his friend dies.
Season two ends with Gi-Hun, who himself has been shot, albeit just a graze, crying on the floor next to his friend.
There is, however, a scene after the initial credits, that suggests Young-Hee, the murderous robot doll that kills people during Red Light, Green Light, has a boyfriend, who may join the game in season three, with three contestants (Players 096, 100, 353) walking into a room with the two dolls.
Remember, there are still plenty of contestants alive including Myung-gi and his pregnant ex-girlfriend Jun-hee, played by Jo Yu-Ri, Yong-sik, played by Yang Dong-Geun, a compulsive gambler neck-deep in debt who finds his own mother is a participant in the game, his mother Geum-ja (played by Kang Ae-Sim) and Hyun-ju.
Can Gi-Hun escape the clutches of The Front Man and escape or will he die trying? Find out next time on Squid Game (season three).
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